UK’S RAREST CARS: 1981 TOYOTA CARINA 1600 ESTATE, ONE OF A HANDFUL LEFT
Some of the motors in this series, covering once-familiar cars that are now almost extinct, aimed to turn heads; a 1981 Toyota Carina 1600 Estate does not fall into this category, as its role was to be as sensible as a pair of cavalry twill slacks. This example is a reminder of when bronze and beige were the fashionable colours in outer suburbia.
Toyota launched the original A10/A30 Carina in 1970 as its rival to the Datsun Bluebird. The second-generation A40/50 debuted in August 1977, with UK sales beginning five months later. In 1978, Toyota GB planned a 25 per cent increase in dealerships, with the Carina hopefully luring motorists from Ford and British Leyland showrooms.
Motor compared the Carina to a “Japanese Ford Cortina”, which was precisely its target customer base. The Telegraph found it “perfectly orthodox”, as there was nothing about the Carina’s specification to frighten the potential buyer. It was rear-wheel-drive, as were all Toyotas sold in the UK in 1978, while the 1,588cc overhead valve (OHV) engine was utterly conventional.
Compared with its rather flamboyant quasi-American predecessor, the second-generation Carina had a rather low-key appearance. In 1980 a facelift brought a new grille and rectangular headlights for that touch of additional glamour, but the Carina was still unlikely to cause a stir in the Fine Fare car park.
By then, the sight of a Toyota on a driveway would not cause as much curtain-twitching from neighbours as when UK sales began in 1965. The growth of popularity of Japanese cars was so rapid that in 1975 the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders brokered a “gentleman’s agreement” which restricted Japanese imports to 11 per cent of the market.
However, sales of Japanese cars still increased to 140,415 in 1977, as traditional brand loyalties and nationalistic tendencies were fading. The following year, The Sunday Telegraph pointed out that “customers who might once have been automatic buyers of Austins and Triumphs turn without much regret to Datsuns and Toyotas”.
Publicity for the Carina emphasised its reliability and standard equipment. In the late 1970s, many drivers hoped that their British Leyland car was manufactured neither at the beginning nor at the end of the week. BL’s reputation for quality was not helped by seemingly every television news bulletin containing footage of picket lines outside one of its factories.
Toyota capitalised on such concerns, saying it was practically impossible for them to build a “Friday Car”. The sales copy made unsubtle references to workers “taking an impromptu tea break”, as the new Carina was for customers “hoping to buy a reliable car, but have no way of knowing which day of the week it was built”.
As for the standard equipment, Toyota GB proudly announced: “There’s even a light for the front ashtray so you don’t drop ash on the wall-to-wall carpets.” In 1981, the Carina 1600 Estate cost £4,801 and featured a height-adjustable driver’s seat, a remote-control tailgate and a MW/LW/VHF radio. Meanwhile, the base-model Ford Cortina Mk5 1.6 Estate at £5,257 was so miserably appointed that Ford listed its “top-hinged counterbalanced tailgate” as a sales feature.
The Morris Ital 1.7L Estate for £4,899 was another Carina alternative; the Toyota’s nearest rival was its fellow Japanese import, the Datsun Bluebird 1.8 GL Estate at £4,795.
It would be fair to say that the Carina was not a vehicle intended to evoke strong passions, which was reflected in its press coverage. This newspaper complained about the Estate’s old-fashioned leaf springs at the rear but thought the Carina “handles quite well”. Motor found the Toyota “bland and generally unexciting”, although it is “a capable, well-built and reasonably comfortable car”.
This example is one of the last second-generation Carinas, as Toyota introduced its A60-series successor in 1981. Today, survivors are few: Harvey Wade of the Toyota Enthusiasts’ Club thinks that fewer than a dozen exist: “I cannot think of any club members that have the second-generation facelift model.”
This Estate hails from a West Drayton dealership and even spent 15 years in Aruba before returning to the UK. Despite its sober appearance, this model was part of major changes in the new car market, and 11 years after it left the showroom, the later Carina E became Toyota’s first British-built car.
Not that the average 1600 Estate buyer in 1981 wanted a car to make waves. They merely required respectable-looking transport with “soft knit fabric” trim.
Thanks to Harvey Wade of the Toyota Enthusiasts’ Club.
We use the fascinating howmanyleft.co.uk for figures of surviving examples but some cars present more of a challenge than others, so the figures are rarely authoritative. Some pre-1974 records were lost before the DVLA centralised the process, while some cars have their model type misnamed on the V5 registration documents. A further issue is the omission of the exact model name or generation, or distinction between saloon and estate body styles.
2026-04-10T06:35:37Z