Tercel 4wd sales figures in U.S.A.

General discussion about our beloved Tercel 4WD cars
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Nordical25
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My tercel:: 2 4wd 1987's. One with 4a, other with 3a
Location: Finland

Tercel 4wd sales figures in U.S.A.

Post by Nordical25 »

Hi everyone and thank you for accepting me to forum. I have owned Tercel 4wd's since 2004. Since then I have usually owned two of them, including now also.

I am located in Finland and I have heard, that Finland received just under 1000 new Tercel 4wd's between 1982 and 1988. So the Tercel 4wd was here quite uncommon.

How common or uncommon Tercel 4wd was in the U.S.A and Canada? Does anyone have actual sales figures from 1980's? I tried to search them, but I did not find any clues of sales figures.
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Mattel
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My tercel:: 1988 Corolla 4wd Wagon (AKA Corolla All-trac) 5speed, AC, Power Sunroof, Windows, Mirrors, Steering, Locking, Diff Lock, 14" Corolla SX Alloys with Silica Hankook Tyres, 4afe, King Springs, Upgraded Headlights, Full Synth oils, 210,000kms
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Tercel 4wd sales figures in U.S.A.

Post by Mattel »

Hi Nordical. Researching the Factory which produced the AL25 (Tercel 4wd) and AE95 (Corolla 4wd) I found this.

So 1982-1988 was AL25 and 1988 onwards being AE95.

1990
July
Sprinter Carib production ended (cumulative production: 501,000 vehicles);
Production transferred to Toyota Industries Corporation

https://www.toyota-global.com/company/h ... vKqbhC7Txo

The French Tercel blog which now has missing links had the breakdown for Europe (Unsure about USA though).
Previous: 83 Tercel SR5 4wd, 84 Tercel SR5 4wd
88 Corolla 4wd Wagon 5speed, All power options, Fact Sunroof, Diff Lock, 14" SX Alloys, Hankook Tyres, 4afe, King Springs, Upgraded Headlights, Full Synth oils, Tow Bar, 210,000kms
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: Tercel 4wd sales figures in U.S.A.

Post by Petros »

welcome to the forum,

I know from other import data from that time period, that typically between 70 to 80 percent of a Japanese export is sold in North American. so that could mean as much as 400,000 Tercel4wd were sold in North America (includes Canada and Mexico). while that might seem a large number, the USA has a population of about 340 million, and there are perhaps 150 million motor vehicles registered in the US.

what is the population of Finland, and how many cars are in the country? with only 1000 sold within your boarders, getting used parts for it must be a challenge, especially since they now approaching 40 years old.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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Nordical25
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Posts: 307
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2022 11:49 pm
My tercel:: 2 4wd 1987's. One with 4a, other with 3a
Location: Finland

Re: Tercel 4wd sales figures in U.S.A.

Post by Nordical25 »

Thank you for welcoming me to forum. It is interesting to chat about these cars.

Thank you for searching these figures. European AL25 VIN codes were around 300 000 at the beginning of 1988 so I guess that most of Sprinter Caribs were AL25's then. I see. Have you tried to read French Tercel blog via Wayback machine? Maybe they could have saved the breakdown figures. At least I know that Sweden had received these cars much more and they do pop up for sale there more frequently there.

400,000 Tercel's to North America is a lot compared to us even considering the population. We had during 80's about 4,5 million people so the relative amount of Tercels is still low here in Finland. Now we have 5,5 million of population and 2,7 million passenger cars in road use. However, they did sell 50,000 E80-generation Corollas between 83-87 and about 12,000 Carina II's between 83-88. So the Tercel 4wd was way more uncommon than these cars. Also 2wd Tercel 82-84 was way more common up here.

Getting parts has been until now somehow ok. Finnish Toyota book suggested that Tercel 4wd was built mostly from existing Toyota inventory parts. That is why some of parts are relatively easy to find. However, body parts and powertrain parts are becoming now the most challenging ones. Now parts are getting harder to find similarly to all 80's Toyotas. I think that there are still at least dozens of these cars left here in Finland. Some of them are in poor rusty condition due to road salt used here. That is why I guess that it will be still possible to find some parts in the future.
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