1.8 Hardtop

STORY

Toyota launched the Carina ED on 20 August 1985, a four-door pillarless hardtop on the platform of the fourth-generation Celica, sold through Toyota Store with Osaka Toyopet covering the Osaka area and Tokyo Toyopet selling the first cars as well, with the initials standing for exciting and dressy. Toyota claimed the 1,310 mm body was the lowest in the world among production four-door passenger cars. The range ran 1.8-litre single-cam fours as ST160 and the 3S-GELU twin cam as ST162, the latter at 136 PS net or 160 PS on the gross scale of the day, built at Tsutsumi and then at Tahara from August 1988. The ST180 of 6 September 1989 kept the pillarless roof, reached 165 PS with the 3S-GE and offered dual-mode four-wheel steering. The ST200 of 8 October 1993 widened the body to 1,740 mm, went over to a pillared hardtop, gained four-wheel drive in May 1994 and closed the line in April 1998.