2000 2S-ELU

STORY

Toyota launched the Vista on 24 March 1982 as the Toyota Vista chain's own version of the first front-drive Camry, and the pair gave Toyota its first transversely mounted engine driving the front wheels: a 1.8-litre 1S in a six-light four-door body on a 2,600 mm wheelbase, joined that July by a 120 PS 2.0 with the ECT-S automatic and in August by a lower liftback. The V20 of August 1986 dropped that liftback for a pillared four-door hardtop and gained full-time four-wheel drive a year later; the V30 of July 1990 offered speed-sensitive four-wheel steering, and the V40 of July 1994 stretched the wheelbase to 2,650 mm. In July 1998 the V50 broke away from the Camry as a Japan-only car on a new platform, 95 mm taller with its cowl moved 125 mm forward, and added the Ardeo wagon. Tsutsumi built every one, and the line ended when the Avensis replaced it in October 2003.