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This article was first published in 2001.
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The ST-185 Celica was never sold in soft-top form in Australia, but you can now buy the car as a direct Japanese import. So, why would you want to buy an eight-year-old car anyway? Well, the Celica is a surprisingly competent all-round package, with plenty of luggage space (something often at a premium in soft-tops), competent performance and handling, and an equipment level much higher than the local Celica versions.
Powered by the 103kW 2-litre 3S-GE, the 4-speed automatic transmission version on test was tractable and responsive. The auto has multi-modes - not only can you lock the overdrive out, but there are also additional Power and Manual buttons. In non-Power mode the trans will change up at 5000 rpm on full throttle, while with the button pushed down, the engine is held all the way to its high 7500 rpm solid redline. However, at these revs the engine is a bit coarse and threshy - better in most situations to leave the auto to make the earlier changes. Surprisingly in a car with such a high redline, the 2-litre is a torquey engine at lower revs - one reason it works very well with the auto. Another reason is that the auto will downshift a gear at light throttle openings when you're slowly pushing your foot down but not accelerating hard enough - no need to floor it to activate kickdown. So, the auto plus 3S-GE combo work pretty well together - especially in this cruisy sorta car.
The ride is firm - even a little jiggly at times - and the steering ultra-sharp. In fact, picking up the car in the dark when not all of the controls could be easily sighted, we were amazed at how sweetly the Celica steered. Come daylight and all was revealed - the '4WS' emblem on the instruments showing that the car has four wheel steering. Interestingly, the 4WS can be disabled (eg when reversing) by the operation of a dash switch, and it can even be set to Sport or Normal modes. (In Sport mode the car turns-in with absolute alacrity!) Not only does the four-wheel steering make carpark manoeuvres a peace of cake, but it also serves to decrease the front-wheel drive's understeer, which is minor.
Other equipment goodies include a standard CD-changer, reach-adjustable steering, climate control, sports seats and electric windows front and rear (ie the side quarters). The only immediately obvious omission is cruise control.
But how's that roof, then? As you'd expect from Toyota, the electric mechanism works with well-oiled ease. Unclip two hefty clamps at the windscreen header rail, then simply press the centre console button. The roof retracts quickly and quietly, folding itself up in the space immediately behind the rear seat. To neaten the end result, a tonneau cover can then be manually clipped over the opening, giving a smooth look. In the test car, the moulding along one side of the cover had distorted a little (it needs to be bent whenever the cover is placed in the boot) but otherwise the cover is easy and quick to put into place.
Roof down but side glass still raised, the Celica is quite pleasant at even 100 km/h cruising speeds. Lower the side glass and the in-cabin buffeting increases, especially for anyone sitting in the back. But there's not going to be any rear seat passengers for very long anyway - the upper section of this seat is massively narrowed by the roof retraction mechanism, giving a shoulder space a good 150mm less than normal. The result is that an adult rear passenger has to sit in an uncomfortable, twisted manner. Another downer of the back seat is that getting in and out of it is difficult - the front seats don't tilt-and-slide in one motion. But for small children - or for emergency adult trips - the rear is fine.
In fact, the main advantage of the rear space is that the seat back folds flat. With the roof up, that gives an enormous amount of storage space - almost of small wagon dimensions. For a couple heading off for a trip, fitting multiple suitcases and extra bags in the back would be a snack. And, even with the roof retracted, the space is still large and usable; however with the roof down, the boot and rear seat area become two separate spaces.
One interesting aspect of the roof is that the plastic rear window (sewn, not velcro'd into space) is not folded when the roof is in its stored position. This probably explains why the plastic still looks so good - rear windows that are folded tend to develop milky crease lines through them.
When up, the double-lined roof makes the Celica a cosy place to be. While not nearly as good as the most expensive convertibles, wind noise is minimal (just some from the top of the side glass) and road noise is well suppressed. As with all soft-tops, body stiffness is noticeably decreased over the metal roof'd cars. However, in the case of the Celica, the car still feels very good - much better than, say, a Volkswagen Golf convertible of the same age. With the roof locked into place, rigidity improves again.
In fact, the Celica feels typically Toyota durable, with the interior and exterior of this 40,000km example presenting very well. There were some minor scratches on the interior plastics (and that twisted tonneau) but we can't imagine that someone would be disappointed in the condition of the car. And that 'someone' is very likely to be a young woman: wherever the car was driven, groups of young females were the ones most interested in ogling the car.
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