Shed Of The Week: Toyota Celica

A well maintained and beautifully presented Celica has put a spark back into Shed's trousers. Crikey

Next time you're out on a drive, check the windscreens of vehicles coming towards you (quite literally coming towards you, if you're driving anywhere near Shed's local at chucking-out time). Fully nine days after it became legal to un-display VED discs, public takeup - or lack of it - of this liberalising concession by the Gummint has been minimal. On a 20-mile journey through Wiltshire yesterday, Shed counted just two naked screens.

190,000 miles you say? Really?

Shed's theory about our strange reluctance to grab a slice of yooman rights pie is that the average British motorist likes a visual reminder of when to start panicking about not being able to find the next tranche of VED moolah. For the used car buyer, however, that little paper circle meant something else: a tax holiday from the time of purchase to a point a few weeks after the end of the month date proudly emblazoned thereon.

Given the fact that unused VED time is now only worth money to the current owner, rather than to the next one (who must now re-tax his 'new' car from scratch), it seems only sensible to remove the 'must be taxed' pre-condition of Shedliness. This is all a bit of a shame, as there would have been a six-month tax holiday on today's sub-£1K offering, this rather splendid Gen 5 Toyota Celica GT ST182. Ah well, them's (not) the breaks.

If you do end up buying this week's Shed, as Alfa Al did with last week's Alfa 145 Cloverleaf, you'll have to content yourself with the knowledge that you've bagged not just one of the most sweetly-styled warm coupes to come out of Japan, but also a lovely example of the same. Which is quite a nice compensation.

Mmm, 90s Japanese interiors

Old cars are always a risk, especially in this country, where Mother Nature and local councils do their collective best to ruin them. Getting a good feeling about a cheap old motor is an increasingly rare event for Shed nowadays, but sometimes he still experiences a vague stirring in the loinal area. Seeing this Toyota has put a spark back into his trousers.

Look at its backstory. Mature owner has had it for ten years, kids have grown up so he doesn't need it any more, car is totally unbarried with original wheels and genuine Toyota options, and is proof - if any were needed - that if you're prepared to follow a maintenance schedule, like we're all supposed to, mileage is literally just a number. The biggest problem the next owner will likely have will be convincing admirers that it really has done 190K: from this distance, it looks like you could knock the nought off that and still have folk believing you. Even at the full asking price of £800 it seems like your actual bargin. And look! It's even got pop-up headlamps! Can it get any better?

Not a GT-Four but rather intriguing nonetheless

Well, yes, there's more than a dab of motorsports heritage, harking back to the glory days of the 1990s when Carlos Sainz and Juha Kankkunen were chucking WRC GT-Fours around with gay abandon. Probably can't say that, sorry, but never mind that because there's even a soupcon of motorsports controversy from 1995, when Toyota was caught using illegal turbo restrictors in the Rally Catalunya. That led to a one-year ban from the FIA and the confiscation of all the drivers' 1995 points, which was particularly annoying for Kankkunen as he was in good shape for the title at the time. You had to grudgingly admire Toyota as the restrictors were described by FIA president Max Mosley as 'the most sophisticated device I've ever seen in 30 years of motor sports'. Obviously, this was before his by now well documented evening activities became public.

Hell of a driver, Kankkunen. From the passenger seat of a Toyota GB press office Carina, Shed followed him and his TTE team around the GB British Rally of Great Britain, or whatever it was called back then. All Shed remembers from three very cold and wet days are mad dashes between stages punctuated by fleeting glimpses of the Man himself moodily sucking on a fag (probably can't say that either) as he waited, sometimes for up to five minutes, for the unflappable TTE crew to replace his gearbox in a soaking pub car park at two in the morning.

Diligent owner's loss could be your gain

The GT-Fours were 4WD, of course, whereas the stock ST182 you're looking at here is merely front-wheel drive. Not sure it ever had the 173hp claimed in the ad; more like 158hp is Shed's recollection, but that's still plenty for a spirited drive. Anyway, you can't have everything, as the Department For Transport said. In fact, you can't have anything is what they actually said.

Shed has a wheelbarrow load of Weimar Reichsmarks in the corner of a barn somewhere. As a quiet protest against the disappearance of the dear old tax disc, he plans to stick a one million mark note in the windscreen of any vehicle he finds himself in, but only when he runs out of Guinness labels which, by an ironic twist of fate, are now perfectly legal.

Here's the ad.

For sale is my superb Toyota Celica GT ST182.
It is a 1993 2.0i 16v Generation 5 in black.
The condition is extremely good - no dents, no scratches, and the interior is absolutely immaculate.
I have a folder with a wedge of receipts for regular servicing.
I have owned the car for nearly 10 years and love it. Unfortunately, it simply isn't practical now my kids are teenagers, so it has to go.
If you've been considering a classic Gen5 Celica - this is the one you want. You won't be disappointed.
The car is completely standard.
Tax & MOT till end March 2015.
ABS Brakes,Electric Windows, PAS, CD/Radio, FSH, Remote central locking (genuine Toyota accessory), Alarm, Rare front fog lights, Genuine Toyota floor mats. Original (refurbished) Alloy wheels (unused spare 5th alloy).
I am located near Thame, Oxon.

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LotusEspritTurbo

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