Celica Forums General Discussion General Why do people love their Celicas?

I love my 2001 Celica Gt that I bought another one!!!!

I'm guilty!!! What can I say. I love my Celicas more than I love my life!!!! And believe me, I really love my life. But my Celicas.
My Celica is over 20 years old but runs amazing!!!! Its soooo fun!!!! Parts are cheap and it amazes me that they still make parts for these cars even after twenty years and after being discontinued. At my local pick your part the Celicas that get there are often times stripped down in several days because people want those parts.

What is it about this car? If Toyota discontinued this car because of low sales I just don't understand why this car is still loved, appreciated and sought after even after being terminated. The fact their are these Celica forums and Celica reddit pages just adds to it's growing love and popularity!!! It's an iconic car that every car nut knows about.

What are your thoughts?

In the US, the Celica Gen 7 started sales in 2000 with 52K. By 2005 sales dropped to 3K, mostly the stripped down, no thrill trims. Don't know about Europe and Asia markets, but volumes would even be much lower. Toyota could not keep production line open for 3K units a year.

In 2005 you could still place order with the factory in Japan for your custom spec. I got one of the last GTS with Auto transmission driven down from Santa Barbara, plain white color, cloth seats, no frills. GTS with auto was hard to find. At the same time Toyota of San Diego had a black 2005 GTS 6 speed jacked up high next to the freeway for show. They tried to sell it to me but I did not want 6 speed. 4-speed auto with paddle shift was more fun less work, It was on display for 8 months before they could sell it.

The GTS is lots of fun to zip around in city and cruise freeways at high speed. BMW drivers are all surprised how the car is so nimble in city and stable at high speed on freeway. They were always driving my car at 100 + MPH when they dare not drive their BMWs that fast.

The styling is beautiful like a piece of art, inspired by the smooth and hard shapes of the McDonnel Douglas' F/A-18 fighter jet. . My relative was driving a bright red one in Beverly Hills, got pulled over by a moto cop, He said there was no problem, just wanted to look at the beautiful car. I was driving slowly in a mall parking lot past a large family. They all stopped in the middle of the driveway, gazed at the car with their mouths gaped open. A teen-age girl shrieked out " Dad, what kind of car is this?" She must have thought it was very cute and she wanted it pretty bad. AGain I was driving in town along a group of bicylists. The whole group stopped their bikes on the street blocking, traffic gawking my car. After a few minutes a guy pedaled over, asked me his daughter wanted to know what kind of car it was. They just love the styling, not knowing how hard and fast they could drive it.

I bought a couple GTS so I will sell one. They are all perfect mechanically. Any one wants to buy one let me know.


Any bro wants a good paint job that makes the car look like new for cheap, let me know.

I just got one!! Had a 1gen Mazdaspeed3 and someone decided to run into it, bank gave me $10K. Had a friend who was a toyota mech that had a 2000GT 5spd with 130k, picked it up for $2K. Then in 2019 pandi hit and we started working from home (thank god I didnt buy a new car just to have it sit). Since then I moved from LA to NW Arkansas and it made the trip better than I could have imagined, 75MPH, 35k RPM and close to 40MPG, such a great trip (New Mexico is beautiful) . Now I have a reliable car that is fun to drive and cost very little to maintain. I could buy a new car but I keep thinking..."why?" This celica does everything I need, and is fun to drive, and is easy to maintain while very fun to drive. Also shelling out $28K for something while I already have what I need is a hard sell at this point in my live. I need a house not a new flashy car.