A somewhat sad fifth generation Toyota Celica liftback, seen on a car market in south Beijing. The poor car was covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt but seemed otherwise perfectly salvageable.
The fifth generation T180 Toyota Celica was manufactured from 1989 until 1993. There was a coupe, a convertible, and a liftback, like the one we have here. The T180 was available with various petrol engines, ranging from a 1.6 to a 2.0 turbo. Sadly, I was unable to find out what was under the bonnet of our white Beijing car. The alloys are not original.
The interior was in a reasonable shape but used as a storage space for all sorts of accessories, including brand-new floor mats. Strangely, the steering wheel looks almost as new. Did this thing ever run..?
The Toyota Celica has never been marketed in China. Still, some examples arrived via the gray market and other misty channels, most of them of the fifth and sixth generations.
The Celica stood on a hard to access part of the market, all the way in the back on the north side. It was surrounded by a few other sweet cars, including a Ford Mustang, …
… a very juicy Fiat Bravo, and…
… a very old Mercedes-Benz 190. More on this one in a later article.