Paseo vs Echo vs Tercel

Knurled. said:

DeadSkunk said:

It may be legally imported , even though it wasn't sold here. If you already own a vehicle you can bring it with you when you move from Canada to the US. You have to get letters from the manufacturers stating whether the vehicle does, or does not meet US regulations. You can resell a vehicle that does. So, if Toyota Canada issued such a letter for this car it may have been legally sold. A long shot.

 

Canadian new-car regulations are more or less the same as the US, so the main difference between what is sold in Canada vs. US is what they expect the market to want.  So a car sold new in Canada is almost certainly going to meet US emissions and safety regulations, even if it was never actually sold in the US.

 

 

The issue normally crops up when Canada lags a year or two behind the US in implementing new regulations. I ran into just that when we moved to the US. My Astro didn't comply, but my VW GTI did. The Astro was built on the same Baltimore assembly line as the American versions ,but US ones got OBDII and Canadian ones got OBDI for two model years. It's often smaller stuff that causes issues rather than major things like crash standards.

The thing is I got a tercel but with a 4efte swap in it so turbo 1.3. It is quite competitive with the stock motor but when you swap the motor you are put into a really competitive class. The car is fun as hell but it is hard to keep up with the cars when you are bumped up. 30mpg in a turbo car that is decently quick is hard to get these days. Really reliable too. If you plan to do a motor swap you can beat a is250 F sport in a straight line. Just a little thought 

little advice. Paseo is more aerodynamic. Tercels are easier to find and more body parts readily available. 

I would recommend 93+Corolla with a Manual. With good tires they are a very fun car to autox.

You can find them at a similar prices as the tercel and echo. and they are very light as well.

They also have aftermarket parts more readily available. 

midniteson said:

I would recommend 93+Corolla with a Manual. With good tires they are a very fun car to autox.

You can find them at a similar prices as the tercel and echo. and they are very light as well.

They also have aftermarket parts more readily available. 

If you are staying with a stock engine, I would recommend a 2000-2002 model. since they have 125bhp/125tq and with vvti they dont run out of breath above 5k rpms like the earlier 1zz-fe's do (well 98 and 99 anyway.)  and they are still 2400 lbs with a manual.

The president of our local autocross club (www.cartct.com) races a Paseo very successfully… we have a C5 vette driver who takes FTD 99% off the time, but the Paseo is right up there in the battle for 2nd overall at most events.  He won our autocrosser of the year runoff a few weeks ago, too.

His 1.5 was replaced with a 1.3 turbo out of some Japanese market Toyota.  TRD LSD in the gearbox.  Ksport coilovers and 225 A7’s on 13x8 0 offset wheels.  I think that’s about all that’s done to it, aside from corner weighting & a good alignment… even with the turbo it’s probably only 130hp or so, but it’s light and it STICKS.

1SlowVW said:

irish44j said:

Matt Barnes used to rally a Paseo back in the day :)

A friend of mine has the suspension off this car...and a turbo paseo waiting to receive it

Lol.  I don't remember selling the old suspension off that car... I remember getting new suspension, but I thought I kept the old one as a spare?  I don't remember, it's been so long...
That whole car is for sale now, if anyone is interested.  Not running, up on stands, needs rust repair.  Will sell with CARS logbook very cheap.

Anyway, yeah.  I've forgotten more about Paseo/Tercels than most people would ever want to know.  Ask me anything.

My favorite part of that car is how easy it was to work on, and how many parts were directly interchangable from other models.  I ran a mix of Paseo/Tercel/Corolla/Celica/MR2 parts on that thing.  It was super solid and reliable, and handled like a dream.  Nothing ever broke, because the whole design is so simple, there was nothing in there to break.
  Just had no power...

Edit: Funny story, the other best thing of those cars is how crazy lightweight they are.  The very first time I put gravel tires on it, the tires had no air, zero PSI.  But the sidewalls were strong enough to hold up the car without air.  Me and my buddies thought the tire gauge was broken.  A more experienced ralliest had to tell us "There is no air in those tires", and we were like "of course there is, because the tires are holding up the car".  Turns out he was right.  Ah to be young and stupid again...

Edit:
"Matt Barnes used to rally a Paseo back in the day"
Back in the day?  That makes me sound old.  I'm about to get back into rally this year, I'll teach all the youngin's what it means to be fast on gravel.

He was pretty adamant that they were the only set of hotbits coil overs for a paseo/tercel.

I don’t believe he would knowingly bs me about it. 

1SlowVW said:

He was pretty adamant that they were the only set of hotbits coil overs for a paseo/tercel.

 

I don’t believe he would knowingly bs me about it. 

I'm not calling anyone a liar.  I'm just saying I don't remember selling it.. shrug.

I do know they weren't the only set out there.  I helped Hot Bits sell a few sets to some Tercel guys.  The mounts didn't fit right, so HB asked me which gen to source the mounts from. 

This thread makes me happy

And FTR the 1nzfe semi bolts in...the trans mount...identical, the torque mount has to be lightly modified, but very doable.  The engine side...i just made a plate with threaded holes that the stock echoX mount bolts to with some minor clearancing and then i whipped up a bracket to pick up on the 3rd tab