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The spotted specimen

At car events, the visitor parking lot sometimes has at least as interesting cars as the event itself. With that, we are probably not telling regular event-goers anything new. Earlier this year we visited Japan Classic Sunday in Dorst (North Brabant) and the same was true there. Among the ‘normal’ cars there stood just like that this original Dutch Toyota 1000 Station Wagon from 1977. A car that certainly deserved a nice spot on the event field.

The Toyota 1000

The Toyota 1000 is the “international” name for the model known in Japan as the Toyota Publica. That is a model line of cars that by modern standards would fall in the A-segment. A modern Aygo is only about 20 cm shorter, but wider and taller than this station wagon. If you trace the line of successors, however, from the Publica you would end up with the Starlet (and eventually so Yaris) and, for certain versions, the Corolla as well.

From people’s car to entry-level car

The Toyota 1000 you see here is the third model generation of the Publica line. It entered the market in 1969. In those years, the Japanese car market was developing considerably. Therefore, the compact Publica was no longer positioned as the car for the people – hence its name – but as an entry-level model for the brand. That did not take away from the fact that the all-new model generation made strides compared to its predecessor. In technical terms, it was a kind of hot-washed version of the then also fairly new first-generation Corolla.

Toyota Publica becomes Toyota 1000

The new Toyota Publica adopted the air-cooled 790 cc twin-cylinder from the previous model, but it was mainly intended for the base model. Most versions were powered by a new, water-cooled 993 cc four-cylinder, a modified version of the 1,077 cc block in the Corolla. This new Publica 1000 was also the first Publica to be sold widely outside Japan. However, the Publica name was omitted in most markets. Outside Japan, the car was delivered as simply the Toyota 1000.

As with the previous model, there was a choice of a two-door sedan, a two-door “fastback sedan,” a three-door station wagon (also in van version) and a two-door pickup. The convertible had been dropped. Just before the introduction of the new Publica, Toyota had acquired ownership of Daihatsu. Thus, for the first time, the Publica received a branded variant: the Daihatsu Consorte.

Facelift and follow-up for the Toyota 1000

In late 1970, the first update for the Toyota Publica was already implemented: the car received a new dashboard and a 1.2-liter four-cylinder was added to the range for the most luxurious versions. A major facelift was carried out in 1972, giving the Publica a completely new front and rear. In the case of the fastback sedan, even the roofline changed. In 1973, the Toyota Publica Starlet was introduced. A technically related, but otherwise stand-alone model that eventually became the Starlet model line.

The all-new 1978 Starlet was the direct successor to most of the Toyota Publica models and thus the successor to the Toyota 1000. The van version of the station wagon continued for another year, but the pickup knew no end. It did not go out of production until 1988.