Well, in our effort to bring the blog to life again, me and Igor decided we should have a Car of the Week feature which will be done…you’ve guessed it – every week. Basically it’s a tribute to all the great cars that are out there or for the ones that aren’t anymore. It’s not going to be just presenting some facts and press conferences from the manufacturer praising the car either, we’re going to express our own opinion about the car. So I hope you will enjoy it and here goes our first Car of the Week: The Toyota Celica.

This Japanese coupe has been around for over 30 years but unfortunately since 2006 when the last Celica rolled of the production line, Toyota has decided they’ve entertained us too much throughout the years – so they stopped making it anymore. For me that was a sad moment because the Celica, especially the last gen model was a really, really good car. Of course, some of them had RWD and 4WD across the years so you might wonder why we’ve picked the last one as our Car of the Week. The front wheel drive model you might argue is no match for the other exciting ones. Well as it is often the case in the motor industry – every good car has its flaws.

Let’s include, shall we, a bit of the boring facts: It’s got a 1.8liter engine which has a million V’s in its name (take this one for instance VVTLi T Sport), it’s front wheel drive, it does 0-60 in 8.7 seconds and it has a top speed of 127 mph. With these rather dull figures you might be boggled how the Celica could be such a great car. It’s not a gadget fest either, traction control for instance is available only on the more powerful 188bhp engine. But it’s not facts that make up a great car. This simplicity, this “averageness” turns out brilliant on the road. Even with its FWD it drives brilliantly, it’s cheap and it looks spectacular. It’s also very reliable and you can get small children in the back seats as well. This is then for a coupe as practical as your average wardrobe.

But its the spirit of the thing that I just love. Now Japanese manufacturers are not particularly good at making cars with soul – but somehow the Celica in its old age with all it’s rallying prowess has achieved that. It’s simple, it’s cheap and it handles brilliantly. Add reliability and the looks to that and you’ve got your winner. Think of it as the Fiat Barchetta only with a roof – cheap and cheerful. For me that’s the most important thing I look for in a car. A car with soul is very hard to find outside Italy or Britain but now, here, this week, we’ve found one in Japan: The Toyota Celica.