MEET THE OWNER – DEBS WADE AND HER TOYOTA 1000 ESTATE

It is Mission Impossible to select my favourite car of the recent Rustival 2 – but I can immediately identify the vehicle that evoked memories of Hampshire in the late 1970s. Not that I approached the owner of this splendid 1977 Toyota 1000 Estate, with the familiar phrase “my dad/mum had one of those” (my family had a Citroën Dyane 6), but I do recall seeing them in automotive magazines and on the less-than-mean-streets of Fareham.

And virtually every detail of Deb’s 1000 Estate conjured mental images of the past, from the brown paint finish to the harmonica-like heater vent by the driver’s left kneecap and those stylish high-backed front seats. Most incredibly of all, it was driven all the way from Ayrshire to the British Motor Museum without any problems.

The 1000 belongs to Toyota’s Publica family, with the original version debuting in 1961. The third generation P30 appeared eight years later, and UK sales began in late 1974, initially in two-door form, occupying a niche below the Corolla. The 993cc engine drove the rear wheels and Toyota GB said the 1000 was “designed to keep you in comfort, keep you in pocket and keep you on the road”.

When What Car tested the 1000 saloon opposite an Escort Popular Mk.2, they were impressed with its equipment: “It has a heated rear window, a radio and tinted glass as standard. It also has carpets – unfortunately their location left something to be desired – hazard flashers and a cigar lighter.” Even if What Car was unkeen on the Toyota’s carpeting, this was still quite an array of fittings compared with the Ford, which seemed to have virtually nothing as standard. In the mid-1970s, the Toyota’s reclining front seats and electric windscreen washers were genuinely noteworthy when a Mini 850 even lacked a water temperature gauge.

What Car found the 1000 “an excellent town car” and Car also liked its equipment and its “smooth, happy engine”. They went on to moan about the “mediocre handling and roadholding”, but Autocar liked both the “willing” motor and the “typically smooth Japanese four-speed gearbox with light and positive movements”.

The Autocar test was headlined “strong conventionally engineered competitor in the small-car market”, which was precisely what Toyota GB intended. When a very 1970s-looking Richard Hudson-Evans tested the 1000 saloon for Thames Television’s Drive In, he concluded that Toyota seemed “more than well on their way to repeating the Japanese motorcycle success story”:

By 1977, the 1000 Estate cost £1,994, which compared very favourably with £2,251 for a Reliant Kitten Estate or £2,333 for a Mini Clubman Estate. The Starlet replaced the P30 in 1978, when Toyota had enjoyed 13 years of success in the UK.

In the first months of 1977, 121,000 Japanese vehicles were imported into the UK, compared with 86,000 in 1975 and 96,000 in 1976. Models such as Debs’s 1000 Estate were instrumental in Toyota’s increasing popularity – easy to service, well-appointed, excellent value for money and reliable.

Not to mention – how many other 47-year-old cars could manage the journey from Ayrshire to Warwickshire without missing a beat?

With thanks to Debs and Harvey Wade for their time and permission to use the images in this blog.