Toyota Is Locking Down Trademarks For A New Celica

Our compact sports car dreams are one step closer to reality. Toyota won’t confirm anything, but we keep finding more signs that the return of the Celica, likely as the GR Celica, is coming sooner rather than later. The latest indication comes from the trademark office, as Toyota files to secure a name that puts the likely sports car in the same family as the GR Supra, GR Corolla, and GR86. The only concern is where Toyota has filed for the new trademark.

Toyota has secured the Celica trademark not in Japan, the US, or the EU, but in Brazil. Yes, that’s a strange one, but it’s where CarScoops dug up the filing that was published earlier this month. That could mean Toyota plans to use it for a model specific to South America; it could also be a strong sign that the model will be low-cost enough to be offered there, as well as Japan, the US, and the EU.

Toyota Still Owns The Name In Its Main Markets

We should point out, though, that Toyota already owns the Celica trademark in those other markets. It’s still live, for example, in the US. Toyota re-applied for it a few years ago and it was granted in 2021. What makes it different this time is that in Brazil, Toyota filed for GR Celica, giving it the automaker’s Gazoo Racing brand, the self-named Meisters of the Nürburgring.

A Toyota VP ended Celica speculation in November last year. Best Car in Japan quoted Toyota Chief Technology Officer and VP for mid-sized models Hiroki Nakajima as saying, “We’re making the Celica” while he was on stage at an event.

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“I’m not sure if it’s okay to say this in a public forum, but we’re doing the Celica!” the VP is reported as saying. We were still weary after that news broke, but Toyota snagging more trademarks makes the Celica look more and more like a lock for production, and sooner rather than later.

Celica Has Been An Important Part Of Toyota Since 1970

Toyota first launched the Celica in 1970. The first-generation car was a two-door hardtop coupe that was stylish by the standards of Japanese cars at the time, it was also sporty. It was a sort of Toyota response to the Mustang, arriving when the pony car’s trajectory was on the rise.

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Production of the Celica ended in 2006, with an angular car marking the seventh-generation version. The Celica had moved from rear to front-wheel drive sometime in the 1980s, but it was still very much an affordable sports coupe, a model segment that is largely missing from today’s dealerships. The most similar new model would be the Honda Prelude, a car that is also returning from a long absence and isn’t actually in dealers yet either.

Could the reborn Celica and Prelude bring in a new era of affordable and fun Japanese vehicles? We’ll be waiting with bated breath to find out, but Toyota has been stirring up rumors for more than a year now.

Source: CarScoops