Am I The Only "nutty" One?

[M.Rad.]

I keep reading about people going to great length and expense to convert their pre-97 SCs to the 97-up front fascia. Personally, I like the pre-97 look better, without that itty-bitty grill in the nose. If it didn't cost so much to get it painted I would swap with someone...

The tail lights, on the other hand are a diffrent matter!

Anyone else feel the same? Bueller?

Regards,

M.R.

[sc4sooner]

i agree with you, i like the clean look of the pre 97 without that little grill, but as you pointed out im not a fan of the pre 97 tail lights

[TXSC3]

On 97+ I LOVE the rocker panels and the 1/4 panel body kit like things. The spoiler on 97+ makes the car look even longer which is a good thing. 96 down spoilers were okay as well but did not create this effect.

The small grille is pretty ugly on 97+ but I like how aggressive the lower end of the bumper looks. 92-96 cars have a sort of rounded lower bumper area which is not as attractive. Toyota did that same grille on gen 7.2 Celicas and it looked ugly there as well.

As for tails....97+ look wickedly slick in the dark. By daylight....well...the kind of gold glow of the plastic and the chrome trim in them looks cheap. I also dislike how the backup lamps look yellow in them in the daylight. 94-96 tails look the best in daylight.

I never absolutely loved any wheel that came stock on any SC. Mine came with GS wheels which I like and will probably keep as is. The BBS like mesh wheels that were a dealer installed option were okay but the gold accents on them looked very cheap.

As a side note, I think the headlights on all SCs were very cheap looking at night because the fluted plastic that lighted up beside the low beam projector was distracting and took away from that razor sharp precision lighting look of projectors which were a big deal back in the early 90s when few cars had them. Toyota should have made the headlights glass, had complete darkness next to the low beam, used a dual filament bulb in the turn signal chamber to have that serve as the front running light, and kept the side marker as is.