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Why not Hachi-Hachi???
OK, so, some ground work. If you don't agree with these facts, then we can't move forward.
1. The American '84-'87 Corolla GTS model code begins with AE88 (regardless of coupe or hatch).
2. The American '84-'87 Corolla SR-5 model code begins with AE86.
3. "Hachi" is the Japanese word for "Eight". (Edit, D'oh)
4. "Roku" is the Japanese word for "Six".
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Why is it that people (myself included) call a 1987 Toyota Corolla GT-S Coupe an "AE86"????
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I mean, if I went down-town and somebody asked me if it was a genuine 8-6, and I replied, "NO!, Its an 8-8," undoubtedly confusion would ensue. In fact, a small street scuffle may errupt over the misconception.
Its a pretty small issue, but consider how much the public relies on Corolla designations:
Ae86
Trueno
Levin
Sprinter
Ae92
'rolla
Hatch
Coupe
DOHC
EFI
4age
4ac
LSD
RWD
Panda
Some of these are interchangable, but they all imply slightly (and vastly) different things. And in a world were Initial-D has popularized the (JDM)Trueno (not to be confused with the US-GTS...), and rampant oportunists are taking advantage of the market with the ebay pick-up line, "AE86" while the characters S, R, and 5 are missing from the description. While buying my GTS, do you know how many fakes I went through, and more importantly, how many people told me all I had to do was make sure it said "ae86" in the VIN?!!? I ended up buying my coupe out of a field with two (2) holes in the block from ejected rods (hope they landed alright). I had no idea what I just bought, I knew it had the 4age (the aw11 mr2 was my gateway drug), and I knew it had the (optional) LSD, but there in the VIN was the completely perplexing "AE88". I just assumed it was because it was a coupe. But time and experience have taught me what nobody, NOBODY ever told me. That to look for an LSD,GE equipped Corolla based on the popular opinion of what the model code is will only lead to disaster.
I mean, talk about language being imperfect. Here we are trying to illuminate how NOT to do something, while our language specifically explains how to accomplish exactly what shouldn't happen. It's like a conspiracy...
So although these 4 digits may be the smallest part of the 'rolla, it seems apearant to me that some incredible feat of ignorance has occured. Perhaps there should be a revolution, an upheaval of this misnomer. Perhaps I should be the AE88 Savior, the second coming of the nimble, affordable, RWD spirit (Amen!). Traveling near and far, on a mission to save the next poor soul from aquiring a 75hp hoopdie labeled (correctly) AE86.
Or, perhaps I don't care enough, and figure that a consumer has thier own responsibilities to make sure they know what they are doing. Perhaps I am just curious as to how such a blatant and obvious reversal of terms can accur on such a large scale.
Is there anybody who knows the history well enough to explain how this happened? Is the (JDM, LSD, 4AGE, EFI equipped) Trueno labeled 86 or 88? Are all Japanese Corolla's marked with an "AE86"? Was it carried over to the american release, and then at last minute they hurriedly released the GT-S, perhaps under a different Toyota-America project title, lets say... "AE88!"? And if it didn't have anything to do with the cross border manufacturing, and we adopted the misnomer directly from the Japanese, how did they accomplish it?! The mere existence of the natively Japanese term "Hachi-Roku(8-6)" implies that this is a carryover condition. Is it a conspiracy? Will I not wake up tomorrow?
Is this whole thing just an example of how stupid Toyota buyers are? (Hope not)
Or is it because Hachi-Hachi sounds so... Moronic? SchoolGirl? Hello-Kitty?
Last edited by Lakehaze; 12-26-2005 at 11:26 AM.
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