A second generation Toyota Zelas, seen in north Beijing in December 2019. The good Toyota was a bit dirty, but basically every car is dirty in the Beijing winter, when roads are covered with a dusty kind of snowy mud.
The Toyota Zelas, known as the Scion tC in North America, is a sporty compact two-door hatchback coupe with a liftback rear design. The second generation Zelas (AT20) was made from 2010 until 2016. Our Beijing car looked classy in black with slightly darkened windows and fitted with the factory wheels.
The interior of the Zelas is sporty too, with sport seats and some nice racy details like the ring around the gear lever, the round controls for the air con, and the driver-focused instrument panel.
The Toyota Zelas was powered by a 2.5 liter four-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine with an output of 178 hp and 233 Nm. The engine was mated to a 6-speed automatic transmission with manual shift mode, sending horses to the front wheels. The Scion tC model was also available with a 6-speed manual gearbox, but the Zelas was automatic-only. Top speed was 205 km/h and 0-100 was gone in 7.4 seconds.
The license plate is very special, as 6, 8, and 9 are all considered to be lucky numbers in Chinese culture. Eight is the luckiest, associated with prosperity. Then comes nine, associated with long lasting, as in a marriage. Finally, six is associated with good fortune for business. So the owner of this tiny Toyota must be a very lucky guy indeed.
The Toyota Zelas was officially sold in China as an import from 2011 until 2015. Price started at 255.500 yuan and ended at 280.000 yuan, which was expensive for the time, especially in a country where small coupe’s were, and still are, not very popular.
It is therefore no wonder that the Toyota Zelas is rare in China and that is really a sad thing, as the Zelas was a nice compact package with decent power and good looks.