Auto Sun & Air Cabriolet

Found this on carsales.com.au, anyone ever seen one of these? Factory option or aftermarket would you think?

 

I've never seen one either, strikes me as something a dealer might have comissioned when the car was new.

More pics:

 

Found some pics of another one of these, this one has what appear to be TRD side skirts and rear apron as well:





This car came up for sale about two years ago with just 58,000km on it, they were asking $5000 at the time.

 

No I would say it was an aftermarket conversion

 

Another one of these has popped up for sale, with some more information about them. The conversions were done in Sydney when the cars were brand new by a company called "Auto Sun and Air", which was a subsiduary of the Bill Buckle Auto Group, and had been installing aftermarket sunroofs and air-con in cars since the 1970's. The Buckle Group craftily ensured that the cars complied to all Australian Design Rules, enabling them to be sold as a dealer option and registered in every state.

I'll get some pics up of the latest find as soon as I can. I'm actually really tempted to go and have a look at it, it's in really good condition with a near-new roof and only 120,000km, they're asking $2500. The wife would kill me of course, but hmm....

 

Someone on another forum mentioned that in ye olden days a carriage with a convertable top for the rear seats and a roof over the front seats would be called a "landaulet", so that's probably the most correct title, but I think it's a bit cumbersome and unsuited to a Japanese sports car. Maybe just a generic "soft-top" would be the best descriptor.

There are a handful of 4th-gen verts around, but they were never officially imported, the ones we have are private imports or greys.

OK, moar pics!

This is the one on eBay at the moment for $2500.







You couldn't see it in the pics of either of the other cars, but here you can see that the front section can either be popped up, or removed altogether.




The car in the original post above is still on carsales, it's dropped to $2250 asking, and there is another one on Gumtree in Perth that has a price of only $400 on it, but I get the feeling that's a typo as the ad goes on to say that he's dropped $4500 into it recently. No pics of that one yet, I've emailed asking for some, but no answer

 

Here's some more info on the Auto Sun cars that I found in an old newspaper article. It says they are built from the SX model, but that can't be correct because we only got the ST (FE motor) coupe's. Nonetheless, some interesting info:

"Just in time to catch the last strong rays of autumn, a Sydney company has produced a cabriolet version of the latest Toyota Celica SX coupe. Auto Sun and Air claims its new soft-top roof can be raised or lowered in less than 60 seconds.

The waterproof double-woven fabric roof folds away neatly beneath a tonneau cover.

Structural integrity is maintained with the inclusion of an integrated steel box section roll bar and the retention of the original factory roof side rails. The Cabrio carries the same guarantee as a new factory Celica and complies with all Australian Design Rules.

Retail price is $35,190 - or $7,500 above the regular steel-roofed coupe."



Also, I've found another one! You go years without ever hearing about or seeing one, and suddenly there are FOUR of them for sale at once, funny old world huh.

Anyways, the latest one to pop up on ebay:

 

Spotted another Auto Sun & Air car for sale on Gumtree, he only wants $750 for it... mighty tempting (the mrs would kill me of course though, lol...)

 

Well spotted, I hadn't noticed that!