What was Toyota's first front-wheel-drive car?

Toyota’s first front-wheel-drive car was the Toyota Tercel.

Introduced in Japan in August 1978, the first-generation Tercel was a major engineering departure for Toyota. It used front-wheel drive to improve packaging and efficiency, trends that became increasingly important after the 1970s oil crises. Toyota sold related versions in Japan as the Corsa and, through another dealer network, the Corolla II; in some export markets it was called the Corolla Tercel.

The Tercel’s layout was unusual by later front-wheel-drive standards. Its engine was mounted longitudinally rather than transversely, with the transmission positioned beneath it. Toyota selected this arrangement partly because it was familiar to engineers and because it could simplify development of a future four-wheel-drive version.

The Tercel is sometimes confused with the Starlet or Corolla because those models occupied nearby places in Toyota’s small-car range. The Corolla did not switch broadly to front-wheel drive until its fifth-generation E80 series, which followed the Tercel’s pioneering layout.