The Toyota Carina (Japanese: トヨタ・カリーナ, Hepburn: Toyota Karina) is an automobile which was manufactured by Toyota from December 1970 to December 2001. It was introduced as a sedan counterpart of the Celica, with which it originally shared a platform. Later, it was realigned to the Corona platform, but retained its performance image, with distinctive bodywork and interior — aimed at the youth market and remaining exclusive to Japanese Toyota dealerships Toyota Store. It was replaced in Japan by the Toyota Allion in 2001 and succeeded in Europe by the Toyota Avensis.

The inspiration for the name Carina came from the constellation Carina, sharing a naming inspiration with the Celica, which is ultimately derived from the Latin word coelica meaning "heavenly" or "celestial".

The first-generation Carina was manufactured from December 1970, and sold at Toyota Store dealership channels in Japan, sharing its platform with the Toyota Celica sports coupe. Its European release took place in October 1971. Toyota was able to save development and tooling costs by building a family sedan and a sports car on the same platform and in the same factory. The Carina was a junior sedan and coupe to the larger Crown, and was similar sized to the Corona. Features included reclining seats with built-in head restraints, radio, clock, reversing lights and servo-assistance on the brakes.

In 1971, the Carina 1600GT coupe was introduced as an alternative to the Corona 1600GT, using a 2T-G type 1600 DOHC engine shared with the Celica GT. The Corona 1600 GT was exclusive to Toyopet Store locations, the Carina 1600GT was exclusive to Toyota Store locations, and the Celica GT was exclusive to Toyota Corolla Store locations. The chassis code was A10, with A15, 17 and 18 being reserved for hardtop coupés. Excepting the anomalous RA16 hardtop, A16 and 19 were used on vans (utility wagons). Beginning in 1975, A30-series numbers were used for some hardtop coupés. The wagons/vans of the first generation were not regularly exported. Carina vans entered production in December 1975.

The A10 Carina was also exported to the US; its introduction and disappointing sales coinciding with the introduction of a 10% import duty. Cars destined for export were increasingly directed to European and other markets; US exports stopped after only two years; and Toyota continued its plans to manufacture in the USA.

The original model usually featured a choice of a 1407 cc OHV (T) or 1588 cc OHV (2T) engine, choice of a four-speed manual gearbox, two-speed automatic gearbox or three-speed automatic gearbox and front-wheel disc brakes (drum brakes on the lowest model). It was revised in 1972 with a restyled body, new rear light cluster, filler cap repositioned in the rear quarter panel, restyled front grille and fascia. The specification was once again revised in 1974 including sealed cooling system, improved brakes, restyled wheels with flared wheel arches, and restyled interior fittings.

In late October 1975 (on sale 1 November), the Carina received a new front and rear-end styling, dual-line braking system with servo, and a repositioned handbrake and gear lever in a modified dashboard. The wheelbase and tread were increased slightly, as for the sister Celica series. Some chassis codes were accordingly changed, and the Japanese market cars received a plethora of altered engines, ranging from 1.4 to 2.0 litres.

Vehicles installed with engines with displacement at 1.5 litres or larger obligated Japanese owners to pay more annual road tax, and were considered top trim level packaged cars. Toyota introduced the "TTC-V" (Toyota Total Clean-Vortex) on the 19R engine only, using an exhaust gas recirculation implementation to comply with recently enacted emission regulations passed by the Japanese Government. The 1.4 was dropped from sedans and coupés, and a mid-range 1.8 was added at the time of the late 1975 facelift.