It was midafternoon Sunday in San Salvador. While waiting for my wife to finish some extracurricular activities I decided to go for a stroll around the block. The streets were quiet on this usually busy part of town were car repair shops are the norm. Just as I turned the corner I came across a vehicle I didn’t remember ever seeing in the flesh, an early 60’s Toyota Corona, also known as the Tiara in the US and some other export markets.
Launched with great fanfare by the carmaker under the Toyopet moniker, the Corona/Tiara would mark Toyota’s first foray into foreign markets. Alas, the product was yet lacking in refinement, sending the brand into quick reprieve, a chapter already covered in detail by Tatra87.
This being the car-repair-shop area of the city, it’s not entirely unexpected to come across a ‘for sale’ vehicle put together by local mechanics. Still, this particular Corona with its thick blue respray was rather unexpected. Datsun’s of this age appearing every once in a while in daily traffic, a Toyota/Toyopet from this era is an unusual sight. No real idea if it’s a ’62 model, but seemed like a fine ‘middle-ground’ for a vehicle produced between 1960-1963.
About that Toyopet moniker, the company was still trying to figure under which brand it would market itself worldwide. While going as Toyopet in the States, this particular example seems to be full Toyota. Then again, that trim piece on the back might not be original.
Now, that steering wheel we do KNOW not to be original, as well as other interior trim bits. Some of that cyan respray seems to have been applied too quickly too. Still, local resourcefulness has managed to keep this rare example on the roads for some time to come, originality be dammed.
Toyota’s inroads into Central America date at least to the mid 50’s, with local dealer DIDEA starting distribution of Land Cruisers in 1953. An import enterprise set up by Spanish immigrant Bartolomé Poma in the mid 20’s, the company is now a major real estate developer across the region. The Poma group nowadays commends itself on their foresight to take on Toyota at such an early date (not a bad move, considering the fate of Hudson and Essex -their first imports).
Yes, Toyota had a bit of rocky start, with Nissan’s Datsun taking an early lead in the foreign markets. It wouldn’t last though, and the blues would soon fade away for Toyota.
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Vintage Review: 1961 Toyopet Tiara by Eric703
My dad had a ’68 Corona he bought from a junkyard in the late 70’s. He rebuilt the motor, gave the whole car a good cleaning and painted it metallic bronze. It was a tough little car and remarkably heavy for it size. It was also great in the snow as my dad drove it on a long commute to work at a Rockwell truck axle plant during the winter of 1977-78. It had a manual transmission and was pretty easy on gas.
After about ten years of pretty happy motoring, my dad sold the Corona to my college roommate who drove it a few more years and then sold or gave it to his uncle who drives it until it needed an ignition part that could only be ordered from Japan. (pre-Internet) The part is sitting on the table waiting to go to the parts store so the counter guy could figure out how to order another one. Sadly, according to my roommate, the uncle and his brother get drunk one night with an argument resulting in the part being flung out in the snow never to be found again. The Corona’s second life pretty much ends there. Have no idea if the car was ever resurrected later or just junked again.
The car has an uncanny resemblance to a Trabant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant
Yea! I thought it was a Trabant article till I saw the headline.
Amazing find! I have no memory of ever seeing one of these in the flesh. By the time I arrived in California in 1976, the few that were sold there seem to all have disappeared, although I’m sure some were still around.
I still find it somewhat curious that this generation Corona(Tiara) was such a dud in the US and its successor such a hit. They weren’t all that different.
Wow ~ I’ve never seen one before .
This doesn’t look _too_ bad, I wonder if it ever runs .
-Nate
Wow – what an unexpected find!
The DIDEA/Toyota ad is also interesting… I assume it’s from the very early 1970s, and at the bottom, it looks like the ad says that Toyota is the best selling car in El Salvador. I assume that includes both cars and trucks, but I still wouldn’t have thought that to have been the case.
I saw them in New Guinea in the 1960s. Badged as Tiara. To my eye there’s a Eastern Bloc/Russian look about the design.
I love 1960s Toyotas, especially Corona and Stout. I occasionally find them on craigslist or eBay. I’d gladly take this one. Depending on its current mechanical condition, I would consider repowering it with a 3TC and 5 speed out of an early 80s Corolla.
I’d like to find a Corona coupe one day, but I’d definitely settle for a sedan, in a heart beat. I found this one last year in western Washington state. Beautiful.