This Toyota Corona Liftback lives around the corner, and I get to enjoy its presence on the road fairly regularly. This generation is a dying breed; I see more of the 1964+ shovelnose than I do these. To be honest, I never paid this gen much attention back in the day but it’s great to see amongst all the modern conveyances.
Here it is another time. As you can see, it has been very well maintained. The liftback was a new addition to this generation of Corona. While the standard sedans and wagons were built here with the Holden-sourced 1.9 litre four, the Liftback was a fully-imported up-market offering with the Toyota 18R 2 litre four. New Zealand assembled their own Liftback later in the T130 period, but used the 3T 1.8 litre four in theirs.
Now, of course, we are seeing every second premium four-door with a fifth hatch. Or at least a fastback look.
I can’t remember noticing the driver of this one, but I’d hazard a guess they skew towards the elderly. One of the newer denizens of this street parked their BMW i8 curbside for a while, and you noticed in the first frame what the neighbours keep in the garage. But around this way newer Ferraris are a common occurrence. Toyota Corona Liftbacks, not so much.
Further Reading
At least it’s Rosso so it blends…
This (but notchback) was the same car that my Dad was so close to buying back in 1983 as a used car, but in beige. My very intense 14y.o. lobbying efforts somehow convinced him to get the ’79 Mazda 626 coupe instead which I regarded as a huge averted bullet. Looking back now I can see the appeal for him, it’s a slightly bland but still attractive car that is extremely reliable, like the Camry that it eventually morphed into (over here anyway).
He eventually got his beige Toyota in the form of a ’79 Celica after I took over the Mazda but if the Corona he was looking at was a dark red liftback like this one perhaps I wouldn’t have been so deadset against it.
Now? I’d love to have this thing and polish it up in my garage and drive it on the weekends.
-Popular cars in NZ, Corona liftbacks left the market in the late 90s never to be replaced, very few of these T130s around here, I cant remember the last time I saw one in the metal.
In the US, these Corona liftbacks were indirectly replaced by the 1st generation of Camry sold in the US, also sold as a lift back.
I used to live down the street from where one of these sat, a rust colored car. These were also available as “normal” 4 door sedans and as station wagons, both of which I felt were better looking than this lift back. I guess a big reason why I didn’t care for these was that they were usually totally color keyed. (The exterior was almost the same color as the interior.) I also thought that they looked a bit to narrow.
For some strange reason, sales of the once-ultra-popular Corona plummeted in the USA as the 1970s turned into the 1980s. Maybe they got too expensive due to inflation and a strong Japanese yen. Shame really – the liftback is genuinely handsome in its own conservative way.
As noted in another comment, I think the general switch to front-wheel-drive and thus the introduction of the Camry is primarily what did in the Corona. They were definitely good cars, though.
What did them in in Australia was the arrival of better cars from other manufacturers (the Mitsubishi Sigma in particular; that was stunningly popular) coupled with the politically-driven adoption of that dreadful Holden engine, cut down from the 1964-era six. Noisy, thirsty, unwilling to rev and less powerful than the Toyota engine in the previous model. I remember reading sales of this hatch exceeded Toyota’s expectations, and one magazine writer wondered whether people were going for the hatch to get the good motor.
I bought on of these, a 1979 year model, in 1986 from the local Ford dealer. The salesman told me it was traded on a new Tempo. Oops! I’ll bet that customer had some regrets. The medium blue Corona Liftback had only 41,000 miles when I bought it. It did have the venerable 20R engine but also a 3-speed automatic which was its biggest negative. It was a Jatco unit which was reliable but sluggish. Despite that the car was wonderful and would hold much more cargo than you might imagine. I even got a La-Z-Boy rocker/recliner in the back and was able to fully close the liftgate (back seats folded, of course). Alas, the car was T-boned about 10 months after I bought it. The damage appeared, at first, to be confined to the driver’s door and front fender but further inspection showed that the firewall was buckled so the insurance company totaled the car. I took my insurance check and bought a 1979 Subaru DL wagon which I saw parked on the side of the road with a “For Sale” sign in the window at almost the same spot where the accident with the Toyota occurred.
I do think the shitty engine in the locally assembled Coronas was a factor in the imported liftback selling in excess of projections. Another case of Toyota Australia treating the market with contempt by offering the standard cars with that engine.
Back in the day I used to see as many of these as the standard wagon and sedan, and I quite liked them. The liftback was much better finished and had a proper dashboard with round instruments including a tacho instead of the horrible strip speedo arrangement of the lesser models.
I wouldn’t mind a JDM GT model.
Certainly makes a contrast from the neighbours! Family friends had one of these in the beige-ish yellow colour and I think they had a good run with it from memory.
The midsize fastback hatch/sedan has almost disappeared from the market now. My mother has a Mazda 6 hatch and is looking at options to replace it – the Skoda Octavia is possibly the best option, but she has looked at the Kia Stinger and new Commodore too – they might be a bit on the large side though.
I like these cars a lot. There are two that I see regularly driving around my neighborhood — one a beige sedan and one black liftback — and every time I see them I’m still impressed at the design.
If I ever catch up to one of these cars for long enough to take photos, I’d love to do a write-up on them, since I see the Corona as being a sort of bridge between two eras for Toyota (at least in the North American markets).
I know where the beige Corona lives, as I see it quite often in its driveway. No Ferrari-type neighborhood, though… it’s usually surrounded by cargo vans. Your example was much more photogenic.
It’s funny: the preceding generation of Corona is still one of probably the five most common pre-1980 cars I see around Brisbane, while the following generation is a fairly regular sighting too. This generation? Other than the wagon I featured…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule/cc-capsule-1979-83-toyota-corona-t130-wagon-mint-mediocrity/
…I never, ever see T130 Coronas. That is, until I saw one just a couple of weeks ago, a sedan with the wretched Starfire engine. I started to write it up but then I got an overwhelming case of Corona fatigue. I just see 70s Coronas so frequently (albeit not the T130), I get excited thinking I’ve spotted some other old car and then I get closer and see it’s a Corona. I wonder if the junk rate for this series is higher than the previous one. I know the Starfire was garbage but wasn’t it fairly stout?
Meanwhile, I spotted a Sigma a few months ago and was genuinely excited. Not many of those left!
Yep, felt the same way about this gen. Never really see them. Or notice them at least. I also get excited when I catch a Sigma. hehehe
Well then, I’ll have to share with everyone my Sigma find. First I stumbled across it in an undercover parking lot (ugh, just my luck) but then it showed up again… right outside my apartment!
This generation Corona was never that popular when new.
Let’s not forget the early Corona liftback
Great call
I had no idea these existed! Fascinating!
The shovel nose RT4x series Coronas were a diverse breed. 8 body configurations:
4 door Sedan
5 door wagon
2 door hardtop
5 door liftback
3 door wagon
3 door panel van
2 door ute
2 door double cab ute
Great find, Don! These are, to me, some of the best-looking, mainstream 5-door hatchbacks ever produced, along with the 1983 – ’87 Mazda 626 Touring Sedans.
Way back when, I had a neighbor with a ” Luxury Edition “. Which IMHO was Toyota’s most broughamtastic interior.