Eugene’s 20×21 Mural Project’s goal is to have 20 world-class murals by the time of the 2021 IAFF World Champions, which Eugene is hosting. Several have already appeared, including this one by Chinese artist Hua Tunan. It’s at a favorite location of mine, directly across the street from where this Corolla Liftback has been parked at the curb along with the ’72 Cadillac that was my first-ever CC. The Caddy left a couple of years ago, but the Corolla is still there, and now has a colorful backdrop.
Since the lighting was not ideal the day I shot this, here’s a pic from Eugene’s web site, where the other murals may also be perused if you should feel so inclined. We just ran into one of the other ones on our walk today; they are a welcome addition to our streetscape.
I suppose it’s more than a wee bit symbolic to to have seen the Corolla outlive the Cadillac, and now see a Chinese mural as a backdrop to the Corolla. Of course the Olson Kurb Van behind it may well outlive them all. Aluminum bodies have staying power.
But the Corolla has hung in there, looking barely changed in the nine years since I first shot it. As well as the Caddy disappearing, the Element has been replaced by the Fiat 500. Some things change, others don’t. I’m curious to see how long the Corolla lasts there. It may well be a while.
Here in Jacksonville a pitched battle was fought with an artist that was “decorating” various objects alongside city streets. In a style very similar to Keith Haring, an artist was painting those boxes that control traffic signals and/or other types of lighting outdoors. Then, it finally dawned on the powers that be that this was making the city more beautiful and wasn’t a case of someone covering the urban landscape with disgusting graffiti type tags.
About a year ago, maybe longer, the city went full-bore with murals popping up all over downtown. In the case of Jacksonville there is no underlying theme, no event being commemorated, so all kinds/styles of murals are visible. The one pictured here looks like it took a lot of time and effort, the city could make some extra money selling prints as wall hangings.
The 1976 Corolla liftback is the car I should have bought instead of the 1976 Chevy truck I did buy.
I seriously considered a nice, yellow SR5 on the showroom floor, but the Chevy was more attuned to the outdoor lifestyle weekends I lived at the time.
Always regretted that non-purchase.
The 1976 Corolla liftback is the car I should have bought….
Ditto, except a 78 SR5 Liftback. Headroom a mite short for me, and really did not like the way I had to pull the shifter up and away from me to get past the reverse lockout. Instead, I bought the 78 Merc Zephyr that put me off of Ford products for 26 years. Still haven’t bought a Ford new since then, only used, mostly beaters.
I seriously considered buying a yellow SR5 Liftback before I ended up purchasing the VW Rabbit. That was 40 years ago and at this point I no longer remember why the VW won out over the Toyota. I do remember that the SR5 seemed like a fun car to drive, at least in the few miles of my test drive. As it turned out I got excellent service from the Rabbit so all was well. I haven’t seen one of these in the wild in a long time; I suspect that the well known proclivity for Japanese cars from the seventies to rust has caused most of them to dissolve by now.
In 1976, the Rabbit was the quickest economy car. It was arguably the most entertaining to drive.
It also had front-wheel-drive–big deal in 1976, better in the snow and rain 🙂
The boxy, fwd meant the back seat was better than the Corollas.
Finally, a base Corolla definitely cost less than a Rabbit, and had more features. However, back in the day, when one moved from a 2-door or 4-door sedan to a “SR-5” , 5-SPEED, Hatchback, the price jumped quite a bit. So it’s likely your SR-5 cost more than the Rabbit.
Finally, in 1976, VW (even more than GM) still had a reservoir of good will from many, who had enjoyed trouble-free Beetles.
Lots of reasons to pick the VW.
Still, the older I get, the more I appreciate this generation of Corolla.
The Mk 1 Golf/Rabbit was the beginning of the end for VW. They should have kept the original Mk.1 design and done incremental improvements year after year to it like they did it’s older brother from 1949 to 1979. And adopted the Japanese dealer model of “Oh, the customer pays our wages, let’s treat him like a human being so he comes back”. That’s why VW is now a niche player in a market it once dominated and has to cheat for market share (and got caught).
Right about this time is when Toyota really began it’s meteoric rise and when I first became aware of them. Between the Corolla, the Celica and the Hilux, they would have met the actual driving needs of 80% of Americans at the time.
I had a ’78 Liftback similar to the one featured. Put 150k miles on it over 13 years. Sold it to my mechanic for $50, as it had pretty bad body rot at the base of the rear windows. Turns out he fixed it up and sold it to an ex-boss of mine, who drove it for another five years. Terrible in snow but good in everything else. Hauled a lot of stuff. Biggest problem: it required five water pumps over my 13 years of ownership.
Before we moved to the US permanently in ’81, we were here for a 9 month period in late ’76-mid ’77. My Dad went first and picked us up at the airport when the rest of us arrived a couple of weeks later. He picked us up in a new Capri rental car. That wasn’t the greatest idea for a family of four so it got returned to Hertz a week later for a Corolla. Over the next 9 months we had a series of new Corollas, a new one every month. Most were 4-door sedan models in various colors, the neighbors couldn’t figure out what was going on at first. Still, we traveled all over the Western US on weekends and holidays, and those Corollas were driven a lot of miles with us in them with no issues whatsoever that I can recall. Yes they were all pretty much new but were very well built. My Dad certainly learned to respect Toyota quality over that time period. As a result I have fond memories of this generation Corolla and am glad to still see them when I do.
“but were very well built”
They were amazingly well built. When I worked on mine (a ’77) the name Mercedes always popped into my mind.
Funny thing I recall about this model from 40 years ago when I used to work for Hertz as a transporter (on the East Coast, not the Western states you mention however). I was the guy who picked up one-way rentals and returned them to our home location. I remember driving this Toyota liftback (back then most of our cars were Fords, with occasional Datsun….all were automatics, even back then.
I remember the car had a light mounted on the top brow of the dashpad that was directed downward and lighted the automatic transmission gear selector (for some reason this stuck in my mind….flash forward about 6 years, I was in a totally different job and a co-worker had a ’77 Liftback, but with the manual transmission. I don’t remember how I broched the subject, but I remember asking him about the little brow mounted light….he said his car had it (even though it was a manual, and of course no manufacturer lights up manual shift levers, but on his car the light was populated…he always wondered what the light was for, not having ever driven the automatic model. Talk about trivia…for some reason this is always what I think about when I see a Toyota Liftback of this vintage (not very often anymore).
Nice car, I myself was driving a Datsun 710 back then, the last time I owned a car with an automatic (and last time I owned a sedan, or a car made by a manufacturer other than VW).
Had a friend and co-worker who bought a new metallic-blue SR5 Liftback (5-speed) in 1978. It served him well for ten years without any real issues. Nothing broke or fell off. The only problem was that he paid extra for some dealer-installed goop called PolyGlycoat that was supposed to protect the paint without ever needing to wax. Within a few years, the paint had oxidized terribly in the Florida sun, particularly on the hood and roof. The company had gone out of business by then, and the dealer didn’t want to know.
I bought one. 1978 SR5 liftback in orange…as a leftover in early 1979. Five years and 70,000 trouble-free miles. Traded it because I was getting tired of the coal-bin black interior and the headroom mentioned by Steve. The next car was a new 1984 Honda Civic four-door with a blue interior and a white headliner, which solved the problem nicely.
This photo isn’t my car, but a dead ringer:
There’s one on eBay right now, supposedly with only 37,745 miles on it, for $7,888. I don’t ever recall seeing one with body-colored wheels before:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-Toyota-Corolla-SR5-Liftback-/322615700557?hash=item4b1d64ec4d
I always liked the resemblance to the Volvo P1800ES:
It was also based on the Corolla coupe shell, so the shooting brake vibe is similar!
Reminds me of the car my babysitter had back in the early 90’s, I remember it wasn’t the prettiest car to look at but it was a very good, reliable car for her.
I liked the first-generation liftback, I saw LOTS of them in Quebec City back in the day. I sorta liked the swoopier coupe-like hatchback, but I fell for an AMC Hornet hatchback and to mis-quote a terrible pun, never looked back!
Oh, I hope the miserable, appropriately grey-coloured thing doesn’t last much more. Forty-some years is quite enough of this. These dreary, bump-steered, leaf-sprung, seatless, roomless, wind-roaring Lancia HPE-miscopied and malproportioned things, (gutlessly underpowered in Aus by the nuclear-blast survivable 1.3 pushrod), deserve no fond eulogies.
It doesn’t matter that they actually were Mercedes quality and, here, didn’t even rust much. Or that they could do 250,000 miles before anything serious happened. Or that people loved them, or that many actually liked the looks.
I know it’s against the spirit of the site, but dammit, I just can’t like anything about such cars as this. There isn’t a hint of delight about ’em.
I tell you, that Liftback son of ours ain’t no damn good and never will be no matter, no how. Look at him, curbside still. Pah!
The mural is very cool.
My ’78 had the 1.6 (1,588?) engine and a 5-speed. Never had a problem merging into traffic in DC or anywhere else. Seats were OK, but those of the replacement for the Liftback, a ’91 Mazda Protege LX were better, as was the shifter. And goodness knows, the Mazda’s screamin’ little 1.8 engine had it all over the Toyota! But, in many ways, The SR-5 was more practical.