Just a few weeks ago I decided to venture into some unknown streets around my neighborhood. After all, there was one I never used that I was particularly curious about. I wasn’t expecting much, as Waze showed a short drive that dead-ended on a gated community.
At the street’s entrance, there’s usually a VW Rabbit pickup (seriously, when’s the last time you saw one?) that I’ve been meaning to shoot for some time. Annoyingly, it was no longer there. Instead, I came across two deserted Toyotas that I believe are of US origin.
First to appear was this Corona wagon, with the nifty Di-Noc trim. This must have been one spiffy Corona back in the day, as I don’t remember any trimmed like this. Not that it surprises me either. US car fashions still held a big influence on Japanese cars when these came out of the assembly line. A few Di-Noc Nissans of similar vintage have already appeared at CC.
As can be seen in the photos, someone has put a lot of effort into ‘protecting’ this old Corona from the elements. Not that the covers are doing that great a job.
But well, there’s only so much plastic can do against neglect.
A bit further up was this early Starlet. Curiously, also ‘protected’ in plastic wrap just like the Corona. Do both belong to the same owner? I’ve to admit that of the two, I prefer the Corona. This one has some of the odd customizing locals love and it puts me off to a degree. The large wheels and rims, with the chin spoiler, give this Starlet a funny small-headed look.
Regardless, both models were quite popular here. I already devoted a column to the Starlet, and still need to do one about the Corona; the upscale car for Salvadorians back in the ’70s.
As for the street, I’ll check it out again in a few weeks. Hopefully, the Rabbit pickup will be there next time. If not, who knows? Maybe more forlorn Toyotas might have arrived.
Further reading:
Curbside Classic: 1978 Toyota Corona – Baseball, Apple Pie, And Corona
Judging by the cars, the gated community must be the state prison
A di-noc Corona wagon (new in ’74) was my first exposure to a Japanese car. In high school I did deliveries for a small business in our cow town, and the owner had just bought the wagon. I was amazed at how easy it was to drive and its trim size, as well as how tightly screwed together it was. Very impressive. Fast forward 7 years and my first brand new car was a Toyota based on those initial impressions from 1974. No regrets.
I don’t believe that we had the 4-door Starlet in the US market. We only had the two-door hatchback.
True. I forgot 4-doors never reached the US.
I didn’t remember the 4 door in the US either, but there may have been one; I don’t recall ever seeing many two-door Starlets either. I do remember woodgrained Toyota wagons though – that wasn’t unusual as I think Datsun, Subaru, and Mazda still had woodies in their lineup too.
That is correct.
The short run of the Starlet, in the American market, was comprised of 3-door hatchbacks.
I remember my dad tried really hard to talk me into a Tercel.
It was a brand new model back then, but moreso, front wheel drive and at that time, fwd was “The Wave of The Future!”.
I was more into the Starlet, which (at that time) was a rear wheel drive, 3 door hatchback, but it came off more like a mini station wagon.
It and the Mazda GLC were both kinda “cut from the same cloth” in that sense.
In the end, I never got either car. My Vega was followed by a bent Bug, then another Vega.
I think it would still be cool to have a Starlet.
>It was a brand new model back then, but moreso, front wheel drive and at that time, fwd was “The Wave of The Future!”.
I fell head over heels for the FWD hype of the early ’80s too. It may be difficult for anyone under 35 or so to ponder this, but RWD was regarded as obsolete by many auto manufacturers and reviewers circa 1983. The American auto industry was racing to adopt FWD throughout nearly their entire car lineups, especially at GM and Chrysler. Likewise the Japanese manufacturers – Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda got heavily into FWD around that time (Honda and Subaru already were). There were entire advertisements doting about their car having front drive. If the car you were selling had RWD, you simply didn’t talk about the driveline.
RWD began to obtain some cachet when most of the upscale European marques shunned FWD into the late ’80s and beyond, and when post-malaise performance increases highlighted the limitations of the FWD layout. By the ’00s, we started to see some FWD cars replaced by RWD designs, something that never happened in the ’80s. Another new wave of RWD cars is occurring now with the change to electric power – FWD doesn’t really bring the space-efficiency advantages to EVs that it does with IC-powered cars, and AWD is easy to implement for those concerned about bad-weather traction, so we’re starting to see RWD electric cars positioned as replacements for Camrys or Golfs.
I as well, but part of it was situational for me. I owned a light RWD car (’74 Datsun 710) though college but lived in Vermont, and would have liked to have a Rabbit instead (maybe a Civic or Accord but less so). In retrospect, other than bad traction, the 710 was probably the best choice for me back then, it was still old school enough to work on and was very dependable (only refused to start during the blizzard of ’78 despite always being parked outdoors) and it was slow so I couldn’t get into too much trouble with it (unless maybe I drove into a snowbank).
I got my first job after getting my undergraduate degree, it was a little farther south (Massachusetts) but after hitting black ice driving back to visit Vermont, I no longer trusted RWD for a small car. Guess I could have bought a “heavier” RWD car since FWD was still a bit scarce, but after the 2nd gas shortage I wasn’t too keen on getting a car that had worse fuel economy than the one I already owned. Plus, interest rates especially on used cars were very high, one of my friends got a 24% interest rated on his used Pontiac Sunbird back then. Still, I wanted something a little fun, instead of getting a Rabbit (wasn’t called Golf yet in the US) I bought a used ’78 Scirocco. Great styling, good mileage, fun, and FWD. Proceeded to use it to carpool to work (3 people, each of us had 2 door coupes in a carpool…kind of funny in retrospect). I felt lucky to get a 16 percent loan on it (my boss was president of the credit union, it was a voluntary post (neither of us had jobs primarily involving banking) but I think he helped me get an extra $500 on the loan I wasn’t yet qualified for (they had limits based on how long you were a member, and as a new hire I qualified for the minimum).
Anyhow, it was an OK choice, but a product of that time. I didn’t know I’d soon move to the sunbelt (same place I live now, central Texas) otherwise I might have gone for RWD but a bit heavier car. Fuel economy was nice, but we all found as the 80’s progressed it wasn’t as important as it seemed in the late 70’s. And…..I should have gone for air conditioning. To be fair it wasn’t common on small cars in the northeast yet. My next car (’86 GTi) had it (but I didn’t go for power steering, which I probably should have though the car was light it had then-wide 60 series tires which made steering harder especially when I broke my collarbone and some ribs in a bicycle accident (maybe also should have gone for an automatic?).
Those days seem so long ago. I followed my parents down to Texas, they had already transferred there, and my Mother got me a rental car to drive from Austin to San Antonio for an interview. Which rental? Why, a ’82 Toyota Starlet which has the distinction for me of being the only rental car I’ve ever gotten in the US that had a manual transmission. Oh yes, it had RWD and was a light car (but that was fine in Texas most of the time, not so fine in Vermont most of the time) plus it had air conditioning. Well, they didn’t yet sell the Starlet when I bought the Scirocco in 1981, maybe if I knew I was going to relocate to Texas I might have ended up with a RWD Datsun or Toyota but with air conditioning (what I should have gotten in ’81 in retrospect, but I did love that ’78 Scirocco on the other hand…to this day, the only fun car I bought).
You were better off with the Datsun, Zwerp.
Those cars were built like tanks. They’d last for years.
I had a Rabbit. A 1980 “C” model with a diesel engine.
Got excellent fuel mileage (average was around 48 mpg) and was fairly peppy, but like the Bug’s, the body’s were thin. One little paint chip and if you didn’t jump on it immediately, you had a big rust hole (happened to me!).
The valve train for the engine didn’t use rocker arms, either. OHC,but direct actiing on the valves, through a follower that was a little cup that held a disk of a certian thickness (that’s how you set the clearance).
Fiat used a similar style valve train.
Problem was, diesel engine requires the cylinder to be sealed or the engine doesn’t run. Springs were rather stiff, which put more side loading than usual on the guirdes. They get worn enough and the engine doesn’t run. Nothing like getting stranded 20 miles from home.
At first, a can of ether helped get the engine started, but eventually, even that doesn’t help.
…meanwhile, your Datsun would still be soldiering on.
On top of that, I feel that RWD is actually safer in slick road conditions, if for no other reason than it works quite intuitively.
If the car starts to spin, the reaction is to get off the gas and let the car coast to a stop.
With RWD, that puts the engine at idle, and slows the car down naturally, without you having to step on the brakes (and as we all know, once you step on the brakes, its all over). Moreover, the car is being slowed from the rear, so it naturally wants to point the nose forward (where it should be).
With FWD, if the car starts to spin, what you want to do is step on the gas.
How many of us are going to react by doing that?
Maybe if you’re trained in driving that way, but from a reactionary standpoint, now you’re stopping the car from the front, which is going to make the back of the car want to come around to the front.
The only advantage FWD has over RWD is the fact that you’re pulling the car around instead of pushing it, and it’s “supposed to be” easier to pull the car rather than push it. That may be, but in the end, I think the safety factor outweighs the traction factor.
Make mine RWD, please.
Well, I didn’t mean for this to become a discussion about FWD, but since you’re going on about its history, I guess I’ll add what I know about it.
Front wheel drive had actually been around since the 1930’s.
Citroen first produced it in their Traction Avant car starting around 1933 or 1934.
Most of europe slowly made the move to fwd over the corressponding 30 years, although many older European makes held to the rwd design for many years (some still do).
The Japanese first embraced it in the mid 50’s and it was the explosive uptick of their presence in the American market in the early 70’s (thank you, gas crisis) that started them thinking about FWD.
What saved rwd, at least in America, was the fact that we found out it actually had as many minuses as rwd, just different ones.
…that and our love for pure, unaldulterated power.
In those days, you couldn’t put more than 200 hp to a fwd system, lest you tear apart the cv joints, and try going up a steep hill in slick conditions….go ahead, I dare ya.
However, it’s a cheaper and easier build for the auto makers and it does just as good of a job powering a car, in the general sense, as rwd does, so…it stays.
> In those days, you couldn’t put more than 200 hp to a fwd system, lest you tear apart the cv joints, and try going up a steep hill in slick conditions….go ahead, I dare ya.
The 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado’s V8 put out 385hp (gross) to its front wheels; two years later the Cadillac Eldorado sent 475hp to its front wheels. Neither ripped up their CV joints. The FWD transistion could have easily started en masse by the late ’60s rather than the early ’80s.
The Toronado used a different style of joint than what the 70’s/80’s cars used.
It was stronger, but too large to use on the smaller and lighter platforms that were coming out of Detroit 15-20 years later.
Maybe next time, you could research your argument a little better than a 2 mintue revirew of Wikipedia.
I find it funny how people tarp a car and close the doors over the tarp to secure it, while the tarp wicks the water right to the not so sealed anymore door seal.