As I drove though the intersection of Polk and 18th, I spotted a little dark car heading west on 18th towards me. As it came closer and stopped for the light, I could make out that it was a gen2 Corolla. never seen this one in town before. In fact, I’ve never shot a sedan of this generation since I shot the ’74 that had to stand in for a ’71 in my 1971 Small Car Comparison.
Now here’s the real thing, but there’s no way I can shoot it properly; I’ll be lucky to peel off a shot or two.
Here’s a crop of that shot. The grilles on these cars were constantly changing, and the coupes sometimes had different grilles from the sedan and wagon, and the 1600 version got a different grille, IIRC. But I’m going to peg this as a ’71, although I might be wrong.
I’m well acquainted with these, as my “adopted mother” Elinor had one in Iowa City; a 1200 sedan in orange. It was a ’72 or ’73 though. Drove it on many a summer’s trip out to the quarry with one or two or three of her daughters to go swimming, or other outings. Nice little car, although obviously not exactly brimming with power. It had to be caned, but it did the trick. The only reason the ’71 Corolla didn’t win that C/d Comparison was the lack of power of its 1200 cc engine, an issue that was remedied some six months later in almost overkill fashion, with the new hemi-head 1600 engine rated at a whopping 102 (gross) hp. That allowed it to literally run away from the competition.
Here it is pulling away. This shot is not in focus, but it’s nice to see it paired with that Prius (and a matrix in the first picture).
Two classic Eugene-mobiles, if ever there were any.
Related:
Wow, looks to be in pretty good condition and still wearing all 4 of what appears to be the original hubcaps.
Do you have x-ray vision? The rest of us only see two wheels in these images…
Apparently Rust isn’t an issue in Paul’s city
A girl in my dorm in college had one of these. She’d drive it up and back from Carlsbad to San Luis Obispo a few times that year, it just kept on running, I’m pretty sure she had it all the way through college (late 80’s into early 90’s).
I’m more familiar with the next generation but her little car was impressive. No trouble, great mileage, and even at that time not very common anymore. Nowadays it’s extremely rare to see them outside of at the occasional show, making this sighting in the wild that more impressive.
Saw one of these last year, one of only a couple i can ever recall seeing.
family bought a new ’69 Corolla 2 door.. 4 speed, vinyl floors, no radio puny heater for western Pa. winters. Had door skins you could pop in and out with your thumb, like a beer can. paid $1695 off the lot i believe. As the jingle for a certain cigarette brand at the time,
“You’ve come a long way baby, to get where you got to today!” 2019, and I drive a Corolla again! Very long lived model name!
drove a few of these back in the day vague steering and quite underpowered ours had the K series engines not the T, but they were quite reliable and lasted the 10 years or 100,000 govt use before disposal.