It was high noon in the sweltering humidity of the city of Tokyo (or was it Bangkok?). I trundled along, whistling a merry tune (sweating so much I could barely keep my feet in my flip-flops) and came across a lovely (God-awful) early model Toyota Corona T130. Here it was, a grey sedan (green Liftback), nicely tucked away in a parking lot (parked sideways on the street). What a sight (for sore eyes).
I won’t keep this double-narrative thing going longer, to everyone’s relief. I simply have far more pictures of the Bangkok wreck than of the Tokyo minter. C’est la vie. Still, it’s an occasion for me to re-acquaint myself with my old stomping grounds, where complete write-offs could just be left in the street to rust. Unimaginable in Japan.
Just for the sake of contrast, here’s the Tokyo sedan again. It’s had a few minor mods – most notably, all the rear badges have been taken off, so I cannot say for sure what its trim or engine is. It seems like the JDM Corona had the full polyurethane bumpers on the 2-litre models only, so it might be one of those. The Thai Liftback, unsurprisingly, is a 1600 and has the botox bumpers. They always did have their way of doing things down in Southeast Asia…
Here’s the full Corona T130 range, in JDM spec. The sedan, wagon/van and coupé debuted in September 1978. The novel Liftback arrived a month later (the one shown here is a post-August 1980 facelift model). Though it kept the previous generations’ engines and general RWD layout, the T130 Corona was a completely new platform, but still a fairly conservative car in all respects.
Suspensions were standard Toyota fare for the ‘70s – MacPherson struts at the front and a five-link coil-sprung live axle at the back, except the wagon and taxi models, which kept the cart springs. Front disc brakes were fitted to all cars except the taxis; the fancier models got rear discs as well. In Japan, your choice of a 1.6, a 1.8 or a 2-litre engine could be mated with anything from a 3-speed manual (on the tree, for the base-spec 1600 only) to a 5-speed floor shift (standard on the 2000), as well as 3- or 4-speed auto. Australian-made Coronas got a Holden-sourced 1.9 instead of a Toyota mill, just to add a touch of local discolour.
This unfortunate Liftback was sitting near Bangkok’s main train station, in the old town. It’s not an area I frequented all that much when I lived there, but seeing a rusty wreck in Bangkok is not unusual. I had the occasion to spot a fair few, but they were usually stashed in tiny side alleys or hiding under overpasses. This one was just sprawled on a large street, which was a bit strange.
It sure didn’t look like it had just appeared there overnight. I was tempted to dial the phone number and ask something along the lines of “Dude, what happened?” In fairness, this car’s sorry state could be the result of being in Bangkok for 40 years. Six months of monsoon and six months of unrelenting sunshine – that takes its toll after a few decades. You should see what it does to humans.
But this Corona also more than its fair share of blunt force trauma. The front end had a nasty run-in with something that didn’t agree with it. But a more unusual battle scar was on the roof, which had a puddle on it, for crying out loud. That wasn’t on the factory options list as far as I know, but here we are. Moonroof? Try poolroof. That’s foolproof.
The interior, as you’d expect, has seen better days. Perhaps the cheapo sports steering wheel and the bottle of Leo beer on the floor give us an indication of how it came to be parked this way. This seems to be a pretty low-spec car: wind-up windows, big horizontal tach, manual transmission, no radio, probably no A/C, 1.6 litre engine. Almost certainly bought new in Thailand.
The contrast with the Tokyo car is pretty radical. Acres of plastic wood, lashings of round dials, non-original seats, two sets of music playing devices (not that this is the original set-up, but still nice that the owner kept the old radio when he put in a CD player). And there are similarities, such as the aftermarket wheel and manual transmission – only this one is a 5-speed. I’d call it a spotless interior, but that leopard print carpet… ugh…
I captured this Corona a few paces away from the ’58 Datsun I posted a few days ago. As was the case with that one, this Toyota was parked pretty tightly and hard to access. It was impossible for me to get a decent shot of the front – this is all I could manage.
Our sedan is a drifter’s car, clearly. These Coronas are good candidates for this sort of hobby. I imagine this one, with its pristine yet discreet exterior, must have a few modifications underneath and/or under the hood, too. At least it doesn’t have a stupid-looking exhaust like that unloved Thai rustback.
The rear end reminded me of the Peugeot 604 I was ferried in as a kid. The Hofmeisteresque kink in the rear door gave this car a bit of a BMW E12 vibe as well, in ¾ rear view. Boxy, conservative and slightly derivative though it may be, this generation of Coronas is still a pretty decent stab at a world car – infinitely more successful than its arch-rival the Nissan Bluebird, in any case.
Speaking of which, I caught this Corona at the same time as I bagged the bronze 811 Bluebird I wrote about a few weeks ago. There was also a Mitsuoka Galue I on that blessed parking lot, which has also graced this website with its disturbing presence. With the Datsun 1000, that made for four CCs in one go. I know the Japanese are nothing if not efficient, but this was crazy. Do CCs come in batches? The answer is yes, if you’re lucky.
The Liftback was not lucky, though. It seems it didn’t do all that well in the marketplace, either. When Toyota introduced the new generation T140 Corona in January 1982, the lineup was down to three body styles – sedan, hardtop coupé and wagon. The T130 was the last Corona to be sold in the US, where it lasted until the end of 1982, and was built for a bit longer in Australia. It was also assembled in Indonesia for a while, but instead of switching to the T140, the local Toyota branch made do with the X60 Mark IIs until the new FWD Corona T150 platform arrived in 1983.
The T140 and T150 overlapped for several model years on the JDM, so the mid-‘80s Corona became a strange mixture of RWD and FWD cars that looked nothing alike. Corollas were also in the process of evolving to a front-drive layout in that period, and the switch was just as confusing, with coupés clinging to RWD while sedans went FWD. I don’t know if Toyota thought this made sense to anyone in Japan, but it certainly didn’t make for a very clear strategy from an outsider’s perspective.
It’s like Toyota’s branding policy at the time: no “Toyota” logo as such, but one emblem for each model. Creating an emblem with a “C” was not the cleverest idea when your lineup includes the Crown, the Corona, the Corona Mark II, the Cresta, the Chaser, the Century and the Corolla, if you C what I mean.
Of course, they put “Corona” scripts on the cars as well, but I’m still not convinced by their strategy, assuming they ever had one. This kind of model emblem weirdness continues to this day on the JDM, too, though it’s become less consistent – nowadays, some Toyota domestic models wear the global corporate badge, but certainly not all.
But at least the T130 was the first to abandon the ridiculous “Toyopet” moniker that had been on the JDM Coronas since the ‘50s. And it was the last straightforwardly RWD generation of Corona, unlike the subsequent T140 / T150 double act. Too bad the owner of the green Liftback likely didn’t appreciate his decrepit banger’s place within Toyota’s history. The guy who owns the Tokyo drifter, on the other hand, certainly seems more mindful of this 40-year-old dame’s hidden potential.
Related posts:
Driveway Outtakes: 1978-83 T130 Corona Liftback – Upstaging The Neighbours, by Don Andreina
CC Capsule: 1979 Toyota Corona – When RWD Still Ruled, by Matt Spencer
CC Capsule: 1979-83 Toyota Corona (T130) Wagon – Mint Mediocrity, by William Stopford
Vintage Review: Toyota Corona and Honda Accord – Two Road Tests, 1979, by Yohai71
They were good cars the old Coronas unless you bought an Australian Content one, then you got lumbered with the Holden Starfire engine complte with abysmal power, economy and dubious reliability topped off with the biodegradable Rochester twinchoke fuel air mixing device.
Yes, and this was why Toyota sold quite a few of the fully imported Liftbacks in Australia, as they were not all more expensive than the locally assembled dross.
How could you go wrong?
A more interesting body shape than the boring sedan or wagon
The decent 18R engine instead of the vile Holden anchor (An upmarket GT version with the 18RG would have been great but that would have been like Toyota Australia reaching for the moon)
More equipment
Proper round instruments with a tacho too
Better fit and finish
I wasn’t a fan of the facelift version, and the Liftback’s sports dash didn’t look as sporty…
With grinding reluctance, I’ll admit the imported liftback looked really quite good in its time, both in and out. And it had an actual engine.
Still a turdly undampened waterbed dynamically, mind.
Word quickly got around that the Holden ‘engine’ (a thirsty and gutless pushrod unit cut down from the fifteen-year-old six) was to be avoided, so many people who wouldn’t have bought one otherwise looked upmarket and bought the Liftback, which was equipped as Toyota designers had intended. As a result, there were a lot of Liftbacks on the street while the showrooms were knee-deep in the unloved sedans.
Unless you bought the secondhand one a friend of mine got. John was so happy to have got such a great car (Five speed! Air conditioning!) and at a good price – from a private seller, of course. The fellow seemed to know a fair bit about cars, did all his own work. Of course, John. The vinyl roof (Hmmm, on a Corona?) covered up the fact that it was built from two wrecks, which immediately became apparent when they were T-boned one night. No serious injuries, but the car was terminal.
I showed this to my wife – she took a glance and said “Same same but different….”
Wow what a juxtaposition! I’m pretty sure we got the Liftback in the US too but know that my Dad was considering buying a notchback in beige so the JK lobbying machine went into full effect. It worked since we ended up with the blue ‘79 Mazda 626 Coupe instead – which looked remarkably like the copper Corona coupe that I’ve never seen before! (Except for the rear side window, the 626 was a hardtop without a fixed side window portion.)
Oddly enough there are two Coronas that live near me — a beige notchback and a black hatchback. I haven’t been able to catch up with either for photos, but the beige one now appears to have rear-end damage, so I suspect its days are numbered.
Anyway, as an admirer or large conservative sedans, I’ve always liked the looks of these cars. And somehow, I’ve never noticed the resemblance to the Peugeot 604 (another large conservative sedan that I like), but now that you’ve shown it, it’s plain as day.
They’re very nice cars in many ways, but it was interesting how US Toyota sedan sales really took off when these were replaced by the Camry. Coronas just missed the mark slightly — the Camry hit the target square-on.
You are right about the Camry. The first time I ever recall hearing the name was when a relative who had never, ever bought anything besides GM cars bought one. “What’s a Camry” I remember thinking. But not for long.
These are not an adequate thing in their finest livery, but there are not words to express the true nature of the Toyota Australia-made version of this car. I will try and maintain my composure in a way it never could.
Stupendous body roll, Titanic-accurate steering, uncontrolled ride, below-average seats, wind roar, no room, bad seats, shallow trunk, and an engine literally made of 2/3 of a 17 y.o. pushrod all-iron Holden six that wasn’t advanced when IT was new. Toyota was hardly selling Honda-esque sweeties here a this time, but boy they must’ve hated this tariff-driven imposition. It officially had 73 hp: as it never ran properly, and nobody normal ever twice revved it past 3,500 revs just to vibrate out of the drivers seat deafened, again, that hp figure was a marketing stain on a page only. It returned 19mpg if you kept your speed below 30 – easy – on the occasions when it would start, which were not those when the day was warm. In Australia.
It had a nice gearbox. Toyota made that.
Also, they made the rest of the car, and well. And defying all decency, I’ve driven one with 330,000kms on it and it sounded and ran no worse than new, and to my immense chagrin, this was not uncommon. Life is not fair.
They are all gone now, and we shall not see their like again, (which is not a lamentation). Until today, that is, here on CC, and, whilst I know Mr Drift of Tokyo has a better version and other motives for possession of this car, I do hope that – without harming him – it drifts with finality into the nearest pole and has its bland nose meet its dull bum for the first and last time before the tidy Japanese insist upon the entwined remains being removed to the crusher for eternity.
As a by the by, Mr T, please don’t compare the finely dynamic, cushy, elegant, snooty, edgy, raspy-V6ý 604 to one of these clotted Coronaries, for though you would have the support of every mechanic in this country in choosing even our unique world’s worst Corona over this admittedly highly unreliable, thirsty slow unfixable French rust pile, it can be said of the grand old French outfit that instead of doing the reliable Toyota minimum required AT LEAST THEY BLOODY WELL TRIED!!
Only one thing missing, Justy – you didn’t mention that the Holden four had an even lower specific output than the already low-tech six it was based on.
To Toyota’s credit, they dumped that engine as soon as they possibly could. And sales shot up as a result.
Ew, gross! Dang ol’ stupid U.S. bumper regul…
…er…
Oh, wait.
<Gilda>
Nyever miyeend!
</Radner>
The difference in condition is staggering. I can only imagine the horrid place the interior of the green one has become with the huge rust-out along the edge of the roof. It probably will require environmental licenses to move the thing.
Thanks for mentioning that these cars were sold in the US. Whether due to mindshare or actual low market share, the later Coronas never seemed popular and have completely slipped from memory. And that’s not something I’d say about similar vintage Corollas or Celicas, nor Datsun 610’s or even the RWD Mazda 626’s.
A co-worker gave me an ’84 Corona two door auto in the early 90’s, an auto with ~175K miles. 20R, brown metallic, black vinyl roof. I put probably another 10K on it until the timing chain broke. The junkyard got it.
Live axle, it didn’t handle particularly well but it was an OK car, especially for free.
I really, really like the styling of the five-door liftback – much better than that of the notchback sedan. I can imagine it was a looker when new.
What a juxtaposition between the two cars in terms of condition and inherent style.
Wow, a midsize hatchback (salivate mode on). I have to like these almost by definition….put in a bench front seat and I’m sold.
In the summer of ’79 I was a summer hire at IBM (not even a coop) and my co-workers were driving Pacers and Regals, I was still driving my loyal but not exciting Datsun 710 sedan which I eventually got rid of in 1981. The 2 summers before I worked for Hertz, and remember well the Corolla Hatch (which I liked) but never the Corona…probably because I was no longer working for Hertz and didn’t get to drive the variety of cars they had anymore (I remember a ’78 Datsun 510 which I thought would have been the successor of the 710 I was driving at the time..but without the NAPSZ engine).
Toyota gave midsized hatchbacks a go for a short time after this, even the 1 Gen Camry offered a hatchback but after this they became scarce and then discontinued. Honda had the 2 door Accord hatch up to ’89, but then it too went away…but midsized 4 door hatches were pretty scarce, probably up till Honda came up with the Crosstour (and Chevy had their Maxx)…but these tend to to get shunned by the market …ooh … too ugly….but pretty practical. (Guess I’m also forgetting some Mazda 626 hatches, and of course the Chevy Citation…but none of them lasted long either).