I drive a fifteen year-old Toyota wagon (Scion xB), and I intend to keep driving it for another ten, or twenty years. Who knows, it may end up being my last car, as was the case with someone I knew, the driver of a red Corolla sedan of this vintage. It suits my needs and usage patterns, and is of course durable and dead-reliable. And if I had needed a car when we moved to Eugene back in 1993, this is what I would have likely bought: a used Corolla wagon from the last of the RWD generation. Durable and dead-reliable. And if I had, I might well still be driving it today.
I have a lot of deep personal history with the Corolla, and it’s invariably been good. Some of it stellar, even. But then they tended to involve women, in a good way. It started with the first generation: Shortly after moving back to Iowa City in 1971, I met a girl that was driving a ’69 wagon like this survivor I found a couple of years ago at Big Sur. She was a student from the Chicago area, and her parents had bought it for her. I seem to remember it starting a couple of rust spots already, even though it was only two years old.
I won’t go into the details, but we had some fun with (and in) the Corolla, and I drove it a number of times. And I fell in love with her it. What a terrific little car: the four speed stick was so light, crisp and effortless. The gutsy little 1.1L four ran perfectly, always eager to rev up to its…whatever its redline was; there was certainly no tach. That was something for fancy imported sports cars and such. You just knew when it was time to shift, and if in a hurry, a little past that time.
It handled like a toy, given that my frame of reference was mostly my mom’s ’65 Coronet wagon and my dad’s ’68 Dart. It reminded me a lot of my dad’s former 1965 Opel Kadett, although I had never driven it. Classic old-school RWD light car, and utterly tossable. As was the relationship.
Then I met the Ferrells, through one of their three lovely daughters. They were a faculty family; he was a professor of violin, and drove a ’71 Mark II (Toyota, not Continental!). And Elinor, who became something of a second mother to me, drove a ’69 Fury sedan, in which I had a most memorable high speed dash from Iowa to Colorado with two of the daughters. After he got involved with a student (just like Stephanie’s professor dad) they got divorced. The hobby farm and horses were sold, Elinor bought a house in town, and traded the Fury in on a new gen2 1973 Corolla 1200 sedan. And I drove that a few times, mainly out to the various quarries-turned-swimming holes. It was a lot like the gen1, but just a bit more refined.
One day Elinor and a friend with a big International Travelall swapped cars for some reason, and sure enough, he had a crash and the little Corolla was totaled. So a new 1975 replaced it, and this one with the sweet little 1.6 L hemi four, which made it considerably faster than the old 1200. I borrowed it once to drive to Indiana to tow back my ’63 Beetle when one half of its crankshaft decided it couldn’t get along with the other half anymore, and they got a separation. I blame it on the eldest Ferrell daughter, with whom I was involved with at the time, as she drove it through some steep sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway in a heat wave in fourth gear the day before, and I felt like the engine was getting too hot. It is possible too overheat an air-cooled VW engine if it’s being lugged and the fan is not turning fast enough. But I had no way of knowing that for sure, and I never said anything to her. But it was generous of Elinor to lend her Corolla for the purpose.
I rented a bumper hitch and flat-tow bar, the kind that was made to attach to a VW’s front torsion bar housings. Yes, they used to make (and rent) special tow bars for VWs, given how many there were at the time, and how they did break down from time to time. Or needed to hitch a ride behind a U-Haul truck. The Corolla towed the dead Beetle the 500 some miles home without breaking a sweat; of course it was mostly flat. But that endeared me to it (and Elinor) even more.
But perhaps my moment of greatest Corolla rapture came on an epic sunset drive to Death Valley, a few months after we all moved to San Diego in 1976. As we rolled along the endless (and deserted) straight stretches of CA Hwy 127, I steadily increased its speed…to 85…90…95…100. Yes, I drove a Corolla 1600 at the century, or at least that’s what the speedometer said, and neither Elinor nor Susie ever seemed to notice. Such is the hypnotic effect of endless desert vistas and straight highways penetrating them. Or they just didn’t care.
That Corolla served Elinor for many more years.
The fourth generation Corolla arrived in 1979, for the 1980 model year. It was a somewhat bigger jump from its predecessors than the previous generations had been, being larger, looking more grown up, sporting a new four-link coil spring rear suspension, and a general air of refinement. It would also be the last generation to be strictly RWD, as the succeeding generations split into a FWD sedan and RWD coupes.
It also came in a remarkable range of body styles, with no less than three coupes. This notchback style also left a lasting impression, as a rental at the San Jose airport. Our two little kids had been great on the flight, but no sooner had I buckled son Ted into the back seat then he left forth a stream of vomit, which puddled on the Corolla’s seat cushion. The joys of parenting.
Once that was cleaned up, we hit the road in the Corolla, which had an automatic. That and the extra weight dulled the experience considerably, despite the increase in displacement to 1.8 liters. It felt softer and quieter too; the Corolla had grown up.
There was also this fastback coupe.
And the Liftback. There’s an older woman that drives one a white one of these around my part of town, and I’m dying to catch up with her and ask her how long she’s had it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she told me she bought it new. She keeps it in quite nice shape, and obviously loves it.
And of course the four door sedan.
And the two door sedan. I met an elderly Swiss gentleman who was the founding teacher of my kid’s Waldorf school after we moved to Eugene in ’93. He drove a red two door like this, having bought it somewhat used back in the late ’80s, and planned to keep it until he couldn’t drive anymore. Which finally happened some years back. But I used to love seeing his chiseled face, hawk-like nose and white mane of hair slightly hunched over the wheel of his red Corolla, his scarf around his neck. The two looked equally immortal. Sad to say, he finally passed away in 2017. I don’t know of what became of his red Corolla, but I’d like to think it’s still going.
And of course there was the wagon, the most practical of them all, and therefore most likely to outlive the others. If you’re going to buy one car 20, 30 or 40 years, it better be practical as well as durable. At least hereabouts, where this is the consummate Eugene-mobile. And as I said, if I’d moved here car-less and needed cheap wheels, this is what I would likely have gone for.
Of course it would have to be a stick. Preferably the five-speed, but it doesn’t really matter all that much, as we tend to avoid spending any more time on freeways than necessary. Toyota pioneered the use of five-speeds in mass-production low-end cars, for which it deserves kudos. They were always a joy to use, and never broke or even just wore out. Like the little pushrod hemi 1.8 3T-C mill under the hood. Yes, by now it made some 73 hp; not exactly nerve-tingling, but it always got you there, and back.
Speaking of back, the rear seat wasn’t exactly overly generous, but quite adequate to haul a passel of kids to wherever they were going. Not school, as we always walked.
And the way back was adequate too. Not Volvo 245-like, but adequate. Yes, that would have been the other alternative back then. And there were more of them at the Waldorf School parking lot than anything else.
Like all old red Toyotas, the paint is very dull, and has mostly faded away on the roof, although not on the hood, curiously.
The array of stickers in the back is a bit disappointing. Where’s “Visualize Whirled Peas”? Or “Coexist”?
This Corolla wagon is the Japanese counterpart to the venerable B-Body wagon, which I am saluting here as it’s the last one of its kind still being used as a daily driver in my neighborhood.
And I stand and give this Corolla wagon the same salute, paying my respects to practical, tough, simple RWD wagons. It’s just that I prefer mine a bit more on the compact side; and made by Toyota, please.
CC 1969 Corolla Wagon (E10) – Little Car With A Big Future Tatra87
Auto-Biography: Driving Nirvana – In a 1975 Corolla PN
CC 1980-193 Corolla – Doppelganger Dave Saunders
I feel a little cheated to have missed out on a realistic chance to own one of these. First, they were much slower to catch on in the midwest, and we had so many great alternatives for cheap old cars at the time. Then, by the time I finally awoke to their innate goodness, rust had eaten them all up, leaving nothing but newer stuff around.
Maybe part of my problem was that my first wheeltime in a Toyota was in an early 70s Corona with an automatic that was deadly dull to drive. Had that car been a 4 or 5 speed Corolla I might have become convinced sooner. That little red wagon would really scratch my itch for efficient minimalist transport.
Yes, that Japanese Jatco 3 speed automatic transmission was a serious power and pleasure zapper in the Toyotas.
Smooth Shifting but Slow.
Reminded me of the 2 speed Ford-o-Matic transmission, with an added gear, that was in my Grandfather’s 1960 Falcon.
In areas where rust is not a problem, I wonder how long one of these would last. Seems like with just a minimum of care and a little luck (no major accidents), they would all still be on the road.
I’ve always loved these. I bought a Tercel in 1982, which I loved….given an opportunity to buy a clean one of these today; I hope I wouldn’t hesitate.
I owned a dark green metallic ’76 Corolla SR5 liftback, carmel colored interior.
It was quite “toss-able”. Light, low effort non-power assisted steering, the smoothest shifting, short throw “snick-snick” 5 speed manual transmission that I have EVER driven, the 1.6 liter hemi head engine produced a pleasing growl as it went thru it’s rpm range, the c-c-coldest air conditioner I had ever experienced on a foreign car. With the rear seat folded down this liftback could swallow an astonishing amount of cargo.
It was the reliable, leak free excellent #HVAC version of the MBG-GT that I had wanted for so long. The dashboard had every needles and number gauges any enthusiast could want.
Another car that I should had held on to.
I’m a retired Toyota Salesman, 1994-2010. I always pushed my family into Corollas. My retirement car was a 2010 Corolla S, 5-speed, that just turned 75,000 miles. I traded my 1997 Previa LE/SC Alltrak for a 2014 Scion xB, possible the best car I’ve ever owned. I was offered a ridiculous amount of money from CarMax, and purchased a 2000 Tacoma reg.cab, 4×2, automatic and A/C, and only 176,000 miles, which is the last vehicle I plan to buy.
I was involved briefly with a girl who owned a silver 1980 Corolla 2 door around 1987. She loved it, as with its 4 round headlights she thought it looked very BMW-like, which was of course a big thing around that time. Its fuel gauge didn’t work, so she estimated when to buy gas by the odometer. That proved to be faulty methodology one late night in the middle of nowhere, but some slightly inebriated guys in a pickup came along and helped us out.
The husband of one of the alumni families from my kids’ first Waldorf school was an independent Saab and Volvo mechanic, so those were the two most represented makes, but he was also the one who recommended the Nissan Quest when it came time for a minivan, which resulted in our household becoming a 2 Nissan family when the Quest joined my Sentra in the driveway. Come to think of it, there were quite a few 80’s and 90’s Nissans at that school too. This was in the late 90’s. Nissan had a pretty good run up until that time, and for a few years longer before things started getting dicey.
My driving school when I was a teen taught me on one of the last of the RWD’s, a white four door. And then partly on the next generation, an early FWD.
We spent a lot of time in a series of ’76-’77s when we came over here for most a year in that era and got a new rental every month from Hertz from my dad’s job. They never failed and as far as I can recall, never failed to keep up with traffic either, taking us all over the West every weekend.
Lots of memories in Corollas, great set of reminisces, thanks!
Well, maybe a year or 2 later, but I remember driving these during my ’77-’78 stint as a transporter working at Hertz. Back then they still specialized in Fords but they did have the Corolla liftbacks. About 7 years later a co-worker had one and wondered why there was a light that shown down on his manual shift lever, I told him it illuminated the automatic shift quadrant on the ones I drove…wonder why they didn’t just depopulate the lightbulb if you bought a standard shift? Mostly, I drove LTDII’s, Grenada’s, and Chevrolet Novas (most common non-Ford in our local fleet) back then…the end of the RWD era.
Otherwise, I have no owning experience with Toyota…my family was into Datsun/Nissan, as a 710 was my first car. My 2 youngest sisters each owned 2 different 200/240 SX’s (middle one still has her ’97 she bought new). Guess it isn’t odd in that I hold onto cars a long time, my current (only) car is now 20 years old; I’ve only owned 5 cars in 46 years of driving (but my Father made up for me, he’d wake up in the morning, decide he wanted a different car and have it bought by the time he went to bed.
Horizontal jogging in a Gen 1 could easily have risked a foot through the front screen and head through the rear if attempted with abandon, but needs must – or is that seeds bust? – and I admire the human origami you must’ve applied.
Anyway, those first ones were indeed also good fun for driving (they were cheapo 20 years old bangers for me), but time and weight dulled progress. Especially by that third gen, they were a bit podgy to behold and they just got too slothful (we never got beyond the 1.3). That left an uninsipring machine where the typical Japanese failings of the time of bad seats, vague steering and underdamped AND oversprung suspension left no great cause for interest.
The last gen of RWD here – and that brown 4 door in the pic IS in Aus, incidentally – was much nicer, with coil springs (on sedan), really pleasant rack steering, vastly better seats and damping much better aligned to the springs such that the body heave had gone. A lot quieter too. And dare I say it, a handsome style: conservative, very much so, but really nice in proportions. Toyota hid this secret in plain sight – from motoring writers – for a lot of years. Subtly good-looking cars of wide appeal, too easy to dismiss as dull by the unobservant.
Alas, and alack, like much of the world, we STILL didn’t get beyond the old 1.3, which was seriously heaving sewerage output on an upward incline by this stage, and not winning. Still impossible to break, but also not desirable because of that anchor either, I’m afraid.
We did finally get a modern OHC 1.6 option in the final final incarnation of RWD in ’85-’87, which is this body plus a very decent shovel nose, and those were rightly much loved. They revived at the end the thing from the beginning, when the competitive performance was matched by a bloody good little car.
So yes, I salute this wagon too.
Though at my age now, I’d confine my enthusiasms for it – and especially in it – to the purely cerebral.
Nearly right Justy the liftback model had the 1.8 engine and it fitted straight in to the tregular Corolla sedan I bought one in Hobart Town typical well used Corolla noisy rear wheel bearings and the engine was knackered big noises from the big end bearings so I bought another one that had been parked for terminal rust from a neighbouring lawn a 76 wagon borrowed a chain hoist and a suitable tree and treplaced the 3T with a 3K from the wagon and drove the result home, yes there was some loss of performance but it was a whole lot quieter and I had a $300 set of get to work wheels that ran on the smell of an oily rag a month later we moved house to where my job was and economical wheels werent needed so the 82 Corolla went on the front lawn for $550 or near offer and sold the following night and my MK2 Corona six got me to work and back with my EH Holden as back up wheels untill it sold.
The 4th gen Corollas were really sharp. That blue notchback is better looking than any econobox has a right to be. Probably the best instance of Toyota’s straight-edge design language from that period.
Not officially confirmed, but rumored to be assisted in styling from Pininfarina. I won’t object.
Back in ’81 my family and I went to Miami for my cousin’s wedding. My brother in law rented a ’81 Corolla 4dr, with less than 1k miles on it. My brother still had his ’70 Corolla Sprinter at the time. I was 15 at the time, but already 5′ 11″ and 170lbs and I remember the 81 felt like a Suburban in comparison to the ’70. I swiped the owners manual to add to my collection (like I do with all rental cars), still have it. (My collection is easy 100+ now)
In 1983 mom got an white ’81 4 dr. 5 spd. to replace her -’79 Civic. Like most Corollas, it was pretty basic with tan vinyl interior. But! it did have a matching white vinyl 1/4 roof with C-pillar carriage lights and chrome beauty rings on it’s 13″ steel wheels. Posh indeed! And a Craig Cassette radio with 2 of the tinniest sounding speakers I’ve ever heard. Come to think of it, it had lead a pretty hard life for a 2 year old car. She had to replace the rear axle as it had been bent by the previous owner. We lived on a long gravel country road so I got to drive it a few times. My 17 year old sister decided she would teach her 13 year old brother (me) to do a power slide/drift on the gravel road leading to our house. She neglected to mention the all important counter steer once the back end swings around part of the operation during my tutorial. I performed the power on slide beautifully with a graceful lazy arc in the gravel as the ass end came around with tires spinning. As the car reached a 45 degree angle to straight ahead the rear tires got a good bite on the gravel and shot us forward into the embankment on the other side of the road. That ended the party, Right now! When we rocked the car loose there was a perfect indent in the soft clay from the black rubber front bumper and underslung pass. turn signal lens. I think my sister bumper her head on the dash but car and occupants were mostly unharmed and a valuable lesson learned. I think we waited about 10 years to tell my mother about our little escapade.
Hey, I had that same “Drive Now, Talk Later” bumper sticker on my Saturn. The guys from Car Talk were giving them away for free in the late 1990s/early 2000s.
When I was at university in the early ‘70s two of my friends had 2nd generation Corollas. One was a 1600 which replaced his VW bug that was totalled when a full sized Dodge skidded out on a curve and hit us head-on. Somehow he managed to get a new Toyota out of the settlement. It was great and lasted well past graduation. Having a real heater was a bonus.
Another friend bought a 1200 as his first new car. The 1600 was not that much more, but he said he did not need the extra power. I did not understand it, but obviously he put practicality over fun.
No less than three coupes. Those were the days.
Even the 2 door sedan and 3 door wagon made a re-appearance.
Of course the entire universe knows that Toyota now sell 748 different types of SUV and just about zero of anything else.
I liked the liftback coupe as it was a rare combination of 2 body styles that I liked, the hatchback and the hardtop.
It was never marketed in Australia as a Corolla, but was known as the T18, which was a reference to the 3T OHV 1.8 litre engine that was never fitted to any Corollas here. We never even got the 1.6 litre in the earlier generations like the US did. We didn’t receive the notchback or fasback coupe shown above. I quite liked the notchback coupe, but not so much the fastback version.
In time honoured Toyota Australia fashion at the time, the T18, being the fully imported halo model from Japan, was released much earlier than the standard Corollas that it was based on, as we were still locally pumping out the previous generation model and needed time to tool up for local assembly of the new model.
Soon after that eventuated, 4 door sedans and 5 door wagons – with a high roof option for the wagons (just like the last Mitsubishi Sigma wagons) when the 1.6 litre OHC finally became available near the end of the run (and a few 3 door panel vans if my recallection is correct) were seemingly everywhere.
Meanwhile the T18, which was marketed as “The Macho Machine” photographed on a platform with underfloor disco lights!… proof that Toyota was frequently successful despite of instead of because of its marketing) was slagged “the Marshmallow Machine” by the local press for its poor dynamics and lack of body rigidity. Perhaps combining a hardtop and a hatchback is not such a good idea after all….
The performance of the 3T engine was rather average and probably line ball if not worse than the 1.6 2T when fitted to the early Australian Celicas, due to the anti emission equipment.
Toyota listened to the criticism and subsequently revised the suspension tuning. Unfortunately they didn’t install a 2TG or 4AGE whilst they were there.
Still, like the standard Corollas, but plenty were sold with that daggy striped seat trim that was in fashion for around 5 minutes that time. But I haven’t spotted a T18 or Corolla of this generation for ages.
“Of course the entire universe knows that Toyota now sell 748 different types of SUV and just about zero of anything else.”
Perhaps that’s true in Australia but not in the US. In 2019 the Camry was the top selling midsize sedan in the US and the Corolla was barely edged out by the Civic one size level down. There are two sizes of pickup trucks, a minivan (of what, five total choices on the market?), a hybrid hatchback (Prius) and a sports car (the now departed 86 but now there’s a Supra. Those together I believe account for around a million cars sold here in 2019. And then you can add the SUVs…
If anything Toyota likely has the most diverse line-up of any manufacturer in this country.
My Dad owned a Corolla identical to the one in the third picture. With the manual, it was a zippy, enjoyable little car to zing around in! 🙂
A work buddy owned a liftback in or around 1980-82. Just about monthly, I would have to deliver some microcircuit products from one plant to the other, and the packaging they were in made it much more conducive to put them in the back of his car, instead of mine. So I would borrow his car for the 3-4 mile drive, and it was a lot of fun. It was a 5 speed as I recall, and although it was all city streets, that car was a blast.
I had a ’73 Corolla for about a week or so one time when my car was in for bodywork following a crash. At the time, I found it cheap and mostly unpleasant, but I’m sure now it would have proven itself a reliable vehicle.
This generation Corollas well quite common here in Uruguay. I have here some pictures I took early this very morning of a Corolla of this vintage. This car was in use until at least a couple months ago when I last saw it being driven by its owner, who’s had it for at least 20 years. Might even had it from new. It’s weird that it’s parked in a very solid middle class area, and in fact its owners live in a very nice apartment building nearby.
Well, here are the pictures
And another one…
And another one…