I knew someone (well, still know her, truth be told) who an almost identical car and it was remarkable for being unremarkable aside from the happy yellow paint. The car was totally gutless, but reliable and got its passengers to/from destinations without fuss, fits, or air conditioning. Today’s example is technically the smaller Tercel subcompact […]
Toyota’s 3rd generation of Corolla (E30 in sedan form) won’t knock your socks off in any measurable sense…but it will give you some idea as to why the Japanese manufacturers started bearing American big-3 at the economy car market. These things are relatively cheap to operate, maintain, and own. Don’t expect it to be as […]
The third generation of Toyota’s Corolla was sold from 1974 through 1981 and is probably the vehicle you could credit with putting Toyota on the trajectory from a small Saab sized company in 1974 to the worlds biggest builder of horseless carriages in 2009. The Corolla Liftback wasn’t the fastest, sportiest, or most luxurious car […]
This next car comes as a tip from John who writes: ’81 Corolla. Checks all the boxes, 40 years old, one owner, factory AC. Yes, that about sums it up. Except for one last thing. This is cheap. You don’t need a trust fund or a median salary as a developer with thefacebook. All you […]
On the Toyota website, the soggy soybean oil favored Corolla is given the tag line “Refine your routine” — a not-so-subtle acknowledgement that the Corolla is about as much fun as a trip to the oral surgeon. The depicted urban youngsters dancing around in yoga pants, checking their credit report on their mobile phone, or […]
No one will ever accuse a stock ’79 Toyota Corolla of being sporty…but this next one has a few tricks up the old tailpipe to make it interesting. Those Weld Racing wheels look nice, and the angel eyes lights are interesting, but the manual gearbox is probably the biggest draw. Most of these survivors are […]
This next car comes as a tip from Rock On who writes: Just in case the Mercury Lynx Diesel from last week wasn’t slow enough! Wow. Let’s compare. The Lynx came with a 2.0 liter Mazda RF diesel that put out a blistering 52 horsepower into a chassis that hit the scales at 2300 lbs, […]
The builder of this next car appears to have gotten the cart slightly ahead of the horse, or the intercooler ahead of the hood, as they say. There is nothing wrong with swapping in a 4AGZE from an MR2 into a front-engine rear-drive Corolla chassis, but you might find out that the hood won’t close […]
The AE86 generation Toyota Corolla built from 1983 to 1987 was the last truly great economy car to come from the biggest auto maker in the world. No one will ever buy a Prius years from now for its driving experience, but the 30 year old Corolla is a different animal at its core. The […]
On the Toyota website, the soggy vanilla wafer favored Corolla is given the tag line “Uncover fun” — a subtle acknowledgement that it would take a David Blaine level magician to put fun in a Corolla. The depicted urban youngsters getting coffee, hitting up gourmet food trucks, or fluffing their hair aren’t old enough to […]