Third generation Corollas have become a bit scarce, but since they are Corollas, there will undoubtedly always be a few around, forever. Could life in Eugene exist without them? It’s questionable. And of course the same applies to old Toyota pickups. So it should not be too surprising to see two within proximity of each other, like here.
Let’s take a quickie look at the pickup before we get back to the Corolla. This is also a third generation Hilux (N30/N40) which came out a couple of years after the featured Corolla, which arrive here as a new 1975 model. This generation Toyota pickup is still fairly plentiful. As to which of these two is more durable, there is no answer. They both are.
From the stripes on its sides, this appears to be an SR-5 model, which of course was graced with the slickest shifting 5 speed built up to that time. On a pickup truck. Poor GM; they could only dream about such a transmission, and available all across the Toyota line. Just in time for the energy crisis. Bingo!
This generation Corolla wcan be considered the breakthrough one in the US, as it spanned perfectly the two energy crisis. This of course helped to propel sales upwards, and the Corolla was now a household word, even parts of the country where Toyotas had been a bit slow to catch on.
Oh, this is so familiar. I broke through the century mark in a friend’s Corolla 1600 of this vintage, on the way to Death Valley in 1976. And it was utterly uneventful. I’m not trying to give the Corolla powers and qualities it never had; its handling was modest and the steering hardly brilliant. But with the five speed transmission and the fairly powerful little hemi-head 2-TC 1588cc engine, it was hardly screaming its lungs out at that speed. Quite the contrary, actually.
Thanks to its conventional RWD, rear leg room and seat width were compromised. This was no-state-of-the-art-mobile like the new VW Rabbit, but then it was its polar opposite in terms of quality and reliability. Too bad R&T didn’t do a long term test of a Corolla as a corollary to their VW Rabbit misadventure.
But yes, the Rabbit was a brilliant car to drive. But no 5 speed to be seen in it either. Not for a couple more years, anyway.
Toyota wagons are utilitarian appliances. Which explains why I drive one. And why this person does. There’s no cheaper way to haul oneself and some cargo around over the long haul.
Which of course explains why I make a point to stop and shoot them. It’s the essence of Curbside Classics.
That box of filters and the crude handle in the back suggest some DIY. I’m curious – do the majority of drivers of Curbside Classics in Eugene wrench on their cars themselves or do they take them in to mechanics? I’m guessing that with the minimalism ethic that’s been pointed out here many times before that going to a mechanic is a last resort.
Some of each, but probably the really older ones like this are primarily owner-maintained.
These may be my favorite Corollas. The wagon and 5 speed make this the favorite of the favorite.
I haven’t thought about that version of the pickup as a “3rd gen” for a long time, since in today’s online Toyota 4wd community, it’s typically referred to as a 1st gen, as it was the first (in the US at least) to be offered with 4wd. The current Tacoma is still offered as an SR5, but for 2018 is available only with 6 speed transmissions (the 5 speed manual available up to last year on the 4 cylinder is gone). SR6 anyone? And the SR/SR5 are no longer premium or sporty packages but have drifted to the bottom of the configuration stack.
A proper little station wagon, proportioned just like a wagon should be. Notice that the overhang behind the rear wheels is at least as long as the back door is wide, that’s the way it should be done. Most CUVs have a too-short rear end that’s actually pretty useless for carrying much of anything.
Aside from the manual trans. (I would always go for an auto) the only thing I don’t like about this car is the cheap-looking door panels that show bare metal at the top and the tiny, chintzy looking armrests. Otherwise it’s a gem.
Nice catch as these are almost non existent in the US. i prefer a 1974 4 door Corolla. but don’t think i’ll ever find one.
Oh man, this car really brings back memories for me. My dad had a ’79 Corolla that was nearly identical to this one (except for the color) for the majority of my childhood. He got it just before I was born and kept it until the summer before I started high school. His car even had that same steering wheel cover. I basically learned how manual transmissions work in that car; Dad would let me move the gearshift lever from the passenger seat while he operated the clutch. I remember you had to lift up on the gearshift in order to select reverse; I guess that was a sort of primitive way of preventing accidentally selecting reverse while driving. This car looks like it’s actually in better shape than Dad’s was when he sold it at “only” 15 years old. The paint on his was faded and oxidized, and the rubber boot around the bottom of the gearshift had been missing since before I can remember. I remember it being a pretty bare bones car; manual everything, radio with just a single speaker in the middle of the dash, no A/C (although I guess that was the norm for compact cars of that era).
I had a ’75 two door Fastback (SR5 minus 5th gear) version of the above Toyota Corolla. The after market A/C didn’t work very well and was very noisy anything north of 55 MPH. However, it was very reliable, got me thru my last 3 years of college and several more years after starting my career.
I sold it to a kid who was a management trainee for a large restaurant chain. I understand he kept it for an additional 5 years:-}
This is the “refresh” of this generation (3rd) Corolla….1977-1/2-1979 denoted by the silver fascia on the dash board and the different style vent on the hood. My dad bought this same model in metallic brown with the 5 speed transmission. A bullet proof, reliable car. I traded it in a few years later on a brand new 1980 Volswagen Scirocco…I liked the Scirocco a lot more.
Actually no. This is the original front end grille from the first couple of years. The later versions had a simpler front end, like in this ’78 ad below.
Correct. ’75-’79, then ’80-’83 as the refresh.
http://importarchive.com/toyota/corolla
The ’80-’83 was a whole new body/generation (E40). Not a refresh.
This generation started out with this “loop” grille in ’75, and then switched to the other grille in ’77, possibly ’78.
In Australia it was the other way round, the raised hood centre came later. I remember thinking at the time that it was strange you got a different hood to us.
I remember seeing press release photos when this generation Corolla first came out, and IIRC the raised centre hood was for the JDM Sprinter, and the regular Corollas had the flat hood. So both parts were tooled up; different export markets must have got got different styles at different times.
But if only we’d got that hemi head 1600 – in Australia these Corollas had the old 1200 pushrod 3K-C only, later increased to a 1300. Meanwhile the Holden-Isuzu Gemini came with a neat 1600, and stomped all over the Corolla in the marketplace.
Bufguy referenced a difference in hood vents, and I recall that my BIL’s Corolla used an offset square plastic vent insert in the hood.
Checking for ’75 Corollas. I found images with the square insert, but I also found images with the vent hole stamped into the sheet metal. Since the grille is the same in both pictures, it’s either a year to year change, a difference in trim levels, or someone swapped grilles on us.
Given the stamped vent hole saves on both parts cost and labor, it could also be a real world example of Kaizen and the Toyota Production System in action.
OldPete: Because Corollas were sold in at least two different JDM Toyota channels, there were several variations of front ends and grilles at any time. I can only vouch that this is the front end used in the US in the first couple of years, and then switched to the other style.
Dave: the functional hood vent was only used on the SR-5 coupe. The sedans might have had a bit of bulge where the scoop would be cut in, but it was not consistently there. Or something like that…
That’s a 1200cc base model; 1600cc models (including all US-market wagons) had different grilles (and coupes yet another different one) except that all ’79 sedans and wagons had the same grille (and there were no 1200s in the US in ’75-6 unless they were a midyear ’76 addition)
http://importarchive.com/toyota/corolla/1975-1979
Thank you for the correction. It’s been a while, and it got a bit confusing. Or at least it did for me. 🙂
Nice find, both of those are nearly nonexistent around here.
That generation Corolla was plentiful during my childhood in the 90’s. It seemed like they just disappeared right around Y2K, along with the plethora of sans-muffler Datsun b-210s that we’re also common during that time.
R&T didn’t need to do a long term test, as the Corolla’s reputation was well known and cemented in place by 1975.
Haven’t seen a KE30 of any kind in years, especially the wagons. IIRC they rusted to bits, so it’s amazing to see one still in good shape.
It’s one of those cars that used to be so common you took them for granted. I never realised how they’d disappeared until seeing Paul’s pics.
Very rare cars here and only came with OHV K series engine and four speed, I had a new one as a rental not very inspiring to drive and cross winds blew it all over the road but it did the job Avis supplied it for ok, rear wheel bearings seem to be their only weak point I run across the rest is pretty much bullet proof.
Had a few of these during my time in NYC messenger service, would buy them for a couple hundred and run them until they weren’t worth fixing or got towed by Parking. Watched the last one go down West End Ave on a rainy night behind a tow truck when I went out to get something out of it. They let me get in it down at the yard to retrieve my stereo wiring.
Had an 80 hatchback in the middle of those and it was fun but liked the 75-79 wagons better for integrity and utility.
The last one got a rear end from an automatic, a little higher ratio, worked well. Also grabbed the Weber carb setup from that automatic, which only made the mileage worse.
At one time the steering wheels on these were hot stuff. I kept chains around the wheel from the brake pedal and one on the hood, but a neighbor down the street didn’t. I suggested it and she brushed it off. Then one day she walked up to me and told me that someone had broken in and stolen her steering wheel and no junkyard, even up in the Bronx, had one.
The other thing is I took the ignition switch out from behind the lock, drilled an access hole under the dash, and mounted the switch under the dash with double-sided tape. The key, such as it was, was sitting right there in the cabin, a little Proto flat blade screwdriver that went in that hole and turned the switch.
There had been slide-hammer removals of ignition locks on that block in Manhattan, that was my defense.
At one time or another those cars would carry a full Mr. Kool-Aid foam suit to an ad shoot, 9 Selectric typewriters in the box right from IBM going to an unguarded nuke plant where I drove around looking for someone to sign for them, a chocolate Statue of Liberty from Nestle HQ to the real thing (the edible one went missing before the return ferry landed), and lots of thick divorce cases which high-priced law offices didn’t bother to put in an envelope, so I used to read them for amusement while eating lunch. The things people get up to…