I’ve shown you this vintage Corona wagon before, but this time as we walked past, it was joined by this Suzuki Esteem wagon, which made the duo shoot-worthy, again.
The Esteem is becoming a rare sight, having never exactly being an all-too common one even when it was new. Poor Suzuki; their last years in the US were increasingly desperate, especially when they sold re-badged Daewoos. At least the Esteem was a genuine Suzuki, also called the Cultus Crescent as as the Suzuki Baleno and the Maruti Baleno, in India. It was also sold as a Chevrolet esteem in Colombia and the Chevrolet Cassia in the Philippines.
This Esteem’s most noteworthy feature (to me) is that it is about the same color as a certain 68 Chrysler to grace this space earlier today. 🙂
I had the opportunity to drive an Esteem wagon like this around 2001 or so, same Speedline wheels, but dark blue/silver two tone. I actually was fairly impressed. Not fast in outright speed by any means, but you could really toss it around thanks to the fully independent suspension. It was no Protege or Civic, but it wasn’t an Escort or Sephia either.
The ’81-’82 Corona wagons were hen’s-teeth rare even when new. For some reason, the Corona – darling of the ’60s and ’70s – lost popularity starting with the 1979 remake.
I have an ’82 edition of Consumer Guides New Cars and they heap lots of praise on the Corona, in fact wondering why Toyota was even bothering with the Cressida. I do like the lines of this Corona wagon, sure beats the lines of most of today’s chopped-off SUVs.
A friend of a family member had a Esteem sedan, automatic with over 200k miles on it (she bought it new) and said she never had any trouble with it, she drove it for years. One day she couldn’t get the trunk lid shut and asked me to take a look. You could see finger dents in the top of the lid, the steel was so soft and thin just the force of closing the lid dented it! The lid was off center, the soft hinges had bent out of alignment. A couple of tugs sideways on the lid bent the hinges back into shape and the lid once again closed properly. That car was so tinny it seemed like it was built out of thick aluminum foil.
But she moved to the midwest and drove the car for years after that, so the drivetrain was very durable.. It served her well, I don’t know how many more miles she put on it, but it had to have been close to another 100k I would guess.
IIRC the Esteem wagon was pretty popular since for most of its’ time you couldn’t get a small wagon from Toyota or Honda. Just about the only Esteem sedans I remember started out in Thrifty Car Rental’s fleet.
Had an Esteem sedan as a “no other choice” rental back in 2000. A wholly unremarkable car with poor MPG, per my recollection..
My 24 year old Suzuki Swift GT (made in Japan not Canada) is going strong after all these years. Has never left me stranded and maintenance is very low and cheap.
That Toyota wagon reminds me of the Datsun 810 wagon – maybe that’s the source of the wheels, and the grille also looks like that car. The Baleno wagon, with the 1800 cc engine and a 5-speed manual, was much peppier than the basic 1300 sedan with an automatic. We still have lots of them around, some highly modified, some ready for the junkyard, some faithfully still plodding along as daily drivers. Suzukis do hold up reasonably well. A couple of years ago Suzuki reintroduced the Baleno, but it is only available as a five-door hatchback now.