[ED: Len Peters (Canucknucklehead) has agreed to take over the Sunday Cars Of A Lifetime slot. We’re still mulling over the title of the series: keep it or change it?]
This is a story of a car that is wrapped up in all kinds of things but in many ways it is a story of my Dad, who was a most unique character. He was one of the most intelligent men I have ever known, capable of many things ranging from how to build a house to how to grow a great garden. Dad liked many things but there was one thing he detested: buying gas!
Note the model year of the subject car: yes, it is 1974, soon after the first big gas crisis. While we in Canuckistan didn’t have the kind of panic that went on in the USA at the time, prices did rise a fair bit, to the area of, heaven forbid, sixty cents a gallon! And them were the big Imperial gallons, a full twenty percent larger than those piddling little US gallons! This coincided with Dad’s company transferring him to a hick town north of Montreal, which necessitated a grueling eighteen mile drive, each way. Dad was used to walking across the street to go to work for much of his life and this commute seemed horrendously long and expensive to him. Thirty-six miles a day in a Pontiac Strato Chief that got, on a good day, 15 mpg? The cost was ruinous, a good $1.20 a day! Clearly, something had to be done about this!
This is where the Corolla came in. Dad wasn’t about to go to the poor house paying like $24 a month extra for gas, which translates to today’s money at all of $120. No way he could abide driving the Poncho, which was paid for long ago, by the way. He started looking for something cheaper to run and this led me, at the age of ten years, to accompany him to all the brands’ dealership. I remember the Vega test run, he panned it as a complete dud, the Pinto was too small and the stuff at Chrysler too weird. Toyota was really advertising at the time with a campaign of a Scotsman speaking of how thrifty Toyotas were with the catchy jingle, “See how much car you money can buy, run Toyota!”
So one Saturday morning we arrived at the local Toyota dealership, where dad spied a 1974 Corolla in dark blue, two door sedan, with the 1600 cc engine. The car was a total stripper, all it had were the aforementioned 1600 motor in place of the wheezy 1200 and AM radio, with the volume knob on the right, for the Japanese RHD models, of course. It had one innovation that was really ahead of anything any of us had seen: and electric rear window defroster. That was really a step forward in Quebec winters and showed Toyota had its priorities right. Anyway, Dad drove the car and loved it; the 1600 2T-C motor was legendary in its time for making lots of power (for the day), and in the light, four speed manual car, it went very well indeed. There was one catch, however; Dad thought the $2700 on-the-road price was way to high and he wanted to pay $2500, which is $13,300 in today’s prices.
Word soon got out that dad had been looking at a Toyota and the extended family went into panic mode: how could Jack do something so stupid! The chorus railed in unison: “IT’LL NEVER START IN THE WINTER!” This was a major issue in Quebec at the time as -30’F was not unknown and the American stuff was often very hard to get going if the block heater had been interrupted for even a short period of time. Really, nobody took Japanese cars seriously and considered them manifestly inferior to mainstream, Big Three, stuff. Of course, the skeptics had never driven a Toyota, either. After a month or so, the dealer finally acquiesced to dad’s demands and the Corolla came home. It was February of 1974. Would it really start in the winter?
Well, it did, first shot every time. What impressed me as a kid was how well built the car was and how many little touches it had, like a good tool kit. It was also exceptionally reliable. Nothing broke while under warranty, a rarity for us used to GM cars of the era. The little car was reliable, economical and fun to drive. At about age eleven, dad started to teach me to drive in it and by twelve, I was tooling around the countryside with him regularly. “Just a small fine for driving without a license if we get caught, so don’t worry!” he reassured me.
In 1976 the Corolla came West with the family and it ended up on Vancouver Island. Dad and my older brother drove it from Montreal in two and a half days, a real achievement for a car that was louder on the highway that just about anything but a Bug. I was now living in the country and the folks would disappear for long periods in the GMC truck they had bought (so much for gas savings), so I would grab the keys to the Corolla, at all of age 13 or so, and do the tour.
I drove all over the place in that little car and it ate up all the abuse I could attack it with. Dad knew full well because he always memorized the mileage when he got out of the car; but he was happy that I was teaching myself how to drive. He often accompanied me, too. Between the ages of 13 to 16 the Corolla and I spent many the hour together and it always impressed me just how good the car was. It was as reliable as an anvil; in fact, the entire time we had it it never failed to start, had any repair or did anything unusual. Quite the record for the time and really exceptional even now.
In 1979 Dad bought a new Impala (so much for gas savings, again) and Mom was supposed to drive the Corolla but she always hated it. Dad then told me I could have it for my own for $1000. Being all of 15, I had no idea the car was worth about $750 and I was being ripped off, but all that year I worked for the local farmers saving money for the car. By the time my sixteenth birthday came along, I indeed saved the money for the car and the first years’ insurance, which to no end impressed dad. I was now highly mobile.
My next purchase was a canoe and a set of roof racks, and a fishin’ we did go! That little car went over hill and dale, loaded for bear with all the camping and fishing stuff you’d need. Eventually, as the trips into the bush got longer at about age 18, a hitch and utility trailer were added. I packed on mileage on that little car, taking it all over British Columbia and even to the Yukon and it never, ever missed a beat, even hauling the loaded car and trailer up roads like the Salmo-Creston Highway, often in second gear at 30 mph, pedal to the metal. Didn’t faze it a bit. The 1600 was indestructible; in fact the abuse it could take led me to destroy lesser machines in the future.
Motorcycles were my real fancy and the Corolla was my Fishmobile as we now called it. By 1985 the Corolla was getting rough looking. It was eleven years old and had 150,000 miles on it. It still ran like a top; never had a repair except brakes and tires but the rust bug was hitting it pretty badly. I was sad to think of its demise and in 1986, my final year of my undergrad studies, my buddy and I loaded her up for one last fishin’ trip to a lake accessible only via logging road, an then over 100 km in. It was too rough for the trailer, so we planned only for a few days. On went the canoe, in went the gear and with it 48 cans of beer, of course. I knew that the rust was getting serious but that didn’t stop me flogging the Corolla as hard as I ever had, for old times’ sake.
Well, about halfway to the lake, my buddy and I were having a fine time, sucking back the cold Kokanee and listening to AC/DC at max volume when I saw a particularly large pot hole. It was more like a moon crater, in all reality. I tried to miss it but it was too late. I nailed it dead on; the right front strut proceeded to punch right through the hood and steering wheel went nuts. The car was spinning and then CRASH! The car hit a tree backwards, followed by a rain of splinters from my antique wooden canoe. Both were trash in an instant!
At that moment, we did all we could do: we opened our lawn chairs and proceeded to drink beer until a ride came along. About four hours later a Ford truck came along, surveyed the scene and offered to drive us to the highway if we shared the beer. I took the registration papers, license plates an all my gear, sans canoe, of course, and went to the main road. I called Dad and he picked us up in his new 1986 Jetta GL Turbo Diesel ($18,000, $33,750 adjusted), which he’d had bought because the (paid for) Impala was too hard on gas! Things had come full circle.
There are very few of these Corollas left these days because it is a long time ago now and they have all rusted to pieces. They were cheap cars and never designed to last long. What impressed me was how well built they were; little things, like the under-hood arrangement, had obviously been carefully considered. When this car was new, Toyotas were reviled as trash, and when it died, they were so good that governments had to limit their sales. Cheap little Corollas gave way to loaded Camrys. That’s how far Toyota had come. My little Corolla succumbed to my abuse at 160,000 with only regular maintenance in an era when 100,000 miles was considered exceptional. We saw, first hand, how much car that money could buy because that little car ran a whole lot of miles for very little money.
Would I drive such a car today? Well, the answer to that is obvious, I am too old for a harsh little car like that. It was loud, rough and tiring to drive; but I still think back fondly about it because that little Corolla was much more than just a little car. It was many things rolled into one.
Pictures by Paul Niedermeyer
I think the thing about the Japanese cars of this era is they were showing the results of 10-15 years of relentless, careful work trying to build the best cars they could for export markets in addition to the domestic one. And they were not content by this point just to copy what other manufacturers were doing but giving more thought about what people wanted where other makes were cutting costs and corners, they heated rear window is a good example. I think this era lasted another 10-15 years, albeit with the odd misstep and a tendency in the early 80’s to save a bit too much weight and become a bit flimsy (similar to many others).
I still think that one of the cheapest forms of motoring available is one of the last early-80’s Japanese carburettored rwd 4cyl, manual trans sedans/wagons. Note that I expect this might not hold true for the emissions driven more complicated carbs you had over there. I occasionally see this generation of Corolla on the road, mostly in decent condition, sometimes with a young driver but often with an original owner.
Um, don’t take this the wrong way, but your dad wouldn’t be the first smart man to buy a new car to “save” a few dollars on gas.
In all reality, dad just liked buying new cars.
Those were the cars that made Toyotas name tough reliable little cars they just kept going though rust ate away at them pretty fast in NZ I dont think the Japanese designers ever expected their little city commuter cars to spend their lives being driven on cowshit strewn limestone roads only salt rusts things faster but thats seasonal. There are nearly none left in NZ of the early Corollas and the few survivors command stupid money from boy racers who like fitting rotary engines to everything.
And so Cars of A Lifetime passes on to Another custodian. And a *very* capable custodian at that. Nice writeup, and welcome aboard Canucknucklehead!
Great story. I love the shape of the old Toyotas. I’ve gotten 3 as hand-me downs from my parents over the years. The best was a big Camry with a 5speed manual trans that my mom had to special order. The worst is my current Corolla that my dad had to special order to get one with zero options. Zero. Good thinking dad. Who needs air conditioning or folding rear seats anyway.
We have a similar stripper Corolla her at the moment. Pretty good car for that kind of money, even with no a/c or floppie seat. Great thing about this area is a/c really isn’t necessary.
An older brother had one of these while at college. It was the famously faded red Toyota paint of the era and it would stall if you let go of the gas…but fun and economical in comparison to the giant Buick’s and Chevy’s we typically drove.
Great story but no reference to “Soviet Canuckistan” that I always look for like where’s Waldo in your posts.
“Great story but no reference to “Soviet Canuckistan” that I always look for like where’s Waldo in your posts.”
As a matter if fact, I almost didn’t read the article for fear of that usual kind of “covert” political editorializing.
Thanks for resisting the urge to troll, and very nice writeup Len!
I do the “Soviet Canuckistan” thing mostly as a joke; it was coined by Newt Gingrich and it is really funny to Canadians since it shows the levels of ignorance in regards to Canada that people like Newt so routinely spew.
I can assure all readers that no 9-11 terrorists were even transported in that Corolla. At least ones that I know of.
Glad to ‘ear aboot it!
Sorry, man, we don’t drop the “h” here.
Thanks for clearing that up. Guess I’ve misunderstood you for a long time…
Did you know a Canuckistani Peso is only worth US$0.03?
I heard the Amero will fix all that. 🙂
I am whole heartedly in favor of continuing the COAL series under various authors. Perhaps we can even occasionally have “guest” authors who punch up one or two fond cars from their memory banks, not necessarily every car they have owned.
Agreed. Submissions are always welcome.
I thought you had another Eugene contributor til I read the article. I want that car!
Also, Paul, everytime I see your new avatar, I think of this:
Ha! I remember that so well when it came out. I guess I’ve been trying to recreate it ever since. Good catch.
RZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
That’s a great album, I so need to play it again soon (and yes, it’s on vinyl).
It was obvious from your frequent comments that you could write. I am happy that you finally did. The story was enjoyable.
When my nephew bought one of the early corollas, it was trash. Reminds me of how Hyundai went. Obviously they had their act together by the time they made your car.
Down here where the tin worms are less frequent that car might still be running with 400k. There are lots of mileage worms, however, 20 miles for a loaf of bread.
The highest mileage one I ever saw, that I could verify anyway, as a 1971, same KE20 body, also with the 1600 cc engine. It had 375,000 miles on it. I found it for a friend of mine who wanted to road trip through California, etc. The oil pressure light came on at idle but it really wasn’t an issue since the engine was not OHC.
Low and behold I was right and they did 8,000 miles on it in three months.
The 2T series was a really interesting motor, hemi heads, made from first class materials but not OHC.
It’s rather similar to the alloy-head hemi pushrod fours that Peugeot made very popular and famous for their durability too, except for not having having wet cylinder liners.
It must have been expensive to produce just by looking at it. Really a well designed motor; for example, things like fan belts never, ever lossened off. Bolts never stripped, not that I ever did anything more than take the valve cover off to adjust the valves. Even that had a proper o-ring gasket that could be reused.
Glad to see that you have taken up the mantle of COAL Len. I knew you could do it. About the name, I say just leave at Cars of a Lifetime. Looking forward to the journey you will take us on!
Really enjoyed your article! I have owned at various times; a 75 Toyota Chinook Camper (8.5 years, 250,000 miles), 77 Corolla 2 dr, 79 Corolla 4 dr (both of these were winter beaters), 81 Corolla wagon, & an 84 Cressida wagon. Loved them all for what they were. Never had another.
That Corollas still sell so well today owes it all to this little car. This used to be ubiquitous in Indonesia as well, when I was a kid (though the four door version, we never got the two door version, of any car!). It was used as a taxi too, for many years. I think they lasted until late 1980s as a taxi.Their bodies would be extremely tired and dilapidated, no panels were straight or smooth, chassis sagging, but they just keep going.
Great article. There’s no car like your first car. My first car was a 1975 Datsun B210, and I remember it fondly, in spite of the fact that it was, well, a B210. (That’s a 120Y to those of you who drive on the left.)
great writeup. if not for the cheap steel, these corollas would probably all be still running. americans were astounded that cheap japanese cars just worked. period. these cars completely exposed how inbred and corrupt detroit had become. it made the american public furious at how badly the big three were cheating us. many of us vowed to never go back to american cars, and for the most part, we haven’t.
No offense to anyone, we called these “rice-burners” back in the day. We rented one of these in Hawaii, took it on the Road to Hana. About the best I could say for it is, uh, “sturdy,” I still have my kidneys rearranged from riding in the back seat of that thing.
No offense to anyone, we called these “rice-burners” back in the day.
You made me think of my father. I’m not sure how long it would take for my father to “get over it” if I went out and bought a Japanese or Korean or German car. (Badges mean everything to him, he’ll accept a Vibe because of the arrowhead on the grille.)
Being the best salesman in the dealership he once got drafted to take one of John Deere’s high powered lawyers out to the scene of a farming accident that the company was being sued over. The lawyer was rambling on about his next car purchase and trying to decide if he should buy a Lexus or not (BTW this was about 1995 or so). My dad’s reply: “I wouldn’t know, I don’t buy foreign cars.”
The rest of the ride was pretty silent.
We heard the term, “Jap-Scrap” a lot, which is totally ironic when you look under the hood and see a master cylinder that appeared to be carved out of a billet of steel, an alternator that lasted the life of a car, a proper hydraulic clutch system,,,,,
My parents only got over the “flimsy Japanese cars” stereotype after a lot of exposure to my excellent Subaru Outback, which unlike their Jeeps or Volvos was rattle free at over 200k miles and was incredibly reliable – unlike the Volvos. The Jeeps were reliable but the interiors fell apart starting at 8 to 10 years of age.
They did look at a Lexus LS400 in the 1990s but ended up getting a used W126 Benz. Go figure.
My Mom had one of these, she still says it’s her favourite car. I always wondered why the volume knob for the radio was on the wrong side, now I know.
I can relate to the gas price panic of those times. I worked at a gas station part time and recall selling gas in half-gallons because the price of a gallon had gone over a dollar and the pumps couldn’t accomodate that. They just recalibrated the pumps and sold it for .52 a gallon. This was just before the metric system was introduced in Canada. Lots of people dumped thier full size car and bought cars like this Toyota.
I’d leave the name of the series the way it is BTW.
I think of a piece like this as well-written when it holds my interest although the car being discussed isn’t one I particularly care about or if it’s one I never had any experience with. This one definitely made the grade, and I look forward to more.
Thank you for the comment, it is very much appreciated. I do a lot of writing for my work so I get plenty of practice.
“Jap scrap,” pretty funny. Reminds me of the days when “Made in Japan” was a term of opprobrium, a synonym for cheapness. Boy, how the times have changed. My father, too, being of the “Greatest Generation,” wouldn’t have been caught dead in a “foreign” car. He was a tried and true “Detroit iron” guy, until, mysteriously, in the last year of his life, he bought a little red ’79 Toyota Corolla hatchback. He loved that silly little thing, drove it all the time until he passed away late in 1980. I have never figured out why he was so enamored of that car. I don’t remember much about it, I was away from home at that point, and even when I did visit, I don’t think I ever drove it. My mother kind of took a liking to it, too, and kept it around for another couple of years, while her Cadillac sat idle on the other side of the garage.
Don, this is exactly how The Big Three lost their virtual monopoly on the North American market, one buyer at a time. People were just plain tired of buying bling and having it self-destruct one second and one foot after the warranty was up; often it was even before, especially on a Chrysler.
Cars like the little Corolla here made the reputation of the Japanese makers. Even today, when asked by anyone what car they should buy (and it happens a lot) I always tell them, “Buy a Honda or Toyota and you’ll be satisfied with your purchase.”
Thus far, not a one has been dissatisfied with the cars I tell them to buy; the ones who don’t listen to me often are.
I bought a 1974 Toyota Corolla in 1984 for $250. It ran great, but had bad rust. When I drove it to the wrecking yard in 1985 it was running perfectly.
Hey! My first car was also a bright yellow 1974 Corolla. I purchased it new from Vic Alfonso Toyota in Eugene. I paid cash for it by sacking groceries at a local store after school. I later put on a set of mag wheels and 7up can under dash tachometer.
A very enjoyable first installment, and I look forward to many more.
I have no firsthand experience with these, coming from northeast Indiana where Detroit stuff ruled well into the 1980s. But I do recall vividly stopping by a Toyota dealer one day after hours with a friend. He was going to school to do body and paint work, and we would regularly look at and pick apart the quality of the assembly and paint on cars in dealer lots. But that day at the Toyota dealer (probably 1978-80 era) was a revelation to both of us. Even on the cheapest models, the assembly and paint quality was first rate.
I miss cars like this. My Honda Fit comes close, but it is still pretty civilized compared to these. There is something about the most basic of cars that appeals to me. Of course, having crossed the 50 year mark, maybe one of these would not appeal to me as it would have in 1980. Still . . . .
I had the same experience with the Toyota I wrote about here. It was exceptionally well put together, especially compared to the stuff coming out of Detroit. I remember the plastic reservoirs on the brake and clutch master cylinders, for example, and just how exceptionally well everything was assembled. The paint on the car was flawless, too.
My present driver, a 2000 Acura TL is also exceptionally well put together. I am still driving Japanese cars for a reason.
My sister was ready for her first car in 1971 and asked me to guide her on a purchase. I test drove Gremlins, Renault R 10s (I have no shame), Pintos (bent the shift linkage on a big 1-2 shift) and wasn’t impressed with any of them. Then late one Friday night, I decided to stop off at the new Toyota dealership and see what they had to offer. The lone salesman asked me if I would tolerate a sales pitch. I thought crap, more salesman’s lies. But I said yes. The guy was really good and I was impressed with the level of trim the cars came in (engine compartment light!). No strippers. The cars came with carpet and AM radio. High zoot. I was impressed. Plus the underhood arrangement was a sight to behold. All wiring-tubing-and other stuff looked like it was choreographed. Plus all the nuts and bolts were iridited (a plating system using iridium, a precious metal) giving these items an iridescent gold/rainbow like finish. We routinely iridited steel components where I worked designing professional broadcast equipment. Look at the guts of any ’50s or ’60s radio or tv and you will see this finish. Even though iridium is a precious metal, it was the cheapest plating for nuts, bolts, and electronic chassis because it did not require polishing or other human (read expensive) attention and it protected ferric parts from corrosion, something pretty much guaranteed to occur on the ocean voyage from Japan to the US. Cadmium is the next up the scale and more durable, but more expensive. Forget chrome, but I digress.
We looked at both the Corona and the Corolla. The Corona was beyond my sister’s budget (plus the steering was really heavy and slow) but the Corolla just right. My sister became the proud owner of a mustard yellow Corolla with monster 12″ whitewall tires. I don’t remember how long she owned it, but it was over ten years, and it never required any major repair, and perhaps, minor. The mffer just ran.
Just before I met my wife to be, she had bought a new ’74 Datsun B-210, also in mustard yellow. What a piece of crap that was. Rode like a tumbrel and made painful noises. Bent pieces. I avoided driving that junkster whenever possible. I owned a ’72 Fiat 128 which I loved to pieces. A driver’s car.
For entertainment my wife and I would sit outside in the evening, drink bourbon and listen to her B-210 rust and shed parts. I really hated that shitcan.
The kid next door had one of these back in ’77 or so. I thought it was the nastiest little car. I’m glad my father didn’t get one of these…he drove a blue 6-cylinder ’67 Biscayne to O’hare airport where he worked — it was about 45 – 60 minutes from West Chicago where we lived.
He never took care of it & it had lost some compression but it worked in his favor because it always started when it was cold. In fact, his Chevy was one of the only cars in the parking lot that would start when it got below zero. He told me that he jumped off many of his coworkers’ cars quite often including his bosses…which was ironic because his boss was the one that gave him the Chevy in the first place.
It “conked out” on Hwy 83 on his way home one day. I don’t know what went wrong with it but when he went back to get it, some drunk had rear-ended it, pushing the rear bumper almost into the back seat. He then bought a new terd brown ’78 Rabbit diesel.
Nice write-up by the way.
My wife and I drove a ’91 Corolla all over the Pacific Northwest. One summer we drove with our toddler son from Seattle to Lund, BC to meet up with her parents who were boating up the Goldcoast. We camped off the boat on some rock in Desolation Sound and I got the flu real bad. It is no fun being on a boat with the flu.
The Corolla was fine. Even though it was one of the latter, front drive models, it only stranded me once, when the timing belt broke, not far from home fortunately.
Oh and I really enjoyed your story Canucknucklehead, great job!
Great comment, especially since the 1978 Rabbit Diesel is the next installment!
Who-hoo! ‘Preciate it!
very enjoyable write-up. Thanks !
I got a Corolla for my graduation present from high school in 1974 and let me tell you, as an 18 year old surfer dude, this was the sh$#! I could travel long distances with 4 surfboards strapped to the top and hit the best surf spots for just dollars. Bear in mind, this is in Texas and you have to DRIVE to find surf!
That little Corolla put up with everything I could throw at it as a teenager whose only concern was getting there, finding surf, and the next babe to sit in the passenger’s seat. The drunken/stoned nights of spinning donuts on the beach until we ended up in the Gulf of Mexico were not infrequent. We would drag her out, dry her off, and she would take us to the next party! I don’t remember how many miles I actually put on her, but I know it was considerable. I do know that her upkeep was the last thing on my mind, and she took good care of me and always remembered the way home or to at least where I was staying anyway.
She was silver, which was the worst paint that Toyota put on them at the time, and even the window edging started coming off from arm resting on in it. Other than that, I have nothing I can say bad about my “magic carpet ride” of the time. From Mexico to Florida she ran, in the salt air of the Gulf Coast. I got married and ended up trading her in for a Buick Skylark (yech!) that my father-in-law arrainged so we could have a “family” car. We’d have been better off with the Corolla!
From that time forward, I have been a Toyota fan. Having owned Toyota HiLux trucks, SR5 4X4’s, Vans, Camry’s, Tacomas and lately Tundra full size pickups. I would love to buy “American” but I have to watch my budget too, ya’ know. When you look under the hood and see hard metal piping where GM uses rubber and plastic it isn’t rocket surgery to figure which one is going last longer!
While we did have to put the Japanese in their place in WWII, and show them the error of their ways, they have been astute learners. The Toyota (Toyoda) line has earned thier chops and have gone from “Jap-crap” to something that many would do well to aspire towards.
With all the good luck your family had with that Toyota, I’m surprised to see that they never bought another one.
I was just traveling down memory lane when I stumbled upon this post about my first car. I have such fond memories about that car. It was my first car. I was still in high school. I was not even in 12th grade yet. I had been working for a long time already. Saving my money as much as I good like a good little girl. I was so tired of riding the city bus. (I swore I would never ride one again. And I have not!) I went to the car dealer and was to naive and had not learned the gift of haggling yet. The sticker price was $3,200.00 and I said YES. I’ve since learned how to look up what a car is worth etc. Oh well, live and learn. Right?? I actually bought it for the listed price. 76.43 a month. I actually paid it off early which saved me nothing. There used to be something called “the rule of 78’s here in the U.S.” I forget exactly how it worked, but all interest was taken in your first payments and paying early didn’t help at all. It is now against the law! I put $1,000.00 down and put the rest on credit. I had rent and utilities to pay along with the car payment. Things were tight to say the least. It had four on the floor, am radio and of course those rear window defrosters. For quite a while I lived a few blocks from where I worked and spent all of five dollars for a whole month for gas! My boyfriend (now husband) used his gas when we went out on dates, so all I spent a month for my gas was that five dollars! That was even cheap for then. And that was during the gas crisis. I don’t know what I would have done if I had a huge gas bill. It was a great car. I only gave it regular oil changes and things were wonderful. Nothing ever broke with that car. One thing weird did happen which I’m sure was just a minor distributor cap fix or something. When I went through a water puddle, it would die and I would have to restart it. I loved that car. I should have kept it. I am starting to think that cars without computers to deal with are best. And it never rusted like some have said. And I lived in San Diego California and spent as much time as I could at the beach!