1979 Toyota Corona with 35,000 Miles!
(first posted 9/9/2015) Just the other day I was wishing to myself that one could buy a reasonably priced, rear-wheel-drive, manual transmission sedan with room for a family. The 2015 Dodge Charger nearly fits the bill (except for the stick shift), but seems to be the only RWD car in its class. Otherwise, you have to step up to a small “luxury car” like a Cadillac, Lexus, BMW or Mercedes.
And then today along came this 1979 Toyota Corona to remind me of the penultimate year when rear-wheel drive was the standard in the US, and only niche players or niche cars offered front-wheel drive.
In 1979, Toyota, unlike most makers, had already begun their transition to FWD, as documented so well by Paul. 1981 would bring both the K-Car from Chrysler and the X-Bodies from GM. But in 1979 and 1980, front-wheel drive in the US was still mostly the purview of brands like Citroen, Saab, Honda and Subaru that had committed to front-wheel drive decades earlier. The major exception of course would be Volkswagen, but their purchase of both NSU and Audi in a way puts them in the same camp, as years or decades of experience helped their transition to front-wheel drive.
In the service lane, and drawing a crowd!
But in 1979, you could still buy a RWD car in most price ranges, and from makers from almost any continent! And that leads to this incredible example, a 1979 Toyota Corona with 35,000 miles, original paint and an original interior that a nice, little old lady drove in to my car dealership (Jim Coleman Toyota, Bethesda, MD) today to attempt to sell!
I remember Corona’s mostly as wagons, as a buddy of mine had a Corona wagon in this color that was a hand-me-down from his mother in 1985 when we both got our driver’s licenses. I never had a chance to drive his car, but at the time it was the sort of car you only noticed for its weaknesses, like a loose headliner, and a bit of an echo-y cabin. His mother had replaced the wagon with a 1984 Camry Sedan, and I remember it feeling leaps and bounds nicer.
Style inspirations for Toyota?
But looking at it today, I have a totally different impression! It looks like a cross between a BMW Bavaria and a Chevrolet Impala. Clean lines everywhere, no unnecessary adornment, and even a hint of the so-called Hofmeister Kink.
Clean, clear and original
The interior even manages to split the difference between a German interior and an american one, featuring a 4-spoke steering wheel and console mounted automatic, but including a speedometer that is almost horizontal, hinting at the american style speedo.
Original interior looks cozy and comfy
A quick check of NADA reveals that a 1979 Corona had an starting MSRP of $6,099, a touch more than a Chevy Malibu ($5,180), a touch less than a Chevy Impala ($6,138) and about 60% the price of a BMW 320i ($9,735). So in a relative way, it truly is what it was, a rear wheel drive Toyota Camry predecessor, as a Camry with a few features probably compares similarly to a Chevy Malibu, Chevy Impala and BMW 320i today.
A nod to Brougham culture
The only component of the car that just sticks out and makes no sense to me, even while being cool to look at, are the real wire wheels! But I guess in a way, they too bridge the gap between European cars like Jaguar and the wire wheel covers in vogue on American cars in 1979.
So all in all, quite a time capsule to take us back to what is in hindsight a very attractive rear-wheel drive Toyota. Too bad I don’t even have 1/10th of the $10,000 this nice little old lady is asking for the car!
If he’s smart, the dealer will snap that up as a display car.
Usually a car like that could be a car for sale but remains for display for quite long time, like a Continental Givenchy I saw in a Ford dealer.
Yep. Find some original wheels/hubcaps for it and it’d be perfect. While I didn’t buy a car there, the Honda dealer where I test drove a Civic a few years ago had both an N600 and a Z600 in the showroom, and they were real attention-getters sitting right nxt to the newer Hondas.
Then there’s Crossroads Ford in Cary, NC, which took it to a whole different level. The entire front row of their (enormous) showroom used to be a lineup of ’50s to ’70’s classics, mostly Fords but with some other makes thrown in too. They seem to have scaled it back, judging by Google street view, but there’s still a group visible through the windows in one front corner.
That model had sculpted steel wheels with centre caps not hubcaps.
Yeah, I’m with you. My 68 Nova stripper was sorta kinda the same car. Trailer hitch and small trailer would let you tote a bike. Sort of a bachelors world.
The Nova developed a JC Penney air conditioner and that set the pattern for a long time for me. Japanese pickups were their successor in my world. Things have become more complicated but suppose those living in the Los Angeles basin and similar places can breath now.
I’m past getting on the ground and working on these so the increased dependability might just be better than the simplicity. At 70k plus, our cube has had nothing but oil changes. I guess the only thing you can count on is that things will change.
That’s a great (and fairly popular) color for that era but on today’s new cars only works on Jeeps and Land Rovers… We had both a 1979 Celica as well as a 68/69 VW Bus in that color. I remember my Dad actively looking for a Corona based on Consumer Reports ratings but then we ended up with a Mazda 626 that became my first car a few years later. Great find and I agree with Syke, the dealer should buy it or come to some agreement with the owner on her next car.
My mother drove a Corona wagon when I was very young, in that same color. I hated it. I remember the vinyl seats being particularly nasty. She replaced it with a 1987 Taurus wagon around 1993- the Taurus was practically a spaceship compared to the Corona, so much more modern. We all loved that car. She kept it until 2002.
That’s one of the cool things about working at a place like that, seeing cool original CCs! At “my” place I occasionally get to see Land Cruisers and Pickups from the 70’s and 80’s in cherry condition.
I had this car as a wagon. In 1992, it had 250k miles and had never had the engine apart. Ran great! That was a real rarity at the time. I would love to have a clean example of this car, haven’t seen one in a long time (even in the NW).
I can’t stop staring at those wire wheels. Pardon my ignorance but how does one remove those wheels? Gotta love those little old lady time capsules.
I’m probably wrong, but on these types of wire wheels the wired center is “decorative”. That is, it unlocks, pulls away, and exposes a semi-regular looking chrome wheel. The lug nuts are under that center “hat”. Without the wires it looks like a chrome disk wheel as the wires aren’t structural, either.
Howard, I think you must be right! I thought they were real wire wheels, but I should have known that without the “knockoff” hub, and without being see-through, they must not be structural! Now looking closely I can see what you are saying!
100% right on the wheels. These were a popular ‘upgrade’ to bring some bling to your ride on a budget prior to the 22″ wheel craze. I remember them on a lot of Cadillacs, Lincolns, Tbirds, etc. You could get these at pretty much any tire shop, Sears, JC Whitney, etc in the 70s, 80s and 90s. ‘Truespoke’ wire wheels were the real wire wheels and they were (and still are) expensive.
Nice, this little old lady had style. No wonder the car never depreciated.
There appears to be one little bolt in the center of the wheel!
When I lived in Memphis in the 80s someone down the road from me had one of these as a 5 door fastback/hatchback…..a body style of Corona used only for this generation of Corona, at least in the U.S.
BTW, the generation before this one had a 2 door hardtop and a 2 door/pillared sedan. Unfortunately, these Coronas have pretty much disappeared in this country.
The five-door Corona was not a bad looking car for the time.
I’m forever disappointed in the way that the Chevrolet SS has been handled. Maybe in the future I can find some heavily-depreciated unicorn…or some retired detective or fire marshal’s Holden/Caprice Interceptor.
Man, there is really nothing RWD!
Nostalgia makes everything better, even AMC Pacers and… Coronas.
In 1979, the Corona looked 10 years out of date. The fashionable rectangular headlamps look out of place, and the big black bumpers (cheaper than the earlier Corona’s chrome) detract from the otherwise well-executed (albeit outdated) exterior details.
The interior has some of the better features of a European car of the era (4-spoke wheel and floor shifter), and the ersatz American luxury look (seats).
By 1979 standards, the car was a mediocre car, in between an AMC Hornet and a modest Euro car (say Peugot 504 or Volvo DL) in terms of driving, and inferior to Ford Fairmonts and GM A-cars (Malibus) of that era.
For the era, they were solid cars in terms of reliability and durability. This one clearly shows that it was a “very good car”. While $10k is too much, for $5k, it is a great testimonial to (real and IMAGINED!) Toyota durability, and IMO Mr. Spencer is missing a great opportunity for clever advertising and a conversation piece to help relax his customers and sell them more cars. But, he does this for a living, so perhaps I’m mistaken…
Too bad the old lady didn’t get a 77 Celica, or a 78 Corolla SR-5, and keep it.
This Corona was a competent, if not exciting, car in 1979–and that’s how I still feel about most Toyotas and Lexii…
Thanks for a great memory!
I’m a salesman at Jim Coleman Cadillac, next door, so I have no dog in that fight as it were. That said, Jim Coleman Cadillac owns a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible with 100 miles that has never been titled and it’s in storage. When I’ve inquired about displaying it, the answer I get is that anything that distracts from the actual cars on sale is a net negative.
Floor space isn’t cheap, I suppose, and that Eldo would take up an awful lot of it.
Oh well…. modern efficient business mode has its downsides.
In some big dealerships from smaller towns, they still have some ’70s Continental, ’60s Falcon convertible or something rather unusual for sale/display in Ford showroom. The units disappeared quickly were for sale, and the units stayed longer were for display until sold. ( a ’70s Corvette stayed in showroom for as long as one year since I knew it )
I am surprised by that rational from the dealer. The Cadillac dealer I do business with for my auto parts (Capital Cadillac in Greenbelt(my 1995 Deville was bought there by its original owner) ) has several old Caddies in the service lane(they have two lanes blocked off for them) Old ones such as two 1977-78 Sevilles, a 1970’s Fleetwood and a couple of 1930’s- 1940’s wagons and convertibles(those seem to change) I have pics on my camera from the last time I was there..
They keep them there because of the heritage and they are popular. The local Ford dealer(Apple Ford) had a model T Ford on display for years and also has pictures along the walls of vintage Fords and Lincolns.
The Ford store where I’ve purchased my last two cars (Expressway Ford in Mt. Vernon, IN) has several “heritage” Fords on permanent display. There is a Model T and an early fifties pickup truck sitting on sort of a balcony, and there is a ’67 Mustang, a ’55 T-Bird and a Ford GT sitting on permanent display in the showroom. They are not for sale, the ownership group just likes having them around. I will try to get some pictures the next time I’m there.
Matt,
How much does your dealership want for the ’76 Eldorado? Will it be for sale any time soon?
My local Honda dealer has this gem on the sales floor – it doesn’t take up much space.
Take that, SmartFortwo!
It looks small enough that one could pick it up and walk away with it. 🙂
I remember seeing one like this at a Honda dealer near where I used to live.
Matt,
I remember that car! It was white and they had it in the showroom where Toyota currently resides. I have a 2014 CTS and I take my car to Jim Coleman for service.
The oversized wheels look a bit out of place at first, but after a bit you get used to them, and I bet they improve the handling quite a bit, if not the ride. A nicely styled, not-too-overdone Japanese rwd sedan with a good interior layout and a bit of luxury (don’t those seats look scrumptious!) . All in all, a really nice find!
I remember this final generation Toyota Corona. I was too young at the time to drive or even get my license. But I knew people who had one, and loved driving it. I remember being disappointed when Toyota discontinued the Corona in favour of the Camry. The Camry was an attractive car, but I prefer rear wheel drive.
The Corona soldiered on untill 2000 elsewhere the Camry was a different car.
I’m with you on rear wheel drive. I’m tired of the way my front wheel drive car handles on wet pavement, and cross walks. Those front wheels just lose traction too easily. I wish more new cars were available with rear drive . As for style, I like the simple clean styling of cars from the 60s through the 90s. It’s hard to find a new car these days that’s good looking.
My FWD car handles like a dream in the wet could be more to do with who made it than which end the drive is on.
As a Minnesota resident, I for one do not lament the demise of rear wheel drive family sedans. I see those Chargers struggling for traction all winter long. No thanks, that is a bygone era best left bygone. It’s why it was pretty much mandatory for Dodge to offer an AWD version if they wanted to sell them around here.
Sports cars on the other hand are another story.
As a fellow Minnesotan, I have to agree. I can’t remember how many RWD sleds we helped push out of roadside snowbanks in the old days. And I remember the excitement in the early 1980s when someone would buy a new car and brag that it was *front-wheel drive!* Take that car guys.
If they sell RWD cars in Minnesota, you wouldn’t know it from the newspaper ads. BMW, Mercedes, Cadillac, only AWD models advertised. (There’s the Mustang/Camaro/Challenger. But people there tend to garage those cars in the winter.)
Just this past weekend, I saw a 5-door hatchback Corona drive by my house. After the initial shock of seeing it subsided (after all, they’re not a common sight any longer), I started thinking about what a good looking car it really was, and how it was part of that fascinating period when Japanese cars were transitioning from slightly offbeat economy cars to more mainstream, mid-sized cars with American tastes in mind.
I hope this one eventually finds a good home.
Perhaps the most jaw-dropping aspect of this car is the lack of rust, especially in a place like the DC burbs that gets snow every winter. Well into the ’80s it was as if the Japanese auto industry was still taking lessons in rustproofing from Karmann.
Random notes:
1. As much of a fan of Detroit iron as I am, I’m always happy to see posts on Japanese cars from the ‘70s, simply because it’s a topic I don’t know much about. I didn’t pay much attention to Japanese cars as a kid, and in my area most Japanese cars from this era have long since rusted away. I’d love to see a complete history of a particular model in the U.S. as was done with the Colt a while back. When I was in college in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, I had a friend who drove an ’81 Corona sedan, handed down from her parents, which I’m guessing was from the same styling generation as this one.
2. Most major manufacturers doing business in the U.S. did not go into FWD significantly until the early ‘80s, regardless of country of origin – that point is well taken and I completely agree with it. Some of the details are a bit off or are omitted, however:
–The FWD GM X-cars appeared in the spring of 1979 as early 1980 models.
–Chrysler had FWD cars as early as 1978, when the L-bodies (Omni/Horizon) were introduced.
–Although Toyota had already begun to convert to FWD globally prior to 1979, I don’t think they sold an FWD car in the U.S. until the 1980 model year, when the Tercel was introduced here.
–On the other hand, I believe that archrival Nissan did have an FWD model on the market in the U.S. prior to 1979, in the Datsun 310.
–GM actually had FWD as far back as the ‘60s in the form of the Toronado and Eldorado. They were so different conceptually from the smaller, mostly transverse-engine FWD cars under discussion here as to be more-or-less irrelevant, so I don’t really disagree with your decision not to mention them, but I’m mildly surprised someone hasn’t chimed in yet with “What do you mean there weren’t any FWD cars before 1980 — what about the Toronado?”.
3. The points about price are interesting, and tie in with some recent discussion about the different size classes of American cars (subcompact, compact, intermediate, fullsize), how they evolved over time, and how Japanese cars did or did not line up with them. Earlier Coronas might have been regarded as subcompacts. By this point, they might have been thought of as a compacts, as each generation of Corona grew larger while Americans’ idea of a how big a “compact” should be was getting smaller (this generation of Corona had exterior dimensions very similar to the Chevrolet Citation). The Corona’s price looks like it was more comparable to American midsize cars, however, which were much larger in terms of exterior dimensions. Over time, the Corona’s Camry successor (in the U.S. market) would come to line up in size with American midsizes, and would eventually come to essentially define that market.
4. A while back I pulled some figures from the Standard Catalog series on U.S. sales for Japanese imports (while the source isn’t clear, I suspect that all of the figures are calendar year passenger car, not model year, and not including trucks). In 1979, Toyota’s U.S. sales were about 507K — the first year they broke half a million — with combined sales of the five Japanese manufacturers doing business in the U.S. at about 1.6 million. To put this in perspective, the 1.6 million figure for all Japanese manufacturers combined was less than 1979 passenger car model year production for the Chevrolet and Ford brands individually. But it was more than double what those same five Japanese manufacturers had sold in 1975, and triple what they had sold in 1971.
Good points MCT! I was trying to paint with a broad brush about GM, Toyota, Chrysler, Ford, Peugeot and others centering much of their middle class passenger car strategy around front wheel drive.
I tried to refer to the Toronado/Eldorado by referring to niche cars. Forgot about the Omni/Horizon, but in a way, that sort of fits in the same category as the Volkswagen from my perspective because to my understanding much of that technology was the result of Chrysler’s purchase of Simca (and of course the use of the VW engine too!). And in a way, the Datsun 310 does too because of Nissan’s purchase of Prince. You’re absolutely right about the X-body’s and thanks for expanding my knowledge!
Really clean car! It’s definitely not my style but this is 100 times the car of just about any toyota sold now.
Never fear, Matt. If the rumors are true, the upcoming midsize Dodge (shared Alfa platform) coupe and sedan are supposed to be sporty rwd cars a bit smaller than the LX’s. Think a Dodge version of the Infinity G37 coupe/sedan. Just more sporty/performance flavored.
In 1979 I was employed as a parts manager at a Canadian Toyota Dealership, and had a ’79 Corona H/B as a demo. Not thrilling to drive, but slightly more room and utility than a Celica. A year later we also purchased a yellow 1980 [first year here] Tercel GT 5 speed for my wife, and out the door price was under $6000 including taxes.
In 1979 I was driving kind of the equivalent Datsun (Nissan), but 5 years older, a 1974 710…with an automatic….it was my last car with an automatic. Yes, there was a 2nd gas shortage in 1979, remember driving to my Grandparents in Northern PA (from Shelburne Vt.) wondering if I’d run out of fuel. As a light car, it had terrible traction in the snow, but in ’79 there still weren’t a lot of FWD cars available yet…my Dad had one (a ’76 Subaru DL) and there were of course Hondas and Fiats, as well as VWs which were pretty expensive, nonetheless when my 710 slid out on I89 near Sharon, Vt 40 years ago this past January, I got it fixed up to sell and I bought a ’78 VW Scirocco….haven’t owned anything besides VW since (nor anything with automatic).
Now though, I’ve migrated to the sunbelt (not quite 40 years but close) and wouldn’t mind something like this; looking for my next old-fogey mobile. The hatch would be right up my alley as I’ve owned nothing but since I bought the Scirocco. My family ended up being Nissan rather than Toyota buyers, though my youngest surviving sister did have a Tercel way back when, she has a ’97 240SX and had another ’95 240SX, my (deceased) youngest sister had a ’86 200SX and a ’93 240SX….I like to say my Datsun 710 started things off for them; every one of them was an automatic.
I don’t think it’s 10k nice, but it does deserve a good home where it will be looked after. The local Toyota has a ’66 Stout in the showroom. A VW dealer I worked for had from 1969 until it closed in the late ’90’s a 1954 VW Beetle in the showroom. One in 1983 still had a brand new last year ’79 Beetle convertible in the show room, for sale but at a 10k price. MSRP was around $6800.
Wasn’t this also the last imported car to be available with a front bench seat in the U.S.? (until the Avalon, which again became the last). Recall it being so but can’t find any pictures. Or maybe it ended with the previous-gen model.
BTW, Avalon has superb rear knee-room, easily comparable to Yank Tanks. Huge irony here…
Love that velour-like cloth covering the seats…
Those were quite good cars they went ok lasted reasonably well that one seems to have the full JDM disaster inside most that Ive seen were vinyl and fortunately manual, Quickest way to ruin a low powered car is fit auto transmission.
The other way to ruin a good car is to fit an inferior engine to lower the tax payable on your CKD kits which was done to these in Australia, The fairly reliable Corona got a Starfire 4 from GMH installed to get the price down, the starfire was a local GM answer to the high tariffs on the Opel 1900 4 banger in the Sunbird a rebadged Torana itself a mildly reworked Opel, they sawed 2 cylinders from a 2850cc 6 and called it good, it wasnt.
I’ll never forget the photo on the cover of Wheels when they announced that so-called engine. They showed a sawn-off block next to a guy in a blue singlet with an axe over his shoulder….
What a time capsule indeed! Love to see these old cars that have been well cared-for over the years, and while $10k is just a bit, okay a lot, high, hopefully it’ll go to someone else who shows it the same care.
And I do think the dealer is missing out if he doesn’t at least ty to work with her, albeit not at that price.
I’d love to know what persuaded her that 36 years is long enough, and what she’s planning on replacing it with?
The owner might have just stopped driving its not like she did lots of that in the last 36 years anyway.
Hello Matt,
Thanks for the insights about using an old car–I guess the cons outweigh the novelty factor.
While I was hard on the old Corona, ANY car from the 1960s or 70s in such great shape is a good car with character, if only because those who owned it liked it or cared enough to keep it in such great shape over the years.
And it was a pretty decent car!
or some just lucky survivors, like many Dodge Aspen if we see today.
$10k is a bit high unless theres someone out there with intense nostalgia. $7 or $8k seems more feasable, and is more than what the car cost new. a dealer local to me has a 1st year corolla on display, with original window sticker.
someon on ebay is selling a new set of those wheels, in boxes, for $900. keystone sunspoke. plated steel wheel with plated baskets. i wonder if that was a dealer add-on?
My parents owned a 1970 Corona 2 door coupe. It was an great little car. It was purchased new for my mom, who was a local only driver here in suburban New Jersey. I was 7 years old at the time, but I do recall it and have many memories of it.
The car was a real looker and had some neat features like a folding rear seat, back side windows that opened (in a very strange way at that… kind of like on a pivot or something), neat little chrome things on the tops of the front fenders, and since ours had A/C, the glovebox was replaced with a panel containing 3 round air vents. A parcel shelf was mounted under the dash for storage. I remember the dash had this really fake looking plastic wood on the drivers side, and the seats were upholstered in a woven type of vinyl that was actually very comfy.
We had that car for 15 years, all of which were mostly trouble fee. Once I got my license, I was the main driver and I did some cosmetic changes to it, which enhanced its look. I actually put on a set of “spoke wheels”, similar to the subject cars, tinted out the windows a bit, and added a pinstripe.
I really wanted to keep the Corona forever, but it was eventually traded in by my mom for a new Camry which mom also kept for 15 years. When traded in, the car had 150K miles on it, and still ran decently, the body was in great shape (as it was garage kept) and the interior looked good as new.
My Grandparents had one for a while when I was a kid. This makes me think of them. However, I think the car is pretty ugly. Small, upright and tacky “luxury” accessories.
The comparison to BMW raised an eyebrow because these were such starkly un-Germanic cars. A comparison to the late Chevrolet Nova sedan seems more apt — middle-of-the-road transportation for middle-class buyers looking for something comfortable and largely incapable of giving offense.
This is one of those cars that makes me think there’s not really much point to RWD in a middle-of-the-road family car, particularly one this size. There’s nothing sporty about a Corona (there were some sporty variants that probably drove like the Celica, but I don’t think we got them) and the prop shaft and rear axle compromise packaging to no particular dynamic benefit. Probably a little cheaper to repair in certain respects, but that’s about it.
It appeared to me that Toyota’s products through the 1970’s and 1980’s seemed to be scaled down versions of various US GM and Ford cars (the 1983 Corona has a number of 1981 Ford Fairmont lines evident) . Then in the 1990’s they seemed to switch to following Honda’s lead with design direction and detail.
Some Aussie Corona based humour.
I’m surprised with all the nostalgia about live-axle RWD sedans no one has mentioned that Toyota still makes one! Robert Kim gave us a great write-up on the Crown Comfort not too long ago: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/cc-global-1995-toyota-crown-comfort-japans-crown-victoria/ Yes, it’s bigger and probably better in thousands of ways, but the overall package looks remarkably similar to the 1979 Corona.
Actually they make several as does Nissan.
Well it’s a week late, but the CC effect was in full force on my 5:30am walk this morning: there was a red T130 Corona sedan (albeit an ’80) just up the road from our house. Never seen it before – in fact, haven’t seen a T130 for about a year. The CC-effect is spooky sometimes…
I had a neighbour when I was a boy who had a 1979 Corona. Although I never rode in it, I remember admiring its appearance. I found it more attractive than the 1977-78 Corona.
I was stunned at the price these sold for in your country. Between a Malibu and an Impala? That must’ve been a hard sell.
Mundane car in beautiful condition.
We have this Corona around here as a daily.
I remember when the Toyota Corona looked like this. I was too young at the time to drive. I find it the best looking car Toyota offered since the 1968 Corona. It’s a shame it was discontinued after 1982.
I’d buy a 1980 Toyota Corona if I could find one in decent condition.
“I was stunned at the price these sold for in your country. Between a Malibu and an Impala? That must’ve been a hard sell.”
Actually, they were an easy sell by 1979 -selling for full sticker plus because of mandatory dealer add-ons like those hideous wheels.
It was a very hard decade for American cars between 1969 and 1979. The following is a generalization but exceptions were scarce: Pollution controls were poorly implemented and the cars ran poorly and power was absurdly down from the muscle car 60’s . The mandatory 5-MPH bumpers looked tacked on and made many a pretty design look odd or ugly. Because inflation was outrageous (interest rates on loans were more than 15% for good credit), manufacturers were de-contenting and so interiors looked shoddy compared to 1960’s cars. Auto workers were in a surly mood (although not quite as bad as in the UK at the time). So you had ugly cars with lousy interiors, poorly assembled, that had little power and ran badly, and if you wanted one your auto loan was at 15%.
At the same people were noticing that Japanese cars were much more modern designs – not baroque like American cars but clean and simple, if homely. Their quality was excellent and their engines ran smoothly and used comparatively little gas. Did they rust away like a snowbank in Florida in July? You bet. But American cars weren’t that much better.
Here’s a tidbit from the news on 12 April 1980:
“ Chrysler Corp. has bowed to government pressure to provide free replacement of rusted front fenders on 1976 and 1977 Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare cars at a potential cost of $45 million….The FTC said its settlement with Chrysler could affect 200,000 Aspens and Volares, one-fifth of the total produced by Chrysler in 1976 and 1977. To qualify for free replacement, the fender must have rusted on the top near the windshield, where a design defect permitted salt water to accumulate during winter driving, causing severe erosion, the FTC said….The replacement offer applies to all 1976 and 1977 Aspens and Volares nationwide, provided the rust problem occurred before a car was three years old.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1980/04/12/chrysler-will-fix-rusted-fenders-for-45-million/6cd6c832-63d4-4f4f-aa3f-acd356b0337b/
Oh, and from the same article:
“Meanwhile, consumer advocate Ralph Nader yesterday renewed his demand that the Transportation Department recall nine million Ford Motor Co. vehicles that he said have dangerously faulty transmissions.
So people were ready to try something new.
Thanks for that. Obviously reading C/D back then didn’t tell me as much about the US automotive scene as I thought! Plus I have learnt on here over the years not to be too cynical. Usually. 🙂
Here in Australia this Corona was locally assembled, and priced in the thick of the competition. Ford’s Cortina suffered from a terrible reputation and shoddy assembly (says the man who owned one!), Holden’s Torana Four had a thirsty and gutless engine in a heavy body designed for a V8, Chrysler had given up on British Hillmans and assembled the Mitsubishi Galant Sigma – which was so successful Mitsubishi bought up Chrysler Australia. Apart from that you had the Nissan Bluebird (unexceptional), Mazda 626 (imported, so pricey), and a few smaller European imports which nobody bought (Fiats, Renaults), as they were prestige priced without and sign of prestige quality. However, this Corona was saddled with that horrible Holden four (enough said), and bombed deservedly.
Another appliance that I used make sure that I was never behind at traffic lights. That now applies to Camrys.
Australian Camry drivers are now the like the old rep Volvo drivers used to have. Unless it’s a taxi and the driver is on/off the brakes while being 1/4 inch from the vehicle in front downhill in Sydney.
I had a 79 Corona I bought in 81, totalled it in 84 and before I could call the junkyard to buy it back someone had already snatched it up. 😢 I loved that car