Recently, my neighbor’s son got himself his first, own car. Bought directly from a guy he knows. A practical and cheap runabout, now with 281,000 km (175,625 miles) on the clock. And with decent power and a five-speed manual transmission.
The Corolla E110 hatchback was only available as a three-door. If you wanted five doors, you had to opt for the liftback or wagon. A sedan was also offered, so in the end there was a gasoline or diesel powered, frog-eyed (pre-1999 facelift) Corolla E110 for everyone in Europe.
The interior of the Linea Terra trim level. Other options back then were the Linea Sol and Linea Luna. If you needed an utterly basic Corolla for just driving the shortest route from A to B, there was the special order Linea Recta. A highly sought after classic, these days.
The Corolla is powered by Toyota’s 4A-FE engine (not this one). An inline-four, DOHC 16v gasoline engine with a displacement of 1,587 cc, rated at a maximum power output of 81 kW~110 DIN-hp. Nothing to worry about, given the car’s curb weight of 1,050 kg (2,315 lbs). And according to the guy who owns it, the car is perfectly capable of pulling two frikandellen off the plate. Unlike the Toyota Auris Touring Sports 1.8 Hybrid he was familiar with, which could barely pull one.
E110 hatchbacks with a twist were the G6 and later G6R. Besides some bonus interior and exterior detailing, these had a close-ratio six-speed transmission and disc brakes all around. No extra horses in the stable though.
Sporty intermezzo: the Toyota Corolla WRC (FIA World Rally Championship) was based on the E110 hatchback. Enjoy the hairpin drifts and some jumps.
The new exhaust has doubled the car’s value, so claims the owner. The trailer hitch came with the package. According to the Corolla’s registration, its towing capacity is 1,200 kg (2,645 lbs). If this isn’t a sublime, studying young guy’s first set of wheels, then I don’t know what is.
About 40 years ago I had a friend who had a 20+ year old car then, a Hillman Minx. It seemed incredibly old-fashioned. No-one else I knew had a car anywhere near as old. It was somewhat rougher looking than this Corolla, with matted paintwork and some rust showing, but less than expecteded for its age.
Perhaps if I were still in my ’20s this would look just as old-fashioned…
I think of the Toyota Corolla as the Swiss Army knife…slice, dice, stack, no matters what. Toyota would fold the sheet metal in fifty different directions to suit local taste.
The Corolla was a great starter car (college bound, trade school, first career car). That’s how Toyota built its customer base through the generations.
Something GM, Ford, & Chrysler failed to execute or appreciate.
My parents bought a similar two door Corolla second hand. I would not have remembered it but my father disliked it having 2 doors only. After only a few months he traded it for a four door version. You say this was only available as a liftback or station. I remember it as being quite similar but for the two extra doors. Pic shows one I found on the net.
Both cars were very good but very boring as well.
The liftback was 15 cm longer than the hatchback, yet with the same wheelbase. The hatchback had a much more vertical rear, like a wagon (as usual, hatchback-wise). Compare the article’s Corolla with this E110 liftback:
I rented one of these in New Zealand about half a lifetime ago now…I recall the round lights specifically, otherwise it wasn’t particularly memorable beyond being a manual which I suppose is what Corollas do best, i.e. get you where you’re going. It had four doors though, or more likely five I guess. While being a different body than anything we saw over here, otherwise fairly similar to ours in feel and market position, no wonder they consistently sell over a million of them a year worldwide (1.134mil in 2020).
As an aside it’s interesting how back in 1998 this foreshadowed the placement of the infotainment screen highest up on the dashboard, itself cribbed from the later version of the Golf Mk1 dashboard and especially Golf Mk2 even earlier.
I really don’t like the look of this generation Corollas that you got over here. It’s not just the frog-eyes that are off-putting, but the whole thing is just kind of bulbous and shapeless.
The concurrent one that we got in N. America was dull, but the face is at least easier on the eyes, and it seems like there were some creases in the sheetmetal to give it some sort of shape.
That being said, at least markets outside the US could choose something other than a sedan, and this in particular looks like a good first car for a young person. Plus the 1.6 is plenty for the god-awful 100km/h freeway speed limits in the NL!
The contemporary, E110 frog-eyed sedan:
What a great car. The EXP that was written up recently served as a remined that an economical car which had a useful life of over 23 years and over 175 thousand miles was a work of folklore for buyers of Detroit subcompacts only a decade earlier. Imagine someone buying a 1986 Ford Escort for transportation in 2009.
To my mind a small, well made, 3 door hatch with a manual is the ideal general purpose
runabout for someone without children. The more basic the better, with little to break or
become obsolete. This Corolla looks like an excellent first car.
On my suggestion, my sisters’ husband bought a 5-door one of these about seventeen years ago. He had to replace the clutch in 2019, and the red paint has faded to blazes, but otherwise it’s holding up well. It’s a 1.6 CD, the top model they did in the UK back then.
I didn’t realise the motor was DOHC – it doesn’t look it, and the motor isn’t great; the facelifted models got VVTI and better power/economy. Those headlamps are a problem, there is a rubber seal around them which is hard to keep in the proper place.
Apart from the VVT-i engines, the facelifted model also got a naturally aspirated, 1.9 liter PSA diesel (whereas the pre-1999 frog-eyed Corolla had Toyota’s own 2.0 liter diesel).
Back in 2002, I drove a 2000-or-so Corolla 1.9D hatchback for a few weeks, as a temporary “inbetween” car. The dealership lent me the car, I only had to pay for the diesel fuel.
Those were some very efficient weeks, €-wise, but don’t mention the 69 hp.
Perfect first car! The equivalent of my ’64 VW in its time.
Avis handed me keys to a 5 door version in 01 at Sydney airport I needed wheels to run around and get the cars Id left when we went to NZ the previous xmas, the Corolla was automatic and white petrol engine unknown size,
it didnt take much gas when I filled it before handing it back a couple of days later having got my 63 Holden registered and retrieved the Mazda 323 wagon we loaned to a friend who would bring it to Hobart in a couple of weeks, memorable, no not really it just did what the label said.
The basic sedan, much lamented in it’s loss by some .
-Nate