Behold the humble Corolla. Respected the world over, doing its job day in and day out, year after year, decade after decade. Demanding little, yet giving all of itself. This one managed to get to 440,960 miles before it ended up here. Yet I’m not even convinced it was the car’s fault, such is the general condition of it. Let’s take a look at just what that many miles do to a Corolla.
Here’s the tip-off that a car did a lot of miles in Colorado. A road-rashed front end from the gravel the road-crews use in the winter on our icy roads. The Toyota logo looks like a piece of art with its stippled background pattern.
1992 was the last year of this generation, and the black bumpers give it away as a somewhat rarely seen base model (in 1992 most seem to have had the painted bumpers). Still, even the base models were decently equipped, especially in the engine compartment with there being no difference to the most upscale one. A little rust is starting to present itself in the wheel arches. I’ll bet every light bulb still works though.
Corolla. Seven letters that in most cultures are pronounced as Respect.
This one’s a local from just up the road (down the road?) in Boulder. So it’s braved temperatures from negative single digits in the winter to triple digits in the summer. The paint still looks sort of shiny, not a little ask up here a whole mile closer to the sun than some of you coasties wondering when the water is going to start lapping at your feet.
I wonder how many windshields this one’s gone through, some cars up here need a new one every year, others seem to manage for over a decade before the pitting gets too bad. That dent in the fender is likely from the forklift here at the ‘yard. Them’s some skinny pizzacutter tires on this base model Corolla, the better to help it slice through the slush.
There’s the 1.6liter 16-valve electronically fuel injected inline four (same as every other 1992 Corolla in the U.S.) that powered this over hill and dale, day in and day out for a mileage more consistent with the cumulative total of three more mortal cars. 102 horsepower at 5,800 rpm and 101 lb-ft of torque at 4,800 rpm. Slow and steady wins the race, although 102hp is exactly what an ’86 VW GTI had, albeit from a larger engine but with fewer valves. A svelte 2257 pounds helps here though, even with a full four doors and windows that roll down in all of them.
I wonder how many of these stickers this car went through. Changing the timing belt is likely the biggest routine maintenance expense on a Corolla. Actually, strike that, I checked and as of 1998 every Corolla, at least in the US market, uses a timing chain instead, as do most of their other vehicles.
Looks pretty good from back here as well. The styling is fairly anonymous but was a decent change from the prior generation, somehow looking lower and leaner at the time. Fit and finish seemed first-rate, and this one was built at NUMMI in Fremont, CA, the same factory that Tesla now uses.
Inside the trunk sits a piece of non-OEM plywood, perhaps the flimsy pressboard spare tire cover absconded over the years along with much of whatever dressing was on the sides of the trunk, if any. Still, a fairly square and usable shape with a low liftover height, j’approve.
Moving inside, we see blue! And lots of it! This was back when Toyota still used exciting fashion colors in its interiors. This may be a base model but it doesn’t seem all stripped and devoid of, well, things. The dashboard actually has shapes and curves, it looks soft and inviting too for those that derive pleasure from fondling such things.
That driver’s seat looks fabulous considering the age and mileage. Full stop. The missing door handles don’t mean they failed, I believe the same items are used on Toyota pickups so they tend to be picked up from Corollas at junkyards to be re-used since we all know that Toyota pickups just run forever.
Alright, the driver’s seat looks a little slacker than the passenger one. But not shapeless or remotely collapsed. That tweed fabric is similar to the stuff they put on the bottom of the Space Shuttle to protect it at re-entry. D-u-r-a-b-l-e. Also a seven letter word, by the way. The vinyl headrests are a practical touch that would never fly today but I don’t want to imagine what 440k+ miles worth of someone’s hair product on a cloth headrest would look like.
The steering wheel cover is ribbed for 440,960 miles of pleasure. Whatever it takes…
That’s a smooth operator right there. My wife used to have one of these cars, also in white, but hers was an automatic, I have to think that this car wouldn’t be terrible to drive with a stick-shift. Although in Denver traffic you’d soon build up an NFL kicker’s leg.
Having been built at NUMMI, this is veering close to the infamous “Dashboard of Sadness” look perfected and perhaps patented by GM in the ’70s, but it escapes that by not actually having any blank dials. The tach’s space us taken up by larger versions of fuel and temp gauges that fill the space and the roundels on the sides are for a plethora of warning lights that likely never have to warn about anything. Stop squinting, the money shot will be in your face as soon as you scroll down a little…
BAM! Thar she blows, all 440,960 miles worth. It was a long time coming but for the low base price of $9,418, apparently very well worth it, wouldn’t you agree?
Heading to the rear, the backseat cushion is likely under a Benz or BMW somewhere nearby to help someone harvest something or other, but the backrest looks unused here as well. I wonder if those windows have every been wound down. Speaking of winding down, I guess that’s it for this one, I’m all out of words for today. The commercial below though says what many owners would agree with.
Related Reading:
COAL: 1992 Toyota Corolla – Clearly The Car Of Choice For Clean Getaways (And Pizza Delivery)
Curbside Beater: 1992 Toyota Corolla – The Almost Free, Almost Perfect Beater
At first I thought that the front door pulls/armrests had given up their hold on the doors, but then I saw that the rear ones were gone too. I wonder who needed 441K mile armrests? Someone with a 2-million-mile Corolla with a blue interior?
It’s sad to me that an appliance like this has finally wound up in the salvage yard…although at 440K, it’s definitely served its purpose. Too bad through it didn’t make it on to half-a-million miles. It looks like it could have.
I’m going to guess that manual transmission was the ultimate kiss of death for this Corolla. This is a car that begs to be some teen’s first car or driven by someone with less than abundant means who is just looking for very basic transportation; although to serve either of those purposes, it would need to be drive-able by the 90% of the American population who can’t shift gears. As it is, this was/is probably worth more as scrap than the $1000 or less it might have ultimately fetched if the owner had wanted to go to the trouble of trying to sell it.
Is it a positive thing that it says “HOLD” on the window? Maybe it almost got driven away in one piece?
If not the transmission, then maybe it was the front suspension. I knew a guy who drove a NUMMI Nova hatchback for similar hundreds of thousands of miles. I think his was an automatic.
He lived in the rust belt so what ultimately did it in was the front suspension/brakes eventually just rusted away from winter road salt. But he sure got his money’s worth from that one.
I see a sticker on the left under the gauge cluster…*277. I wonder what that was for…maybe this was a fleet car? That would explain how ‘base model’ this was…even the color screams ‘company car’…?
That was my thought too. Between the seldom ordered stripper trim and appliance white color, this one has fleet model written all over it.
Plenty of thrifty folks bought base model white Corollas. What fleets bought stripper stick-shift Corollas back then? If it had been an automatic, I’d be somewhat more inclined to think so.
The fleets bought the Pickup or pivoted to the Geo Metro, both of which are just getting broken in at this mileage level.
Yeah the 5sp says this was much more likely a retail car and being a total stripper was likely the car featured in a “1 only at this price” newspaper ad.
I believe *277 is the cellular quick dial number for highway emergency assistance (the State Patrol) in Colorado.
Thanks for the tip, per Google it’s the number to report an impaired (drunk) or just aggressive driver to the Colorado State Patrol. 277 is the numeric equivalent to CSP on a phone touchpad. Many is the time I’ve wished to have known that number while on the road, it’s a dedicated driver that pastes it to their dashboard. And likely speaks to the magnitude of the problem that it is.
The amazing thing is that this Corolla is not some babied cream puff, but a car that was most likely put to hard, daily use for some 30 years, never complaining. And, this was the cheap entry level product. The big three wished they could build a car this good at this price. I’ve always been a Honda fan, but I’ve come to believe that Toyota is the true reliability and longevity champ. A brief check of the internet reveals many with over 300K still providing good service.
The better grade components, and build quality of Toyota products, makes them able to withstand owner abuse. Domestic products simply never withstood owner neglect. Of course, you pay more for that quality as well.
Longevity and high mileage is not just a reflection of the car. Assured, there was a diligent owner of this Corolla, that performed regular maintenance. Most cars, including domestic econoboxes, can achieve high mileage. And last years, if they are taken proper care of. Recall the 1985 Ford Escort of Denise Lima-Laskiewicz here, back in June.
When I was a graphic design student, I bought a new Dodge Shadow in 1991. And without the stellar Toyota reputation, I attained 320,000+kms without major effort. Mobil 1 synthetic oil for the full duration, and preventative maintenance, probably the biggest reasons. And I didn’t abuse it. Though I used it primary for commuting, thankfully the Shadow wasn’t as spartan as this Corolla.
Interestingly, the Corolla and Shadow sharing very similar speedometer markings, design, and typefaces. (Not my Shadow.)
And here’s a very similar one from my 1998 Nissan Frontier. Easy to read at a glance (labeled in 10 mph increments, hash marks in 5 mph increments) and maxes out at 110 mph (not 140 or 160 like in so many of today’s cars).
Shaft type car stereos were still common then, but not for long. I bet this car came with no radio, and the Panasonic has been there since it was new, too.
“… closer to the sun than some of you coasties wondering when the water is going to start lapping at your feet… “.
Thank you for the reminder. For some reason I woke up happy this morning, but now, back to coastal-related worries of rising sea levels.
“… skinny pizzacutter tires on this base model Corolla, the better to help it slice through the slush…” .
This has always made me wonder why bro-pickups and monster SUVs have big and fat tires, while real trucks that go into the real wild world usually have tall and narrow tires. I assume it is because many feel that bigger is better (in all situations) and that’s what counts.
” … ribbed for 440,960 miles of pleasure… ” .
No comment other than this made me smile even though I just started to worry about rising sea levels again.
“… it looks soft and inviting too for those that derive pleasure from fondling such things… “.
OK, now this Corolla piece it’s getting a bit weird. But you are on a roll (of sorts).
“Slow and steady wins the race … ” .
You bet! Just think, if this is a one owner car, how much hard earned money the owner saved by not replacing it, and all following vehicles, at every 100,000 miles, even if all the replacements were Corollas.
The attractiveness of purposeful and modest vehicles has always been something that made me look cheap when actually, it was a belief that one should not let one’s choices in life reflect Superbowl and thundering 4WD vehicle TV commercials.
OK, being cheap may be a secondary reason for my automotive choices.
This Corolla is a perfect example of what a wise choice is in a world full of less-than-wise options.
Skinny tires work better at cutting through soft snow and slush, but for every other off-road application (mud, dirt, sand, etc.) the wider and bigger (circumference) the tire, the greater the flotation, hence traction.
Not always necessary to float sometimes depending on the slush conditions it is better to reach the ground …from Montréal winter expérience.
This is the last Jim Klein quote from his Corolla post that I’ll copy here; no further comment from me is needed:
“Stop squinting, the money shot will be in your face … “.
Back to watching out for rising sea levels.
It’s hard work to keep oneself entertained while writing about someone else’s white Toyota Corolla. I certainly didn’t mean any offense with any of my prose. Stay dry out there…The sea level is in the house!
This Corolla post was a delight. Junkyard finds are my favorite types of auto explorations, especially when they confirm my own car durability beliefs (aka prejudices) and when the text itself is infused with delightful bon mots.
If you like junkyard finds you might enjoy Steve Magnante’s Junkyard Crawler series on Youtube as well. I enjoy Jim’s too.
Unfortunately Steve has suffered a serious health issue. Here’s to hoping for a speedy recovery.
We had a house-sitter while we were gone this summer who showed up in a very clean Corolla wagon of this vintage. He told me that it had been in his girlfriend’s family since it was just a few years old, and that they owned two of this generation, plus an Astro van – all older than the guy or his GF.
It’s the official Eugene beater. If you need cheap wheels, you go look for one of these. For good reasons.
Gee, that doesn’t look bad at all. A bit of rust, but certainly not terminal.
Throw in a battery and a good tire, and drive it out of there.
Shame this poor little car has to end it’s devoted life in a lousy scrap yard to be picked apart first by the human vultures and then crushed whatever is left remaining.
The speedometer goes up to 110 MPH? That really caught my eye. The speedo in my 1992 Prizm only goes up to 85 MPH. I guess it comes down to General Motors being General Motors. They weren’t legally required to have the 85 MPH speedo by that point, but they kept it anyway.
Regarding timing belts, these 4-AFE engines are non-inteference. Neglected maintenance here will not lead to engine damage, just a no- start situation. My 1988 corolla’s original timing belt lasted to about 120 000 miles. If I remember correctly, there is only a timing belt gear on one camshaft and beveled gears connecting the camshafts to each other. An elegant solution for DOHC that allows for easier timing belt changes and prevents the camshafts from getting out of timing with each other.
My car uses a belt to drive a chain connecting the caqms belt change was easy, I bought one of these Corollas a 89/90 5 door hatch it sat for years in a mates driveway fresh fuel and a battery it fired right up carb 1500 engine from memory it was an XL NZ assembled with wider rims and stiff suspension and drove really well flipped within a week it ran reliably for its new owner untill cracked headlights and windscreen put it beyond roadworthy very expensive as new parts and used are unobtanium and without a current inspection pass you cant reregister.
Very impressive example of automotive endurance.
While not related to the car’s longevity, I’ll just add a comment about this car’s blue interior. I recall reading something long ago stating that blue was the optimal color for a car’s interior because it was soothing, yet not too dull. Having had one car (a 1981 Audi) with this color dash, I’ve got to agree. I wish the trend of blue interiors would return.
Agree on blue interiors. I have had 3 in the past: 1977 Chevy Impala, 1979 VW Rabbit, and 1980 Volvo 240. Also my 1997 Toyota Camry had a bluish gray interior.
She uses several timing belts but I don’t know how many CVT transmission belts the recent models will use. The old 4sp auto may not offer any savings at the pump but certainly in long term use . Nummi certainly does not perpetuate the fit&finish with the current brand there
We are looking at the reason used Toyotas maintain such a commanding price premium over most other cars and trucks. And I heartily approve! I spent several hours last night in a vehicle with 634,000 on the odometer. But it says MACK on the grille. 🙂
I would love to know the backstory on this car. The owner was probably a long-retired engineer or such who knew that the car was a keeper, but nobody else in the family could see that after the old guy either died or had to stop driving. What was good enough for Grandpa was nowhere near good enough for Liam or Amber.
I would guess that this Toyota’s white paint was the old-style single-stage enamel, and not one with a clear coat. I would imagine that clear coat finishes of this vintage don’t hold up that well against Colorado’s intense sunlight.
My thoughts exactly about the previous owner. This car says to me “Grandpa died/can’t drive…who wants his car? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?”.
And I was also about to say in my comment that this was maybe single stage paint. That stuff lasts forever with a little elbow grease and the right compounds.
and this white is certainly not of the same vintage as the massive recall of Toyota white vehicles produced in Ontario between 2008-2015 . https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10170749-9999.pdf
This car deserves full military honours – 440k in 30 years is not molly coddling, especially in a environment like Colorado.
But we are sure this hasn’t been round the clock aren’t we;-)?
709,656km! Well done. A good and faithful servant. Someone sure got their money’s worth.
I was a little surprised to see the shift knob was not worn to the point where the pattern was barely visible. It averaged just over 14k miles per year over its life span or pretty close to “average” So yeah just your typical daily driver that just kept going with the basics so the owner didn’t see a need to replace it.
In very good looking condition for a junkyard car. Makes me wonder what happened to put in there? Someone inherit a stick shift? Engine now tired more than likely although if me I’d simply rebuild. To me mechanical issues aren’t really unsolvable issues compared to body issues like collision and rust.
An E90 Corolla or Prizm with the 4A-FE and five-speed is not slow by the standards of the time, especially on a sparsely equipped base model. The suspension is very soft and there’s not much grip, so it’s not going to remind anyone of a Golf GTI, but power is not a problem with a stick shift; if you’ve only driven the automatics (which give the engine an enthusiasmectomy), the five-speed is a pleasant surprise. Excellent fuel economy, too, and it runs like a well-tuned sewing machine. It’s really a class apart from the likes of the contemporary Ford CVH engine.
I had an ’86 Gti, mine was the 8v so yes, 102 hp, but you could play with the advance and get more (albeit it you might need to run premium to avoid the knocking). I thing the 16v was around 123hp if you compare like (but the GTi was 1.8litres).
I think the GTi was probably a bit more entertaining than the Corolla, but you might have to put up with some oddities. I had mine 14 years and had to recover the front seats due to rubbing on the agressive bolsters. Mine didn’t have power steering which you might not think it should need for light weight except it came with then wide 60 series tires which when I broke my collarbone and ribs was a handfull to park (not to mention rowing the manual). It had multiple odometers but the mechanical cable running into the back of the speedometer cracked such that it stopped registering mileage…I’m sure I never approached 440960 miles but the miles I did on it were pretty entertaining. It ate voltage regulators, I didn’t have the self-machining issue on the close-ratio transaxle fortunately, but I did have to replace the one-piece rubber that ran up the A pillar all the way to the hatch which had the weatherstripping attached to it..had to get it shipped from a northern wrecking yard since the ones here in sunbelt were as bad or worse than mine. A shop messed up the rear alignment due to miscalibrated alignment machine such that I wore out a set of P600s in less than 2000 miles (they wore quickly under normal conditions too but had great grip and left black marks on my driveway even at regular speeds.
Funny thing, I replaced multiple CV joint boots and exhaust systems, have owned a 2000 Golf for 9 years longer and it still has original boots and exhaust (other than the cat) due to stainless steel instead of aluminized.
Some of these are still in taxi service in Bangkok — or at least they were last time I looked (see below) — probably with even higher mileage. Surprisingly, there are not many still about in their country of origin, but then many of them would have migrated to sunnier climes long ago anyway. There’s always demand for old Corollas from the JDM.
Love the “Mitsuboshi” sticker. I did a double take, as it looked like a bad typo. The three star logo is the icing on that particular (wafer-thin) cake.
Kind of sad to see that old Corolla sitting there waiting to be stripped for parts and crushed. It certainly doesn’t owe its owner anything, but it looks like it wouldn’t take much to get it roadworthy again for someone who needs cheap, reliable wheels. Even here in Ontario you still see the occasional Corolla of this vintage on the road doing exactly what it was designed and built for.
I love the Herring bone tweed upholstery .
Not all thrashed and grimy like most low end cars hereabouts .
I too think it was either grandpa’s unwanted car or the timing belt snapped again and they didn’t think it worth $150 to have repaired .
Here in So. Cal. I see so many good looking cars junked, yesterday I saw a nice first generation Toyota Prius with no dents and shiny paint, I wanted to go look but was bone tired after a long day working .
-Nate
A vehicle of sanctifiable worthiness, it is however possible that the car arrived in the scrapyard after the owner became expired in-situ after the terminal corrosion of boredom that 440K miles ensconsed behind the wheel of said machine must inevitably have brought.
In the alternative, any person who could wait 32 years for a money shot may well have died of the excitement when the time finally came.
Our Correspondent In Colorado is to be congratulated for wrangling ribaldry from a dead white Toyota.
I’ll be the one jerk who isn’t particularly charmed by these cars. Grandma had a 1989 Corolla DX sedan that she bought in late 1993 with about 40k on it. The car had been owned by another elderly couple prior to that, and appeared to have been well maintained.
Hers was the same engine as this one, but carbureted, and lashed to a 3 speed automatic. It was pretty sluggish, though able to maintain highway speed once you got there… as long as you were on level ground, with no wind, and traveling alone. You definitely “felt” passengers if you carried them. Turning the A/C on felt like you were dragging an anchor. Fuel economy was always good, and you could always count on the car to start.
The biggest problem was that the transmission failed catastrophically at about 120k miles. Something let go in the differential section and obliterated the case, so it wasn’t rebuildable. We kept up with service on the car, except for overlooking valve lash adjustment… and ended up burning exhaust valves in one cylinder at around 135k. CV joints were a weak point, and it was prone to warping brake rotors. It wasn’t allergic to other repairs, either… there was a starter, an alternator, and the crummy NipponDenso engine air filter always got dirty really quickly- the plastic center on these elements tended to crack, and bits of them would sometimes fall down the carburetor and be consumed.
@Jim Klein – It’s hard to see now that attrition has consumed almost all of the E90 Corollas, but it was very common to see these driving around with only 1-3 out of 5 total brake lights working by the early 2000’s. The gasket between the rear lamps and the car body would fail, allowing water into the lamp housing and getting the trunk wet. You could often see water sloshing around inside the lamps, and dirt would build up between the outer lens and the inner optical elements… in a place where you couldn’t easily clean it out. The moisture of course caused sockets and bulb bases/contacts to corrode, so you’d be dealing with no grounds, dim tail lamps, intermittent or dead brake lamps, etc. The Toyota dealer told me that the aforementioned gasket was not available on its own; you had to buy the whole rear lamp assembly to get one, so I ended up making my own.
I think my mindset toward these cars might have been different if I had experienced one with a 5 speed and fuel injection… Comparing my 3rd gen, carbureted/automatic Accord to the same car with EFI and a 5 speed was an eye opener. My grumbles aside, I do have to give the little car a thumbs up for making it 441k, though.