It’s 1971 and the economy class is heating up. After lots of plot twists, Detroit’s Big 2 have launched new models to stave off the imports’ ascendance. Meanwhile, the Japanese are bringing their most competitive offerings to date. And the long-running Beetle is selling better than ever, defying skeptics.
We know how these storylines finish, but how were these products received back in the day?
Obviously, R&T’s main interest was to test how well Detroit’s new import fighters would fare. By ’71, the imports comprised 13% of the US market and their rise could no longer be ignored. GM had done a big effort to turn out the Vega; all-new models, in a new size category, were a rarity for US carmakers. The Pinto was no less of an effort by Ford, though using many components from their European branches.
Regarding the imports, R&T picked rather wisely which brands to test. Many others are mentioned, but most eventually left the US and some disappeared altogether. About the picks, the Super Beetle and the Toyota Corona Deluxe were chosen for being the segment’s best sellers, and the Datsun 510 for being the most technically interesting and an enthusiast’s favorite.
The segment’s perennial leader was the VW, and the recently launched Super Beetle was chosen for the test. With a number of updates that were a big deal for VW, the model intended to keep the aging platform alive against the competition. Meanwhile, new for ’71, the Corona was quickly becoming the one to watch for. In Deluxe form, reviewers called it the limousine of the group, being quite roomy and comparatively luxurious. Last, the Datsun 510 was no new model, but it was a good seller and possessed IRS suspension and a lively 96-bhp 1595 cc engine.
The testing would be rather comprehensive for all five participants. 170 miles of varying road conditions; freeways, winding canyons, stop-and-go traffic, and a series of performance tests. In total, 14 categories of performance, comfort, and function would be evaluated.
With numbers totaled, the Corona Deluxe was deemed the ‘best of the group.’ It topped seven categories all related to comfort and convenience: ride, body structural integrity, ventilation, driver seating, rear seating, trim and finish, and luggage compartment. Also, the Corona was the quickest of the lot, with its engine performing smoothly and quietly.
Handling was considered the Corona’s weakest aspect. R&T considered the low scores the result of factory-recommended low tire pressure; part of Toyota’s efforts to give the Corona a ‘plush’ character. Enthusiasts may have frowned at such decisions, but Toyota knew their customers’ needs. Braking was another weak point for the Corona. Regardless, the Corona Deluxe was found to be an outstanding value that was quiet, comfortable, and strong.
Japan’s perennial number 2, Nissan in the form of Datsun, reached the second-best scoring in the group. The areas where the Datsun 510 rated best were ingress-egress and steering. The engine was considered best too, with the virile-sounding unit giving a strong performance. Testers thought the 510’s instruments and drivetrain were delightful and that it encouraged drivers to extract the most from the vehicle’s potential. The Datsun’s brakes were rated the best as well.
Meanwhile, the 510’s boxy cabin scored an easy 2nd on interior and comfort matters, but lacked the luxurious feeling of the Toyota. The Datsun 510 was summed up as being roomy, capable, and entertaining.
Time for the domestics to make an appearance. In third place, the Chevy Vega, which R&T considered a ‘very capable car,’ in a tone that sounded like faint praise. Testers thought it was the best-looking of the group, though interior trim-finish, and body structure were deemed the worst.
Handling and braking got the Vega’s best scores; in the skidpad, it reached the 2nd best cornering speed and the 2nd best stopping distance. Handling was considered as near neutral as a sedan could be, and its ventilated brakes behaved very well under normal driving.
While the Vega’s performance numbers were good, testers found the car required too much effort to achieve them. Its 3-speed gearbox was easily rated as the worst, and engine noise was excessive. The interior was ‘not pretty,’ and its seats were ‘not well designed.’ The Vega was summed up as able, roadable, and relatively crude.
For a new model, the Pinto reached an unimpressive 4th place. The packaging had much to do with it, with the Pinto being the shortest and lowest of the five, rear seat and trunk space suffered. The driving position and front seats scored rather poorly as well. In regards to performance, the car had neutral handling but was rather bouncy and possessed mediocre brakes. On the positive side, the Pinto had a delightful gearbox and decent steering. R&T’s Pinto evaluation: mediocre but cute.
I don’t think I need to go into detail as to why the Beetle, even in Super form, scored lowest in the group. There’s simply no way a car designed in the 1930s could really compete against vehicles conceived from scratch for the 1970s. The main question would be, why was it still selling so well? As the review explains, the model relied on a reputation VW had been long-building, based on two things that meant a lot to buyers: (1) a well-built, durable, and reliable car, and (2) a dealer organization carefully planned to really take care of the product.
Hindsight being 20-20, 1971 is a curious year when seen from a distance. The Big Three entered the decade with the ‘import fight’ in their minds, and in the case of GM and Ford, even joined in the fray. Meanwhile, their intermediates and full-sizers were larger and thirstier than ever. While the import wave was rising, the Big Three did much PR and ‘planning’ around how they would face the menace. However, under the surface, their actions and new products just showed a great reluctance to change. Curiously, this test contains exactly the products where one could trace the vices and virtues of most of the players. The only plot twists would be VW’s fate, and Ford to some degree, but aside from that, all subsequent events seem almost predictable.
An interesting period piece, especially as they didn’t select any front wheel drive cars for comparison.
The Austin 1300, Fiat 128, Renault 12 or Simca 1204 weren’t competitive ownership propositions given the dealer networks and their reliability, but it would have been interesting to compare the packaging, ride and handling, I suspect that even the oldest of these – the Austin- would have been mid table. The Simca 1100 was a car VW benchmarked when designing the Golf, the cheap to make torsion beam rear suspension is the only thing VW came up with to produce the definitive small car package that wasn’t already a feature of the Simca or Fiat 128.
I like the flat screen 1302 Super Beetle, but it must be one of the least numerous Beetles made. It shows how much VW was floundering in an effort to come up with a modern car.
As a prior Vega owner, I read this is more than a bit of amusement. Yes, the Vega’s handling was really nice (three seasons of SCCA B-sedan autocross drove that home to me), and yes the interior was absolutely cheap as hell (this was the car that taught me to never buy a GM car with the standard interior) . . . . . and yet the real story would wind out during the rest of the decade.
How things would change by 1977, much less 1979.
Very interesting road test I would have like to have read in the 1970s.
KInd of confirms my general preconceived notions.
Vega: Best looking (exterior-wise)
Toyota: a little “American” car made in Japan with top quality.
Datsun 510: the car I would want–fun to drive, good on gas, well-built.
Pinto: typical Ford: cheap but effecive.
VW: coasting on the well-earn reputation of quality and low deprecation.
The comment regarding the VW Beetle “a dealer organization carefully planned to really take care of the product” made me laugh:) My experience with them was all over the map–some good, some bad, definitely the weak link in my Volkswagen experience.
After decades of owning multiple car brands, what stands out among the various ownership experiences is the difference a good or bad dealer can make. I’ve owned cars that tested great but had abysmal dealer support. Those are not good memories. On the other hand, I’ve had plenty of cars that no tester would recommend, yet the dealer support made the ownership experience far better.
Auto testers can’t really evaluate dealer experience because it can vary widely even among the same brand. However I think they were dead right on one of the VWs big strengths. They seemed to have a great dealer network. It wasn’t until the Japanese brands copied that model that they got really strong.
The dealer experience could have been one of the Detroit brands great advantages. This potential seemed largely wasted as Detroit model dealers were often coasting on their history along with the brands they sold.
I remember having this issue. Always wondered what colors the various “test rides” were.
FWIW, the Corolla would have been the more obvious choice for this comparison. It was cheaper and selling at much higher numbers than the Corona, which rather faded once the Corolla got rolling.
The other thing was that relatively few low-end Vega sedans were sold. The great majority of the buyers went for the hatchback and Kammback. It was really more in the category of a low-end Mustang six from 1965-1968 rather than a true economy car. It sold on its cute styling, period.
It’s called “rigging the test.” The result was preordained before they touched a single car.
52 years of hindsight seem to bear out the findings when comparing the modern day sedan equivalents from the same five manufacturers. This test may have been the opening salvo…
Ford – No longer in this market space. Or any sedan for that matter.
Chevy – No longer in this market space. Malibu is the lone (far larger) entrant.
VW – While Golf is gone in the US and was the actual successor to the Beetle, Jetta continues and is the economy sedan, some good qualities, not a market leader, dealers apparently hit or miss.
Nissan – Has multiple overlapping entries in this space with the Sentra being the obvious one and while often maligned seems to be selling all of them rather than giving up.
Toyota – The Corolla is pretty dominant in the space of small sedans with the Camry I suppose being the actual Corona successor, most of us have heard of that one too.
Much of this market is now in the entry level CUV arena and all five manufacturers compete in it, however some manufacturers offer both options to buyers with the sedan still being less expensive in every case when offered as compared to the CUV.
How is the test “rigged?”
The Corona was the nicest car of the lot and it won for a good reason. The 510 was a blast to drive, so it was a close second.
The Pinto had no back seat and the Vega a 3 speed transmission, not to mention its awful engine.
The Beetle was last. Was that “rigged,” too?
The Corona doesn’t belong in this group.
Nor does the VW, it only belonged in a museum by 1972.
As Paul said, the Corolla would have been the more logical choice compared to the larger, plusher Corona. Even so, it seems likely the Corolla would have finished ahead of the #4 Pinto, if not ahead of the Vega.
As for the VW, it would have been hard to omit the car, as it was still the number 1 seller in this class. In fact, calendar year 1970 was VW’s all-time high in sales in the US; it would be 5 more years before Toyota as a brand would pull ahead (and never look back).
The Corolla would have won C/D’s 6-car comparison if it had been available with the larger 1600cc engine that came along the following year or two. Except for its somewhat weak-chested 1200cc engine, it was superior in just about every category.
Substitute a Corolla for the Corona and I doubt the results change; a 1971 Corolla was significantly cheaper than all the others at $1,798, and in standard spec wasn’t remotely stripped of equipment the way the others were barring the Nissan. The 1200cc 3K motor was also known for its free-revving nature and ability to punch far above what its displacement would suggest. In a 1,700lb Corolla, it wouldn’t be much of a handicap, if at all.
The Corona and the 510 were the Japanese cars that Chevrolet and Ford wanted to compete with on price. The Corolla and the Datsun 1200 cost much less, had as much useful space, sipped fuel, and were about as fast as 3-speed Vegas and 1600 Pintos. They also had standard equipment and were nicely put together. At least comparing the Vega and Pinto to the Corona and 510 gave them some cover for their uncompetitive pricing when outfitted with a livable load of optional comforts.
FWIW, the Vega won a similar 6-car comparison by Car and Driver at the time:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/cc-chevrolet-vega-winner-of-1971-small-car-comparison-and-gms-deadly-sin-no-2/
The Vega had only a 3-speed transmission. A 4-speed like the others was optional. Was its’ omission R&T’s fault for not speccing it or GM’s for leaving it on the option list when they knew it was the class standard? I vote the latter.
I have one period magazine where Road & Track tested two Vegas; an economy sedan and a sporty coupe. The coupe by no means had all of the available options, and I’m almost certain it didn’t have A/C. Still, by the time they’d added the 4-speed, the 2-barrel carburetor, and some semblance of upholstery, the Vega was around $2,800 as tested. I suspect that’s the way Vegas were sold. GM probably shipped some poverty spec 3-speed sedans in the hope of luring in import intenders, and they had expensive 4-speed cars for their existing multi-car households.
Unfortunately, if I were buying one of these in ’71 it appears that I would have mistakenly bought the Vega. A highway test drive has the Pinto, Datsun and Toyota screaming for mercy at almost 4000 rpm while the Vega turns 2700 rpm at 70 mph. This combined with GM still having a solid reputation at the time would have doomed me to a bad decision. Thankfully I was too young to be in the market.
You probably would have, because in 1971 the Vega was the car getting all the publicity. GM’s determination to drive the Japanese into the ocean, etc., etc., etc., and the public still had enough faith in GM to believe that line. In fact, when the Vega was introduced, GM still had an almost blemish-free reputation, the early Corvair being the only bobble in their product line since the Copper Cooled Chevrolet (in 1922!). And, there were more Chevrolet dealers out there than anyone else.
Plus, Toyota was only beginning to get the reputation of “God’s own car”, and at this point said reputation was primarily on the coasts. Foreign cars with an excellent reputation in this class was Volkswagen. Period.
It wasn’t until around the ’74 model year that the reputation of the Vega really came crashing down. Yes, I got really good service out of my ’73 GT, it’s still a very fond memory to this day. And, I’ll freely admit, a lot of that has to do with my having traded it in on a ’76 Monza 2+2. I was already starting to see wisps of smoke out to tailpipe as I traded it in. Had I kept that car for a fourth year, I’m fairly certain my memories would have been a lot different.
I was looking for an economical car to commute to community college in 73. Looked at and test drove new Pintos, “special edition millionth Vega”, even a Plymouth Cricket. Wasn’t really impressed with any of them and ended up buying a year old 71 Toyota Corona. Had the 8-RC engine which was smooth and powerful compared to the others. Great comfort, handled well, 30 MPG. Car served well, fun and zippy. Had no complaints about that car.
BTW, at the Plymouth dealer, the salesman said-“Yeah, we have most replacement parts for the Cricket, but replacement sheet metal could be a problem”. Crossed that right off the list.
Honestly…I cannot fathom a reason to buy any of these cramped, noisy penalty boxes over a base model Plymouth Valiant or Dodge Dart. Price is about the same, real-world mileage (with six cylinder and manual transmission) is comparable, and it’s VASTLY more practical and comfortable than these…enclosed golf carts.
This group…I think I’d rather hitch-hike.
You have very obviously never driven a 510. It is one of the most fun cars ever made.
Not everybody needs, wants or can afford a large car. My 2018 Golf SportWagen is the largest car I have owned in the past 20+ years.
Most 510s in this area long since dissolved. I’m not sure I could fit in one if I wanted to.
John in NH, sorry but those are just some very uninformed comments. I’m 6′ 4″ and fit just fine in my ’70 510. In contrast I remember my head hitting the headliner in my friend’s Plymouth Duster back in the day. Agreed with Canucklehead too on the 510 fun factor: absolutely, 100%.
As far as I can tell, the base price for a ’71 Dart was at least $2400 which is about 20% more than the base prices of these before any option. Then as now, 20% is quite a difference. Is your source different?
I don’t see how a Dodge 6 would somehow get the same fuel economy (rated vs rated or real-world vs real world) as a gaggle of 4s from the same period.
The test compared “5 economy sedans”, not “5 economy sedans vs one costing 20% more”. It’s no surprise the Dart might be larger or more comfortable for some, so would Ford and GM’s next size up vehicles.
I saw a ~$2250 base sticker for the 318 Duster, od expect a six to be at least $150 less. (I’m not home, can’t check search history.)
The only published source I could find shows the base I-6 Duster at $2310 with the 4door at $2400, V8 would be more. But yeah if you have a picture of a 1971 sticker that’d be good to see. I don’t think they were still $2100 in ’71 as you indicated which was the base price of a Vega.
https://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z10449/plymouth-valiant-duster.aspx#:~:text=In%20the%20front%20was%20a,an%20astounding%20173%2C592%20were%20sold.
If Car & Driver is correct, the base (198ci six) Duster was $2287 in 1972, and was Chrysler’s lowest-priced car. Add $24 for a floor shifter, about the same for fast-ratio steering, $40 for disc brakes, $41 for Sure Grip (losing the spindly 7.25″ axle), and $13(!) for the HD suspension, and you’d…actually have a fun car: light, nimble, good balance (the six is ~110lbs lighter than the V8), good handling.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/vintage-car-and-driver-getting-your-duster-just-how-you-want-it-in-1972/
This group…I think I’d rather hitch-hike.
Since young folks driving these kinds of cars, especially the VW, were the most likely ones to offer a ride to a hitchhiker, I guess you would have most likely ended up walking.
There’s a reason why the local rallying scene was heavily populated by 510’s. Basically, it was the poor man’s 2002.
And there were a lot of people who actually liked small cars. Heck, since my first Vega, I’ve never gone out of that size if I was spending my own money. The biggest exceptions I’ve ever owned were a pair of A-body Buick Centuries I inherited from my late parents. And they were gone as quickly as I could afford. Ways too big for my tastes.
The world was about two years away from the real revolution, which was when the Honda Civic joined the fray. There had been a handful of FWD entrants in 1971, but none had what it took to really thrive here in the US.
For the next several decades, these tests were quite similar to this one – only with Honda replacing Datsun as the one with the high fun-to-drive factor. The US entries were almost always compromised in serious ways, the Toyotas were almost always top choices, with Hondas closely behind. VW often remained the lone Euro entrant, drifting in and out of relevance as it struggled to find the right combination of driving dynamics, showroom appeal and durability.
Also, it is interesting to consider what the US models might have looked like if VW had built and sold a sedan here. The VW’s 2 door body (whether a product of German preferences or of the age/price class of the vehicle) seemed to set the template for what a very small car should be in America. Everywhere else, 4 doors were common in the small cars, but not here.
I can imagine that if VW had sold a lot of 4 door cars, the Pinto and Vega would have turned out to be very different cars from what they were. Although they would still probably have been heavily compromised compared to the others in this test.
Everywhere else, 4 doors were common in the small cars, but not here.
We’ve covered this subject before a number of times. Only in France were four door small cars common/most popular body style. The small British cars (Minor, Austin 1100/America/MG, Ford Cortina, etc. were built as four doors, but either that version was not imported as such to the US and/or were quite uncommon compared to the 2-door versions. I can barely remember seeing a four door Cortina here, if ever. The Austin Marina was overwhelmingly sold a s 2-door here.
The same with the other German cars: there was a Kadett four door, but it was only offered here for a year or two, and was profoundly rare. That largely applied to its successor, the 1900/Ascona. And it had applied to the Rekord when it was sold here in the ’50s. And there were a number of other German cars sold here in the ’50s, all two-doors.
Although the mid-sized BMW 1800/200 was a four door, it never sold very well here. But the smaller two-door only 1600/2002 was of course a huge hit.
The Corolla and Datsun 1200/B210/210 were built as four doors, but very few if any came to the US.
The Datsun 510 did not really take off here until the second year when the cheaper 2-door version became available, and dominated its sales.
Yes, the Corona only came as four door sedan or hardtop coupe, but then it was a fairly expensive car in Japan, and was the most expensive in this test. The Corolla really belonged in this grouping.
The other reality is that in all of the cars I have listed, the 2-doors had the exact same rear seat room as the four door versions, so unless you were hauling a lot of adults regularly in the back seat, the extra expense wasn’t logical. Hence the dominance of the 2-doors.
The simple reality is that 2-doors were inherently cheaper, and all of these cars competed fiercely on price.
The Pinto and Vega weren’t packaged and styled as they were because of the VW; quite the opposite; they were just reflecting the Big 3’s take an what a small car should look like: a shrunken Torino coupe/Mustang or a shrunken Camaro/Nova. They wanted to keep the family look intact. And it certainly didn’t hurt their sales.
The reality is that the overwhelming majority of buyers of all these small cars were not buying family cars; they were either single or childless, or it was the second car. Back seats, and especially back doors just were not a priority. It’s not a coincidence that 2-doors were extremely common with buyers of domestic compacts, and that had nothing to do with the VW.
“The other reality is that in all of the cars I have listed, the 2-doors had the exact same rear seat room as the four door versions, so unless you were hauling a lot of adults regularly in the back seat, the extra expense wasn’t logical. Hence the dominance of the 2-doors.”
That was exactly my logic in buying my first car, a 1975 VW Rabbit, as a 2-door rather than a 4-door. It cost $140 less. I was young and single with no plans yet for marriage, yet I wanted the roominess of the Rabbit’s back seat for carrying occasional passengers. In comparison, the competing RWD Toyota and Nissan models had rather cramped accommodations in back.
I never considered the Vega or Pinto, and the Civic was half a size smaller. So the Rabbit it was, but I was sorry with its poor reliability. Dealer support wasn’t the best anymore by this time also; I think VW dealers had become too arrogant.
There also seemed to have been a mindset among people who wanted a small car for the family that you might as well go all-out and get a wagon. Some of those were still 2-doors but, Pinto/Vega aside, they faded fast in the mid-70s (although in 1974-76 the Pinto was the bestselling wagon of any size class in America…)
Within their own home markets, 4-doors outsold 2 by huge margins in the 1600cc class in the UK, Italy and Japan to the point that Fiat and Toyota didn’t even bother with 2-door sedans in the 124 and Corona lines, and Ford likely only built a 2-door Mk3 Cortina because the Germans had already done the heavy lifting of tooling up their Taunus version.
(By the time the Fiat 131 and 3rd gen Corona 2-door sedans appeared in 1974-5 the huge mass of American buyers they sought had moved down a segment).
For the 510 specifically, I’d wonder if it would’ve finished ahead of the Corona if it had been tested in its’ 4-door, carpeted and better insulated form. Maybe not, since by reputation its’ shell was more lightly built than Toyota would’ve accepted and the extra shell stiffness of the 2-door was desirable.
In this period, Dusters, 2 door Novas, 2 door Mavericks, and Gremlins sold multiples of the corresponding 4 door cars.
If you really needed a family hauler in the US, you bought bigger new or used if you could. This class of car was for childless couples, singles, and second-car duty.
My family always had big 2-door cars. Even the kids preferred climbing behind the seat and relaxing in the big lounge on trips. Doors spoil that.
Except the Honda Civic belongs in the Corolla Datsun 1200 group, really small cars not this grouping
In 1971 I got a Saab 95 V4, but that was my offbeat taste, and I totally get why the Saab 95/96 wasn’t included in the test.
At some point in this time frame, Consumer Reports had a test of a larger group of subcompacts, including the Simca 1204. It would be interesting to track that down.
Apropos of the Pinto’s brakes, R&T had an earlier Pinto road test that commented on the brakes’ terrible control in a panic stop. They said the $32 price for the optional front disc brakes was reasonable, but they should have been standard equipment.
Of these cars, I’d take the Datsun 510.
The Simca 1204 came in #2 in C/D’s 6-carcomparison (the Vega was #1).
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/un-curbside-classic-simca-1204-1971-small-car-comparison-no-2/
Sister had a brand new Corona. Piece of junk from day one. Took 5-10 min. to start every morning.
There is a lot of truth in this obviously slanted road test .
Nevertheless I still see daily drive VW Beetles almost daily and rarely any of the others .
If GM hadn’t made the penny saving part of the Vega it would have killed VW Beetle sales .
-Nate
The Beetle was living on borrowed time, even if 1970 was VW’s best year in the US. It was just too old.
Toyota and Datsun killed the Beetle. The Pinto, and even the lamentable Vega, were simply extra nails in VW’s coffin.
I think from the time of it’s launch of the Toyota Corona in the US in 1965, Toyota consistently improved–and just as importantly, never degraded. Toyota offered VW levels of reliabilty and operating cost in a car much better suited for the American consumer.
So did Datsun–but Datsuns were sportier. Datsun hit a home run (in my book) with the 510 in 1968. Another home run with the 240Z in 1971. Their small pick-ups seemed cooler to me as kid. Datsun were “cool Japanese cars”. Toyotas were OK.
But after this string of hits, Datsun degraded. The successor to the 510 was..what? I don’t even recall, but it was not as good. The decent 1200 was replaced by the really ugly B210, and the F10. These cars improved, but Datsun lost ground at the same time Honda hit the scene. And even more than Toyota, from the mid-70s thru the early 90s, every successive Honda was a bigger and better hit than the car it replaced.
And fast forward to today, in an environment where most vehicles are pretty good, pretty evenly matched, hard to see out of, and kind of boring isolation chambers, the only new car that I like is a….Toyota Camry, the successor to the Corona in this road test. The other new vehicle I liked, the 4-cylinder 2023 Toyota Tacoma, ended production.
The Datsun 510’s successor was the 710. In an end-of-year sum-up of that year’s test cars, R&T wrote, “Our review was anything but rave, and a journalist acquaintance in Canada who bought one thinks we were too kind to the car.”
My Grandma drove a 1976 710 when I was a kid, and it was a thoroughly decent car. Its only real foible was that it rusted quite alarmingly in a state that saw plenty of snow, but didn’t use road salt. But comparing the 710 to the 510… it swapped the IRS for a solid axle, and swapped the 510’s overall cleanly chiseled shape for that funky origami look that many Japanese automakers explored in the 1970’s; both Nissan/Datsun and Subaru leaned in on that pretty hard for a few years. It turned the fairly cool and could-be-sporty 510 into a stolid, solid, piece of automotive transportation not unlike a Corona. Grandma’s next car was a 1978 510, which brought the styling back into the real world, and put it atop the 710/Stanza/Violet platform. It resulted in another thoroughly good car to get you where you needed without quickening your pulse too much. It also could not outrun the rust monster that consumed the 710.
My first car was a ’74 710 which I had up until 1981 when I defected over to VW (haven’t left yet). Mine was a blue 4 door.
It wasn’t very common (at least where I lived) as the B210 and 610 seemed to be more often chosen. I had it for all 4 years of undergraduate studies (up in Vermont); I was a commuter student and the car was always parked outside. I kept it almost a year into my 1st job after graduating but on a trip back to my parents from where I’d moved for work, I hit a patch of black ice and bit the (cable) guardrail. Got it fixed up only to sell it after buying a used Scirocco….I wanted FWD after that It was an automatic; it always had a high idle when cold such that I’d need to shift into neutral in snowy weather at stoplights else the rear end would crab to the side. In a roundabout way it was probably an ideal car for me while in school; my commute was about 20 miles and seldom (only during the blizzard of ’78) would the car not start, it was slow and pretty simple to fix. It did rust as all cars do up up there; I gave the worst test drive trying to sell it when some parts fell off the car during the drive…but the guy still bought it (small cars sold well with fresh memories of 2nd gas shortage just 2 years earlier). The car was rustproofed but that didn’t help much, the bumpers were particularly bad.
My Dad had small import as his 2nd car, starting with a ’59 Beetle and then a new ’68 Renault R10 and he undoubtedly influenced what I bought….and helped me out with a new battery and toolkit to keep it on the road. He went FWD in 1976 with a Subaru DL (they weren’t yet AWD).
I even drove a “new” Datsun 510 as a transporter for Hertz in ’78, which I liked…think it had the “NAPS-Z” engine mine lacked. Never drove original 510 but rode in one of my co-worker’s.
Mostly due to purchases of my 2 youngest sisters, my family has gravitated to Nissan with both of them owning qty-2 200/240SX models each (middle sister still has her ’97 bought new…though she also briefly had a Toyota Tercel).
Sadly Tom, I agree .
I’m one of those few who thinks Pintos were good, cheap, reliable cars along with the Chevette .
Datsuns were nice too but the reality is they didn’t and don’t last long .
Toyotas are stellar cars to be sure but I’d rather not own/drive one anyway .
The thing to remember here is : not everyone wants to buy or own the most practical transportation device for their specific needs .
-Nate
The Camry did not replace the Corona it was sold in conjunction to the Corona which was finally killed off in the late 90s with the Corona wagon renamed Caldina the sedan stopped production, the 90s models were good cars NZ new Coronas had a retuned suspension wider tyres disc brakes all round and galvanised bodies they went and handled remarkably well for a Japanese car
“Nevertheless I still see daily drive VW Beetles almost daily and rarely any of the others .”
Does anyone else have this experience? I don’t doubt Nate at all, but I’ve lived on both coasts in recent years and haven’t seen an air-cooled Beetle move under its own power since…I don’t even know when. I haven’t seen one at a Cars and Coffee in Virginia Beach, and I saw more rat-rodded Model-T Fords being driving a decade ago in Ocean Beach. I thought I saw an air-cooled Transporter a few weeks ago, but it turned out to be a shell wrapped around a smoothie stand.
Come to Los Angeles .
In addition to more nuts than a bag of almond cookies we have daily driver VW’s typ I & Typ II’s .
Saturday I was in Gardena when I heard that familiar sound and looked, sure enough here came a ratty old ’72 #113 up the hill on Western Av. driven by a woman in her 50’s……
She waved as she went by .
-Nate
That’s cool. I was just starting to wonder if you lived near a group of hobbyists/collectors who still kept them going. The closest things we still have on the roads here is an occasional 356 being driven to a show.
There are a number of air cooled VWs still on the streets here. I’ve documented quite a few of them over the years. There’s a ’66 a block from me, a K-G another block from me, and I could go on….
It is cool .
The South West has a good climate for keeping oldies on the road long past their best by date .
Plenty of sharp well kept restorations or hobby cars too, plus I live in the lower rent part of town where it’s still fashionable to own an older vehicle .
The Pacific Northwet also has scads of older vehicles, I don’t fully grasp why they don’t all rust out but it’s nice .
Pretty soon all us Geezers who grew up with what are now classic/historical vehicles will be gone and the remaining ones will be in museums .
-Nate
I live in Alabama and have a job that has me driving around over much of the top 1/2 of the state and I see at least one a week somewhere. Being a VW nut I do have some sort of radar for them. I love that it can be the nastiest, rainy, stormy day and I’ll see a 50 year old Beetle trudging along through it.
Interesting that all these cars are remembered quite well today, except for the winning Corona, which is all but forgotten and extremely rare on the ground today.
FWIW a 1971 Corona was my grandfather’s first car, he quite liked it and it provided good service until killed by rust around 1982.
I’d like the chance to drive a stock 510, to see how fun they really were.
Toyotas are latecomers to the collectible hobby, probably because they weren’t super popular with the enthusiast community when they were new. The Beetle and the 510 are well loved by collectors and were super popular with the enthusiast community when they were new. The Pinto and the Vega are notorious lessons from history.
Lets be real a 71 Corolla was a penalty box on wheels 1200cc engines they dont belong in this test by size alone, the Corona is a better car Ive driven a few early 70s Corollas they are not nice but I owned a 71 Corona 1600 4 speed built by AMI in Melbourne it was roomy enough went well enough and used very little fuel it had shit brakes(drums all round) and the handling was very average but it was a bloody good car,
For me, choosing for practical reasons, it would be either the Toyota or Datsun, as clearly these are good and roomy cars for their time. However, in terms of choosing purely for emotional reasons, the VW wins hands-down for me with it’s antiquated charm.
VW was still going very strong, in 1971 it sold around 319 k units against 345 k Vegas and 340 k Pintos.
Could not find exact data for the others.
When I was a kid, the humble Bug was everywhere and had an incredibly loyal fan base.
Amazing how, in my limited opinion, Volkswagen squandered all of this goodwill in the intervening decades.
Sadly the Beetle had simply run it’s course .
VW Ag tried mightily with the A1 and other platforms but in the end drooping sales are the # 1 concern of any company .
That more old Beetles are still chugging ’round is more due to initial build quality and better raw materiels .
-Nate
Nobody has mentioned it, but a Vega GT with a 4-speed and “deluxe” interior was a sweet, stylish, fun-to-drive car. Not sure how much more it cost than a standard Vega, but it probably would have been my choice in 1971. That was at a time when the Vega’s many problems hadn’t surfaced yet.
I have in numerous other postings when the Vega comes up, having had a ’73 Vega GT from new, kept it for three years and did a lot of rallying and three seasons SCCA B-sedan autocross with it, and the car was about as close to flawless as you could get from an American car back in the early 70’s. My experience with it was so good that I traded it in on a 76 Monza 2+2, and traded that in on a 79 Monza Kammback.
Which was such a puerile disaster that it was the early 2000’s before I considered looking at anything with the Chevrolet nameplate again, and my current Chevrolet Bolt before I owned a Chevy that I could honestly say I was completely happy with the car.
Yeah, that 79 was my ‘never again’ car.
Only complaint I had with the 73 was I didn’t spend the money on the extra cost interior and seats. Bad, bad mistake. It was still reliable the day I traded it in, although I was starting to see a wisp of smoke out the exhaust at that point. I don’t want to think what the next owner put up with.
Pretty much everyone says they were attractive cars let down by build quality.
What if GM put Opel in Chevy instead of Buick showrooms from the beginning?
The problem with road testing new cars, and buying one based on the results, is of course, what about three years from now? When I moved to Hawaii with the ten year old VW, I saw nearly new Datsuns rusting away. Only my muffler dissolved in the tropical air.
I owned a ’71 Vega hatchback, 4 speed with 2bbl engine, paid $600 in ’79. It used oil. But didn’t smoke badly or foul plugs, it had about 60k miles on it, don’t know if engine was original. The transmission rattled badly, but shifted OK and didn’t pop out of gear. I replaced it with a $75.00 used unit, it sounded exactly the same, so I guess that’s how they were. Water pump failed but temp lamp didn’t come on, coolant was gone and a little steam came out from under hood. Didn’t run as good after waterpump replacement,and started using more oil, then one day starter engaged while running, had to pull battery cable to stop starter spinning engine after I shut the ignition off. When I reattached the cable, everything worked normally. I quickly sold it for $600, bought it to use while I rebuilt my ’66 VW fastbacks engine over a period of a few months.
Parents bought a new ’72 Pinto sedan, 2.0 4 speed with AC, front disc brakes, deluxe trim and AM radio. Tiny back seat and shoebox sized trunk, but ran really well, was fun to drive and proved trouble free, really have nothing bad to say about it. Pintos did sell well back then, a friend had a ’74 for years he abused, timing belt ( non interference motor) was about the most serious repair it needed was a 2.3 4 speed with front disc brakes. It had about 200k on it when he sold it, still running.
I had a’73 Super Beetle, yellow Sport Bug that I sold, the Vega/Fastback were its replacement after I lost lots of money modifying the engine, long story, in fact Paul turned a post into a CC article. I owned many air cooled VW’s back in the day.
No Japanese cars for me back then so no experience with Toyota or Datsun.