If it weren’t for the all-new accord that arrived at the same time as this Corolla SR-5 Liftback, it would have likely made a bigger impression. It was another well thought-out extension of the increasingly popular Corolla line, offering up a body style that was really best described as a shooting brake, given its low headroom and quite modest back seat.
Having had a bit of seat time in one of these as well as an early Accord, the Honda’s packaging was drastically better. As R&T pointed out: if you were 6′ or under, it was reasonably comfortable. I’m not. It was like riding in a…Volvo 1800ES sportswagon. Cramped, but all the solid and proven Corolla elements were there, along with the slickest-shifting 5 speed in the world at the time and pretty decent handling.
My brother in law picked up a used yellow one of these, the color some 80% seemed to be. He had it seemingly forever, as he kept it as a DD because he didn’t want to put too much wear on the newer Jetta he also had. he was anal about washing it, and it looked like new by the time it was almost 15 years old. Of course this was in the Bay Area, where rust wasn’t an issue.
There’s still one or two of these around here, although I haven’t run into one lately. I’m a big fan of RWD Corollas of this vintage and the next generation, but I’ll pass on the chop-top Liftback, thank you. Make mine a two-door sedan or wagon.
R&T noted that Toyota was increasingly tailoring their cars for the American market, and it showed in a number of ways including softening the SR-5 suspension. It didn’t hurt handling; it actually improved it somewhat. Toyota’s efforts to please Americans was just getting underway, and the rest is history.
I wonder in 1976 when Toyota was making High quality reliable cars like this and cars like Celica and coronas what was coming out of the big three?my dad Remembers in early 80s American cars were so bad that people used to say GM stands for Garbage Motors.
Early 80s were not good for GM. Transition fo FWD was tough
I would say a 1975-76 GM car (except for the Vega) was pretty good quality. At least our 1975 was.
Our 1980 Fairmont was decent, and didn’t rust like some Hondas. Not trouble-free, but decent.
Also, keep in mind, that Corolla didn’t have the complexity of power steering, or automatic, or A/C. All these things could break down. American cars had them (and needed them due to size), Japanese did not. And those things cluttered up the engine compartment, making service harder.
I worked at a Chevy dealership during this time. For me wife’s DD, we had an Accord and then three Subarus. Probably says it all right there. I always drove a Caprice or a Malibu as a company car. GM always did a great full and mid size car. Further down the model line… not so much.
*BTW, Toyota and Honda most certainly did have Air Conditioning available across the product line. And it worked well- which was not a given in imports at that time.
Thank you for posting this- it’s a perfect bookend to the Accord. Both cars sold extremely well when new, but for different reasons. Those reasons gave a glimpse into the future Corporate philosophy of Honda and Toyota. The Accord was a much more entertaining car to drive, while the Corolla LB offered what was already known as a durable, reliable mechanical package in a stylish new wrapper.
I seriously considered one of these before I bought my VW Rabbit early in 1978. The one I drove was lightly used (8k miles, I think) and was, of course, yellow. Given the passage of time I’m not sure why I decided on the Rabbit instead of the Corolla Liftback. I suspect that it had to do with me perceiving that the VW would be more reliable in the long run than the Toyota. As it turned out I did get many years (and 117k miles) of good service from the Rabbit but this was probably more my good luck than anything else. In any event it would be 15 more years before I purchased my first Toyota. The RAV4 that is my wife’s driver is our 7th Toyota and we have good results from all of them. None of them have been really exciting to drive but there is much to be said about reliability.
A dear friend of mine had one of these back in 1978 and for some years after grad school. She had a 5 spd and it was dark blue. Really the first Japanese car I ever rode in and I was impressed by the car. In 1980 it was hello my first Japanese car, a 1980 Civic wagon 5 spd.
$3978 in 1976 for the SR5 Liftback. I think a Mustang II was $3500 MSRP, $3700 for the hatchback.
The Mustang had a nice interior, IMO.
A little less room.
But the Toyota was just a more “livable’ car.
The Mustang was heavy and sluggish compared to the Corolla. Power Steering helped. There was another $120 or so, and now we have price parity.
The Mustang’s 2.3 sounded decent to about 4000 rpm, but when you needed more power, it sounded like it would fall apart, so rough. It could’ve used that 5th gear that the Japanese offered.
The Mustang, like many American cars, promised “more” but delivered “less”. And that is before reliability.
In my experience, not many small Japanese cars had A/C in the 70s. I only recall US cars with it–but that’s just me.
I do recall car magazines derided the weak A/C of most imports. As late as 1987, C&D or Automobile derided the Acura Integra A/C as being OK as long as it was 80 degrees or less. Conversely, C&D praised the 85 Golf’s A/C as being as good as an AMerican car–and I can vouch for that, mine could liquefy air! It was one more pleasant, unexpected surprise with that car.
” Conversely, C&D praised the 85 Golf’s A/C as being as good as an AMerican car–and I can vouch for that, mine could liquefy air!”
Funny, I was a little disappointed in mine. My car was black (which didn’t help) but I was perplexed that I would be required to keep the system on recirc for the coldest air. The big American systems I had grown accustomed to (like in my 77 New Yorker that was traded on the GTI) never showed a difference in air temperature between recirc/max and fresh/normal settings. My fiancee/wife’s 88 Accord had a better system than my 85 GTI had.
Maybe your car was off, or your standards are higher.
Prior to 1985, my family had never owned an air conditioned car–and by then I was pretty much out of the house.
However, we did take a road trip in my dad’s new, air conditioned LTD (Fox) in the summer of 85, and the car was cool to cold.
My perception at the time was that that Detroit did air conditioners (and automatics) “well”, imports did not.
When I bought my first new car a year later, the air conditioned GTI, I thought it was cold. A couple of years later, a colleague and I took it for a work trip, Viriginia to South Carolina in July, and every so often she would ask if we could turn down the A/C (which I did).
I didn’t buy the car for the A/C, but was pleasantly surprised by it. I worked well for about 8 years, 120k. Then not so well, I had the O-ring replaced, got 2 summers more out of it. Then, when it stopped working well, I never bothered with it.
The AC in my ’86 Jetta works well. I lived in SoCal and it did well even in August traffic jams. I did have to replace the receiver drier shortly after I bought it in ’91, and it was ice cold after that.
Good friend of my father had this model in Hong Kong, he drove me around when I left mainland China, this was his first Japanese car convinceby his children to buy. Previously, he owned Himmer and Austin.
Toyota is always focusing on reliability, its products are perfectly adequate engineered and produced. This formula servs Toyota well. It can combine the good components with good system performance very well. If you look at its products, it never uses very advanced technology but mature and reliable technology. Its production methods are also second to none. Now it totally owns the market of middle class of American.
Middle class America’s favorite vehicles are the Ford F150 and Chevrolet Silverado. The Toyota Tundra isn’t even on their radar.
My family got a California-sourced mustard yellow ’77 Corolla 2 door sedan by way of my dad’s coworker for $1 in the early-mid 90s. The coworker relocated from sunny CA to road-salt ridden Ithaca NY. The Corolla had been exposed to a decade’s worth of road salt by the time it came into our possession, hence the $1 price. It was a second car, my dad’s daily driver to work as my mom got her license and took the wheel of our ’90 Civic Wagon. We had owned a string of progressively less-used up Civics by that point, starting with an ’82 5spd Wagon (critically rusty, bought then sold for $750), then an ’85 sedan (rear ended and totaled). The Corolla was a base model with a 4spd and manual steering. Compared to the “sporty” Hondas, the Toyota felt like the more familiar Soviet iron of the old country, but obviously better built. We had that Corolla for a few years before it got too rusty to pass inspection, it started to bend in half on our mechanic’s lift. Sold it to him for $1, he in turn sold it to a local farmkid as a field car for $50.
I remember reading this article when it first came out… yes, I feel old.
Me too. And I remember the 1976 Accord cover story in R&T as well. We’re not old … we just have good memories.
I quite liked these Corollas when they were out. I had occasion to drive one about weekly for about 6 months, using the back to transport E size engineering schematics to a supplier. The car was quite roomy, it handled the drawings easily, and the ride was sporty in my view. I enjoyed the 5 speed shifter and the cornering was good compared to some of the American cars I had driven at the time. By contrast, I also had occasion to drive a Renault Le Car of that vintage as well, and I felt lucky to get from point A to B and back in one piece.
I took a very hard look at an SR5 Liftback, new, in 78. (the one I drove was sliver) As you say, headroom was an issue, especially as I have relatively short legs and sit tall in the saddle for someone only 6′. I managed to get the seat leaned back far enough to clear the roof, and proceeded with the test drive.
Loved the engine, which had an interesting, smooth, whirr to it. The forward gears may have been slick, but reverse was a beast. Reverse was to the right and down. Thing was, it had a lockout on it. To get past the lockout, you had to simultaneously pull the shifter up and to the right. That move would be a piece of cake in a JDM right hand drive car as the driver would be pulling the shifter directly toward himself. On a left hand drive car, it took a double jointed move that gave me fits.
The first gen Accord was no bargain. One coworker had 5″ diameter rust through patches on the tops of both front fenders by 1980. With only 50K on the clock, his Accord also burned a quart of oil about every 500 miles. Another coworker had an early Accord in the less car hostile environment in Delaware. His big gripe was the “semi-automatic” choke, in conjunction with the car being very cold blooded. The choke had to be pulled out by hand, but would retract as the car warmed up. Thing was, the choke always came off way too fast, so he would be turning a corner and be simultaneously cranking the wheel, rowing the trans, and desperately trying to pull the choke back into operation so the car would not stumble or die in the middle of traffic.
So, I passed on the Corolla due to cramped accommodations and the reverse lockout. Never really considered the Accord, though I think the Honda bike dealer in Kalamazoo had started carrying the cars by 78. Ended up going back to Ford, for the POS Zephyr, which is another story.
“At a time when some Japanese designers seem to be penning cars for cartoons…” Hmmm… What would the author have to say about some current Japanese designs? My mother-in-law won’t replace her 12 year old Lexus because of the grilles on the latest RX. Someone, a few years back, referenced Nissan’s “angry alien” styling. I think it’s also apropos to recent Toyotas/Lexuses.
I thought the Corolla Liftback was a much better-looking car than the Accord coupe, which struck me as a little confused style-wise and slightly on the wimpy side. The Corolla looked faster and tougher, a more muscular (American?) take on that other ‘looker’ of the 1970s, the Euro-style Vega. This is the car GM coulda/shoulda built.
Interesting perspective, and with 40 years hindsight, I agree. The Accord was both historically and technically more significant, but the Corolla was a looker. Not QUITE as nice as a Vega, but close 🙂
A co-worker had one of these things “back in the day”. He was one of the ‘Yota tribe nattering constantly about “reliability”. The rear axle/differential had to be replaced under warranty. Sure, tell me again how reliable it is.
Typo in the calculated data. 3200 mph at 1000 rpm?!?! 18.8 engine refs at 60 mph. LOL. Obviously backwards.
My impression with these early Japanese cars was that they revved too high at highway speeds. They were great up to 50 mph.
The Corolla Liftback really wasn’t intended to be a wagon — it was based on the Corolla coupe shell, so it was supposed to be a sporty shooting brake.
The comparison to the Accord is an interesting reminder of how far Honda pushed the Accord up the ladder in size and price. The earliest Accord hatchback was a little bigger than the E50 Corolla Liftback, but only just. The sedan edged into the Carina/Corona class, although it wasn’t really until the CA Accord in 1985 that Honda went head to head with rivals in that class.
One interesting point: In Japan, the Liftback was initially used to showcase the new 12T engine, which had the same bottom end as the 2T-C used on U.S. cars, but had a lean-burn (TTC-L) head, made under license from — Honda! It was not made by Honda, but it used the same CVCC technology.