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Driven: '75 Toyota Corolla, Eating the Beetle
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Something amazing happened in 1975. For the first time in two decades, a company other than Volkswagen topped the U.S. imported car sales charts. Toyota, regardless of whose numbers you use and not including trucks, surged past the German carmaker to a position of imports dominance that has not since been relinquished.The once-ubiquitous Beetle was fading as more sophisticated automobiles came onto the market, not the least of which was VW’s own trend-setting front-drive Rabbit. Toyota, however, relied on a lineup of conventional front-engine/rear drive models that included Corona, Celica and Carina, but whose numbers were led by the Corolla, a smaller, more basic set of wheels. Offered in a variety of formats, including two-door and four-door sedans, hardtop and wagon, plus enthusiast variants such as the SR-5, Corolla accounted for almost half of Toyota’s 1975 sales.
The Corolla had entered Toyota’s U.S. lineup in 1969 as a way of extending the Japanese carmaker’s line—at the time primarily the Corona—for direct confrontation with the pending U.S. subcompacts from Chevrolet and Ford—the Vega and Pinto respectively.
Originally a 1077-cc mini, Toyota grew it to a size more appropriate for American conditions. For the ’75 model year, the Corolla received a larger body and as standard equipment, a 1588-cc four-cylinder engine. The short-stroke, hemi-head overhead-valve four was rated at 75 hp at 5800 rpm. California models, equipped with a catalytic converter, were rated at 73 horsepower. With a 9.0:1 compression ratio, it ran on regular fuel, leaded or unleaded as appropriate.
Contemporary reports, though, said that the Corolla wasn’t happy on such a diet, pinging under load. Well, that’s the ’70’s for you, with almost everyone still trying to figure out emissions using a conventional distributor and a carburetor, such as the two-barrel Aisan carburetor on the Corolla.
Toyota backed up the engine with a four-speed manual, an optional five-speed manual or a three-speed automatic. A 4.10:1 final drive ratio was standard.
The Corolla’s layout was utterly conventional, with MacPherson struts in front and a live axle on leaf springs in the rear. The car weighed 2175 pounds at the curb. The drivetrains were just about unbreakable, though it’s fair to say that rustproofing was not yet to its current level. Outside of the Southeast, seeing a mid-1970s Corolla is a rare experience. Seeing one in like-new condition is even rarer.
So it was a shock to see an almost perfect ’75 Corolla in New York State.
Yet the bilious yellow Corolla Deluxe two-door owned by Bruce Turk, the third owner, is almost all original. The car’s first owner having died less than two years after buying it, the Corolla simply sat in a garage for the next two decades before the second owner began making it roadworthy. Six months later, Turk, a Saab enthusiast, bought it for daily transportation.
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The Deluxe had accoutrements not found on the base model, including full carpeting instead of rubber floor mats, and armrests on the door. Most options were still dealer-installed, and Turk’s Corolla, lacking these, was rather spare. It came with no radio and no air conditioning; whether radial or bias-ply tires had been mounted on its 13 x 4-½ wheels isn’t certain.The interior is an orgy of black vinyl, durable but hardly elegant. A 120-mph speedometer is flanked by a nacelle with fuel and temperature gauges, plus lamps for oil and “chg.” A tachometer wasn’t normal fitment for economy sedan back then.
The engine starts readily and pulls away without drama, the long-levered four-speed shifting easily, the clutch light and smooth. The black plastic steering wheel, however, is hard and sharp, explaining why sales of those lace-on wheel wraps were so big at the time.
The car tracks straight, if slightly vague on center, and doesn’t understeer until pushed. The wheel track isn’t particularly narrow, but the Corolla feels tall and tippy, its stiff suspension allowing little lean but suggesting dire consequences. The engine doesn’t like today’s fuel any more than that of its own era, pinging on all, says Turk, but 94 octane.
The Corolla was yesterday’s technology next to the trend-setting Rabbit, and only later would Corolla adopt front-drive. Yet simple as it was, the Corolla became the new people’s car, common as gnats and ordinary as, well, beetles. Amazing.
Illustrations: Top, 1975 Toyota Corolla Deluxe; bottom, interior, 1975 Toyota Corolla Deluxe interior. Photos by John Matras
For thousands of new car reviews, visit John Matras' carbuzzard.com..
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