My first two cars were both Toyota Corollas. I started with a 1979, and after a few years replaced it with a 1978 model. Both were interesting in their own right.
Growing up, my family didn't have a lot of money. So when the opportunity came to buy my great uncle's 1979 Corolla with a family discount, my parents jumped at it. My parents drove the car for a couple of years leading up to my being old enough to drive. I grew up in South Dakota, where you can get your permit at the age of 14, so my driving years came earlier than it does for most.
If you've read my writings here, you know I grew up on motorcycles. This was helpful in that the 79 Corolla was a stick. The first time I ever drove it was on the way home from church with my whole family in tow. My dad pulled up to a stop sign, pulled the e-brake up, looked at me (I was in in the front passenger seat) and simply said "get out." I didn't quite get what he was angling at, but when he got to my side of the car he said again "get out, you're driving."
Eagerly I hopped out and ran around the car. I'd never driven a stick before, but figured how hard could it be with my familiarity with a clutch on a cycle. The car was on a slight incline, and I managed stall at least 5 times before making it across the intersection. There wasn't much traffic that time of day, but with a few cars coming on the cross street, it felt like rush hour traffic was bearing down on me in that moment. Embarrased, but not discouraged I continued on. I managed the next couple of stops better, and within the next couple of miles on our way home, figured out the timing with a bit of coaching from my father on RPM's and clutch release points.
The E71 Corolla was a tremendous car for a starter car. I can't argue that it was a good car, but it was a good starter car. 1979 was the debut of the 4th generation of Corolla. There were some minor changes aesthetically, but nothing major to speak of. Our version came with the standard 4-cylinder engine, that when paired with the very light curb weight and a manual gear box meant that despite being gutless, could do a solid one wheel wonder burnout regardless of street conditions. But it took every one of the 1800cc's the engine displaced make it happen. It was reported to have 75hp when new, and my version was about 175k away from being new. Credit to the engineers at Toyota, it didn't burn or drip a drop of oil, and started first try every time despite the harsh winters of South Dakota. The lack of power/speed combined with great reliability makes for a great starter car.
Where the car was lacking, and why I'd never buy one in this advanced age of car safety design, is pretty much every other component of the vehicle. You could go down to the neighborhood liquor store and buy a six-pack with more metal in it. I thankfully was never in an accident in either my Corollas, but I can confidently say that I didn't trust the very light and thin panels between me and the pending death anything beyond hitting a bumper would entail. Every time you closed one of the doors you were reminded both in how light the door was, as well as with the hollow tinny clatter, that very little came between you and the outside world. The car was always cold in the winter because the cold could radiate through the car into the interior. The small heat system kept the air immediate beyond the outlets warm, and little else. And in the summer there was no AC, so it was windows down and sweat away. Thankfully my car was white with the tan interior, so the light colors helped a bit with the heat.
This would be the first car I attempted to improve the stereo in. I installed an aftermarket stereo, a Sony I think, with the fancy cassette player. I think the RMS output was 15x4. The sound improved, but I wanted more. Knowing nothing about car audio (or electronics for that matter) I dusted off some of my dad's old home stereo speakers, ran some wire, and set the speakers on the back seat. Sure they slid around, and sure they were a pain when friends needed a ride, but they increased the bump. A little bit anyhow. And that's all I really cared about at the time.
The car met an untimely demise unfortunately. The clutch cable snapped and I limped it a few miles to my grandfathers car repair shop in 2nd gear. It sat on the lot for a while (grandpa wouldn't work on it) because there were some other problems that needed repair. Eventually the decision was made that the costs of the repairs exceeded what the cost of replacement would be, so we scrapped it rather than putting it back on the road. What did we replace it with? A 1978 Toyota Corolla owned by my grandparents. Fewer miles, family discount, and poop brown in color. But that's a story for another time.
--Big Chris
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