I am firmly convinced I would not be a petrolhead if my childhood had been influenced by day trips and motoring holidays to cornwall in a corolla.
My thoughts exactly.
|
|
Oh yes, the Corolla... never been in one or driven one, but one or two models haven't been bad looking. Yawn. What were we talking about? Er...
|
Nothing wrong with Corollas
My dad was in the motor trade from the 1950's. I was a lad in the '60's and a youngster in the '70's. He spent much of the 60's and early 70's repairing shoddily built Morris, Ford, Vaux, Renaults etc etc that had 'stock faults' and were clapped out by 50k miles. I remember helping put clutches in Cortinas that had done 12k miles, clunkcing diffs at 30k miles and Vivas that had dropped a tooth off third gear by 20k.
When the first Japanese cars arrived (I think Daihatsu was first) we were told they were rubbish and that if you parked them on a hill you wouldn't be able to open the doors. Then of course we started to see the first ones come in for service. They were a total revelation in that all the bits fitted together properly. Wires and cables were neatly routed. Parts came off and went back on again without a fight.
The early ones with recirculating-ball steering and hard-compound tyres weren't great to drive. But when they went to rack and pinion and Euro tyres they went just fine and were the equal of European cars of the same class. The rest, of course, is history. I think FoMoCo is now worth about 7% of value of Toyota Motor Co.
I would be nice to think that there were more exciting cars to drive in the 1970's - but really there weren't. Most people drove junk like Marinas and Avengers (which wouldn't stop when you reversed because they had two leading shoes), cart-sprung Escorts and exotic FWD stuff like Aggro's and BMC 1100's ......
|
>>They were a total revelation in that all the bits fitted together properly.>>
Just like Japanese motorbikes really.
they went just fine and were the equal of European cars of the same class. The rest, of course,
But they were so boring in comparsion, I remember a friends dad bought a Bluebird 180b in '76, the interior was dreadful, he was embarrased to be seen in it, on the otherhand my dad's 2000E with vinyl roof was really popular with 13 to 14 year old school friends, as were Japanese motorbikes. At that time they had cracked the image thing with bikes by evolving the genre though the cars were copies, reliable yes, though still copies of the European mass produced car genre.
I think FoMoCo is now worth about 7% of value of Toyota Motor Co.
On the other hand Nissan would have struggled without Renault.
|
|
|
On the subject of relatively old Jap stuff; I'll never forget the blast I had on many occasions living in Kuwait between 1982 and 1984, driving my friend's Nissan 280Z. Overweight and a shadow of the earlier incarnations, yes, but still a RWD hoot that sounded good to boot. After a day's racing at Ahmadi kart track we took it in turns to powerslide the Zed (No, I'm English; it's not a Zee!) around the track. Great fun until the water pump cried "enough" on the umpteenth lap and I had to tow him home behind my Colt 1410 GLX! Happy days.
My first experience of rotary power was in Kuwait too in one of the earliest Mazda RX7s. No torque to speak of, but so smoooooooth it felt like it would rev for ever.
|
|
|
|
|
|
what were your day trips and Cornwall holidays in then?
|
what were your day trips and Cornwall holidays in then?
A 1984 VW Transporter diesel. Needed something to transport motocross bikes in and couldn't afford two vehicles.
It was great - got no where quickly, but having the space was a god send on holiday - if it was raining you could sit in the back as there was a raised bit for the engine. My Dad boarded it out and fitted a twin seat in the back.
Plenty of character for a van!
|
What exactly is personality in a car ?
To suggest something has personality would mean you want to form a relationship with it.
Why else do you want something with personality ?
Do we go around talking to our cars or relating to their personality in some way ?
I actually think the Corolla is a very good car and set a bench mark for relaibility that we have now come to expect and that few can actually achieve - even today most more expensive european cars cannot hold a candle to the Corolla in terms of relaibility.
I agree their are faster cars out their and better looking but for robustness and durability not many can compare.
But there again if you do want to spend lonely cold and wet nights beside the road waiting for the breakdown truck then I suppose relating to your car's 'personality' while waiting sure must make up for it letting you down in the first instance.
|
What exactly is personality in a car ?
thinking of the thread above about childhood trips reminded me of a few childhood memories........one of them was a car my step-father had for while, which was a mk11 cortina estate....V6 Savage.......
now that had personality, what an awesome bit of kit,
fair enough if it was hopelessly unreliable and always off the road... but if reasonable i'd have something like that over the staid reliable boring equivalent any day of the week, even if the latter was totally reliable and the other one had the odd moment
|
|
|
Well, I remember the 80s Corollas my Dad had with some fondness. Family trips to Cornwall were comfortable and reliable. Certainly never did anything to dampen my interest in cars.
Sure, I would rather he had bought a Jag XJ or an M5 or perhaps a Firebird or Corvette, but that was never going to happen. Compared with the crappy Astras, Escorts and Maestros of the era, the Corollas were a touch of class, engineering wise at least. The press and public may have got all het up about the Golf, but they are no more or less boring than Corollas to me.
That said, I believe the last couple of Brit-built generations have been a real step back from what came before, and pentioning off the nameplate is no great loss. Shame they forgot to give it a real new look at the same time.
Never write off the history of the Corolla name, it and its Japanese brethren have been responsible for the huge uplift in quality standards of all the cars we drive today, irrespective of badge.
|
|
The AE86 Corollas still fetch several grand even though they are 20 years old, as do the AE82 models in fact.
|
I had a 1990 G reg Corolla, a 1.3 liftback in white and very nice it was too. Brought my first son home from hospital, commuted Bath to Caerleon for eight months and it never missed a beat for the three years i had it. 12v engine, as good as a Ford 1600 and 40mpg.
It went because it was too old for my then employer's car allowance rules, and they were getting snotty about it. It had a slight bit of rust on the rear arches, the brake master cylinder was playing up, and i had bent a wishbone on a wet and slippery roundabout on the Warminster bypass.
Bought it for £3k in 1996, sold it for £700 in 2000 with 130,000 on the clock, made double the loss in value on expenses as most of the miles were for work.
I liked the shape too: it looked a bit like the Galant of the time, and IIRC all the pillars were black so the roof was "floating".
Really good car.
|
>>Brought my first son home from hospital
Heh heh! I'm having that debate at the mo.
Missus wants the twins to "come home in style" in the V70.
I say they won't give a damn, and in view of the microscopic parking slots at the materity hospital I'd rather take the somewhat more door ding sacrificial 306!
|
"I've always had Toyotas in mind as the kind of car I wanted. Maybe it's because of the TV adverts - "The car in front's a Toyota". I guess I wanted to be in the car in front."
What a complete idiot
|
Never mind, "Busted flat in Baton Rouge". I was busted flat in North Devon in '93 for reasons caused by government and 15% interest rates etc so had to buy one of those 'orrible little jap cars to get me back to Buckinghamshire to work for a mate. Purloined an ageing Datsun Cherry for 120 sovs and it took me there and back for months on end with no moans whatsoever except a little bit of overheating. Sold it months later for the same dough. When you consider the restraints placed upon us poor souls now and the money we chuck at cars etc. we would all be better off with a boring box and either do an ocassional track day or better still............................................................Buy an off road bike. Hang the expense..................We'll think of something to tell 'er.....won't we chaps??
VBR.............................MD.
|
> ... an Escort ... offers an entertaining driving experience, but not the Toyota.
pmsl.
Oh my god, I can't get over that.
I don't care how bad the Toyota is, it can't, in any way shape or form be anywhere near as carp to drive as an Escort.
Of course, this piece is all rubbish anyway. It's only really in this septic little country that the Corolla is considered "dull". This country, where fair enough good cars are celebrated as such, but *bad* cars have "character". What a crock.
Most Euroboxes are every bit as dull and utilitarian as the Corolla. Just a load of sad little British people who can't afford a real car console themselves in the knowledge that their overpriced Golf is a little bit less boring.
Sad. Very sad.
|
Of course, this piece is all rubbish anyway. It's only really in this septic little country that the Corolla is considered "dull". This country, where fair enough good cars are celebrated as such, but *bad* cars have "character". What a crock.
I think it's just that British people are fooled by clever marketing. Toyota and Honda, and even VW, have adverts that highlight the quality and the "everything just works" nature of their cars. Fiat and Renault have "spirito di punto" and "va va voom" to make their inferior products desirable to people who know more about moisuriser than cars.
|
|
I always feel the Corollas position as "the leading selling car" is a bit of a fudge.
There is nothing in common throughout the production run.
Each version is effectively a new car with an old name.
At least the Beetle, Model T etc are recognisably the same vehicle from start to finish - excluding of course the "new beetle" which I once saw perfectly described as "a Golf in a party frock"
|
I always feel the Corollas position as "the leading selling car" is a bit of a fudge. There is nothing in common throughout the production run. Each version is effectively a new car with an old name. At least the Beetle, Model T etc are recognisably the same vehicle from start to finish - excluding of course the "new beetle" which I once saw perfectly described as "a Golf in a party frock"
Thing is though it's no different to saying that the Escort was the best-selling car in the UK. Equally, the car from 1996 was very different to the one from 1966.
With any of these models there is a linearity though, the 1.6 engine in my Sunny is essentially the same unit Nissan were puttting in the 1.6 Bluebirds in the 70s. Yeah they changed quite a bit but the designs are all fundamentally similar.
|
I think that in terms of "continuation" of a model the engine is the least important item. After all the A series engine went into dozens of different vehicles which had nothing else in common.
Take a pre war beetle and a last of production one and they are recognisably the same car. Not so for the Corolla, Escort etc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
what were your day trips and Cornwall holidays in then?
Let me see, in no particular order.
Sit up and beg Ford popular, Morris Series E, Mk2 Ford consol, Mg Magnette ZA,
The Pop was unsafe going down porlock hill due to lack of brakes, the Series E wouldnt go up porlock hill due to lack of horsepower. the MG went up and down porlock hill like a mad thing with the wonderful smell from its leather seats.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
|
what were your day trips and Cornwall holidays in then?
Ford Classic, Escort 1300GT, Triumph 2000, Citroen GS estate, Cortina 2000E, Chrysler Alpine, Rover 2300S and Sierra 2.0 Ghia by which time I had had my own wheels for a few years.
|
|
|
Porlock hill in/on an Arial combo I think then a Moggy thou' when we lived in Middlesex. In North Devon now for nineteen years and haven't been there to date...Sad really. Must go there soon. Go to Lynton/Lynmouth every five years or so..waffle waffle.
Best reg's MD.
|
|
|
|
|
|
