Junkyard Find: 1978 Toyota Corolla

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

I don’t know where all these Malaise Era Japanese econoboxes have been hiding prior to showing up in Denver-area junkyards, but they sure haven’t been on the street. Under tarps, forgotten in back yards and driveways? A ’74 Datsun B210 fastback the other day, and now I find this ’78 Corolla at a yard about five miles away.

These things were once among the most common motor vehicles on American streets; they were cheap, simple, and weren’t very thirsty for go-go juice. Toyota’s reputation for build quality hadn’t really taken firm hold as of the late 70s, and the Corollas of this era were much flakier than those built in subsequent decades, but they were pretty decent little cars by the low standards of the time.

The Malaise Corollas were underpowered, cramped, and noisy, but keep in mind that they were competing with the likes of the Chevy Chevette, Dodge Colt, Fiat 128, and Mazda GLC.

Were I sent back to 1978 with enough money to buy a new subcompact, I’d skip the Corolla and head right to the Honda showroom for a Civic. Still, I hope at least a few of these Corollas manage to evade The Crusher’s jaws.






Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
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