Junkyard Find: 1989 Toyota Corolla All-Trac Wagon

by Murilee Martin

Published: February 18th, 2013

junkyard find 1989 toyota corolla all trac wagon

I now believe that at least half the Toyota All-Tracs ever sold ended up in Colorado, based on the quantities I see in junkyards around Denver. We saw the only Camry All-Trac I’ve ever found anywhere last month, and the Corolla All-Trac wagons are well-represented by this ’89, this ’89, and now today’s ’89.

Toyota didn’t go in for crazy-futuristic dashes like so many of their 1980s Japanese competitors (unlike, for example, Subaru and Mitsubishi), but the Corolla All-Trac still got this cool center-diff control panel. Yes, back in those days you had to make decisions about car four-wheel-drive while driving.

Bondo as rust repair?

213,269 miles on the clock, which is pretty good for a 1980s car.

The Toyota 4A engine family was the real workhorse of its era, going into everything from AE86s to MR2s. This one appears to be the not-particularly-hot 4A-FE.

The interior in this one is pretty nice, but the rust is bad by Colorado standards and it just wasn’t worth keeping. Next stop, crusher!

#1980s #1989 #1989ToyotaCorolla #1989ToyotaCorollaAll-Trac #4wd #All-Trac #AWD #Corolla #Denver #DownOnTheJunkyard #Toyota #StationWagon #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #FourWheelDrive #ToyotaAll-Trac

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.

More by Murilee Martin

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 29 comments

Chitownae92 on Mar 14, 2013

Can anyone tell me where this car is at and how I can call/locate that JunkYard? I'm looking for that drivetrain and I really want to get in touch with them and I can't find them in Chicago. Please and thank you.

Like Reply
AllThumbs on Oct 01, 2013

I had this exact car (but red) in Rwanda in 1990. Great car for that time and place.

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Master Baiter The picture is of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.
SCE to AUX SAE Level 2 autonomy requires the driver to be the monitor, nothing more.That's the problem, and Tesla complies with this requirement.
Lou_BC I read an interesting post by a master engine builder. He's having a hard time finding quality parts anywhere. The other issue is most young men don't want to learn the engine building trade. He's got so much work that he will now only work on engines his shop is restoring.
Tim Myers Can you tell me why in the world Mazda uses the ugliest colors on the MX5? I have a 2017 in Red and besides Black or White, the other colors are horrible for a sports car. I constantly hear this complaint. I wish someone would tell whoever makes theses decisions that they need a more sports car colors available. They’d probably sell a lot more of them. Just saying.
Dartman EBFlex will soon be able to buy his preferred brand!