Junkyard Gem: 1979 Toyota Corona Station Wagon

Many thanks to a particular unwelcome virus, the Toyota Corona’s picture has taken a little bit of a beating more than the past 12 months or so. My incredibly very first car was a 1969 Corona sedan that expense 50 bucks, and I now personal a chopped, customized 1969 Corona coupe that Boyd Coddington proclaimed as the “Coolest Car in L.A.” a quarter-century back. For these reasons, I document just about every solitary Corona I discover in car graveyards, and this is the most current: a nicely-worn 1979 Corona station wagon in a Denver-place lawn.

Corona revenue began in this article in the 1966 model 12 months and continued by means of 1982. Immediately after that, the rear-wheel-travel Corona was replaced in North The united states by the front-wheel-travel Camry (however Japanese-marketplace Corona revenue created it into our existing century). Income of the Corona in this article fell off sharply following the early nineteen seventies, however, especially after the extra magnificent (and Corona-linked) Cressida reached our shores, and the 1975-1982 styles are hard to discover in this article these days.

This generation of Corona wagon competed with the likes of the Datsun 810 (which progressed into the Maxima) and some of the scaled-down Detroit wagons.

With the just about indestructible 20R motor (the identical a person utilized by nineteen seventies Hilux pickups in war zones around the world) below the hood, the T130 Corona held collectively incredibly nicely. It was not rapid, but the extended-stroke 20R gave it good off-the-line torque.

This car even has the magnificent automatic transmission option, which you would not discover in quite a few US-marketplace Coronas.

Air conditioning!

Any person acquiring a new ’79 Corona with equally A/C and the slushbox was not going to skimp on the sound system, and so this car has the high priced manufacturing facility AM/FM radio in the dash. Just the factor for acquiring into a New York Groove on your commute!

It’s incredibly tough and does not smell so fantastic, and there is no way to know how quite a few miles were being on the odometer when it reached the conclude of its extended freeway. I’m going to speculate that it could have rivaled some of the best-mileage discarded Toyotas I have encountered.

Who didn’t dream of a new Corona wagon, back in the nineteen seventies?

Japanese-marketplace Corona ads experienced way superior motor sounds.