- Bet you haven’t seen one of these in ages.
- It’s a wedge-shaped Corolla coupe with pop-up headlights.
- This unusually well-preserved Toyota has low mileage and boasts a five-speed manual for a bit more zip.
If you’ve ever wondered, the Toyota Corolla takes its name from the Latin for “little crown,” as might be worn by some minor nobility during the Renaissance. It’s a bit of a hifalutin’ moniker for what’s basically the pleated khaki pants of cars, but sometimes a Corolla can be more special than you might expect. Take this 1989 Toyota Corolla SR5 in svelte two-door form, complete with sleek bodywork, gold paint, and pop-up headlights. It’s majestic. And it’s up for sale on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos).
The sixth-generation Corolla debuted in 1987, declaring war on the popular Honda Civic with all models now front-wheel drive (plus the capable little all-wheel-drive All-Trac wagon). The vast majority of them were dependable if boring sedans, but Toyota did leave the door open for a little excitement. Toyota fans could still get the revvy GT-S model, with its Yamaha-designed cylinder head and zippy handling, and if you just wanted a bit more style to go with your reliable and thrifty commuter, then was a Sport Coupe with a less frenetic four-cylinder.
This example is an SR5 trim, denoting a 1.6-liter DOHC four-cylinder with fuel injection, good for around 113 horsepower when new. A five-speed manual transmission stands ready to make the most of that power, and with only 48,000 miles on the odometer, few ponies will have escaped the stable.
You could consider this model as Toyota’s version of the Honda Prelude, from a time when almost every manufacturer built coupes with relatively conventional underpinnings, designed to be sporty-looking yet affordable. This Corolla is not some steely-eyed midnight street racer’s drift machine, but a nicely equipped compact car with air conditioning, a cassette tape deck, and 13-inch alloy wheels. Even considering the low mileage, it presents as extremely well preserved. You can just imagine someone wearing enough hairspray to ward off hurricane-force winds driving this car home from work on a Friday, planning to stop off to pick up a VHS tape of Single White Female on the way.
Like most golden-age Toyotas, you can probably expect this car to be running and driving until the heat death of the universe, assuming you keep up with the oil changes. It’s not likely to ask much of you, and its stripped-down, late-1980s driving experience will be totally unlike any modern car. It’s perfect for the “I haven’t seen one of those in years!” reaction at your local car show, and maybe you could even make a few bucks on the side if there’s a film company making a movie set during the Clinton administration.
There are certainly fancier and faster Toyotas out there, but this little coupe has hung around long enough to become something pretty special. Truly, a survivor worthy of wearing a crown.
The auction ends on March 5.
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.
Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
