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A generous 24 Hours of LeMons racer gave me a copy of the February 1969 issue of Playboy as a gift last weekend, and it’s even more of a time capsule than most publications of its era. The only cars advertised in the issue are the Ford Mustang (Mach 1 and Shelby), Volkswagen Beetle, Datsun 510 (labeled as the “/2”), and the Toyota Corona. Since my very first car was a ’69 Corona, I felt compelled to share this ad.
0-60 in 16 seconds. 25 miles per gallon. Top speed of 90 MPH. Toyoglide transmission with two forward gears. Hmmm… those numbers don’t sound so great.
Other than this one, I haven’t seen a Corona coupe of this era for many years.
13 Comments on “1969: Toyota Corona Gives You Go!...”
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Datsun 510 (labeled as the “/2″)
So 510/2=205 right? :P
I was thinking maybe five tenths (5/10), or one half (1/2) might make sense.
So you’re saying it was really a Peugeot?
My college roommate had a Corona back in the mid-1980s. I can’t remember the model year, but I do remember that it was an unreliable piece of junk, even by the standards of the day. I had a 1975 VW Rabbit, not exactly the byword for a bullet-proof car, but I was the one who had to rescue him when the Corona broke down.
Not that I was surprised – my dad had a 1972 Hilux pickup that had an unkillable drivetrain but that was otherwise a pain. In particular, it had front drum brakes that went out of adjustment every 100 miles or so – even the dealer couldn’t get them to work right.
Just goes to show that if you work hard at product improvement you can overcome problems – Hyundai are a great contemporary example of this. If someone had told me 20 years ago that I would be disappointed that the rental car agency had did not have a Hyundai for me to rent and that I had to take a Nissan instead, I would have laughed in their face. How times have changed…
As a former owner of a 1970 Boss 302, i would have enjoyed seeing the Mustang adds.
Who was the gatefold girl?
Lorrie Menconi
My dad had one of these. It was nice for a small car of the time, but it wasn’t very reliable. I learned a lot about fixing cars while working on it. Being in Connecticut, there were two main reactions: a.) Everyone thought it looked strange, and b.) it rusted like crazy. We used to call it the “Toyota Coroda”.
Really slow, and proud of it!
I remember that my parents had one of these when I was growing up in the early 80s. Our other vehicle was a 77 Honda Civic. The Corona Mark II rusted like your wouldn’t believe, but the interior was VERY nice.
Embroidered fabric seats, automatic shifting knob that was heavily chromed with a leatherette shifter top. Was certainly not fast, but even today I marvel at how nice that interior was.
If memory serves me right, it had a 1.9L 4-cylinder, and was quite smooth for its time. It wasn’t particularly reliable, but certainly on par with other cars from the 70s.
The rust though… the rust…. I remember my dad perpetually trying to fend off the rust that was eating away at the rocker panels and the base of the trunk.
Very first Toyota I ever rode in. A buddy in the air force who’s folks lived in Sacramento, 40 miles from base, owned one. In blue.
I had to admit I was impressed with how smooth it ran and how economical it was. This was 1971.
Kinda plain, but a decent sedan nevertheless.
C pillar and backlite remind me of Corvair…
Was the 1962 Chevy II Nova Sport Coupe with 90hp standard four and (optional) Powerglide the template for this thing?
I still remember “Zero to sixty in sixteen seconds!” in TV ads for the Corona. Granted, my VW was slower, but in the muscle car era it seemed odd to make a big deal about that performance number.
Which japanese cars still used solid lifters into the late 70’s, was it datsun, toyota, or both? My memory is hazy on that one. But whichever it was I remember how loud the lifters were, and how bad they sounded. Sure the slant 6 used solids through mid 76, but at least they sounded cool.