Rollin’ coal doesn’t have quite the same meaning when you’re in a friendly little Toyota Corolla as when you’re in a jacked-up, angry-faced black pickup on someone’s rear bumper. Make mine a friendly 1985 Toyota Corolla DX diesel 5-speed liftback every time. This one is posted here on craigslist in Auburn, Washington, and they’re asking $5,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Curvette for the tip!
I believe this color is called Creme, but then again, a brochure refers to it as Ivory. The seller calls it yellow, and its name is “Butters”, so who knows. Whatever its official color name is, this car looks like it’s in nice condition after 40 years of being on the planet. It looks solid, and they don’t mention rust at all, but it looks great in the photos overall. It isn’t perfect, though, as you’ll see in the next photo.
The left corner of the rear bumper has seen better days, but that’s about the only exterior glitch that I can see. New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) was a joint partnership between GM and Toyota to make the Chevrolet Nova and Corolla in a California factory. They started in 1984 and closed in 2010, and from 1985 through ’88, the Corolla and Nova were made there. These are front-drive cars, and the hatchback, or liftback, version is my pick for utility.
With 124,237 miles, this Corolla looks like it’s been taken care of, and the seller says they’re the second owner and have had it for almost three decades. There is some settling on the seat padding, which could be redone, and a small seam separation in the side of the driver’s seat. The cool part of this interior, other than its overall condition, is the 5-speed manual. The back seat looks perfect, and we don’t get to see inside the rear cargo area, unfortunately.
The engine is Toyota’s 1C-L, a 1.8-liter SOHC inline-four diesel with 58 horsepower and 78 lb-ft of torque when new. Backed by the 5-speed manual sending power to the front wheels, they say it gets 46 MPG, doesn’t leak, smoke, or knock, and with some detailing could be a crowd pleaser at RADwood or almost any Cars and Coffee event, especially with the hood open.
I bet you could squeeze out even better mpg’s if you drove it SG. ⛽️
SG?
This is cool. I had no idea Toyota had a Corolla Diesel in the 80’s. I’d imagine that stick shift is a must have for sure. And its in terrific condition for its age and really quite frankly its original intended use as a commuter car to get great MPG. I like it!!!
Let’s count the hose clamps, shall we? Not sure how a site could follow up from the previous post, the grandeur of a ’56 Buick, then this, which ironically, might have been a ground up ’55 Buick. The magic of Barny Finds, I suppose. This was the “diesel” era, where car companies were so desperate for fuel economy, they went with small diesels, with disastrous results. Not sure why Toyota( and others) felt they had to offer diesels, their gas jobs did just as well, and far less hassle. More of a “give Americans what they want”, and diesels were the hot button for economy. There were so many downsides I won’t list here, but very few bought another diesel car. The fuel mileage was grossly overstated, yes, under ideal conditions, they would get 40+, but most had their foot to the floor all day, and they didn’t do any better that the gas jobs. AND, while some may disagree, you had to get fuel at those ill-ridden, crime infested, urine soaked truck stops, and my old man, and others like him, HATED truck stops, and would almost rather run out of fuel than patronize one.
And for the record, the author is too kind as usual, but diesels DO knock, smoke and leak, and turn off the a/c on hills, and in a stiff head wind, you might not even get 5th gear, ask me how I know,, :)
At the time, a lot of the European car makers had diesels on offer, and people were buying them, so the Japanese and the Americans felt they had to compete.
One feature of diesels that’s no longer relevant in the modern era: no “tune-ups”. The “tune-up”, for younger readers, was where you replaced a bunch of ignition parts that tended to wear out: points, condenser, cap, and rotor. Also plugs tended to get fouled with carbon deposits due to the imprecise fuel metering offered by carburetors back in the day. Points ignitions went away by 1980 (back in the late ’80s, I was surprised to find that my 1979 VW Rabbit still used points) and distributors that used a cap and a moving rotor were gone by what, 1990? Certainly by 1996 and OBD-II. All of that is so long ago that a lot of people have forgotten about it.
And stinky, messy, greasy, diesel ⛽️ fuel soaked truck stops too Howard. One time I was cleaning my windows or headlites, while fueling the truck and it failed to “click” off on its own. 😒 some foul words 😠 😡 and a lengthy clean up ensued. To those unaware the truck stop pumps deliver at a much faster rate than a normal gas station does. So the mess was formidable.
What’s up with the exhaust pipe under the
right rear door?
Going for a Buick Grand National look maybe anglia ? 😲😵💫
I did not know that Toyota made a diesel passenger vehicle for the US market as late as the mid-1980s! Diesel haters can say what ever they want, but I’d bet the motor’s longevity rivals that of M-B.
Diesels were changing a lot in the 1980’s and 90’s. Back when I lived in Sweden I had quite a few older diesels from the 1970’s and early 80’s. Mercedes, Peugeot 504, Opel Rekord. I do think that Rekord Diesel was the worst car I ever owned. They were all pretty horrible. Slow, noisy and difficult to start. But at some point they got a lot better. A Citroen BX diesel from around 1985 was a huge revelation. It drove fine and fuel economy was incredible. CX diesels were great, Peugeot 505 also. Mercedes came with the 3.0 5-cylinder turbodiesel and things just went better from there. I once got a BMW 535 diesel as a rental car in Germany, I think it was in 2002 and it was at the time the most impressive car I had driven.
So no need to be so black and white that you say that all diesels are horrible just because you have tried one that was bad.
Agree Beyfon, I have no idea how this Toyota drives but I owned a 2014 BMW 535d and it was a fantastic driver with 400 ftlb of torque and got 35 mpg. Most every gas station has diesel now too. There were plenty of VW diesels but we know how that turned out.
I seem to remember there was a Rabbit diesel pickup truck – probably a car too.
VW offered diesel variants of the Rabbit sedan, the pickup, and the Passat (variously sold in the US as the Dasher and the Quantum).
Diesel ??????? Okay so back to my trusted librairy. Up here in Canada the Corolla had the 1.6 s.o.h.c 70 hp motor and the GTS had at least the 120 pony version of the 1.6 as a 16 valver d.o.h.c. but diesel never heard that one. Now i gotta find some American stuff i have somewhere stay tuned.
I can’t believe this car has a trailer hitch??!!
Diesels tow the best Azzurra. 😄
Must be sold. Listing is gone.
I worked at a Toyota store when these came out. This is the first thst I have heard of one. We did have a couple of diesel truck owners. One brought his truck in at 10 mph which is as fast as it would go. All fuel pressure tests showed proper pressure as did compression tests. So decided to check cam timing. The first step is to pull the air filter off to gain access to the valve cover. Removing the air filter took over an hour because it was jammed with dog food! I’m talking like someone/thing used a hydraulic press to get as many chunks of dog food in as possible! Would have had to see it to belive it! Once the dog food was removed and our trash can full. The truck ran great! (For a diesel) The customer was not happy to pay for a repair on his 1,500 mile truck!
Back when the stuff was cheaper then unleaded.