This beauty is an all-original 1966 Toyota Corona Deluxe and it’s in Oxnard, California. It’s on Craigslist for a very reasonable sounding asking price of $2,900. What a great looking car!
By definition, Corona means, “the rarefied gaseous envelope of the sun and other stars.” Uhhhh.. Hello? Toyota marketing? Yeah, about your naming division.. This is a really nice looking car in my opinion, at least condition-wise. I know that a lot of people don’t like these cars, or Toyotas in general, and that’s fine, there’s a ton of room on this huge planet for everyone and their cars.
A few months ago I almost bought a 1969 red Corona for $8,000 sight unseen – at least in person. It was a two-door coupe with a 5-speed and it looked fantastic from the photos shown in the ad. I paid $250 to have an inspection company check it out for me since it was 1,800 miles away, and they came back with 40 great photos but they gave the car a grade of C-. Ouch, I was crushed, I wanted that car but it was the best $250 that I’ve ever spent towards a vehicle purchase. Hidden bodywork and leaks and other things that didn’t show up on the sales photos were the clincher and they put the kibosh on that purchase for me, thankfully. Every time I see a red Corona I think of that lost deal. The $2,900 price here is much more reasonable but, of course, this one has two extra doors and it’s an automatic on the column!
Ok, this side looks a little more like a forty-year old used car, which oddly enough it is. The mismatched color on the front passenger door and missing door trim suggests at a minimum a parking lot run in with someone or something. I’d want to have this one repainted which would more than double the asking price to do it right, and why would you want to do anything any other way? I don’t see any rust at all and there is no mention of any, which is promising.
The interior looks nice with seat covers or at least different seat material than what would have been stock. Figure in another grand or two to redo the interior and you’re up to $6,000 or $7,000 once you have it stripped and painted. Dang. This car begs to just be a driver, but with that column-mounted automatic it won’t be super entertaining to drive, at least if you define entertainment as being fast and you define fun as also being fast. I don’t define it as either of those and I would love to drive this car just as it is here, slow or not. There are no engine photos but it should be a 1.2L, 2P inline four with about 55 hp. A 4-speed manual would be welcome here for sure. Are you a rare fan of four-door Toyota Coronas or am I the only one here who likes these things? Hello? Guys? Where’d everyone go?
For 2900 dollars you could clean up the interior and have an oddball to drive around. You won’t likely park next to another one.
I like your thinking, sir. I was hoping that I wasn’t the only one!
Crown
The first car I bought in California was a ’66 ’67 4 door Corona … It was then just an eleven year old car…..700.00. It was a standard thank the stars. They used to be like cockroaches….. They were everywhere then in Berkeley. I’m guessing 700 bucks then buys you what 2900 buys you 40 years later.
Scotty – you are a wise man to hire an inspection service before buying a car sight unseen. I learned that lesson the hard way, buying a car (1941 Oldsmobile 98) some years ago on eBay that arrived looking very different in real life than it did in pictures, descriptions, and answers to pointed questions prior to purchase. Fool me once, as they say. Now, I would only buy a car that has been fully inspected either by me or better yet, someone smarter than me. I can’t figure out why so many people are willing to spend so many thousands of dollars on cars about which they know virtually nothing. We should know better, but the lure of those pictures and the mental images our minds create seem to overwhelm our ability to think straight. Stories like yours are important reminders to keep us on the right path. Thanks. And nice find with this little Toyota too.
Thanks, David, I’m sorry to hear about your bad deal on the 98. Do you still have it?
You’re getting close, Scotty! When you find a Toyopet Crown Deluxe — with the rear window blind, please, we can talk….
RayT, when I find one I’ll invite you over to see it.. in our garage.. because I want one, too!
Had one of these back in the late 70s-early 80s. It was a light blue ’69, but otherwise identical to this right down to the automatic. Was it a screamer? Oh hell no, but it really wasn’t bad to drive and that darn 3R-C was absolutely unkillable. We used it as a shop car and it was driven by lots of different guys, but it never complained or broke down.
On one occasion one of my guys drove it down to the local Nissan dealer to pick up some parts for the shop, and failed to set the e-brake while only half-assedly putting it in park. What happened? Just what you think, since it was downhill. The old Corona fared a lot better than the brand new Nissan pickup that it T-boned, though. The dealership was not impressed. Come to think of it, neither was I.
Nice car, “not that that’s going to keep me from having to move in with my daughter in Oxnard. And we’re not talking Oxnard at the beach. No! We’re talking Oxnard in the onion fields!”
-with apologies to Lewis Black.
Nice car, but must check the rust underneath too. And the engine, which is the most important.
I bought a Toyota Corona (1970) in Lima,Peru two years ago for 1000 dollars. Luckily the engine was perfect condicion, but a spent money on the bodywork, brakes, transmission etc. So lot more, than the price, I bought it. But, now it is working fine.
I enjoy driving it.
Here’s my 3 pedal two door. Had a crowd around it when I exited Trader Joe’s with my weekly ration of 2 buck Chuck.
That’s exactly like the one that I passed on a few months ago; what a beauty!
Is the first letter on the VIN number a J ?