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After 53 Years of Daily Driving This 1969 Toyota Corolla Is Retiring to a Museum

40 points by mcenedella 4y ago

Cupertino95014 4y ago
I had a 1981 Tercel that "only" got about 160,000 miles before I traded it in. It still ran fine. Now I have an Infiniti and that's also rock-solid. Conversely, I've had three German cars (one VW and two BMWs) and they all sucked. On the last BMW I had to replace all four window regulators, at $900 each. Manufacturing is hard.
- dieselgate 4y ago
  Depends on the vehicle or engine - VW TDIs are commonly known to be a robust high mileage engine, half a million miles and up aren’t unheard of. If you’re talking about interior and finish components though yes they can suck
  - vr46 4y ago
    My 1989 MR2 could take it all, except being rammed off the road. My 2013 A6 is several orders of magnitude nicer to be inside than the 2011 Lexus, with a similarly better ride. Reliability isn’t everything. The 2001 QX4 was close to covering both worlds, though, I know the Japanese manufacturers can get it right :)
    - dieselgate 4y ago
      Yeah definitely agree with you there. I really wish there were more made-for-US Japanese diesels around but that’s purely preference (for biodiesel)- import JP cars are pretty common on the west coast but that’s not my preference. Still sorely miss my ‘92 Nissan hardbody, ‘03 Toyota echo, and ‘80 civic to this day but assume they’re all still being driven. Always thought the mr2 was a super sweet car! Edit: and fwiw I’ve been seeing a diesel Corolla on craigslist around Seattle but they want like 12k for it - maybe that thing should get put in a museum
- visiblink 4y ago
  Piling on here. My wife had a 2002 Jetta from new until 2019. We replaced both of the front window regulators on multiple occasions. There's nothing like having your window drop into the door when it's -40 C outside. Sometimes, we'd "luck out" and the window had just slipped out of the holder. Just as often, we needed parts that were available only from Volkswagen. In general, the car required somewhere between $1000-$2000 worth of maintenance every year. I've owned ten vehicles over the years and none have come close to the VW in terms of total cost of ownership. She replaced it with a new (non-VW) SUV a few years ago and it hasn't needed anything but oil changes yet.
- hollywood_court 4y ago
  You’re getting lucky with the Infiniti. Nissan/Infiniti are consistently the most unreliable Japanese autos. And I’m a huge Datsun fan with 3 in my stable. Carlos has managed to turn Nissan/Infiniti into the rental/fleet car of choice for many companies.
  - BenjiWiebe 4y ago
    I have a 2009 Nissan Altima with 282k miles on it. Pretty sure it's on borrowed time. I bought it used 4ish years ago with 240k miles on it for $1200.
hollywood_court 4y ago
My Land Cruiser is still going strong with just shy of 270k. The next timing service is due in less than 3k miles and I’ll perform the work myself just like I’ve always done. I’ve spent 20 years working as a carpenter and electrician, but for 3 of those years I managed an import repair shop in the US. Based purely on my anecdotes from running that shop, the only car manufacturers worth your time and money are Toyota/Lexus and Honda/Acura. I’ve been on sabbatical since Jan 3 as I attempt to reinvent myself as a software developer. None of it would be possible if it weren’t for all the money I made repairing BMWs, Mercedes, Audi/VWs (lol), and Land Rover/Jaguars. There isn’t much money to be made repairing Toyotas or Hondas.
busterarm 4y ago
The impressive thing about this is that there's an immense quality difference between pre-1975 Toyota and post-1975 Toyota. Keeping a pre-1975 Toyota vehicle running is a massive achievement today.
- hakfoo 4y ago
  I wonder if it's easier or harder keeping one alive in Japan. While theoretically spares should be more available-- they were probably selling more Corollas there than anywhere else at the time, does the tax penalties for older vehicles mean most of the potential parts junkers were scrapped decades ago?
rasz 4y ago
In a similar vein: Is that Matt Farah's Million Mile Lexus? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0gPidvOLww https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0gPidvOLww https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28991860/the-million-mile-lexus/ https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28991860/the-milli... Toyota does something other manufacturers will call stupid (and some like BMW or Mercedes stopped doing). Toyota manufactures to an order of magnitude greater tolerances than needed. Even something stupid like 3 cylinder European fab Yaris is manufactured in white gloves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WhZSHo1b6M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WhZSHo1b6M
batmanturkey 4y ago
I have an ‘89 Corolla thst is in basically mint condition and drives tighter than a new car. If you maintain it, it keeps going.

40 points by mcenedella 4y ago

I had a 1981 Tercel that "only" got about 160,000 miles before I traded it in. It still ran fine. Now I have an Infiniti and that's also rock-solid. Conversely, I've had three German cars (one VW and two BMWs) and they all sucked. On the last BMW I had to replace all four window regulators, at $900 each. Manufacturing is hard.

dieselgate 4y ago
Depends on the vehicle or engine - VW TDIs are commonly known to be a robust high mileage engine, half a million miles and up aren’t unheard of. If you’re talking about interior and finish components though yes they can suck
- vr46 4y ago
  My 1989 MR2 could take it all, except being rammed off the road. My 2013 A6 is several orders of magnitude nicer to be inside than the 2011 Lexus, with a similarly better ride. Reliability isn’t everything. The 2001 QX4 was close to covering both worlds, though, I know the Japanese manufacturers can get it right :)
  - dieselgate 4y ago
    Yeah definitely agree with you there. I really wish there were more made-for-US Japanese diesels around but that’s purely preference (for biodiesel)- import JP cars are pretty common on the west coast but that’s not my preference. Still sorely miss my ‘92 Nissan hardbody, ‘03 Toyota echo, and ‘80 civic to this day but assume they’re all still being driven. Always thought the mr2 was a super sweet car! Edit: and fwiw I’ve been seeing a diesel Corolla on craigslist around Seattle but they want like 12k for it - maybe that thing should get put in a museum
visiblink 4y ago
Piling on here. My wife had a 2002 Jetta from new until 2019. We replaced both of the front window regulators on multiple occasions. There's nothing like having your window drop into the door when it's -40 C outside. Sometimes, we'd "luck out" and the window had just slipped out of the holder. Just as often, we needed parts that were available only from Volkswagen. In general, the car required somewhere between $1000-$2000 worth of maintenance every year. I've owned ten vehicles over the years and none have come close to the VW in terms of total cost of ownership. She replaced it with a new (non-VW) SUV a few years ago and it hasn't needed anything but oil changes yet.
hollywood_court 4y ago
You’re getting lucky with the Infiniti. Nissan/Infiniti are consistently the most unreliable Japanese autos. And I’m a huge Datsun fan with 3 in my stable. Carlos has managed to turn Nissan/Infiniti into the rental/fleet car of choice for many companies.
- BenjiWiebe 4y ago
  I have a 2009 Nissan Altima with 282k miles on it. Pretty sure it's on borrowed time. I bought it used 4ish years ago with 240k miles on it for $1200.

hollywood_court 4y ago

My Land Cruiser is still going strong with just shy of 270k. The next timing service is due in less than 3k miles and I’ll perform the work myself just like I’ve always done. I’ve spent 20 years working as a carpenter and electrician, but for 3 of those years I managed an import repair shop in the US. Based purely on my anecdotes from running that shop, the only car manufacturers worth your time and money are Toyota/Lexus and Honda/Acura. I’ve been on sabbatical since Jan 3 as I attempt to reinvent myself as a software developer. None of it would be possible if it weren’t for all the money I made repairing BMWs, Mercedes, Audi/VWs (lol), and Land Rover/Jaguars. There isn’t much money to be made repairing Toyotas or Hondas.

busterarm 4y ago

The impressive thing about this is that there's an immense quality difference between pre-1975 Toyota and post-1975 Toyota. Keeping a pre-1975 Toyota vehicle running is a massive achievement today.

hakfoo 4y ago
I wonder if it's easier or harder keeping one alive in Japan. While theoretically spares should be more available-- they were probably selling more Corollas there than anywhere else at the time, does the tax penalties for older vehicles mean most of the potential parts junkers were scrapped decades ago?

rasz 4y ago

In a similar vein: Is that Matt Farah's Million Mile Lexus? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0gPidvOLww https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0gPidvOLww https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28991860/the-million-mile-lexus/ https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28991860/the-milli... Toyota does something other manufacturers will call stupid (and some like BMW or Mercedes stopped doing). Toyota manufactures to an order of magnitude greater tolerances than needed. Even something stupid like 3 cylinder European fab Yaris is manufactured in white gloves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WhZSHo1b6M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WhZSHo1b6M

batmanturkey 4y ago

I have an ‘89 Corolla thst is in basically mint condition and drives tighter than a new car. If you maintain it, it keeps going.