Forever Young – 1992 Toyota Corolla

Antti Kautonen

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“Forever Young / I want to be / Forever Young”, sang Alphaville on their 1984 hit song. They were also Big in Japan, as is the Toyota Corolla, year after year. And whenever you start this 1992 Corolla I’ve been driving, an euro dance cover of Forever Young starts playing, as the aftermarket stereo resets itself every time the power is turned off and the USB stick starts playing the first file in the first folder.

The Corolla belongs to my gf’s grandmother, but it’s been driven exclusively by my gf’s brothers for some time now. Since they conveniently left it on my parking spot for the weekend, I got to drive it for a little while. This is what it’s like.

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A jade green Corolla like this is still a common sight on our roads. These have no equipment at all, no power locks, no power steering, no power windows. They’re rarely auto. The Corolla is badged as an XLi model, but I don’t really know what that brings. I can’t think of one thing it would actually have over an actual base model, except metallic paint. The car is completely inoffensive.

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The 87-horsepower 1.3-litre engine moves the car reasonably well, and doesn’t really feel gutless. Probably thanks to the manual gearbox.

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The Corolla has done over 300 000 kilometers, the last 50 000 of which have been sort of rough for it.

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I love the ECONOMY light, which basically rewards you for coasting. If you use the throttle, the amber light goes on, “YOU BROKE THE ECONOMY!”

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But if you drive gently, it will help you save the pandas.

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The stereo doesn’t really suit the rest of the car, and the Eurodance soundtrack is hilariously ill-fitting.

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Let’s just say rust is present on the car.

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Afterwards, I did the decent thing: bought some fuel and drove the car through the carwash. The Corolla felt like the least rigid thing I’ve ever driven through a high-pressure wash: now I know how Laika the Space Dog must’ve felt.

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But with fuel in the tank and oil in the engine, the Corolla will keep on going on – unless rust devours it completely. The guys have already sourced a new front door for it, and the wheelarches will get some welding done on them in the future.
“Do you really want to live forever / Forever / And ever?”

 

[youtube width=”720″ height=”500″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5fq3_MiOTE[/youtube]

The Eurodance cover of Forever Young is here for you to enjoy, unless it’s blocked in your country.

[Images: Copyright 2013 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]

About

Antti Kautonen

Antti Kautonen

The resident Finn of Hooniverse. Owns old Peugeots and whatnot, writes long thinkpieces on unloved cars. These two facts might be related.

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31 responses to “Forever Young – 1992 Toyota Corolla”

  1. Preludacris Avatar
    Preludacris

    I have the same stereo! I really enjoy seeing that it's just as far out of place in your girlfriend's grandmother's dashboard as it is in mine.
    It was the cheapest one available that met my two requirements: iPod input, and easy dimmer adjustment.

    Reply
  2. eggsalad Avatar
    eggsalad

    I want to live in a world where grandmothers drive cars with stick shifts!

    Reply
    1. Number_Six Avatar
      Number_Six

      It's horrifawesome when you're riding with your grandmother on narrow European roads and realize the speedometer in her 1992 Renault Clio reads 105mph and she's chatting happily about Mrs Quinn from up the road. Then she heel-and-toe downshifts into a tight corner and your head assplodes.

      Reply
  3. stickmanonymous Avatar
    stickmanonymous

    I despise these. My father had a 1994 2.0L Diesel Automatic.
    To quote Richard Hammond:
    "I'll guarantee that nothing exciting, vibrant, dynamic, new, creative, hopeful, or beneficial in any way to humanity has ever been done, thought of, or driven to in that drab, dreary, entirely beige, willfully awful pile of misery."
    While he was describing the Morris Marina, I think that it's a fair assessment of most Corollas, too.

    Reply
    1. Maxichamp Avatar
      Maxichamp

      I'm reading Hammond's book On the Edge. Highly recommend it. He's a good guy.

      Reply
  4. RichardKopf Avatar
    RichardKopf

    What, no post car wash pictures? What can I say, I am a sucker for before/after photos.

    Reply
    1. julkinen Avatar
      julkinen

      <img src="http://i.imgur.com/gA1nhCj.jpg&quot; width="660">
      Here you go! And it's even clean compared to the BMW.

      Reply
      1. Kris_01 Avatar
        Kris_01

        Looks just like mine, a '95 Canadian-built example. Mine has the 4A 1.6 (which was our "small" engine, the large one was the 1.8L 7A). Funny to see the ECONOMY guage on the base cluster as mine lacks this feature.
        One really nice touch on this gen Corolla is the IRS. This is the 7th gen Corolla, the 8th gen (97-02) kept this feature, and all subsequent Corollas went to a beam rear axle.

        Reply
  5. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    My wife has the same car as a hatchback, 1996-modell. I don't see how you can say that the 1,3 litre doesn't feel gutless…even pushing the thing to the absolute maximum does barely move it. You get everywhere, that's for sure, but not in a smooth manner. Other big drawbacks of this car are its incredibly low stance – hitting anything that sticks up from the road – and the fact that it just works. Nothing has ever to be done with this…haha. Fair enough. My wife will soon upgrade to a '02 Camry, which I am looking forward to especially.
    I bought a supercheap aftermarket radio myself – from Dealextreme. Sometimes, cheap is creative, too. I would never have thought that some evil person would devise a radio capable of playing a 32GB SD card without…wait for it…including a menue.
    <img src="http://superwidget.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/facepalm.jpg?w=645"&gt;
    It just plays from A to Z. I got it in Octobre, have driven 10000+ kilometres since, and have not come further than to F. Currently listening to all of Frank Zappa's work. On the upside: I really get to know all my music again.

    Reply
  6. Devin Avatar
    Devin

    I've complained how rare it is to find an aftermarket stereo that looks right, right? Because it's really rare.
    I actually like those economy lights, or similar attempts to give a visual readout of your economicalness. Because it's a fun game to do the opposite, see how deep in the blue you can get your Civic or how high you can get your instant mileage readout to go. It makes commuting fun!

    Reply
    1. racer139 Avatar
      racer139

      Or.how.long you can keep the instant fuel mileage readout all.or most of the way to the top.

      Reply
    2. Sky_Render Avatar
      Sky_Render

      I've got a '93 Toyolla wagon just like this one, but I don't have those economy lights. I feel cheated.

      Reply
  7. Dean Bigglesworth Avatar
    Dean Bigglesworth

    These are so dreary i can't even bring myself to forming an opinion about them.
    Instead here's a much more interesting corolla and a totaly unrelated forever young.
    [youtube rXz7lJhlFC0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXz7lJhlFC0 youtube]

    Reply
  8. Tim Odell Avatar
    Tim Odell

    This car exemplifies the early 90s Toyotas and Hondas that spelled doom for interesting mainstream cars.
    Before these, Japanese cars were surprisingly reliable, but still gutless and rust-prone. Much of America was won over, but one could sort of make a credible case for a K-car over a '87 Corolla. Not so by 1992 or ever thereafter.
    They figured out the formula that simple cars, excellently manufactured will win loyalty and repeat buyers. Concerns of the enthusiast are moot. The GTO and Mustang were exceptions. FWD + 4cyl + 4AT pays the bills.
    And we hate them for it.

    Reply
    1. Devin Avatar
      Devin

      I'm going to declare that Civics were usually pretty fun, while Toyotas would trend towards the plain and boring. The current generation of Civics seemed to be designed with grandmas in mind, but otherwise they tended to be the Japanese compact you could enjoy.
      The really weird thing is that the Vibetrix somehow managed to make something reasonably fun out of Corolla bits. One might argue that was because they had a collaborator, but GM wasn't exactly known for making the most exciting compacts either. So somehow that project brought out the best in both.

      Reply
      1. Tim Odell Avatar
        Tim Odell

        Well, the Toyota/Yamaha 2ZZ motor was pretty awesome.
        …then they dropped it in favor of the base 2.4L from the Camry.

        Reply
  9. LTDScott Avatar
    LTDScott

    A friend of mine just junked one of these. The auto trans went out with 200-something-K miles on it, and the car was just plain tired and not worth putting money into. A local wrecker gave him $400 for it.
    Last time I tried to sell a dead car about 10 years ago, the best offer I got was $100. Scrap metal prices are rising!

    Reply
  10. CABEZAGRANDE Avatar
    CABEZAGRANDE

    A good friend of mine in high school had one of these, and beyond the fact that it DID make us mobile, I despised that car. I have absolutely no idea how they could make something that light handle just that badly. And it was SO slow. Maybe 75 of it's original 100 hp was still around. Mostly it was just so, so boring. My other friends crappy cars, when creatively abused, could be quite fun. But with the Corolla, anytime you beat on it, you just felt vaugely sad, like you were trying to get an old reliable dog with hip problems to chase after a ball. It'd try, but the results were depressing. So we just drove it while trying not to be lulled to sleep. I was SO happy when I got my license and could start driving my CRX.

    Reply
  11. boostedlegowgn Avatar
    boostedlegowgn

    Kaida?

    Reply
  12. Number_Six Avatar
    Number_Six

    Ming
    /OCD

    Reply
    1. julkinen Avatar
      julkinen

      YES

      Reply
  13. duurtlang_ Avatar
    duurtlang_

    I've found these have been dying out rapidly, there aren't that many left. And with 'dying' I probably mean they're being exported to Africa. When I do see a Corolla it's a hatch. Or a sedan, driven by an old lady/gentleman with hardly any km on it. The newer ones, with the frog eyes, are diminishing quickly too. My ex had one of those frogeyes, a 3d hatch. What a joyless uninspiring lump that car was. Typical cars for those interested in reliable transportation and nothing else.

    Reply
  14. Rover 1 Avatar
    Rover 1

    If you want reliability above all else these are the cars to have.1 million kilometres plus is what I got out of a wagon version of these running as a courier vehicle,it's life cut short by another drivers carelessness.They are much better built than the previous model and really demonstrate that Toyota learned a lot about real quality from researching Lexus. Because they are viceless some people describe them as boring.
    Well, complete dependability can become endearing. These will be the cars that people will be looking for as classics in twenty years.

    Reply
    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      I agree about the dependability and its social effects, but it is not like this generation Corolla is without drawbacks. Here in Norway, at least, most of the gasoline engines use a lot of oil, early on. Our Corolla started to take a constant sip at 130000km, and it is a car that has been pampered by an expensive dealership, and been driven by at least somewhat car-conscious-people all its life. I have had 40+ year old or 350000km+ driven Volvo's that have used less oil. And then there is rust…they need care! Probably not much more than any other car in that original price bracket, but still, they rust fast and thorough.

      Reply
  15. Sky_Render Avatar
    Sky_Render

    I've got a '93 Corolla Wagon that I drive when the weather is nasty. It's that same color. And I also have the exact same radio head unit…

    Reply
  16. dculberson Avatar
    dculberson

    I was going to say, "Euro dance cover of Forever Young? That sounds like the worst thing ever." Then you actually embedded the song in your post, so I was able to listen to it and confirm that yes, that is the worst thing ever.

    Reply
    1. julkinen Avatar
      julkinen

      Haha yeah, I thought it would've been somewhat lacking without. Imagine hearing that every time you start the car.

      Reply
  17. dukeisduke Avatar
    dukeisduke

    Was that considered a '92 model in Finland? That generation debuted for the '93 model year here in the States. My wife had a '92 Corolla base sedan when I met her, a NUMMI (Fremont, Calif.) built car, and it was the last year of the previous-generation car (1988-1992, the sixth generation, or E90). The photo car here is a seventh generation, the E100.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Corolla

    Reply
    1. julkinen Avatar
      julkinen

      1992 was the first year for these, and the car is registered in 1992.

      Reply
    2. duurtlang_ Avatar
      duurtlang_

      I can't speak for Finland with certainty, but as far as I know we don't really do 'model years' in Europe. If a car's from calendar year 1992 it's a 1992, not a '1993 model'.

      Reply
      1. julkinen Avatar
        julkinen

        Yeah, someone would only do that when selling a used car, saying "it's practically a 1993"

        Reply