Alameda Street Sighting - 1976 Toyota Corolla Deluxe Liftback

When my parents were just starting out, they had a choice to make: make a down payment on a small suburban ranch house or buy a Toyota Corolla SR5 Liftback. They picked the house. It was a wise choice, but the Corolla Liftback was and still is an interesting offering in the economy-car market of the era. I've always liked them, especially in lemon yellow.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1981 Toyota Corolla Liftback

My, my. A Corolla. You must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel to be featuring a Corolla, Jay...

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1976 Toyota Corolla

The Toyota Corolla is the best-selling model in history, with over 35 million sold since 1966. The name was already ten years old by the time this car rolled off the assembly line. More than thirty years later, this example is still kicking around San Francisco. I can't even imagine how many miles are probably on it. It probably wears its original paint, what's left of it, and the body panels look original.

This Corolla has had a rough life. I've seen some old Toyotas in the city that looked really clean for their age. This isn't one of them. It has body damage and rust from decades in SF traffic and living in salt air. What makes it notable though, is the fact that it's a mid-70s Toyota that's still running. San Francisco isn't kind to old cars, so most drivers would have junked a '76 Corolla and bought a new car by now. I suppose for some people, it's worth more to have a cheap and relatively efficient old car that can be bumped and scraped without much fear of decreasing its value than it is to have the green cred of a shiny new Prius.