Archive Road Test: 1979 Toyota Corona LE Liftback

From the June 1979 issue of Car and Driver. The Toyota Corona has been around long enough that we all know it isn’t an Asian cigar. Coronas have tradition­ally embodied the Japanese idea of how Japan ought to interpret the standard American sedan, albeit smaller and a few years out of styling phase. Toyota, however, never allowed those small dis­crepancies to interfere with league-lead­ing sales in the United States. What happens in that league within the next two or three years will bear close watch­ing, because Toyota has chosen to increase the interior capacity of the Coro­na through the time-honored American method of an overall stretch job, con­sciously rejecting more modern, more efficient ways of creating greater carry­ing capacity. Moreover, while the Corona retains the old-fashioned front-en­gine-rear-drive layout, even the Ameri­cans are switching to front-wheel drive. The new Corona is nothing if not a shriveled-up Mercury Marquis. It has all the qualifications: quiet cruising, super-­plush interior, doodads here, thingama­jigs there. On this score, the Corona is another direct hit for Toyota—if it de­termined the correct grid coordinates before calling in the strike.