1973 Toyota Corolla L review from Australia and New Zealand

This car has been owned since new by a school teacher.

It is an AMI Australian Motor Industries assembled KE20 two door version with the 55Kw 3K-B engine.

Owing to very short trips it has had many rear exhaust resonators rust out. The Toyota originals & Australian aftermarket products are predominantly mild steel construction. Note; since we're now doing mostly freeway driving the Toyota exhaust system is showing no signs of perforation corrosion after 4 years.

The engine has been very good & easy to service. Compression on cylinder 4 dropped off due to carbon deposits. Cylinder head was removed, inspected, De-carbonized and valves refaced at 22 years of age (1995) and (140,000kms) Up until this point oil consumption was negligible during a 5,000km or 6 month service period.

Ensure the cooling system & cylinder block are regularly pressure flushed. This slant installation is prone to sludge forming around cylinder number four. Also ensure engine oil is never topped up above the full mark since the number four will suffer the most.

Now the vehicle has 180,000kms and oil consumption is increasing, currently around 1 l/1000kms on highway driving. it will require a full engine overhaul & re-bore at next heavy maintenance.

Ensure that you use the correct spark plugs designation, the Japanese NGK plugs have a longer nose cone which ensures there will be no engine stalling or flat spot when the engine is cold.

The vehicle still has original ignition distributor & contact points. Be patient, they do require inspection & attention with the 5,000km service intervals.

The boot or trunk is of a limited size. The vehicle fuel tank stands vertically between boot area and rear seat back.

Seat belts are non retractable, so if rear seat passengers are carried they need to be careful not to get their feet caught in front belts on entry & exit.

Body corrosion, has fortunately been limited to the large coupe door skins. The sills, structure & floor-pans all remain perforation corrosion free.

The "Toyoglide" two speed planetary automatic gearbox is simply extraordinary. It has received regular oil changes and no further intervention by the automatic specialist. Simply screen & pan inspections. There are no scheduled in service adjustments for this early gearbox.

Bearing in mind this vehicle has an empty weight of only 770kg the little car with only a driver will pull away smartly with light pressure on the accelerator pedal and beat most other cars standing. It will smoothly change into top gear at around 25kms/hr and continue easily to 80km/hr. The amount of torque from the small capacity & short piston stroke engine (66mm) is well matched to the light body.

However, by 100km/hr the engine is spinning at round 3,800 rpm and whilst it is responsive & peppy it does become noisy on long trips even with the factory exhaust. (Original 12 inch wheel rims)

Fuel economy on the four lane highway is consistently 6.8 l/100kms.

The fuel tank holds 45 liters of usable fuel and the fuel quantity indicator is very accurate all the way to "E" Empty & below. The vehicle regularly achieves highway round trips of 600km without refueling.