Hi fellow Rollas.
I've been driving nothing but Corollas since June 1980.
My first was a company car, a 1600cc 3 door fastback in black with frameless windows - quite a posemobile and very much 'not me' as up till then I'd had old British bangers. After three and a half years I left the company and the MD let me have the car for 500 GBPounds (book price 2200) I drove it around for another 9 years after which, with 223,000 on the clock it had started to rust under the engine. A car enthusiast friend commented "That's what happens when your engine doesn't leak oil!".
A friend spotted an identical 1980 model but in pale metallic blue at a reasonable price at a local dealer's which I bought. It only lasted 11 months before it was written off in a smash - I was stationary at the back of a traffic queue and a Jaguar just ploughed into me - the driver was talking on his cellphone at the time. My car was still drivable after the impact but the Jag wasn't.
A quick hunt and I found a 1988 metallic grey 5 door 1300cc Corolla hatchback which I liked and drove for 7 years before it was written off in a minor crunch. It did have 212,000 on the clock and was still on the original clutch.
A red 1991 identical model was my next Corolla which I had for only 3 years before it became unreliable due to a seriously overheated engine when I had a total loss of coolant while climbing a long hill (split radiator). Even before getting any work done on the engine, it still got me home "under my own steam"!
Just when I needed a replacement, a friend spotted a third identical Corolla (1990 this time), again in metallic grey, sitting at the side of the road with a For Sale notice in the window. He took me to see it and after a test drive I bought it for 950 GBPounds. Although 13 years old, it had a genuine 20,000 miles on the clock and a full service history! I'm still driving it today, 9 years on and it's still only done about 106,000 miles. But I've had to spend money on it to keep it going the last couple of years so I decided that it was time for something a little newer. I figure that if a 1990 Corolla is still running well after 22 years, if I buy a nearly new one, and it lasts 22 years, I'll be into my 80s by then and probably won't need a car. So I went mad on Saturday last week and bought an 18 month old Auris Hybrid (which we all know is really a Corolla) which I'm collecting tomorrow.
Does anybody want to buy a 22 year old Corolla? I'm putting it in the ads section if you're interested.
