The Fifth Generation (AE80)
Front-wheel drive was the in-thing in the fuel-efficient ’80s and the fifth generation Corolla adopted this space-saving drivetrain. An entirely new design was conceived, again by Agetsuma and his team. The new design was sleeker and yet offered more interior space than any earlier Corolla.

The fifth generation also brought a new range of lightweight, advanced engines that were more responsive. One of the most advanced units was the 12-valve E-Series engine which drew much praise in engineering circles.

The number of variants had grown over the years and for the first time, a 5-door Liftback was introduced. Also introduced were high-performance coupes which had a new 16-valve twincam EFI engine that developed an impressive 130 bhp. These retained rear-wheel drive because Toyota engineers felt that the enthusiasts of that time preferred it. The stationwagon variant also had RWD during this period.

The fifth generation added approximately 3.3 million units (with 98,880 built in California) to the Corolla’s cumulative production figure, raising it to 15.5 million units.

The Sixth Generation (AE90)
The man who assumed command of the Corolla development team for the sixth generation was Dr. Akihiko Saito. The continuing success and confirmed position of the Corolla as the world’s best-seller meant that the next generation had to be designed very carefully.

But the question that faced Dr. Saito and his team was: how do you make a best-seller even better?

The answer was to raise quality levels higher than ever before. The availability of new materials, computer-aided design tools and other advancements made it possible to design a new, more sophisticated Corolla which would perform more efficiently and, at the same time, be of significantly higher quality.

This was the philosophy applied to the development of the sixth generation introduced in May 1987. It had a ‘big car look’ with an elegant style. The sporty-looking Liftback which had a unique wrap-around ‘greenhouse’ and its lines echoed the Celica Liftback then.

Technically, this was another milestone Corolla with its newly-developed twincam 16-valve 1600 cc engine. Designed for family cars, this engine offered high output, quicker response and yet excellent fuel economy.

In virtually every market where the Corolla was launched, sales increased substantially. During the five years that the sixth generation was produced, over 4.5 million units were produced. Factories in California and Canada contributed 279,000 units to this figure.

The Seventh Generation (AE101)
To the Japanese, ‘7’ is a lucky number and still basking in the accolades the company had received for its superb Lexus LS400, every Chief Engineer wanted to produce his model with the same superior levels of refinement. For Dr. Saito, who led the team for the initial development phase of the seventh generation Corolla, the aim was to “Touch the Heart” with a car of unprecedented quality. No expense was spared and every effort was put into producing what the market would later regard as a ‘mini-Lexus’.

Initially, the model took off slowly as the major upgrade in quality and appointments had bumped the price up in the domestic market by quite a fair bit. However, when customers drove the car and actually experienced the refinement, the extra cost was justified and once again, Corolla sales soared. Unfortunately, the yen started rising in strength and there was also a recession starting in the home market and sales were dampened. Nevertheless, the seventh generation sold very well outside Japan.

The Eighth Generation (AE110)
Japan was in recession when development work on the eighth generation began in the early 1990s. After enjoying much freedom working on the facelift of the previous ‘mini-Lexus’ generation, Takayasu Honda, who was the Chief Engineer, faced a big challenge in reducing costs. Like all Japanese automakers, Toyota had to take urgent measures to cope with the recession and product development teams were under pressure to find ways of producing new models at a lower cost – without compromising perceived quality. In earlier years, they could add extra length to a cable to avoid it touching something and causing noise; now they could not do that and even had to find a way to make the cable cheaper!

The same platform was used as the previous generation but a lot of cost-down measures were taken. It was still a competent car and high quality was maintained in areas that the customer saw. The eighth generation also got large doses of safety with airbags added and ABS made available in some markets.

Some take a negative view of the eighth generation but as the Chief Engineer of the latest Corolla, Takeshi Yoshida (who was deputy for the eighth generation) explains, its development concept was correct for the period it was sold in because of the recession.

During this generation, Toyota decided to try out a regional variation by letting its European design centre make some cosmetic changes that would suit European customers. From the outset, the Corolla for Europe was intended to be more than just an exercise in cosmetic changes from the Asian one. The whole thrust of the development program was to produce a car which could truly meet the needs and tastes of European buyers. Market research told Toyota that innovative design and emotional appeal are strong prerequisites for success. The Corolla had been lacking flair even if consumers recognised its high build quality and proven reliability.

One of the exciting features of the European variant was a 6-speed gearbox which was available in the sportiest model. It coincided with the development of the new Toyota rallycar which was based on the hatchback. However, sporty models like the coupe and liftback no longer existed in this generation as Toyota decided their demand had fallen too much. New with this generation was a mini-MPV variant called the Corolla Spacio which, unusually, had its body panels stamped at Kanto Autoworks instead of Toyota’s own factories.

The Corolla in Malaysia
The history of the Toyota Corolla in Malaysia goes back to 1967 when the first generation was imported in small numbers. However, in the following year, responding to the Malaysian government’s call for the creation of a local automotive industry, Toyota began sending completely knocked-down (CKD) kits of the Corolla to Malaysia where local workers could assemble the cars.

The plant which was chosen to undertake assembly was Assembly Services Sdn Bhd (ASSB) in Shah Alam, which was one of the earliest assembly plants to be established in Malaysia. A wholly-owned subsidiary of UMW Toyota Motor today, ASSB was the recipient of much automotive technology transfer during the 1960s and 1970s as production engineers from Toyota provided advice on the assembly of vehicles and also worked closely in designing the plant layout.

Like most Japanese cars introduced in the 1960s, the Corolla met with scepticism from Malaysian buyers who had been used to European products. But reliability and durability won many over and as positive comments from owners spread, the popularity of the model increased quickly. By the mid-1970s, the Corolla was jostling for best-selling car in Malaysia with the Datsun 120Y. It was only when the National Car arrived in 1985 that the two cars were displaced although they continued to battle each other for second and third positions.

As each new generation arrived, the advertising agencies would come up with memorable launch concepts. For example, the advertising for the KE70 which appeared in late 1979 exploited past successes with the tagline ‘Legend Reborn’. In the late 1980s, UMW Toyota Motor lifted the image of the model even higher as it launched the AE90 as ‘The Unexpected Corolla’.

The Corolla was also one of the competitive rallycars in the Malaysian scene during the 1980s. Sejati Motor (as UMW Toyota Motor was known then) saw much potential in the Corolla GT (also known as Levin in Japan) which had the potent 4A-GE twincam 16-valve engine that produced 130 bhp in standard form and decided to establish a rally team. In spite of its smaller 1600 cc engine, the Corolla GT won many rallies and championships, beating larger and more powerful rivals like the Nissan 240RS.

“It was a highly manoeuverable car and ‘flew’ perfectly,” recalls Y.S. Khong, who was the team’s manager and also won 20 rallies with the Corolla GT, besides becoming National Rally Champion with it. “The engine was virtually unburstable and when we raced it in the Group A class, it was the reliability of the engine and durability of the car that gave us the superiority.” Needless to say, all those wins rubbed off on the Corollas the public could buy.

Through the years, the Corolla’s engine size has grown from the original 1.1 litres. The 1.3-litre engine was the mainstay during much of the 1980s but by the 1990s, the 1.6-litre engine was more popular, partly because of the pricing. With the latest ninth generation, a larger displacement of 1.8 litres if offered for the first time here while the 1.3-litre variant is no longer assembled.

Prices have risen too; from around RM6,000 for the first generation, the fourth generation’s price went up to RM12,000. By the end of the 1990s, the Corolla passed the RM100,000 mark as a result of the economic crisis that weakened the ringgit. At RM122,000, the new Corolla Altis 1.8G would be the most expensive locally-assembled Corolla ever offered… but also the best.

The Ninth Generation Corolla Altis

With over 28 million produced (as at the end of 2000), the Toyota Corolla is undoubtedly a ‘world car’ although some may argue that, unlike Ford’s Model T and VW’s Beetle – also ‘world cars’ – the Corolla has not remained in its original form which first appeared in 1966. That’s true but the unchanged designs of the Ford and VW also brought on their demise, while Toyota chose to keep its most popular model up to date.

The Corolla has been sold in over 150 countries and assembled in many. Through a joint-venture with General Motors, it is also manufactured in California for the US market and GM has been selling a variant of the Corolla under its own brand since the mid-1980s.

This world best-seller was born in October 1966 when the pace of motorization and private ownership of cars was accelerating in Japan. Although it may appear that the Corolla rode this wave of motorization, Eiji Toyoda, a former Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation, thinks it was really the other way round.

“We worked to create popular demand with the Corolla. In retrospect, had motorization not caught on, we would have been stuck with surplus facilities because we had built an engine plant as well as an assembly plant specially for Corolla production,” he recalls.

Each generation of the Corolla was designed taking into consideration the needs of motorists during that period. But for every Chief Engineer given the project over the years, two basic points had to be adhered to: “Corolla must be loved and appreciated by people the world over and it must continue setting new standards for automotive development”.

The First Generation (KE10)
The first Corolla went on sale in November 1966 and it offered high performance and quality, while being sufficiently low in price and maintenance costs to be affordable to drivers of small cars.

Tatsuo Hasegawa, the Chief Engineer for the first Corolla, recalls the objectives his team set out to meet: “It was aimed at the general user, and had to be a comfortable car which its owners would be proud of. We wanted it to be the type of automobile that people would want to continue driving for a long time.”

In line with the development concept, the Corolla had a dynamic and elegant appearance. Curved glass was used to create more interior space and for sporty performance, a 4-speed manual transmission was fitted. A brand new K-series 4-cylinder 50 bhp 1100 cc engine was specially developed. This extra 100 cc was significant as other cars in the class had only 1000 cc then. The Deluxe export model had what were then ‘unprecedented luxuries’ – radio, electric aerial, cigarette lighter, hub caps and reclining seats.

Almost as soon as the Corolla started selling in Japan, plans for selling the new car in other countries were formulated. The first shipment went to Australia and within two years, 3,000 Corollas were being exported worldwide every month. Even in its ‘youth,’ the Corolla was aimed at distant horizons.

The Second Generation (KE20)
1,171,384 Corollas had been produced by the time the second generation appeared in Japan in May 1970. It was longer, wider and lower, with more safety features. Comfort and handling were improved and made long-distance driving more enjoyable. Besides 2-door and 4-door sedans, the range expanded to include a station-wagon and a sleek (for that time) coupe. After a facelift in late 1971, the variety of models increased to 48 – perhaps the widest selection in its class then.

Exports of this generation in 1971 nearly doubled those of 1970 with 259,399 units being sold overseas. This made the model not only Toyota’s top export but also Japan’s. Total production of this generation was 3,212,877 units.

The Chief Engineer for the second generation, Shiro Sasaki, remembers that the Corolla was expected to do well. But he admits that no one expected such gigantic figures so quickly. “The basic philosophy behind the Corolla proved itself valid with the overwhelming popularity worldwide,” he remembers.

During the second generation of the Corolla, a high-performance model known as the Corolla Levin (taken from the Spanish word for ‘lightning’) was added. This particular Corolla had a powerful 115-bhp twincam 1600 cc engine which very quickly set new standards of performance for sportscar engines. In fact, long before Japanese cars began making an impact on European rallies, a Corolla Levin driven by Hannu Mikkola won the 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland in 1975.

The Third Generation (KE30)
Older readers will remember the third generation which had the advertising jingle that went “C-O-R-O-L-L-A… Corolla, our favourite car today!”. This generation, of which nearly 4.5 million were produced, was born into a somewhat serious global environment in April 1974. The energy crisis had caused automobile sales to drop and economies stagnated. But, fortunately, the Corolla’s design and performance were totally ‘in tune’ with those difficult times. It always had good fuel economy, was light and yet offered enough space for Caucasian adults.

Shiro Sasaki, who also headed the third generation project team, was happy that the third generation was praised for its stylishness as well as for its relatively large interior. It was very successful because it was a car that met the demands of the buyers. In fact, in 1975, while European and American manufacturers experienced massive drops in sales due to their unpopular fuel-guzzling models with big engines, Corolla demand grew substantially and a phenomenal 2,074 units were produced every single day of that year.

A Liftback variant joined the Corolla family during the third generation. This was developed after Toyota’s research saw a growth in the recreational vehicle market. The Liftback was introduced in anticipation of this trend and met enthusiastic response in North America.

One of the most endearing qualities of the Corolla has been its reliability and durability. As far back as 1978, an independent West German organisation reported that, in their survey of four European cars and one Japanese car (a Corolla KE30), the Japanese car came out tops in every category. Furthermore, an impressive 97% of Corolla owners expressed complete satisfaction with their cars.

The Fourth Generation (KE70)
Maintaining the Corolla as a global best-seller was the great challenge which faced Fumio Agetsuma, the Chief Engineer for the fourth generation which arrived in May 1979. His comment on that awesome responsibility: “The world was waiting for a model change and it was a change that had to be planned and executed in unsettled times, and under less than ideal market conditions. The task was frightening, to say the least.”

To ensure that the new Corolla would be just as popular as its 8.8 million predecessors, Agetsuma studied all the market surveys thoroughly and decided that a totally new approach was needed because the spectrum of customers had widened and higher quality was demanded, even of small cars.

Extensive testing was done overseas and even in safety tests, nothing was compromised: over 100 prototypes ended up as scrap metal. Exhaustive wind tunnel tests were carried out at a time when many other manufacturers had not examined that aspect of design.

What emerged was another successful design, with squarish but stylish looks that the 1980s consumers liked. It also had robust engineering and a new level of ride comfort and handling. Higher quality was evident throughout and there were much higher standards of safety too. Coil springs replaced the rear leafsprings for the first time, improving comfort.

This generation, introduced in Malaysia in late 1979 as the “Legend Reborn”, ran until early 1984, by which time 12.3 million Corollas had been produced after 17 years. In 1980, Corolla production averaged 2,346 units daily – the highest production volume for the model in its history. Like the KE-30, this generation also had bodystyle variants with a very attractive liftback.