Toyota’s new Corona will give competitors a fright

Press, 20 February 1986, Page 36

Toyota’s new Corona will give competitors a fright

BEHIND the WHEEL with

Peter Greenslade

New Zealand’s motor industry has moved into its most critical year. Companies such as Ford, Todd Motors and Toyota, the market leaders, will almost certainly head the pack. It would not be surprising, however, if one or two of the smaller volume local assemblers went to the wall in the new environment the Government’s motor industry plan, announced a year or so ago, has created. Although Ford was again the market leader in 1985, capturing 21.2 per cent of the new car market, Toyota’s Corolla toppled the Laser from its perch by 797 units. In 1985, 7379 new Corollas were registered. On the other hand, the Toyota Corona was ninth on the top 10 list, registrations amounting to 3217, to head off the Ford Sierra station waggon (2815). Ford, Todd and Toyota will be fighting tooth and nail for the lion’s share of a new car market, which the pundits predict will amount to 75,000 units this year. Frankly, I have a feeling that Ford’s marketing expertise might just turn the trick again, but its resources will be stretched to the limits.

Todd Motors, the Mitsubishi distributor and assembler, has been a very strong market force for long enough. It maintained that reputation by finishing 1985 with a 16.4 per cent share. Mitsubishi ended fourth and fifth

among the top 10, with the Sigma (5032) and Mirage (5010).

However, the side with the best weapons generally comes out on top and on that score Toyota’s armoury looks as though it is going to be better than that of Todd Motors.

The crunch question must be, how will Toyota’s weapons — mainly the Corollas and Coronas — measure up against Ford’s Laser and Telstar?

Last year, Toyota New Zealand promoted the Corolla really hard and probably to the detriment of the Corona. The Corolla was top car and the Corona was well down the track.

This year, I believe Toyota New Zealand will be a strong contender with its new Corona, which was publicly announced this week. It will also have a facelifted Corolla range which will include a four-door liftback fitted with the famous 1600 cu cm twin cam engine. The new Corolla range should hit the streets about April. I sampled the new Corona on the Manfeild racing circuit before Christmas. More recently, I spent about 10 days with a top-of-the-line Corona GLi Liftback in and around Christchurch. If this petrol-injected 2-litre $28,900 car can be considered representative of the seven model Corona range for 1986, then Ford and Todd have a real fight on their hands.

In addition to the petrol injection liftback and saloon, available in manual and automatic transmission forms, the 1.8-litre engined Corona will continue as the I.BXL, in manual liftback form and also in manual and automatic saloon models. These particular models range in price from $21,500 for the manual saloon to $23,500 for the liftback version.

On the basis of price alone, these Coronas measure up very well against Ford’s Telstar and, on the face of it, appear to represent very good value when lined up against the Mitsubishi Sigma range. The Telstar has always been a good handling car, but since Chris Amon has been involved in the fine tuning of the front-wheel-drive Toyotas these have been, without a shadow of doubt, New Zealand’s best-handling locallyassembled cars. Mitsubishi’s Sigmas feel a shade cumbersome and more prone to understeer by comparison. Although similar in appearance to the Coronas launched in June last year, the micro-computer-controlled injection models, in particular, are rather livelier and smoother running cars. I also felt that Amon must have devoted a great deal of attention to the fine tuning of the Corona’s suspension because all the cars I drove at Manfeild felt just a little happier

than the earlier version and, when I sampled the GLi Liftback on the regular test route, more like a high quality European high performance car than a very well behaved Japanese model on the road. There is no doubt that the Amon input is transforming Toyotas. They may become recognised as pedigree cars in the years ahead. All the new Coronas have revised damper and spring rates as well as updated stabiliser bars, so it can be said that the suspension, although basically of the same layout as that of the previous model, is new. Toyota New Zealand is progressing steadily into research and development, a field that has been largely ignored by other local assemblers. And, as a consequence of the company’s association with Amon, Toyota has tended to place greater emphasis on suspension in its totality than other local assemblers who seem to have been guided, in the main, by their overseas principals. One must draw attention to the fact that the new fuel-injected engines in the Coronas are a (first for Toyota. In the past, an 1800 cu cm engine was always used so, in using a 2-litre engine, Toyota New Zealand has broken new ground for Japan’s biggest car maker.

A whole new set. of problems arose when the older, heavier and more

massive engine was replaced in the Corona. They were problems relating to the dynamics of the car and in tuning the suspension to suit, Amon, always aware of the interrelationship of suspension, tyres and wheels, finally opted for a tyre never before produced for a locally-assembled car. The GLi Coronas run on 5J wheels of 14-lnch diameter, whereas the earlier version was on 13in x 5J wheels. Thus the tyre used is a 175/65 HR 14 steel-belted radial, whereas in the past a 185/ 70 SR 13 radial has been used. The 65-series tyre was made specially for Toyota by the Papanui-based Firestone company, a manufacturer that has enjoyed a close association with Toyota since the front-drive models and Amon appeared on the scene. So, taking all things into consideration, it is probably fair to say that the GLi is a car with suspension tailored for it by Amon. It is, as I have already said, an exceptionally fine handling car and, thanks to its well-balanced power-assisted variable ratio steering, also a directionally stable one. It goes where it is pointed and there is sufficient feeling in the system to transmit vital messages about the road and its condition to the driver. I believe the regular test circuit reveals even

minor shortcomings in the road-holding and handling qualities of any car and, let’s face it, as a general rule the limitations of Japanese suspension and steering systems are most frequently revealed. Thus it is satisfactory to be able to say with complete honesty that this is by far the best Japanese car I have driven over the circuit since I have been writing this column. That is saying something, because most Japanese carmakers and their respective local assemblers now give evidence of getting their acts together. Although the interior of the Corona is, to my mind, plainer than that of a Telstar Ghia or Sigma SE, the appointments are beyond reproach and I must say that interior designer, Jan Beck, has done a better job in the selection of cloths for the upholstery and trim and in colour co-ordination than she did with the earlier Toyota front-drive cars. In this regard, however, I admit my judgment is subjective.

The seats are comfortable and I would approach a long day’s drive without qualms. The driving position is good and in the liftback the all-round field of vision could hardly be better.

I would like to sample a version with manual transmission, but merely out of curiosity. I have not been keen on automatic transmission in cars of two litres or less, but the manual override in the Toyota system is almost as good as a manual gearbox and in an injected Corona I would not need much coaxing to go automatic.

This particular Corona is going to give Ford and Todd Motors a lot to think about, and I expect the other cars in the range will do likewise. With the new Corollas yet to come, I am beginning to wonder about my prediction that Ford will finish on top of the heap again this year.

“My” Corona GLi returned 9.4 litres per 100 kilometres. That sort of petrol consumption over 10 day’s hard motoring could help put Toyota on the top of this year’s heap.