As classic car enthusiasts, it’s entirely legitimate to have conflicted feelings about older Japanese cars. When they were built, they were considered a cheaper, more primitive alternative, and they were ultimately responsible for displacing cars and manufacturers from Italy, France, the United States, and England from our market. That said, the displaced manufacturers also shared that responsibility, and surviving old Japanese cars are now cool for being rare and signalling the beginning of a revolution in the world car market. While their styling was sometimes derivative, it’s still interesting to see the Japanese interpretation of what would sell well in the North American market. A prime example of this is this 1968 Toyota Corona Mark II hardtop coupe, available for $3500 in Santa Fe, NM.
With 45 years of hindsight, this is actually quite an attractive car. The rear styling gives an impression of more elegance than the pillared sedan, and makes it look longer – the styling actually recalls the Opel Rekord C coupe, pictured below. Unfortunately the seller doesn’t provide many details, and only shows one photo (in fact, it’s even unclear whether it’s a 1968 or 1969 car – the title and text disagree). Among the details he does give are that the car runs well, and that it has less than 70,000 miles. How a workaday car can accumulate so few miles over a long life will forever be a mystery, but this one may be a wet sand away from vintage Japanese car show glory! Buy it before someone else does the all-too-common coil-over and repro-vintage wheel conversion!
Rusty But Trusty 
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