They were lemons back then but sure got better over the years ...

My buddies Mom had a funky green on tan 76 Toyota SR5, 5 speed standard, and we thought it was a great car. Certainly well ahead of it's time compared to the comparable north American smaller cars of the day.

Toyota models of that era rusted badly but they were mechanically very reliable. I had a 77 Corolla liftback in which  road slush splashed into the passenger compartment because there was no floor pan. But it was otherwise unstoppable, and great to drive.  

Have alway been a Toyota Fan, LOL. worked there in 81 for 16 years, then back at 2005 and still there.

Had a 72 & 74 Celica, 81 Celica and a 91. And numerous other Toyota's. 1st ones were rusty, tops of fenders rusted out

and if driven in rain, the tires threw water up thru the fenders, LOL. 72 was close to the other blue one posted. 

We always had imports, mostly Honda (Accords, Civics & Preludes), the occasional Mazda and the latest one still in the garage, my daughters 1990 Toyota Celica GTS. She drove that daily up until about 5 years ago. Still starts and runs like a champ.

Back in the 80s and early 90s there was nothing from the big three that could hold a candle to the imports.

My Wife has owned at least (8) Toyotas since getting her license. She had a '87 Tercel (her "Island car") and a 2002 Camry (her "Toronto car") when I first met her.

4SPEED427 wrote:

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Am I the only guy on this forum that drove nothing but big old 60's Pontiacs, Acadians and Novas all through the 70's and 80's??? C'mon you guys, you call yourselves Canadian Poncho enthusiasts? I think the only exception was the 65 Impala 4 door hardtop that I drove one summer. The only reason I bought it was for the power bench seat track which I stripped out and put into my 66 Grande Parisienne with the Strato Bench.

You guys are sad. I think I'm going to look for a REAL Canadian Pontiac forum....

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Where I live this was simply not possible.  Within ten years most 60s cars were off the road due to extensive rusting so by the time I got my license in 1974 you would have been hard pressed to find a decent 60s Pontiac that you could use as a daily driver. I remember working at Canadian Tire in 1975 and a co-worker had a 62 Pontiac sedan which was by that time - just 13 years - a real anomaly on our streets despite being very commonly seen into the late 60's.  The combination of a damp salt air coastal climate and heavy use of road salt just destroyed 60's, 70's and even 80's cars in no time. Example, in 2001 I bought a non-winter driven 88 Caprice wagon as a daily driver and family car. It was in good condition as a result, but by the time I sold it in about 2005, it was looking shabby and had few companions on the road in that you would hardly ever see a B body wagon or sedan, nor could you find many parts in the junk yards.  It was also the oldest car in the parking garage at the place where I worked. In fact someone once asked me why I drove such an old car (I think they thought I could not afford a new one). I simply said I preferred older rear wheel drive cars.  And I still do to this day. 

gparis7 wrote:

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4SPEED427 wrote:

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Am I the only guy on this forum that drove nothing but big old 60's Pontiacs, Acadians and Novas all through the 70's and 80's??? C'mon you guys, you call yourselves Canadian Poncho enthusiasts? I think the only exception was the 65 Impala 4 door hardtop that I drove one summer. The only reason I bought it was for the power bench seat track which I stripped out and put into my 66 Grande Parisienne with the Strato Bench.

You guys are sad. I think I'm going to look for a REAL Canadian Pontiac forum....

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Where I live this was simply not possible.  Within ten years most 60s cars were off the road due to extensive rusting so by the time I got my license in 1974 you would have been hard pressed to find a decent 60s Pontiac that you could use as a daily driver. I remember working at Canadian Tire in 1975 and a co-worker had a 62 Pontiac sedan which was by that time - just 13 years - a real anomaly on our streets despite being very commonly seen into the late 60's.  The combination of a damp salt air coastal climate and heavy use of road salt just destroyed 60's, 70's and even 80's cars in no time. Example, in 2001 I bought a non-winter driven 88 Caprice wagon as a daily driver and family car. It was in good condition as a result, but by the time I sold it in about 2005, it was looking shabby and had few companions on the road in that you would hardly ever see a B body wagon or sedan, nor could you find many parts in the junk yards.  It was also the oldest car in the parking garage at the place where I worked. In fact someone once asked me why I drove such an old car (I think they thought I could not afford a new one). I simply said I preferred older rear wheel drive cars.  And I still do to this day. 

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My experience in NS was similar, but perhaps not as severe as NL.

Back in the sixties, seventies, and into the eighties it was not unusual to see doors and quarter panels flapping when cars were 6 or 7 years old.  Case in point, I recall changing a door on my '76 Nova that I had in 1983 because the drivers door was rotten at the bottom.  The car was only 7 years old and I had bought it for $200!  I found a 1977 Nova parts car that I bought for much less... $50? can't remember exactly, that had a good door on it to switch it up.  Got a few more parts off of the '77 and then sold it to get my money back.

In '82-'83 I had a nice '73 Lemans with low miles (27,000) that had been garaged all its life but still driven in the winter, and it was one of the oldest cars that I saw on the road at the time.  I remember telling people it's 10 years old like that was some kind of accomplishment...  I sold it in '83 because the floors and frame were getting soft - the rear wheel arches had already crumbled to pieces.  When I got the car I had to replace the rear lower control arms because they were too rusty and at risk of breaking.  Otherwise the car was mint - if it had been on the prairies it would have been one of those perfect little old lady cars and probably would still be around today.

Just about every 1970s GM car on the road back then had its back bumper rotted through from the non-chrome side - my Lemans was no exception.

I have a few distinct memories of seeing rusted cars on the side of the road, like in the late seventies I recall an early seventies Chevy Impala sitting on the side of the road with a piece of its frame sticking out from under the rocker panel.  Sights like this were not unusual.

Those little british imports the big 3 used to sell would disintegrate after being here for a few years.  I recall one of my engineering profs years ago telling me that he had driven his Envoy to work one morning and when he came out after work it had collapsed on him - something in the body had strangely decided to break while it was sitting there - he was a lucky guy that day that it didn't break while he was driving it.

The Japanese imports didn't fare well either, they pretty much fell apart after about 6 or 7 years.  Floors fell out of them, fenders pretty much fell off, shock towers rotted.  You see, in Japan they don't have the kind of rust conditions that we have (except maybe in the north, like Hokkaido), so when they started to send their cars over, they were Japanese spec - just mild steel with paint, but at a much thinner gauge than the US cars.  Once the rust started at the vulnerable areas, it was game over.  For them, though, it was a different story - at first they were surprised about the number of warranty claims they were getting for rust related failures, so they sent teams of engineers to Canada to try to understand the situation.  Once they understood what was going on, they quickly improved their products to be more rust resistant.  You could see it happening in the late 1980s and early 1990s. - suddenly the Japanese brands started to outlast the US brands, and unfortunately it took the US brands well over a decade to catch up.  Nowadays everything tends to last longer than it did back then, which is a good thing.

So, yeah, when I was a kid I used to envy all the guys from the prairies and west coast, and all the southern American guys who could go out and buy a used musclecar for cheap.  Back here all the musclecars were basically gone by the time I got my license, except for the few that were pampered and not driven in the winter, which were above my price range.  I was happy to just get a car that wasn't rotten, when I could afford to buy one that nice.

That's what fueled my passion for old cars - they were always so elusive and seemed to be just out of reach, yet they had superior styling and powertrains compared to what was available to me then.  I did eventually start to find some decent old cars, though, although many of them ended up being Mopars.  When I bought my first new car it was a Ford - a Mustang 5.0 coupe with a 5-speed, as GM Camaros and Firebirds were too expensive (and too heavy - sorry) and Chrysler had fallen to only offering 4 cylinder front wheel drive 'performance' cars at the time.  That car started a long appreciation for Fords - to this date it was the toughest, most fun to drive car I ever had - almost can't believe the amount of abuse it took and never broke, always came back for more.

I still have an appreciation for Canadian Pontiacs, though, but it would go against my entire being to limit myself to one brand - life's too short for that.