Showdown, Nineteen Seventy-Nine: 1979 Toyota Corona vs 1979 Chevy Corvette

Ever hear a fragment of a song and then have it stuck in your head for days? That happened to me the other day with the Smashing Pumpkins’s “1979.” So I thought maybe choosing two cars from that year might exorcise my Billy Corgan demon. Unfortunately, 1979 is right smack in the depths of the malaise era, so the choices weren’t great. I did the best I could.

Yesterday’s Showdown was also a musical reference, in which we Monday-morning-quarterbacked the choices made by the subject of Cake’s “Short Skirt, Long Jacket.” By a slim but decisive margin, you determined that Kitty should have stayed Kitty and kept her MG. I guess I could go either way on this one, which is why I included the “both” option.

And I got schooled by our resident LeBaron expert, Stephen Walter Gossin, on Slack: apparently the transmission in this one is a four-speed Ultradrive. I was counting gear positions on the shifter and came up with six – P, R, N, D, 2, and 1. But Stephen told me the D is actually OD, and the lower positions are 3 and L. And the LeBaron actually has a cupholder ashtray, not armrest, which, ew.

The sprawling double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins is now thirty years old, meaning nearly twice as much time has elapsed since its release than between 1979 and then. Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan was twelve in 1979, still too young to party with Justine, hanging out with the freaks and ghouls. I was six, and obsessed with the Disney sci-fi flick The Black Hole. What does this have to do with cars? Not a damn thing, I suppose, except that none of us are exactly spring chickens anymore – not me, not Billy, and certainly not these old wrecks. Let’s check them out.

1979 Toyota Corona – $4,800

Engine/drivetrain: 2.2-liter overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, RWD

Location: Bailey, CO

Odometer reading: 114,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives great

Japanese cars got a foothold in the US in the 1970s in part because American cars back then – and I say this as someone who actually likes some of them – sucked. They were built haphazardly and on shoestring budgets. They were powered by ancient V8 engines that made half a horsepower per cubic inch or less and still managed to get lousy gas mileage. Japanese cars, by comparison, were well-built and efficient, if not always the most exciting things on four wheels.

This is the Corona, Toyota’s predecessor to the Camry, a rear-wheel-drive sedan powered by the same R-series engine as Toyota trucks. You could get it with either a five-speed manual or a three-speed automatic; this one has the manual. It runs and drives fine, and with only 114,000 miles, it’s just getting broken in. The seller doesn’t tell us much about its service history, but the engine bay looks encouraging: a few shiny parts, and no obvious bodged repairs.

The interior hasn’t weathered the years quite as well as the mechanical parts; it’s threadbare, and both the upholstery and the plastic parts are faded to pink. It’s not damaged or abused, just old. It has air conditioning, which may or may not work, and an aftermarket radio/tape player, which is more likely to.

In the saltier parts of the country, all these ’70s Toyotas rusted away ages ago. Even this one is a little crispy around the edges. It’s also missing a taillight lens, and I’m not sure where you would find one. Coronas aren’t exactly common in junkyards these days. You could make one, I suppose, if you’ve got nothing better to do.

1979 Chevrolet Corvette – $7,500

Engine/drivetrain: 350 cubic inch overhead valve V8, three-speed automatic, RWD

Location: Long Island, NY

Odometer reading: 132,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives great

At this point, I’m beginning to wonder if the late C3 Corvette is ever going to get any respect, or if it will forever be associated with chest hair, gold chains, and Dirk Diggler. They’re starting to creep up in price; does that mean their value is increasing, or just that the rising tide of classic car values lifts all boats? Whatever the reason, if you do want one, it’s looking like you had better hurry.

As much fun as people make of this era Corvette now, you can’t say they weren’t popular at the time. 1979 was the best-selling year in Corvette history; more than 53,000 buyers rolled out of Chevy dealerships in one of these swoopy numbers. This one has a 350 V8 and a Turbo 400 automatic, like most of them did. It puts out 195 horsepower, pretty good for the malaise era, and actually up a bit from prior years. It looks like hell under the hood, but the seller says it runs and drives great.

It looks pretty good inside, with just a little wear and tear. The horn button is missing, and the seller says it needs to have the contacts replaced. There is also some play in the steering column, but we know how to fix that. It has T-tops, of course, and they have been given a mirror tint on the outside. Gaudy, sure, but I bet the tint keeps the interior temperatures down.

Most of the outside is pretty gaudy, actually, with an aftermarket spoiler, a bunch of added chrome trim, functional side pipes, and aftermarket wheels. It’s nowhere near Corvette Summer levels of modification or tackiness, but it’s certainly not subtle. Most of that stuff is reversible, at least, if you wanted to. The paint has quite a few flaws, but all the fiberglass and rubber parts are in acceptable shape.

1979 was not a great year for cars. Low power, gaudy trim packages, and hit-or-miss quality made vehicles of the late 70s hard to forget, but even harder to love. On the one hand, you have a sturdy but stodgy import sedan, and on the other, an exercise in excess based on America’s flagship sports car. Which one better represents such a bleak chapter in automotive history to you?