Selling Japanese cars in Germany in 1975 must have been an interesting proposition; unlike in America, where the domestic automobiles were large, thirsty things that were wildly different from the imported machines, Germany was full of small, efficient automobiles already. So the Japanese needed to differentiate themselves in novel ways. Like by how many red-and-yellow fuel jugs they could carry.
This is an odd picture from this brochure; it fits in a category of look-at-all-the-stuff-you-can-cram-in-the-trunk photos that have been a staple of car brochures for decades. This one is different, though, because it takes the measurement of cargo area in liters more literally than most.
I mean, I always tend to think of liters in terms of liquids, mostly because I live in a country that measures everything weirdly, and for some reason some liquids, like soda and some booze, gets measured in liters, while milk and gasoline gets measured in gallons. You’ve all seen the Washington sketch, right?
That’s good stuff. Anyway, the trunk of the Mark II Toyota Corona can hold over 430 liters! That’s a lot of liters.
That’s a lot of liters, but because of the area taken up by the jugs themselves, which are colored in such a way that makes me imagine ketchup and mustard, I don’t think all of those could really fit in that trunk.
The fuel tank is capable of holding 57 liters, about 15 gallons, and, unusually for a brochure like this, the car’s range is not only given (660 km/410 miles) but it also shows that range on a map of Europe, centered on Frankfurt. I’ve never seen a brochure do anything like this before?
Let’s look at these Coronas a moment. They’re handsome little cars, with a lot of American styling influences, like that Pontiac-like beak up front there in the grille.
I like the coupé even better, with that massive sloping C-pillar – or is it a B-pillar, because this is a pillar-less car? Also, I need to really read up on mid-’70s European side marker lamp rules, because these just have one in the front? I think maybe it’s just an indicator repeater?
So many glorious mysteries and things to learn!
Maybe they assumed German buyers would be interested in the area that could be invaded before refuelling.
If this brochure is German, it makes absolute sense to include the map with a circle drawn on it. This is what a television program with Rainer Günstler called Autotest did. They reviewed cars on various aspects including freezing it to below 15 degrees Celsius and trying to start the car. They always measured the fuel consumption of the car in various aspects. They would then show a map of Europe, centered around the city of the importer or manufacturer and then showed their calculated range.
You can see it in this review of the NSU Ro80 at 13:03 https://youtu.be/MnM4KNPopVI?si=rYPnaNmMDPtwOBvF
It’s weird the brochure chose Frankfurt because Toyota Germany is based in Cologne (Köln)
“Also, I need to really read up on mid-’70s European side marker lamp rules”
It is just an additional turn signal indicator, like the ones modern cars have in the mirrors. Outside of the US, side illumination or reflectors are not mandated.
You can easily tell 70’s “world market” vs US market Japanese cars by either those turn signals or the front/rear fixed side reflectors/lights. That is, if you somehow ignore the giant US-spec bumpers.
My “world market” ‘78 Corolla has those little indicators
The driving area map is a bit of fluff. I imagine its just showing distance “as the crow flies” so actual driving distance could be significantly less, or more if there is an abundance of downhills. I’m sure there isn’t hundreds (thousands?) of roads leading dead straight out from Frankfurt in all directions. It would be cool if there was though
All these posts and no one’s mentioned the Coronavirus? WTF?
Ma, ma, ma, my Corona.
She was clever, and she was charming, but above all
Steve Martin was pretty funny 50 years ago.
SHE HAD THE JUGS
…. stupid broken link and ruined joke
http://thenonist.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/cruel_shoes
I’m really glad I’m not the only one whose mind went straight to that.
At the time the European Common Market had some punitive tariffs on vehicles imported from outside the zone. This led to some creative tricks for said importers. Somewhat like how importers of commercial vehicles have tried to circumvent the chicken tax in the US by doing things like Ford did importing the Transit Connect with passenger seats and then converting them back to cargo use.
In this case, Toyota discovered the loophole that a vehicle imported without a gas tank would be free of tariffs, so they brought them in as such and then offered jerrycans as an accessory at their dealers.
EE
CK!Why did my brain go to one of Jason’s prior peesperiments when I read this title?
{ slaps trunk } you can fit so much urine in this bad boy
But I thought pee was stored in the balls!
you can put balls in the trunk
OUCH!
WARNING: NEVER TRY THIS WITH A TESLA PRODUCT UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO RISK PERMANENT REMOVAL
This is an outstanding vehicle. According to the map, it allows you to drive in the North Sea! I wonder though, whether it is on the surface or on the sea floor. Preparations must be made.
Showing a straight line is pretty misleading for the range.
I’d love if there was an site where you could say “x miles from location” (or even better, x hours of driving from location) and it would comprehensively fill out a squiggle of as far as that would get you, in any direction. Really lumpy resulting maps, presumably, not a circle.
It exists, I’ve used it, and I cannot recall its name, our even helpful search terms. But it’s out there.
These cars could really fly.
These websites will do it:
TravelTime: The interface seems a little European and therefore feels a little weird to those of us in freedom’s redoubt.
Smappen: This one seems a little more straightforward at first glance.
CommuteTimeMap: This one was a bit annoying to try to get my address to load up (although it can be an issue because some databases use the directional prefix for my street and others don’t) and took a little while to get the drive time polygon to draw. It kinda seems like you can use the API more freely, though, which I didn’t check the other two for.
These are just from the first results returned by Google. The polygons for various modes were consistent among the three, so that’s not an issue. I remember specifying “Truck Route” for a route on Esri Online (the biggest player in GIS) at work and got one that went probably 30 to 45 minutes out of the way on country roads, so I had to use a different and free website for that.
freedom’s redoubt: from the European Union point of view, it is more the cemetery of freedom, France has even offered you a statue in his memory.
Feels like we’re making a mockery of democracy here too right now…
Hey, thanks for this. I appreciate it.
For the East German market, they could have shown how many escapees can fit in the trunk and how far from the Berlin Wall you can get on a vodka bottle of petrol.
You know, if there had been a “market” there.
You may google „Genex catalogue“ to find out about a very strange way cars (Japanese cars, even) found their way into the GDR.
Redneck Bob: “Hey ‘der computa’. How many of ‘dem ‘der jugs can Ah fit in ‘dis here trunk?”
Deep Thought was totally dumbfounded by the question and glitched out.
Redneck Bob’s wife/cousin: “Ah dun told y’all ‘dat ‘der contraption ain’t worth a jug of stale horse piss.”
Redneck Bob: “Piece of shit.”
*Redneck Bob kicks the machine*
Eons passed.
Long after it was relevant, Deep Thought gave its answer: 42. But no one knew or understood the question asked.
Pfft, you can fit way more Jugs in there than that.
Backpacks are also measured in liters, interestingly enough.
I was NOT familiar with the Washington’s Dream sketch, so thanks for that.
You asked about temperature?
I did not.
The trunk is so big it has an echo! 😉
Are we sure this wasn’t making some kind of statement about fuel savings? Because those look like some kind of gas cans, maybe? I mean, I don’t have the accompanying text and I don’t read German, but just asking…
Amusing typo.
“I live in a country that measures everything weirdly, and for some reason some liquids, like soda and some booze, gets measured in liquids, while milk and gasoline gets measured in gallons. “
And yeah I really like the look of that coupé
…get measured in liquid…
Also true.
Hey here’s a fun fact, the English language is weird. I can go “have a beer” or specify “have a bottle of beer”; you can even say “give me a beer”
However wine needs units. It sounds super weird to say that I’ll “have a wine”. Specify some kind of unit, such as “A bottle of wine”, and it’s fine.
That reminds me. I have to go buy some boozes for the weekend.
The angle was price-worthiness, in particular put some options in that the others charged for separately.
There are no side-marker requirements (and less rust-prone holes in the sheet metal), however you needed to see the front turn signal from the sides. So unless you wrapped the lens around a repeater would suffice. Some countries (i.e. Italy) just required the repeater anyway, regardless of the wrap-aroundy-ness of the main lens.
So what is the guess on the ratio of 430 liters just filled into the trunk vs. in jugs (of 20s)?
2:1 or worse?
Among the non-us crowd out there, do people still 1) talk about engine displacement and 2) realize they’re doing metric?
I’ve always suspected it was a hangover from the ’60s, but well into the ’90s, if you got an everyday person talking about their car, they’d eventually cite the displacement. In the ’80s alone, it was sometimes plastered on the car itself via a decal/badge and everyone and their mom knew the size of a Mustang’s V8.
I realize we’re in the twilight of such bragging, but do people even do it anymore?
I think displacement is kind of an erroneous or at least misleading number to use for the most part nowadays with most modern engines using either turbocharging or the addition of some form of hybridization. The only people I still hear use it much are the Charger/Challenger/Mustang/Camaro crowd and/or older ‘car’ people. It’s even less relevant to trucks which used to be all about 302s, 350s, 460s and 454s. Talk to anyone millennial or younger who isn’t a ‘car’ person and they likely won’t have the slightest clue as to what the displacement of their car even is.
Maybe not even where the engine is.
I don’t think a lot of them care about such things. Recently a guy told me to never buy a Hyundai because his last car was a Hyundai and it had a lot of engine problems. When I asked him which engine it had he didn’t even know.
“Rollin’ in my five point O”
I guarantee that even if V. Ice knew why his Mustang was called that, his fans did not.
I believe they used the jugs for obvious reasons.
More politically correct than stuffing 13 East Germans in to show the trunk size.
Of course they could have just used a pre 250 lb MTG.
Or a couple of high school aged pregnant Bobert twins. (shit happens)
Either way these were damn good cars.
Why does this post and.top shot remind me of that awful movie “Mother, Jugs & Speed?”
Mother, Jugs & Speed was a cinematic masterpiece, second only to the greatest film of the 20th Century – Smokey & The Bandit.
Oh wow, I’d never heard of that. The trailer makes it look “awesome”.
“And [starring] the most popular personality in America today.” Bill Cosby