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 Since the first model went on sale in Japan on Nov. 5, 1966, some
44.3 million Corollas have been sold globally through the end of
September, including the Corolla Fielder station wagon and other
variants, the Japanese automaker says.
Here are some milestones along the way and where it stands today.
CAR FOR THE MASSES
In the late 1950s, as Japan's economy recovered from World War Two,
automakers aimed to produce an affordable car for the average
family, most of whom didn't have a vehicle.
Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> first came out with the Publica, which
wasn't very well received. In 1966, it introduced the sportier
two-door Corolla with a jaw-dropping plan: to build 30,000 of them a
month at a time when Toyota's total monthly production was 50,000
vehicles.
The car sold well as Japanese consumers aspired to get the "3 C's" –
color TVs, cars and coolers (air conditioners). Three years after
the launch, the Corolla became the country's top-selling car and
helped usher in an age of motorization in Japan.
"BETTER THAN AVERAGE"
The man in charge of developing the original Corolla, Tatsuo
Hasegawa, had designed aircraft during the war, and incorporated
some aircraft aerodynamics into the new car.
His concept for the Corolla was "80-plus-points" - in short, a car
with a more-than-passing grade on several counts that gave customers
the feel of a better-than-average product.
For the first-generation Corolla, the going-the-extra-mile "add-on"
was its sportiness, despite being a family car. Hasegawa gave the
car a 4-speed manual transmission operated by a gearshift on the
floor, instead of the more typical 3-speed, column shifter at the
time.
The Corolla also had a 1,100cc engine, a bit larger than that of its
rival, the Nissan Sunny.
Toyota has stuck to its tradition of introducing new technologies to
the masses with each remodeling of the Corolla. Now in its 11th
generation in Japan, the car is made in 13 countries around the
world and sold in more than 150 countries.
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Toyota Motor Corp's fourth generation model of Corolla cars are seen
in this undated handout image and released by Toyota Motor
Corporation, obtained by Reuters on November 4, 2016. Toyota Motor
Corporation /Handout via Reuters
NO LONGER KING
After 33 straight years as Japan's top-selling model, the Corolla lost the crown
in Japan to rival Honda Motor's Fit hatchback in 2002.
It is now also outsold by the Toyota Aqua and Prius hybrid-only models as
domestic customers opt for more fuel-efficient cars.
The outlook at home is bleak, with the overall car market due to shrink further
along with the population. Domestic sales of the Corolla are now about a quarter
of their peak of around 400,000 in 1973. But the Corolla is still a cash cow in
the United States, where it is the No.2 best-selling passenger car model so far
this year, behind only the Toyota Camry.
(Reporting and writing by Malcolm Foster and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Simon
Cameron-Moore)
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