Connected to Cardenas is a neat little strip mall with 60s architecture that nicely compliments the Marina Safeway. The parking lot over here is just as full as at Cardenas, and we almost have a repeat of the Honda situation from yesterday with Toyotas -- it's just too bad that "carrrr" on the left is a Camry rather than a Corolla. I guess people in California keep their old cars in better shape than Washingtonians do -- my parents once had a Camry from around the same time as that Corolla, and it was in worse shape than that 20 years ago when they got rid of it! You see plenty of old Toyotas on the road in Seattle (though not many that are quite that old), but they're almost always horribly beat up.
Ha, we have a lot of old Corollas like that around, but I'm referring to that white Corolla and not the even older silver one! That might be from the 1980s, but it could be from up to 1992 as that was the last year for that generation. It is rare to see cars which have automatic seatbelts like that Corolla has since those were required for a while on cars which did not have airbags. With that in mind, it is probably around a 1990-1992 so it might not be much older than that Accord from yesterday, but it certainly does look older! It is a base model Corolla too so it was pretty basic even when it was new!
ReplyDeleteWe had a 1992 Toyota Camry which was the first year of the XV10 rounded shaped ones. I guess your parents had the previous one which was more rectangular? Both those Camries and even the XV10s are pretty rare around here, but XV20 Camrys are all over the place. My neighbor has one. They are like cockroaches, no matter how much they are abused, they still seem to keep running. My co-worker had an XV20 Camry with over 300,000 miles that he retired and it still ran okay.
I think Toyotas are pretty common everywhere in the US. It probably helps that they tend to last a long time, generally, except maybe where cars rust easily. In addition to the XV10 Camry I mentioned earlier, we also had a 1981 Corolla. It was certainly tiny compared to what is considered a family car today!
Yeah, that white Corolla is about the oldest kind that's still common around here too! There are definitely some older ones still hanging around, but they aren't common like they once were.
DeleteI don't remember exactly what the car they had was like, since they sold it over 20 years ago when I was 3 or something, but I know it was old enough that it didn't even have a third brakelight! I know it was relatively similar in looks to the Corolla here, though.
I remember riding in a '92 Tercel a while back that had the same seatbelts (and gas door lock) as that silver Corolla. The cross body portion of the belt was still designed to detach from the latch point next to the upper corner of the door, but was still separate from the belt that goes around your waist.
ReplyDeleteThose "automatic" seatbelts from the 80s/90s were always weird. I've only ever ridden in a car with them once (that I remember, at least) and I remember being very confused by it all!
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