Japanese Soft-Roader Weekend Edition: Toyota Corolla All-Trac Wagon

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One of the coolest Toyota wagons ever is the late-’80s, early-’90s E90 body All-Trac wagon, which differs greatly from the regular shape FWD wagon.
The 4WD wagon took the fenders from the coupe-like Corolla Liftback 5-door, and mated them to a more avantgarde body, which was done up in the same style as the earlier, slightly unsymmetrical Tercel wagon. Depending of the market, the wagon was named in various ways, including “Sprinter Carib”.

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The US version was called the All-Trac, while the European version just went with Corolla 4WD Wagon.
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Some of the Japanese market models clearly resembled Subaru Legacy wagons in their detailing.
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And of course, the interior shots showed a fully loaded dashboard and an automatic shifter.
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Dazzle!
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I particularly enjoy the “FIELD HUNTER” nomenclature on this light bar. Photo by Tennen-Gas, Wikimedia.
 

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  1. Rover 1 Avatar
    Rover 1

    These used to be common here but now they’re mostly gone. Rust is the killer.

    1. tonyola Avatar
      tonyola

      For some reason the All-Trac wasn’t very popular in the US, at least compared to its Tercel predecessor.

      1. Rover 1 Avatar
        Rover 1

        They weren’t sold new here but they were part of the first few years of wildly popular Japanese used imports after the lifting of import controls in the nineties. JDM vehicles back then didn’t seem to have any rustproofing. Toyotas and Subaru Legacies were big sellers. (Generally in NZ, for every new car sale here, there are two to five sales of JDM used imports now and local assembly of new vehicles has finished.)

  2. Car_Door Avatar
    Car_Door

    I used to see a gray one of these every day on my way to school. It was very rusty, and had little american flags mounted to poles on each corner of the car (like a presidential limo).

  3. mmt3k Avatar
    mmt3k

    We owned one of those for a while – it was a bit underpowered, but got decent gas mileage – 37 MPG on the highway, 20+ around town – and was a blast in Central NY winter weather. My boss at the time swore that I took the long way to work on snowy days, just to play (something which I never denied).
    Sadly, it met its end after about 18 months when it got hit hard enough to crack the transmission case (which IIRC held 2 of the differentials). Insurance totaled it 🙁

  4. OttoNobedder Avatar
    OttoNobedder

    I was $100 away from buying one of these in Calif. (very rare-it sneaked in from Canada) High miles and needed a clutch and Seller was too in love with it to listen to reality…

  5. HoondavanDude Avatar
    HoondavanDude

    Someone at my office drives one daily, I’m tempted to leave a note on it just in case he/she decides to sell it. Unfortunately, until my wife gets her Jeep she’s got veto power over any other purchases.
    My sister owned one of these. It leaned a bit more than my Tercel 4WD wagon, but it was much nicer. I remember getting high 30s on a tank of gas and assuming I had done the calculation wrong. It was eventually handed down to my brother who drove it into the ground. That’s what happens when you give an AWD wagon to a 16 year-old in a rural area. Eventually there was an issue with the spider gear and the car was given to a neighbor to use as a field car.

  6. March_Hare Avatar
    March_Hare

    Oh, man. I occasionally see these for sale here in South Australia. I have evil thoughts about sway bars, stiffer springs, and any one of Toyota’s many period forced-induction systems from the era. Toyota was so close to a WRX-style wagon…

  7. gRant Avatar
    gRant

    I have one of these. It’s twenty eight years old and does everything a car needs to do including interstate 1600kms round trips in 100F plus heat and has a really useful 4wd with diff lock on my manual version. Parts are plentiful in Australia. Recently took it away for a surfing trip search for “Corolla 4wd wagon on a sandy trail on Australias western victoria coastline ” it has been a great successor to my Tercel wagons.