Happy TE37 Day from JNC

The TE37 Toyota Corolla had one of the cleverest US side marker light adaptations in the automotive universe. In Japan, the TE37 had three vents on the rear of the car. The US market mandated side marker lights, which often disrupted the original designs of cars whose nations of origin did not require them. So, Toyota simply added the rear side markers to the bottom vent, which happened to be positioned perfectly for the light. Voilá, problem solved! Happy TE37 Day from JNC!

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2 Responses to Happy TE37 Day from JNC

  1. gaijinshogun says:

    It was definitely clever, and the beginnings of when Toyota was designing with consideration to the US DOT regulations. The top two vents were functional in all markets, complete with ducting, typical with Toyota’s obsession with flow-through ventilation in the ’70’s. However the US TE37 had its own rear outer vent assembly, where it kept the two functional vents but the lower one became a rectangular ring that could neatly surround the US rear side market light. Other markets including Japan had the faux vent only on the bottom. The US also had its own larger front side market light to meet the DOT regs.

    Side Note: In the US, only the 1975 TE37 came with the rear tail lights that included the circular reverse lamp and reflector .

  2. Mark F Newton-John says:

    The SR5 TE37 {aka Levin) was an improvement over the previous SR5 TE27 model in several ways. Better integration of the US 5 mph bumpers, the fender flares were smoothed over with no exposed screw heads, an integrated HVAC that eliminated the add-on Nippondenso unit, and triple gauges that were left off of the USDM TE27 models.
    Styling was improved with a pillarless hardtop design with frameless door glass and roll down rear quarter windows instead of the flip out ones of the previous model.
    The only downside at the time is the 1975 models required more expensive unleaded fuel for the catalytic converters, as the previous models got away with regular leaded fuel.
    In 1980, before the Mexican peso collapsed, I used to head to Tijuana to get gas at 37cents per gallon for regular, while at the time gas in San Diego was hitting $1.25. And back then, you could actually get in and out of Mexico quickly, not the two hour wait it takes now.

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