Design
The front-wheel-drive wheelbase was now 95.6 in (2,430 mm).
It was the first Corolla to top the New Zealand top-ten lists, ending Ford's dominance of that market. A shorter hatchback range, called the Corolla FX in Japan and the Corolla Compact in Germany, arrived in October 1984 on the front-wheel-drive platform. The three- and five-door hatchbacks resembled the Corolla sedan with a truncated rear deck and trunk. Although there was a five-door liftback model of the basic Corolla, the shorter FX hatchback was sold alongside it. The Corolla FX replaced the Toyota Starlet in North America.
A DOHC 16-valve engine, designated 4A-GE, was added in 1983 on the rear-drive cars. It was a 1.6 L (1,587 cc) I4 and produced an impressive 124 PS (91 kW), turning the Levin/Trueno (Japan), Corolla GT coupé (Europe) and Corolla GT-S (North America) into a what was arguably a sports car. The three-door FWD hatchback was also available with this engine; it was known as the Corolla FX-16 in North America. This engine was also combined with the front-drive transaxle to power the mid-engined Toyota MR-2.
The Sprinter sports cars, in two-door coupé and three-door liftback forms, were notable for being the line's first use of pop-up headlamps, which the equivalent Corolla Levin sports models did not have.
Read more about this topic: Toyota Corolla (E80)
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—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)
“The reason American cars don’t sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That’s why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire.”
—Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1938)