One of the highlights of this year was a WhatsApp call from Daniel ‘O Grady out of the blue about an early Corolla Levin SE AE85 he found. I was doing my usual Saturday groceries and just parked my car in a parking garage. Daniel was very agitated about this car as it had such a low frame number.
During the call, it dawned on me that such a low frame number meant it was actually a pre-production run. Last year I created an overview of the AE86 and AE85 frame numbers and a lookup function. One of the things that surprised me was that the AE85 production in May 1983 started at 180, while AE86 production started at 1. There are no records of the pre-180 frame numbers in the EPC either. This means these cars have been assembled in pre-production.
Now, pre-production may sound like hand-built cars that were test mules or even used in photo sessions. However, I don’t think that is the case for this AE85. What’s more likely is that these 180 cars were assembled at one of the low-volume special Toyota factories and used as promotional cars at dealerships when the car launched. Then, once production was up and running, other models could be sent to the dealerships as well.
The car in question today is number 51. This means it is the 51st AE85 produced and it was probably sold right there at the dealership to a customer. This customer raked up an astounding 6600 kilometres over the past 40 years! That’s 165 kilometres per year! And the best is yet to come: this car was a Mazda dealership trade-in! The customer bought a new car and traded in his/her 40-year-old Levin SE!
Daniel was very happy with the information I shared with him and he created a walkaround video of the Levin. Enjoy the excellence of a 40 year old 6600 kilometer Levin:
Five to six months later, the Levin SE is still for sale at Hayama in Fukuoka. I have taken some photos from their Goo-net listing and put them in this post. The list price has been removed, but in the video, it was offered for 3.2M yen, which is almost 23K US dollars. If I had the money, I would definitely buy it and preserve it. This car is too special to get sold and receive a 20v swap as I have seen with some other special low-mileage examples. It is probably the earliest AE85/AE86 that isn’t part of a museum whist remaining completely original. Let’s hope it finds a good owner soon!
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