Toyota KE10 – Half a Million Kilometres and Half a Century of Driving Pleasure

It is a rarity nowadays for someone to own a car for more than a decade, so when a certain Mr Asada Shogo parted ways with his beloved 1969 Toyota Corolla KE10, it was only befitting that it would be placed in the manufacturer’s museum.

The Toyota City Museum will honour this one-owner vehicle that has completed 563,632 kilometres (350,225 miles) or 14 times around the earth by having it displayed prominently and permanently. Shogo-san, then a 24-year-old, bought the car which cost him two years worth of salary.

Odometer has rolled over 5 times!

Its 1.1-litre OHV K-series four cylinder made 60 horsepower. That was a lot at that time as Japan was welcoming the dawn of car ownership. The class-leading car at the time was Nissan Sunny aka Datsun 1000 in the US.

“I really enjoyed driving around in it,” Mr Shogo remembers. “However, the road conditions at the time were awful. It was gravel roads wherever I went, and the car would be covered in dust after a day’s driving. So I washed it all the time.”

He has kept a complete record of the service and maintenance records. Mind you, he is on his third booklet with each one 10cm thick. The car still has its original engine but received an overhaul when it passed the 400,000km mark.

As the model had gotten scarce over the years, even in Japan, Mr Shogo sourced parts from all over the world:
– Fender mirrors and dynamo imported from Thailand.
– Fuel pump was ordered from the UK.
– Tyres imported from Indonesia.
– Wiper fluid reservoir installed in 2020 but were borrowed from other models.
– Original exhaust pipe has long rusted away, so the car currently has a muffler shop custom job.

Tyres straight from Indonesia.

Over the course of ownership, the Corolla has been repainted its original grey 10 times! And with Japan’s Shaken laws, the roadworthiness of maintaining a car that old increases over the years. He “spent as much as a house” to keep his precious possession on the road.

Still running after all these years.

One of his most memorable trips was taking his mother back to her hometown Miyazaki, in the island of Kyushu. They took a car ferry from Tokyo Bay and then drove 1,300 miles home. “My mother has since passed away, but that trip really made her happy,” he said.

The car has been to exhibitions, car shows as well as fundraisers for Japan’s earthquake relief charities.

Being around for 53 years, it’s no surprise that the family has a special bond with the car. Way back in 1977, a picture of his daughter and the car had been taken and then in 1998 had been recreated by her very own daughter, Shogo’s granddaughter. And it was the very car that Asada used to date is wife Mitsuko.

“Thank you for your many years of hard work,” she says as the car will now have a new permanent home in Toyota City, headquarters of Toyota Motor Corp, which will feature the history and culture of the brand and is soon to open in 2024.

Mr Asada and his wife Mitsuko back in the day in the car that brought so many memories.

“I was glad that it would be [there] permanently,” he says. “If I go to the museum, I can always see it again.”

What about you? Do you own a vehicle with mileage above 300,000 kilometers and a full service record? Tell us your story and you may just win something special from us.

And if you’re into old school Japanese classics, we have a treat for you. A KE10 in Malaysia was rebuilt after lying around for 15 years: