For nearly three decades, one 1997 Toyota Corolla GL has quietly carried four generations of a Waikato family through everyday life, and its current owner has no plans to let it go.
The Corolla was bought in 1998 by Reuben McCabe’s great-grandmother, Olive, as a six-month-old Signature Class vehicle with around 30,000 kilometres on the clock. She had some help finding it – Reuben’s grandad, Allan Louden, who worked as an engineer at Toyota, secured the car for the family through Valley Toyota for a great deal.
Almost 30 years and 235,000 kilometres later, it’s still going strong.
Reuben, 28, now lives in Te Kauwhata and is the fourth generation of his family to drive the Corolla, which has travelled thousands of kilometres between the Hauraki Plains and Thames coast over its lifetime.
“My great-grandmother drove it to bowls, grocery shopping and family visits, and then my nana used it for her weekly trips into town,” says Reuben.
“I remember my nana and great-grandma picking me and my friend up from kindy in it. We’d be sitting in our matching car seats in the back, and I obviously had no idea that one day I’d be driving the same car myself.”
When Olive passed away, the Corolla was passed down to Reuben’s mum, becoming a reliable constant for the family during a period of significant change.
As the 2008 recession brought uncertainty for many New Zealand families, the Corolla continued doing what it had always done, getting Reuben and his family where they needed to go.
Eventually, the keys made their way to Reuben.
“I’m one of three boys, so eventually I made my way from the back seat to the passenger seat, and then finally to the driver’s seat. It felt like a rite of passage to drive that car.”
The Corolla was also the car Reuben learnt to drive in – although he admits the learning process wasn’t always smooth.
“I remember getting my learner licence and begging Mum to let me drive. One day she finally pulled over on the way home from town and let me drive the last five minutes. She was gripping everything for dear life.
“I stalled it nearly a million times. I’m surprised the clutch is still in such good condition – it’s never been touched.”
Since then, the Corolla has taken Reuben from high school to university and eventually to his first job. It even spent a short stint in Auckland before returning to the Waikato.
Now working at Fonterra, Reuben says there is another Toyota connection that makes the story particularly fitting.
“I actually studied Toyota’s marketing campaigns at university and even wrote an exam response on the famous ‘Bugger’ ad.
“I remember driving to work recently and thinking about how incredible it is that Toyota made a vehicle that has lasted this long. So many of my friends at high school were driving Corollas that had been handed down from their parents too.”
While the Corolla remains largely original, almost three decades of family ownership have left their mark.
There were a few encounters with a lemon tree and a white fence during Olive’s ownership, incidents she apparently knew nothing about, along with a fresh coat of paint in more recent years.
Over the years, Reuben has made a few updates of his own to the Corolla, including adding a spoiler when he was 17, retrofitting air conditioning and replacing the original cassette deck with a modern Bluetooth unit.
But mechanically, little has changed.
Now sitting at 235,000 kilometres, Reuben says the Corolla continues to run reliably, with regular servicing helping to keep it on the road nearly three decades after it was built.
“It virtually costs us nothing to keep, except for the basic running costs. Nothing seems to go wrong with her.”
For Reuben, looking after the Corolla is simply part of owning a car that has looked after his family for so long.
“You don’t give up on things that don’t give up on you,” he says.
“I’ve always thought of the Corolla as a safety blanket. If one of our vehicles is ever out of action, it’s something we can count on. We never have to worry about being stranded.”
Reuben’s mum calls the Corolla “The General”, while Reuben has another name for it: Ollie, after his great-grandmother Olive, who started the family’s journey with the car almost three decades ago.
If Reuben gets his way, its story won’t finish with him. He hopes one day his own children will learn to drive in the same Corolla, making them the fifth generation of the family to get behind the wheel.
“Some people hand down fine China and silverware. In my family, we hand down Toyotas.
“It’ll feel like a true full-circle moment when I get to hand it down.”
