After our rip-roaring Mopar Mania, Steve Lang suggested we have a Toyota Week. Sure, “The Machine That Changed The World” deserves at least a week of its own. Toyota’s rise to the top is a giant-killing epic unlike anything ever seen before. And we’re going to offer a smattering of cars and stories to try to do it some justice, but obviously, not completely. And since old Toyotas aren’t exactly easy to find on the streets in some parts of the country, we’re going to break it up a bit with other fare. I suspect some of you might find it a bit challenging otherwise. I’m out of town for a few days, so I won’t be able to respond to comments until later in the week, but let’s fire up that legendary 4AC engine and roll, Toyota style.
I’m more than ready, but just one thing: what’s legendary about the 70-HP 4A-C? I’ll have to trump you and go with the truly legendary 4A-GE and its younger sister, the 4A-FE. The ultimate bulletproof sewing machines.
In college I had a 1980 Corolla and a 1983 Celica GT. In my youthful ignorance I tried to kill both of them, and failed.
In the 90’s when I was curbing cars I had dozens of cheap Toyotas, and the vast majority of them had very few, if any, problems.
Fords, Chryslers, and Hondas often had air-conditioning and transmission problems.
Never had those problems with Toyotas.
Looking for a workhorse with a back seat and I agree that there are not many old Toyotas for sale today. Folks that have them aren’t letting them go. I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t be letting my S10 go but my granddaughter twisted my arm. Now she is using it to run off to Florida to go to school.
“Welcome To Toyota (Part-Time) Week”
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Hey, it had to happen…why don’t you break the Toyota tedium with some reminiscences of your Daffodil Yellow 64 Impala convertible?
Zackman, look at this picture and repeat after me: “It’s only a week…”
Sigh… Yes, it’s only a week, but still…
Zackman,
When are you finally going to write something about your car? I have been reading you here and at TTAC since forever, you are one of my favorite contributors, so please get on your keyboard and finally write the history of your car. ;o)
Don’t force me to write about my 310k miles TOYOTA Tercel on Toyota week, with BACK windows that don’t roll down COMPLETELY. LOL
I’m actually looking forward to this. Old Toyotas are a true curbside classic in the SF Bay Area and our family has owned our fair share of Toyotas. Not always the most charismatic of cars but overall we’ve had great experience with Toyotas in terms of reliability, longevity and appliance-like drivability.
There are still plenty of these AE-86 Coupes in Ireland, all looking mint, with mega-price tags. When I was last getting my car Government-tested there was a youngster there with a nice one of these. His brother in Australia had sourced it for him ( they get lots of S/H cars from Japan) and he had paid 2000 Euros to ship it from Australia – about US $ 2700. Didn’t ask what he’d actually paid for the car, but I’m sure it was better than buying one locally.
Two-time Toyo owner here, first an ’81 Corolla 1.8 SR5 hatch, and then an ’84 Cressida 2.8 auto (which I’ve praised elsewhere on this site). Both were bought used, with medium (the Cressida) to high (the SR5) miles on them. Both were extremely reliable to the point of being virtually unkillable. Although in the end, I did kill them both. But that was more my fault than the factory’s.
Funny story about the Corolla: it’s the only manual-transmission car I ever bought without taking it onto the highway first. A brief test-drive on city streets were enough to convince me to hand over the (IIRC) $1400 in 1990 money. Imagine my surprise, then, when I did take my new possession up the onramp and onto a freeway to get it home. First gear, second, third, fourth, and then finally… wait a minute, where the hell is fifth? I can’t find it anywhere! Isn’t five gears what the “5” in “SR5” is supposed to stand for?
Well, yes it is — but this particular car had at some point had its original tranny swapped with a four-gear. The seller, I realized afterwards, had advertised it as a “manual” but not claimed it was a 5-speed. So I was a victim of the old “Caveat emptor.” Again: my bad, not Toyota’s.
Moral of the story: when test-driving a pre-owned stick, you MUST verify that it has all the gears you assume it has. I did a lot of highway driving in that thing, and the lack of a top gear was a definite minus.
Just bought and sold a 88 Corolla hatch 334,000 kms runs like a dream starts first shot and being NZ spec not JDM corners great ( larger tyres etc) minimal rust good on gas my good bro loves his new car, its the back one we were thinking of a breeding programme but there are so many still on the road here its pointless. Car has been named Red Minion. Both cars pictured are 1300 5 speed
I saw a 1986 Toyota Supra with Illinois ‘Antique Vehicle’ plates on it and I went ‘wtf’? But at 27 y/o it was correct.
Here, cars over 25 can get them, but can only drive it on Sunday and Holidays. In 2 years, 1990 cars will quality, omg!!!
My cousin had a very American looking Toyota wagon with a 6 cylinder 2.6(I think) engine which was 10 when he got it and he beat the snot out of it for 7 more years til a drunk driver centre punched it.Ian the mechanic who MOTd our family cars swore by Toyotas as the best Japanese cars.
CC effect going real good today after posting this morning the phone went come to work it said so I spent 6 hours in a Toyota product again a heavy duty Toyota called a Hino FM 6 wheeler concrete mixer, tough as nails and as reliable as the sun mine is 14 years old, warm up is generally mixing at 2,000 rpm under the plant for 6 minutes then you pull out into 100kmh traffic zero to the speed limit for a truck takes at least 9 shifts fully laden @21,000kg with less than 300hp it isnt fast but I have a 15speed roadranger transmission to help and diff locks if it gets slippery, oh and 10 tonnes of Fred Flintstones finest readymix spinning in a bowl behind me in one of Toyotas finest.
A second cousin of mine has a 15 m3 (that’s 15,000 liters) concrete mixer semi-trailer, the tractor is a V8 Scania. He’s looking for a driver who can do 125 mph. If I recall correctly from another recent CC that should be possible “under the right conditions”. Interested ?
No kidding, I’ve heard of the Hino trucks. Never saw one in real life though.
The Dyna is the biggest Toyota here, but I know that the heavy Hino COE-trucks are pretty popular in the UK and Ireland.