So last week’s Mercury LN7 was gone and we still needed a second car with an automatic transmission. So we bought a red car with a black interior from a private owner. It was a 1982 Datsun 210. Seems reasonable, right? One big problem in the summertime – it was a car with a black interior and NO air conditioning. It was also my wife’s car, and she was driving our one-year-old son around. This did not make the wife happy AT ALL. It think the car was named a “210” for a reason. That’s about the number of hours we owned it.
We continued our search for a second car. How’s this for another great idea: At that time, the Hyundai Excel was hitting the dealerships for the first time.
One thing I should have learned from my past – never buy anything in its first year of production. My idea? I went to a local Hyundai dealership and bought not one, but two “his and hers” Excels! I put down two $500 down payments on them. Boy, did I lose sleep that night! I went back to the dealer and the salesman graciously refunded my money in full after I explained to him my sometimes impulsive behavior.
Our next car turned out to be a 1985 Nissan Sentra.
The Sentra was an OK car. No major repairs. One interesting thing, though happened during its tenure.
Both our cars, the Tercel and the Sentra, were made pre-fuel injection and thus fitted with a carburetor. The interesting thing was that both cars’ carburetors died at exactly the same time. By then, I had left the New York City job and worked in Central New Jersey, where public transportation from Northern New Jersey (where we were still living) was not practical. Therefore, I depended on a car. By this time, we had our first son and my wife decided to be a stay-at-home mom. But I still needed a car.
I decided to keep both cars and had both carburetors rebuilt. Do you know that just about at the same time (again!), BOTH carburetors died! I couldn’t take the chance of having either of the cars die on me again since I was beginning to take personal days off at work and did not want to miss working at my job.
So in 1995, I bought a two-year old 1993 Toyota Camry station wagon from a local dealer with whom I had a fairly good rapport. I pride myself in (at least thinking) that I am a good negotiator when it comes to buying cars. I paid $11,000 (which would be the equivalent of $25,000 today) for the car.
Actually, the Camry served us very well. Over the many years and the many trips that we took our family on, there were two weak spots on this car. For some reason, both the front and rear motor mounts kept breaking. I think between the front and rear mounts (of which there were a total of three, as I recall), I replaced about eight mounts in total.
Then, an interesting thing happened to me while ironically on the way to the repair shop to replace one of the motor mounts. The passenger side front coil spring snapped in half! The entire car was sagging so much that I almost couldn’t drive to the repair shop.
The only other trouble that I had with that car until its ultimate demise was that the distributor kept dying. It was replaced (with a non-OEM rebuild, unfortunately) a total of three times. But here’s the story behind its demise:
My wife has had a “craft cave” since our boys have moved out of the house and now live out-of-state. So, she wanted to outfit her room with furniture from a local IKEA retail store. We went there with a list in hand, picked out every piece of shelving, desk, desk legs, night stand, light fixtures, etc., and I proceeded to put as many of these items in our Camry as possible. Remember, this was a station wagon, so it had a hatchback opening with fold-down rear seats. We did not have the optional rear-facing third row seats.
Her list was so large, I had to go home, drop off her and “part one” of the furniture, and then drive back to IKEA to pick out and buy “part two”.
The list was so large that even with the second trip the car was so full of IKEA objects, I thought it was going to explode from inside pressure.
A $25.00 tip later, an IKEA associate and I had finally finished loading the car and I was off. It is important to note that it was Memorial Day weekend and it was hot outside! As I recall, it was over 90 degrees by the time I hit the road home.
I took the New Jersey Turnpike to get home. Anyone that is familiar with that highway knows that the exits are far away from each other, unlike the Garden State Parkway, where they are only a mile apart.
So I’m tooling along the highway when, all of a sudden, the car starts to shudder. Now of course, I’m thinking “Oh yeah, it’s the distributor again.” WRONG. The car never stalled, but I noticed it was taking more and more throttle to maintain the same speed. Finally, I was literally flooring the pedal just to maintain a speed of about 10 miles per hour. Needless to say, I began driving on the shoulder. About 15 minutes into my ordeal, I noticed a state trooper sitting on the side of the road, checking for speeders. Imagine this site: I slowly pull up in this completely loaded Camry, filled with IKEA s—-, lower my “fancy” power window and explained to the officer my dilemma. All that I requested of him was to allow me to continue tooling down the road so that I could get a tow from AAA once I made it off highway. Actually, I wanted to try and get it all the way home, but I was skeptical. His reply was that as long as I felt that I could do it safely, then go ahead.
The one big problem that I ran into was this: Imagine you’re driving no faster than 10 miles per hour, and you approach an exit. Now folks behind you are not only pissed off at you for driving well below the minimum limit, but they are trying to exit in front of me as I creep along. DANGEROUS.
The next problem that I ran into was that my engine began to overheat. In fact, with the pedal to the metal, I had that temperature gauge BURIED as far as it could go. Kinda reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer takes a new car for a ride with a dealer salesman and they begin to run out of gas. He decides to pass the exit to go back to dealership as he floors it, hand-in-hand with the salesman. The difference with me was there was no one with whom to share this wonderful experience.
I made it off the Turnpike and onto a local highway–except this time, my luck ran out. No more shoulder to drive on. There was NO WAY I was going to drive 10 miles per hour on any highway, so I had to call AAA and have the car towed home.
Here is my theory on what went wrong with that car.
First, I think that either the timing belt slipped off the pulley teeth OR the timing belt tensioner failed. In retrospect, by the time the temperature started to rise, I could have pulled over and thus salvaged the car. My thinking? I’d had enough of the distributor and motor-mount failures. May she rest in peace…
A couple of thoughts:
I wasn’t aware those 210s had black interiors as most I ever remember seeing were cars with off-white interiors.
I can’t imagine EVER going into a dealership and buying 2 (nearly?) identical cars. I would have to live with any car for at least a few days to see if it was all it seemed to be. But 2 Hyundai Excels?
Your Camry story reminded me of my current DD. I nearly killed it….TWICE. First, trying to get it home before it terminally overheated. Second time, a few days later, I nearly killed it trying to get it to my mechanic to see if it was repairable…at a reasonable price. I also suspect it has a broken motor mount.
If you ever get stuck with a car with no AC, you can order a 12 volt swamp cooler from this guy in Mesa AZ. Just plug it into your cigarette lighter. They are pretty spendy, but it’s money well spent for comfort And it’s cheaper than getting an auto ac repaired or having one installed. As long as it’s not too humid , they work great at keeping you cool. His website is http://www.swampy.net
I absolutely love swamp coolers and I was introduced to them in Mesa, AZ, so I can see why they are being sold for vehicles in the area. My late buddy in Mesa had a really good swamp cooler set-up in his home, where it was right on the roof-top, and with a huge fan, blew large volumes of air. It only works in dry climates, making in perfect in the desert. His started losing effectiveness over about 95’F, and he switched to the central a/c then. However, since Arizona has comparatively high electricity prices, the swamp cooler saved him a lot of money. I was surprised so few homes were using it, as it is a simple and cheap to run system. On the prairies in Canada swamp coolers were commonly used on farm equipment, but now it’s all a/c.
I use my swamp cooler in western Oregon . which normally has warm dry summers with some hot spells. Only on rare occasions when we had summer monsoon rain from the south is when it didn’t work well because of higher humidity .
Yep, evaporative coolers for houses are familiar to many of us Tucsonans. They work really, really, really well well into June, as long as the humidity is very low, and even when the temp is up over 100. Around the end of June, the humidity creeps up as the summer rainy season ramps up. Then the coolers don’t work so well, and it’s time to switch over to the A/C if you have it.
“Swamp Coolers” are about as useless as a luke warm wash cloth slapped on your face here in summertime New Orleans; where the temperature AND humidity are often around 90…or above.
My family had an ’80 210 Wagon, same maroonish red with a black interior. It had cloth inserts on the seats, but no A/C. I learned to drive a manual on that car, back when Datsun/Nissan was still figuring out how to calibrate the carburetor and emission controls. So much surging, that was exaggerated with every engagement of the clutch pedal. Not a great car, it was all done by 85,000 miles or so.
Some friends of my parents had an ’82 210 SL wagon; the SL was the version with cloth seat inserts and theirs was white with blue interior.
One of my uncles bought two early Excels in one deal, both GL sedans, one manual and one automatic, one gray and one blue. His were used and the blue one’s paint was already dulled from having been waxed in the sun.
My family had an 81 201 Wagon that DID have AC, but it was the south. That 210 was silver with black interior with that gray and blue striped cloth in the center of the seat.
It met its untimely demise in 1987 with low miles after its engine blew. My father blamed cheap gas.
This had me checking the date…nope, not April 1st again. So there we have it! A first hand account of ongoing problems with a Camry. Now I feel better about being underwater in a sequence of off brand choices. Thanks for that.
Your account of rising temperatures and a failing engine induced anxiety at this distance. That’s never fun nor convenient.
“The car was named a “210” for a reason. That’s about the number of hours we owned it.” Remorse and remedy in under 10 days – I admire your resolve about these things.
Not one, but two first-year Hyundais……. Wow! Thankfully, your senses returned and the dealer was willing to take them back. Needless to say, Hyundai has made great strides in the intervening years.
We owned a couple Camry Wagons over the years. Our ’92 was a 4-cylinder with A/T that we bought with about 90k miles on it. I went through the motor mount dance once. It was a competent, though unexciting car, and we put about 110k miles on it. We passed it along to some friends, whose son ran it out of oil and killed it.
The second was a ’95 v-6 with 250k miles I bought from my brother when my son totaled our Subie. I replaced the long overdue motor mounts and put some rear brakes on it. Otherwise, I just maintained it for the few months we had it. I sold it back to my brother when his son totaled their ’92 model. It’s just about to hit 300k and is getting a little tired.
I wish Toyota still made something akin to these Gen 3 Camry Wagons. The current Venza doesn’t hit the mark, IMO.
We bought a year-old ’94 LE wagon & never had motor mount or an other under-hood problems. It was a 4-cyl A/T, thus unexciting & underpowered for a family hauler, but gave us good service to 140kmi. Failures were a window mechanism, power-antenna, & rear-washer plumbing. Never fixed the latter two.
Heaviest payload was some concrete benches. It wasn’t very agile, but cornered like it was on rails.
I bought an Excel new in 1987 (after having a BMW 325e – what a letdown) and I drove it 37,000 miles in one year. The only problem I had was once the cooling fan stayed on and had to be replaced. While it was underpowered and not much fun to drive and had a toxic blue vinyl interior, it did its job quite well. Now I have an Equus. How times change! Thank goodness! 🙂
Why do people act like they can’t live without A/C now?
Because pulling up to a nice restaurant reeking of BO with sweat stains on your shirt or blouse isn’t cool. 🙂
I knew a couple who both worked with me, who bought a new BLACK Chevy Aveo with no a/c a few years ago. Weeks later, they left to move from Vermont to SoCal…I wonder how long they kept the car, and how hard a time they had getting rid of it!
Have you ever been to So Cal? Not sure why not having AC there would be any harder than Vermont.
As far as selling it…..if they were smart they will just drove it until the wheels fall off. It’s an Aveo. …..but if they did sell it….the kind of people in the market for a used Aveo are probably more concerned about $$$$& than amenities.
I think a lot of that depends on age. When I was younger, I had several cars without A/C and I never suffered very much. Now that I’m older, it seems like a necessity since I seem to be more sensitive to discomfort.
I have hardly ever used the AC in any car I’ve owned. I just put my windows down. I grew up without it and like fresh air when I’m driving.
I drive a MR2 Spyder anyway and always have the top down in the summer and just don’t get why people act like they have to have AC.
Growing up we sure as hell didn’t have it until I was 13 or so and then it was only in my mom’s Grand Am, my dad’s Nova, trucks and Dodge Shadow (which he bought because it was literally the cheapest new car he could find at the time) didn’t have it.
I just don’t understand why people act like not having AC is some kind of hardship.
I tried going without. My 66 Fury III was air-less when I bought it in 1987. With a/c at home and work, who needs it in a daily driver? Didn’t we do just fine in the 60s?
Then I learned the difference: everyone else has a/c in their cars. When you show up red and smelly to court or a meeting but everyone else is fresh and crisp, you realize it’s not 1966 any more.
yes.
You can train yourself to live without it. But nobody else on the planet will understand. When your health and fitness reach a level that you do not slow down a single bit when the temps reach triple digits and your shirt becomes soaked, people around you who are not at your level of fitness will look at you and think you are nuts. They will not notice you are not suffering. They will not notice you are still more active and productive than they are. They will not notice you are trim and fit and in excellent health and they are fat weak turds perfectly suited for a life as a couch potato. They will only notice you are soaked in sweat and they are not. And since you are the minority and they are the majority…you lose
I know we were miserable those 4-5 weeks in the summer without ac in New England.
In ’82 I moved to Houston, having purchased a new Toyota in ’81 KNOWING I was moving to Houston the next year. Didn’t get ac. Didn’t get many dates either. What an idiot. Within 2 years I was able to afford the add-on kit that Toyota sold and my social life improved tremendously. Those first few summers I worked out in LA and didn’t really need ac….
Down here you need ac all BUT 4-5 weeks because of the humidity….
Tipping? $25??? IKEA employee?? out here in Oregon, Tipping is known as a city in China… And I will add most people in the service industry here prefer the whole thing
Speaking from experience, never put jobber parts in a Toyota. The OEM stuff is top quality, but like anything else it wears out, usually at very high mileage. You don’t mention when the motor mounts started to break, but that is a common repair on high km Camry’s of the era, at or above 200,000 km. When anything like this breaks on a Toyota, always use the factory part. It’s worth it in the long run. When your car gets to be a high miler, repairs are part of the experience, no matter what the brand. Get the best part available, the OEM, and replace it once. Often there will be a long warranty on the part, too.
Great advice. I learned about that with my Toyota Avalon. Strangely, the wiper motor acted up, so I bought a rebuilt one from the local Autozone. It didn’t have the proper range, so I bit the bullet and bought one from the dealer. No problems since, and I’m glad I did the labor myself, though it was kind of a pain doing it twice.
Those camries are still everywhere here, but the other 3 are all but extinct.
Funny story about my memory of the Datsun 210:
When my parents got divorced my uncle for a short time assumed the role of taking me out and being the father figure type person in my life. We both had a love of baseball, and he was moving up in his career so he had some money to spend. He invited me to a baseball card auction at the height of the baseball card craze of the ’80s before the market was swamped with Upper Deck this and special that.
He picked me up in his Datsun 210, complete with mismatched drive wheels, that he was driving into the ground while saving up for his new Audi 5000. It shook, rattled and rolled down the road like nothing I’ve ever seen or felt since.
Anyway, here we are, shaking down US 15, when he cuts loose the ripest, most vile fart in recorded human history. It was so bad I swear it fogged the windows up. We get to a safe place to pull over and evacuate the car like it had been swarmed by bees.
When we stopped laughing so hard we couldn’t talk to each other about 15 minutes later we got back in and finished the trip.
Now he owns the business he was moving up in AND a (minor league) baseball team. I barely see him anymore. But man, that was one of the funniest things that ever happened to me, and damned if I don’t end up laughing about it every time I see a 210. Thanks for putting that picture up, it definitely brightened up my day.
Of all the cars mentioned, my favorite is the Datsun 210. I think there was a fastback version offered.
Haven’t seen one of those 210s in a LONG time. I’ve seen 510s and 810s of that same era, but not a 210. And I agree–a black interior in the summer without A/C would be brutal. My family had a ’79 Fairmont with a black vinyl interior when I was a kid. It *did* have A/C, so once the car cooled down it was fine, but getting in at first on a hot day–the heat took your breath away. Not to mention burned the f*ck out of your thighs! (This was the early 80’s when boys’ shorts were nowhere near knee length…)
My sister went through several of the same issues with her 1992 Camry LE sedan. Its final demise came when the transmission failed on Route 95 in bumper to bumper traffic. She loved that car, but to say it was “reliable” would be telling a lie. Of course, all cars need repairs now and again. But her Camry was somewhat of a disappointment, especially when I have owned Accords and they didn’t need nearly as much in the 150k miles that I drove them as her Camry did.
I bought an Excel as a last resort in ’88. (it was the only thing [besides a Yugo] I could make payments on and, being a kid with no credit, getting a loan for a used car was but a dream.) About five friends and acquaintances I knew bought different trims of Excels after me but the dealer kept stiffing me on my finder’s fee. They had several small print stipulations like the buyer had to tell them he was sent specifically to that dealership by your referral on the first visit. Another time when a friend went to the dealership another friend who was a receptionist there ran up to greet them and got credit for the referral but, as an employee, wasn’t eligible to get the fee so no payout again. :/