1984 Toyota Van LE review from North America

Had a bad alternator when I bought it - not unusual for these.

I was told the transmission had been rebuilt or replaced by a former owner.

Power door lock switch broken.

Little too much play in the steering.

My wife calls it the "terrorist van" due to its appearance in Back to the Future. I call it the Golden Turtle and love it beyond reason.

I haven't owned it long and paid $650 for it when I bought it. It's in amazing condition for being 23 years old - everything works and there are only small dings and scrapes on the outside, and slight fading inside. I spent another few hundred on it, new tires and a new alternator, will probably engineer a fix for the power door lock switch, but beyond that I don't plan to do much except keep it running and drive it for the next 200k miles.

I've owned lots of quirky vehicles and I don't know what attracts me to them, but it's hard at work here. There's just something about the van's moon-buggy-like appearance and ride, it's wonderful layout and design that just makes me giddy.

It IS severely underpowered as far as off the line acceleration goes, this is no hotrod, but it has more than enough power for normal driving and for sustained speeds of 70mph on the highway.

I originally bought it as a dump runner, to haul trash or pick up yard supplies with, but now I find I can't bear the thought of taking the seats out of it or messing up the interior. As a result I am buying a small 4' x 4' utility trailer to haul behind it, for those times when I wish I had bought a pick up.. it has a tow hitch and trailer harness, though I think it would be ill advised to tow anything very heavy with this particular vehicle.