1986 Toyota Tercel 4x4 Estate from UK and Ireland - Comments

Buckled brake disks which cause the steering to wobble a bit.

The leading edge of the rear wheel arch is now beginning to rot.

This car is excellent.

It's my third one in twenty years of motoring (not counting the two my family have also had) and I love it!

I have taken this car to the limit in fair weather AND foul and it always seems to want more.

Sadly with the back full with a couple of sets of SCUBA gear she sags a little at the rear causing grounding on severely rough terrain so it WOULD be better with a little more ground clearance.

I have never found a car with as much luggage space.

It's great for the holidays, you can pack it to the roof and there's always room around the kid's feet if you run short.

I once drove at 100MPH for three hours on a journey to Scotland and my Tercel didn't miss a beat!

With the rear seats down there is plenty of room for two if you don't want to pitch a tent.

In short, this car is fantastic!

I have driven the AL21 version in Canada, for at least 4 years, having been given the first one by a former in-law. I needed a period of adjustment to accept the lower standard of performance and handling compared to the Renault R5 machines I had been driving for many years. The ride was also an issue, because a Renault R5 has real big car ride, without the wallowing that a North American driver would expect with the wallow. The R5 was always a joy to drive.

The Tercel has never been a joy to drive. It does do things like allow a guy to enjoy driving it... it just drives, and does it acceptably well.

I received it with 151,000 kilometres on the clock. Free.

In order to get it to pass an Ontario safety check, and the attendant emissions test, I needed to replace the driver's side floor, the brakes all around, the exhaust complete, put in a new battery, and try to figure out the incomprehensible vacuum lines running from stem to breakfast near the carb.

Much of the $1500 Cdn dollars I spent to get that free car on the road was spent trying to make it run worth a damn.

It never did. But I am not one to drop the ball when it comes to money spent on cars. If it costs me money, then by god I am going to drive it.

I drove that piece of crap 4 years, because that was the only way to even attempt to get my money out of it.

Today I took the last useful parts off it, and tomorrow I will call a scrapper and get rid of it. It has now got 224,000 kilometres showing on it. I really don't remember what that is in miles, since it's been so long since we used them in Canada... (seems like an odd system, now, with absolutely no logic behind it, but who can change 300 million conservatives?).

To be fair to the make, I did buy two more of them, very cheaply. These will amount to my lifetime allocation of Toyota cars. The first replacement came from Texas. It had accumulated 175,000 miles on it, ran about as badly as the first one did, and had no rear shocks. I got it for $70 Cdn. No rust, just stone chips and paint fade. A/C not really strong, and paint chips abounding. Auto trans in this one. First car was 5 speed. Most recent car has a 4 speed, since somebody who was replacing the thing ordered one without specifying 4 or 5 speed tranny...

And I should mention that the last car has been around here for only a little while. It came from B.C. originally, via Maritime Canada, and I got it for the high price of $125 Cdn. It has not rusted, and the paint isn't faded, because of the lack of harmful sunshine in BCand Nova Scotia. It had 301,000 kilometres showing on the clock when I got it. It's 304, 000 now.

I can tolerate a thing that starts and goes when I want it to do, even if it does it poorly, as long as it remains cheap to run.

I'll post now and then and let you know if it is...

Reluctant Tercel driver.