Rust, rust, rust.
Dead battery.
Fuel Gauge read half full as empty.
Besides having to cut out all the rust, the mechanical side of the car just keeps on trucking. I brought the 3A-U version, apparently the 4A-G goes a lot harder and faster. Looks good for a '81, better than the newer shape.
I strongly agree with you. I think the modern car designers are almost sick and do not know how to design a car. They just want to draw a circle and round shapes. I think the all the cars that were made in the 80s' and the first part of 90s' were the real cars. They looked so attractive and lively. Now a days, the newer cars seem to me just a tool for transportation.
I believe the toyota levin (ae86) is a car from heaven. made to last. I want to revive the car to its perfect and utmost smart condition. would bright red paint and white interior make the car more inferior then the rest of modern cars, I think so. its reliable and in a case kinda race ready. I love it. if toyota are to revive rear wheel basics, chassis and suspension settings the same as it was with the 86, hell I would go and buy one. toyota, are you listening. I am proud to own a car like it. I have 2 at home.
Quick question, if I wanted to add a whole lot more power to the 86, (thereby eliminating its only weakness) what side effects would happen? I'm planning on engine swapping to a 3s GTE engine and adding a powerful turbo. Also a spoiler, an ECU chip, and a bored hood too. I think combined those will also increase its power. Would the car lose its awesome handling and drifting ablity?
Talk about a car that will not die! We had one, got it back in 82, was practically new. It was loved and looked after, a reconditioned motor was dropped in in early 1990. She was a great car and as going to be mine one day.
Then one rainy day some bozo clips the back of it while it was going down the freeway, sent her spinning and slammed into the fence facing the way she came, totalling every panel down the passenger side. It was a mess, but she made it home under her own power, and admirable effort after such a crash.
The car was a write off, but my old man never says die, beat it back into shape and drove it for another 5 trouble free years, then selling it to an automotive teacher.
A great little car and will be missed!
I first bought my TE71 2TGEU 2dr lift back Sprinter/Corolla /Levin way back in 1989 as a Jap-import for 8.5 thousand Aus dollars. I just loved the shape of it. She was a 80', Canary yellow, had 40 thou on the clock and looked good for the age. The best part was she flew!
I used to get her up to the end of the speedo with another 1000 rpm to go! (estimate of 210 kays per hour!)
As a full time pizza delivery dude I held every record for the company in numbers of deliveries.
She slaved away for 5 trouble free years, and with that I mean purely tyres, brake pads, a battery and more tyres! I hardly even serviced her.
The only problem was rust, rust and more rust! Ah well, a bit of bog & fibreglass and she looked a treat!
I was so impressed I bought my wife a locally produced 1987 4AGE Twin Cam 16 Hatch for $11500 in 1991. Another 4 years later I sold the 4AGE for 10 grand (the kays went from 80 thousand to 160 thousand), and went and bought the 92 update with the 100kw (high octane) version which also blew everyone away!
The jealousy of friends and associates was soon converted to equal satisfaction when they traded in their slower Commodores and Colts for Corollas like mine!
After my marriage breakup I went belly up and lost everything (last year). Of course with the laws in Australia, You couldn't own a car worth more than your great grandads' old heap in the shed. By this time I was driving around in $50,000 top of the range quad cam 3 litre Toyotas.
Guess what I decided to go back and buy?
Today I dive my $800 1981 TE71 2TGEU 2dr liftback rust heap knowing that it will out-perform most of those $25,000 sports Coupes. I spent $100 on bog and fibreglass and now she looks like new!
The only thing that sucks is that I drive on average 20-30 kays over the limit! At least I know my rusty Levin won't break down. I plan to drive to Hobart (using the ferry of course!) for Christmas 2001 from Perth in my Rusty Trusty Levin and plan to do that in record time as well!
Note: A Comments RSS Feed 
is available. New comments appear in the Members Area before the main site