Value of 88 Tercel Wagon SR5 4WD???

[jaxrevenge1]

I had a 1985 Tercel 4WD Wagon just like this in High School and I loved it, left it with my parents and they eventually beat it to death hauling firewood with it and all sorts of crazy things, but it still made it over 350,000 miles. I had a Audi TT Quattro for a while and I couldn't get 5,000 miles out of it without something breaking. I thought at least with this car I can do the work myself most of it and I've already gotten 3,000 miles out of it with only $500 into tires, parts, and fluids. Which is what it cost me just to leave my Audi at the dealer for a day

[Petros]

welcome to the list!

Value is a difficult thing to measure, Good condition with no major issues, good body/no rust, sell for $2500-3500. A few really rare "show room new" Tercels with really low miles (40k or less) have sold for over $10,000, but those are pretty rare. Occuationally someone will try and get $5000 or more, but that seems a bit high for a car that is still common enough to not be a collector car. Fixers can be bought for $250-500, but might not be worth any more than a parts car depending the condition of the transmission.

But everyone here loves these great little TErcel4wd, reliable, easy to work on, parts still relatively cheap and easy to get, fund to drive and 4wd! What else could you want in an econo-box?

Where are you and what did you pay for yours?

[tercel4wdrules]

Once you start replacing everything that starts going bad you enter this magic period of reliability. I became hooked on the T4WD at a relatively young age, and then as opportunity came by I acquired a few since one apparently wasn't enough. I suppose selling off the Audi and driving the Tercel is going to end up eventually paying off for itself.

[Housewiz]

Wow, that sales guy lives under a rock!!! I just bought a very clean '86 wagon for $1k - it was in the family so I confess that's cheating. 65 K easy miles. Don't know if it's an SR5 'cause when I saw it last summer, my eyes were watering so badly I couldn't see straight

Lived in NM most of it's life then rolled on up to VT where it sits for 10 months a year - used only for short drives in the summer. Still haven't picked it up yet. Waiting for a clear weekend to drive it back here. Don't want to travel the roads and highways if they have any road salt on them before I have it under coated.

[jaxrevenge1]

Found the oil leaks, one at the fuel pump and one at the back of the engine, new fuel pump and seal and I'm good to go again. Ended up needing a new clutch as well. My motto with the Tercel 4WD wagon is with 63K miles on it, it's still worth fixing. I'm $5000 into it now with parts and labor, if you ever need good help and parts Toymasters is a great place in Universal City, the Tercel is back to like new performance

[speedgraphic]

Unless there's some serious emotional attachment to the car, how could an '88 T4WD ever be worth more than $5K or so unless it had zero miles in it and had been stored in a climate controlled container with fluids drained? I love this car, but c'mon - $6K could buy a 2004-2006 Corolla or Civic and they're going to be better cars in many ways.

I'm also an adherent to the idea that miles don't mean much on a car this old. My '85 has 244K miles on it with original engine and transmission and it's running well minus some leaks, the '84 I have has 103K miles on it and has a destroyed transmission. My '85 is in rough shape body wise but it runs well - and I bought it for $600 - the parts car with a near-perfect body was only $350.

[Petros]

There was an '84 with something like 36k original miles that sold on Ebay for $10,800. last year. Someone was willing to pay it, so that is what it was worth. Counting for inflation, age and condition it is what the car (in current dollars) would have sold for in 1987.

Some people think that it being all original and unaltered makes it more valuable, which might be true of a rare collectable. Although the Tercel4wd might qualify as a classic, seems a stretch to call it collectable since there are still quite a few around. I like the utilitiy of the car, and just as soon get one with a lot of miles and than rebuilt it to suite my wants, "fixing" all the problems the factory built into it, and ending up with a better car.