'85 SR5, Minneapolis, Asking $3500

[tmacfan532]

Hey everyone,

I just joined this forum yesterday and haven't posted before -- I actually joined because I was thinking about trying to buy this Tercel 4WD that I saw on CL:
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/c ... 10282.html

I went and test drove it today, and I don't think I'm going to get it, but I thought maybe someone else on here would be interested. I can't speak to the mechanical condition (although it seemed to drive well), and as a 30 year old car it isn't perfect cosmetically, but it's in pretty good shape. Hardly any rust, unless the owner has done some good paint work recently.

I definitely like the idea of these cars, but I feel like if I was going to get one, I'd want it to be as mint as possible -- and this car didn't seem to warrant close to the $3500 ask. Feel free to correct me if I'm completely wrong.

[ARCHINSTL]

Well - 140K on the clock is pretty low nowadays; after all, it is 30 years old.
From the pix, it looks pretty clean. How is the engine bay? Since it is from CA originally, it prob has CA emissions stuff. Again, being from CA, does it have AC - and does it work?
Low mileage SR5's are claiming some pretty good prices over the last few years - more and more peeps are recognizing what great cars these are, from both a utility point of view as well as being easily maintained.
With the car having lived in the Rust Belt for the last four years, an underbody inspection is necessary. If the seller has put on 60K in that length of time, it would seem pretty necessary that he drove it in the Winter.
You might PM splatterdog - Mike is quite an accomplished professional wrench who lives somewhere in MN - sorry, I've forgotten where.

Not an afterthought, but - welcome to the Club!
Tom M.

[Gottolovem]

That looks like a nice one to me.
You may have trouble doing better in the land of salted roads

[Petros]

welcome to the forum!

that is not an unreasonable price if it is reasonably clean and in good mechanical condition. ones with low miles in clean condition are pretty rare now days, and can sell for twice that much. The only other way to get a "better" one is to find a fixer and do your own ground up restoration. That is a major project and $3500 will seem like a bargain before you are done with your restoration. Unless (like some of us on this forum) you like tinkering/restoring with old cars making them nice to look at and drive. I think that is a form of mental illness, and I suffer from it regularly (as do a number of fellow Tercelonaughts from this forum).

You might get lucky and find a nice and rare gem Tercel4wd at a great price (it can happen), but more likely you will be waiting a long time for that one. One really clean very low mile Tercel4wd went on Ebay for $10,800 a few years ago. So if you want "show room new" condition, be prepared to pay for it (and wait for that one to come up for sale again).

Good luck.

[rabalc]

Hello all,
New to site, I bought the 85 Sr5. It is my 2nd, my first, a 1983, being back in the early 90's drove it to 300000 miles, was still running but so rusty if you opened back doors you needed to get the jack out and jack up center of car to get door to close again. It was sadley retired shortly after.

Fast forward 20 years, after patiently waiting to find a clean 4wd wagon(haha in Minnesota) spied the ad on CL, looked somewhat high but was worth looking at. What I found was the most amazingly rust free original 1985 I have ever seen. Came with a small book worth of maintnence records starting in 1985 though 2015. Original owner bought it and drove it till 2009 in Yuciapo Ca, to Mn were I bought it, she wintered down south driving the car there for the winter. The only paint work I can find is the wheels have been color matched to the origanal 30 year old yellow?/off white paint. it needs struts and shocks badley mabey a tune up, but all in all it is near perfect. I will post up some pictures soon. sorry if I got too long winded

Rich

[Notmikeb]

I believe the color you're referring to is "Ivory". I have a hatchback in the same color. So deliciously and horribly 80's!

[Petros]

welcome to the forum!

Nice to have you get the car, you sould like someone that will care for it. If you still live in Mn and plan to drive it, it would be a shame to have it too dissolve away into the MN country side. It there any way to rust proof it so you can preserve the Tercel4wd? These cars are starting to get recognized as vintage, unique and somewhat collectible (not too valuable yet, but may be at some point).

It will be nice to see it when you get a chance to post pictures.

[ARCHINSTL]

Welcome!
Great bunch of peeps here - knowledgeable and super helpful!
Tom M.