I have a coworker who’s looking to sell his car, a 1989 Toyota Corolla. I know the basics of looking after a car, but a car that old is almost foreign to me, because I’m from a state where cars rust out.
I figure Toyotas are pretty reliable and so is the 4AG engine, but I don’t want to end up with another money pit. What should I look out for, or should I just avoid it altogether?
From someone that daily’d a 2006 GTO for a few months - I’d recommend against it.
I fucking adore older cars (preferably 85 to 2010) - almost the perfect blend of tech and mechanical elements without being too overly reliant on tech. Fuck touch screens.
However, dailying something that old will definitely be a little bit more challenging than something newer. Sure, it can be cheap to replace parts on an old Toyota, but then you’ll need to start looking at your time as a resource. Like how often are you going to want to keep working on it as parts inevitably fail due to age?
It’s all up to you, really. If you’re in a good spot to be able to make it work then more power to you - but always look at time as a resource as well and recognize that an older car will definitely be biting into your time. Personally, I wouldn’t go older than 2003 for a daily.