Good morning! I’ve just noticed that I have chosen Toyota versus Dodge again today, but what the hell; we’ll run with it. We’ve got two old but still capable vehicles that make me think of weekend adventures, which makes them perfect to check out on a Friday.
Yesterday’s Dodge versus Toyota matchup went heavily in favor of the Tundra pickup, as I suspected it might. Those things run forever, and I’m willing to bet that those of you in more rust-prone parts of the country haven’t seen one that clean in years. And as someone pointed out in the comments, you don’t put new tires on a vehicle unless you’re confident about its overall condition.
I have to agree that it’s the better vehicle, but I’m a cheapskate, so if I needed one of these to transport stuff, I’d probably look seriously at the Caravan just because it’s half the price. It’s an automatic transmission either way, and with that many miles, it hardly matters anymore who built it.
All right, let’s step back in time a little further with these two manufacturers. For Dodge, we have a much older version of the same idea, and representing Toyota is a little 4×4 wagon that has become something of a cult classic over the years. Here they are.
1966 Dodge A100 Sportsman – $4,500
Engine/drivetrain: 225 cubic inch overhead valve inline 6, three-speed manual, RWD
Location: Spokane, WA
Odometer reading: 82,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
It’s funny to me, looking at the dimensions of this early Dodge A100 van, that yesterday’s Grand Caravan is called a “minivan.” This van is two and a half feet shorter, in both overall length and wheelbase, than the Caravan. They are almost exactly the same width, however; the A100 is short and squat.
Like its Ford and Chevrolet competitors, the Dodge A100 offered a selection of six- and eight-cylinder engines, nestled between the front seats and driving the rear wheels. You can just see the hump where the engine lives in the terrible photo above. This one has a 225 cubic inch version of Chrysler’s famous Slant Six, backed by a three-speed column-shifted manual. It has been owned by the same family for decades, and they took care of it. It’s ready to roll.
The interior is a mishmash of seats from newer vans, along with this homemade-looking pair of inward-facing benches that fold down into a bed. Somewhere along the way, someone installed a plywood floor with sound-deadening under it, so it won’t echo like a tin can the way most old vans do. The one thing we don’t get a photo of is the driver’s seat and dashboard area. Does that mean it’s trashed, or they just neglected to take a picture?
The outside is impressively rust-free and very straight. I don’t know if the blue paint is original, but it wouldn’t surprise me. The seller does say that there is some bad rust in the floors in front, but nothing that affects anything structural. Sounds like as good an excuse as any to learn to weld.
1984 Toyota Tercel 4WD Wagon – $2,800
Engine/drivetrain: 1.5-liter overhead cam inline 4, six-speed manual, part-time 4WD
Location: Coeur d’Alene, ID
Odometer reading: 180,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives, but needs some unspecified work
Looking back, the crossover SUV craze was inevitable. As soon as Subaru stuck a four-wheel-drive system under its Leone station wagon, the die was cast; the combination just made too much sense. AMC followed with the Eagle, which, as gawky as it was, further cemented the proof of concept. And then Toyota came up with this little number, a tall station wagon version of its Tercel subcompact equipped with 4WD, and suddenly everyone offered something similar. And now, of course, everything is a 4WD wagonish thing that’s slightly taller than it needs to be.
The Tercel wagon is normally front-wheel-drive, like the rest of the lineup, with five forward gears. But pull that little secondary shift lever, and it sends power to a solid rear axle as well. Like most pickups, the front and rear axles are locked together in 4WD, so you can only use it on slippery surfaces like snow, mud, or dirt. When 4WD is engaged, you have access to a sixth gear, an extra-low “granny gear” for tough climbs. The little 1.5-liter engine only makes 62 horsepower; it needs all the help from low gears it can get. It runs and drives, but the seller says it needs some repairs “for safety,” but doesn’t specify what exactly.
It has covers over the front seats, which is rarely a good sign in an old car. And it’s especially discouraging here, because a lot of 4WD Tercel wagons have really cool plaid seats. My hope is that the covers have been on there for a long time, and the plaid cloth is in fine shape still, but I doubt it.
It has a little rust outside, but not nearly as bad as the ones I saw in Minnesota in the 90s. These Tercel wagons are proof that something ugly can still be cool. The ungainly roofline, the big chunky bumpers, and whatever is going on with that license plate/reverse light combo thing in the tailgate are not attractive features, but the car works so well that it doesn’t matter. It’s like rock stars who got famous before MTV; you could be homely and no one cared, as long as you could play.
These both need a little bit of work, but they’re interesting enough to be worth the trouble. And either one could make a fine weekend toy that you don’t see too often. The choice is yours: the Scooby-Doo van, or the homely 4×4 wagon. What’ll it be?
I’d really like the A100 in its pickup form, but hey, the van is close enough.
The van is cool, but the Tercel wins by default.
Maybe this one would be worth a both option…
There should also be “Both” and “Neither” as options, to see how people really feel about the cars on offer.
Both and this is the most dangerous pair ever because they are both a reasonable drive from where I live.
I dig both of these. One of my friends in college had an old Tercel wagon like that. Despite the Breaking-Bad associated coolness, it was slow as shit and not terribly fun to drive, or be seen in, however.
That A100 would be coming home with me out of these two. It’s adorable, and my grandpa had one when I was a little kid that he had used back in the 60’s for his local television repair business. This would be a little tribute to him.
Van!! I could park my other daily driver (motorcycle) inside it and increase my garage space!
That’s some galaxy-brain thinking.
I owned a 4WD Tercel wagon in the late ’90s and enjoyed it to a certain extent. Quite underpowered, pretty noisy, rust-prone as we see with this one, but it was a Swiss Army knife of a car with Toyota durability. The Dodge is kinda neat, I just hate the thought of how it would drive. Neither vehicle is appropriate for today’s traffic but I’d suffer less in the Tercel.
I like them both. Don’t love either one. I guess I’m just in a van mood.
As for yesterday’s Tundra, yeah the last one of those I saw around Chicago was owned by a coworker. The frame had giant rust holes in it, the gas tank was held in by ratchet straps, and it was so reliable my coworker always carried his bicycle with him so he could get home when it broke down. He rode the bike a lot.
But a clean one of those in good shape and not rusty? Yes please!
Neither of these were ever cool. Neither would be something that would likely come onto my radar. The Tercel has some Radwood interest to someone I imagine. the Dodge at least can be parked down by the river to provide a home to someone. I suppose I would reluctantly go ugly van over even uglier early Crossover.
Tough choice… Radwood Toyota or a still-honestly-working forward control van. Dodge van wins today, though, with a history of reliable service and care and the oddball-car appeal of a genuine forward-control layout.
Now, if the Toyota had the full package with the extra gauge pod on the top of the dash for the nifty little inclinometers, it would have been harder to resist.
I want that bug-eyed old van. The seller seems to be more upfront about what it needs, and once you have the new floor pans welded in there’s nothing else on it that you can’t fix with hand tools and foul language.
I mean, you don’t really even need a welder. self tappers and seam sealer work on a junker just fine.
So tired of the ’60s being considered the zenith.
And the Tercel is cooler, anyway. Yoda FTW.
The van is cool, but I would legit daily that Yota. So it’s 4×4 Fridaysss.
Give me the A-100. It has more character and I already have a welder.
I like both, but I don’t want to figure out what’s wrong with the Toyota only to end up with a rusty old car. The van should be dead simple to deal with and could be a great alternative to a small truck given its short length. An excellent option for Home Depot runs and weekend camping trips.
I briefly owned an A100 and loved it but had too many projects(I had 12 at the time and the van was the one I was least attached to) so I sold it and have regretted it ever since. Mine was a 273 v8 but I’d take a leaning tower any day.
The most scary ride on the street I remember was a Chevy powered A100 pickup.
This example probably won’t go fast enough to break on through, but nope.
That leaves the Tercel with my not entirely happy vote.
Toyota designed a car that is great in Winter, but bad in salt.
I adore that Tercel, but it’s hard to turn down a neat, better-disclosed project that’s been in the same family for decades.
If I’m buying the welder anyway, put me in the “both” camp too.
Several years ago, I took my kids to one of those farms that let you pet goats, feed chickens, and things like that. Eventually I noticed a couple old looking vans sitting off in one of the fields where the emus roamed and instantly started ignoring the animals. When we finally made our way out there, it wasn’t a couple vans, it was like 2 dozen Dodge A100s. Turns our the brother of the woman that owned the farm was a
hordercollector and the A100 was his obsession of choice. The family ended up in a legal battle over the property a few years back so the vans are likely gone now. I think we could have got Torch over there to get the full scoop on the van collection because this was not far from the Autopian southeast headquarters.I still voted for the Tercel but there aren’t many chances to break out the “emus and Dodge A100s at the farm” tale.
This is a both day. I love the Tercel as a gone before its time early crossover and super beatable. That van mechanically would survive a nuclear war. BUT all the other parts would be hard to find. Today is a both day.
Compact 4WD wagons are awesome, so Tercel.
Both are cool. I voted van though.
While it’s wild that the Tercel has a “6 speed” manual, an A100 with a Slant 6 and a 3 speed just seems more fun. Probably practical too.
It’s a 5 speed with a granny gear.
Hence the quotes on “6 speed”. New stick-shift Broncos are also constantly called 7 speeds, but in reality, they also have a granny gear before their normal 6 gears.
I went with the Tercel, but I love those vans – just not ones converted into a part-time camper, which they all seem to be anymore.
If I could vote both I would but since I cannot I find the van a bit cooler and I think would get a lot of looks at a cruise night after being cleaned up a bit and fixing the rust issues and getting new wheels.
I’ll take the Tercel all day long. I’ve always had a soft spot for these 4wd wagons and this one is still in decent enough shape. Pretty much all of them in this region crumbled away into dust decades ago. This one being a stick is an added bonus as the autos were absolutely dog slow and felt every bit of it. The stick is still slow but at least feels faster. This one even has AC, although I doubt it works but it’s easier to get it updated/repaired than try a retrofit. If it wasn’t 1500 miles away (and I wasn’t broke) I might send in an offer, I’d love one of these to bomb around in on weekends especially in the snow.