Conventional wisdom, when someone asks “What kind of car should I get?”, is to answer with one brand name: Toyota. If you just need reliable transportation, you can’t go far wrong with any product from the Japanese giant. But with that reputation comes high residual values that can make secondhand Toyotas very expensive compared to other cars. Is the extra price worth it? That’s today’s question.
Yesterday, we looked at a couple of sporty cars that were originally marketed as economy cars. I expected the Honda CRX to win, despite its modifications, but to my surprise, the grubby but stock Pontiac Fiero beat it. Quite a few of you said that if the CRX had been stock, it would have won handily. That’s probably true – but it also would cost more than four grand, possibly a lot more.
I’ve always liked the Fiero, and I’m happy to throw my support behind it. I like CRXs too, but I dislike hacking up nice cars for no good reason. I’d rather have a bone-stock CRX HF with 300,000 miles on it than this monstrosity. The Fiero isn’t the right spec, but it isn’t entirely the wrong one either. It would do.
The Spanish priest and philosopher Baltasar Gracián once wrote: “Better to be cheated by the price than by the merchandise.” In other words, it’s generally a better deal to overpay for something that you know will be good than to take a chance on something of lesser quality for cheaper. Had there been cars in the 17th century, I’m betting old Baltasar would have been a Toyota man. Toyota’s reputation for building reliable and durable cars has made used examples a pricey proposition in many cases. You can still luck out and find one for cheap, but you have to be patient, and you have to accept the fact that the first digit in the odometer is going to be a two or higher.
Either that, or it’s going to be something painfully dull and not very well equipped, like the car I’m about to show you. As a counterpoint to it, I’ve found a car for less than half its price, that feels like a whole lot “more car.” But it’s not a Toyota. Is the lesser-but-nicer car worth the considerably higher price? That will be up to you.
1990 Toyota Tercel – $3,200
Engine/drivetrain: 1.5-liter OHC inline 4, three-speed automatic, FWD
Location: San Jose, CA
Odometer reading: 100,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Quick! What’s the least exciting car ever built? The car that even stodgy old Consumer Reports called “dull?” Yep, that’s right – the Toyota Tercel. Through five generations, this diminutive car racked up bazillions of miles, with its little four-banger struggling to accelerate it and its skinny tires wailing in protest at even the slightest hint of spirited driving. This third-generation Tercel has had two owners and has racked up just over 100,000 miles.
This generation of Tercel has a transversely-mounted 1.5-liter four making 78 horsepower. It drives the front wheels through a three-speed automatic transmission. Bored yet? It runs and drives well, and it just passed a smog test.
One thing I have found over the years doing this job is that sellers are not always correct – or honest. The seller of this car claims it has never been smoked in, but look at the driver’s seat: that’s a cigarette burn if I ever saw one. What else are they leaving out? It doesn’t look bad inside, though. Hopefully it smells all right.
The outside looks good, with just a few dings and scrapes here and there. It’s rust-free, too. This car might not be very exciting, but there’s no reason its paint job can’t be. Imagine this car with Martini livery. Or Alitalia. Or any number of other white-based race liveries. Is it ridiculous to do that to a Tercel? Yep. Is that a reason not to do it? Hell no.
1999 Pontiac Grand Am SE – $1,450
Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter DOHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Tukwila, WA
Odometer reading: 169,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
It seems like everyone has a story about an N-body Pontiac Grand Am. They were so ubiquitous on American roads for so many years that nearly everyone has crossed paths with one at some point. I once changed the starter in one on a bitterly cold day in Wisconsin, and just a few weeks ago, I ragged one around a rallycross course. They’re starting to get rare, but they will never be valuable. I would imagine that the very last Grand Am ever offered for sale won’t cost more than two thousand bucks.
The Grand Am came with a few engines over the years; this one has a 2.4-liter twin-cam four-cylinder based on the old Quad 4. It drives the front wheels through a four-speed automatic. Both the engine and transmission are generally pretty reliable, in that never-say-die GM way. This one runs and drives very well, according to the seller.
You can tell the trim level of a turn-of-the-century Pontiac by counting the buttons in the interior. This is a pretty basic model; there are no buttons on the steering wheel. It does have power windows and locks, but those might have been standard by this point. It’s in good condition, and the seller says the air conditioning works fine, which is a nice bonus for a car in this price range.
It’s not the most attractive car on the road, but there is some comfort in the familiarity of it. I sometimes wonder if these came from the factory with the plastic cladding all scuffed up. Luckily, since this is a Pacific Northwest car, the cladding is unlikely to be hiding any rust, unlike midwestern examples.
Toyota reliability is no joke, but that doesn’t mean other cars won’t do just fine as well. And in this case, the other car comes with some niceties like power windows, air conditioning, and an overdrive gear, and for less than half the price. The Grand Am probably won’t be as rock-solid reliable as the Tercel, nor is it likely to last as long, but for the price, are you willing to gamble? Or are you more inclined to pay extra for a sure thing?
A running car – with A/C – for less than two average new car payments. The Grand Am is a winner.
neither is an exciting choice, but I have too many bad memories of working on family member’s cars with quad 4s. For some reason I want to get the Tercel leave it bone stock on the outside, find a wrecked GR corolla with an intact drivetrain, and create the greatest sleeper car ever made.
Now THAT would be cool!
“In other words, it’s generally a better deal to overpay for something that you know will be good than to take a chance on something of lesser quality for cheaper.”
Maybe that was true then but today I find the cheaper something generally works out just fine. In a lot of cases you’re paying extra for marketing bullshit and company overhead, not quality. And even if the more expensive thing IS better it may be overkill if you only need a band aid fix.
Yep. That’s why Harbor Freight exists. If you’re not making your living with it, their tools are usually fine.
My tool collection is heavy on Stanley for exactly that reason – as a play along at home wrencher, they work just fine, the availability was great (Walmart used to carry them back when I amassed it), and they actually have a lifetime warranty too.
I’ve got some Stanley stuff, too. Affordable and I’ve never had any of it fail on me.
All the Stanley and B&D stuff I’ve gotten in the last 10 years is awful. Sloppy tolerances and overly cheap materials, makes HF look like a snap-on truck. Probably depends on the type of tool but even simple stuff like pliers I’ve had fall apart.
Unless you’re comparing to snap-on or something, the HF tools are just about as good or better than their comparable consumer-available counterparts these days. HF’s quality increased, and stuff like Ryobi and milwaukee, even dewalt seems to have really cheapened. The only area that HF really shows its cards is on the absolute bottom tier power tools.
Dollar stores and Grocery outlets too.
Case in point: Back in December I picked up a bunch of individually packaged NY steaks for about $3/lb when full price was $15-18/lb. Vacuum sealed meat freezes very well. I’ve had meats that were frozen for a decade and were still fine.
These $3/lb steaks are not the best. Side by side a $15-$18 NY steak is objectively better. For a special dinner I would still go with the more expensive steak served on a plate, slathered with blue cheese and sauteed mushrooms with a baked potato and greens.
No these $3 steaks are trimmed and cut into thin slices to make damn fine steak sandwiches while pressure cooking the trimmings and bag juice turns them into a flavorful dip. Any remaining solids become pet food. Nothing goes to waste except the plastic wrapper. I do not think using a $15-$18 NY steak would make a better sandwich, dip or pet food.
Wow, at $3/pound you could grind it up and use it as hamburger and still be money ahead if it wasn’t acceptable as steak.
I could but I can usually get ground beef for less than $3/lb.
Hatchback
Manual
A/C
If the Tercel had any of the above three it’d be worth considering on interestingness. If it had all of the above, it’d be a winner.
As it is the Grand Am is both the more practical beater and the more interesting classic car, all for just about half the asking price for what was a more upscale car new (even if the only place it was taken seriously as an upgrade was the Avis desk).
There are other things that can leave a burn like that seat has. Back in the day, when a seed got hot enough, it acted l like pop corn and popped out of the “utensil” and either landed on your new shirt, or on the seat, and burned a hole in it. I voted for the Grander of the two.
When that seed popcorn’d it was a total buzzkill….
However, doesn’t that still count as being “smoked in”?
100k on a Tercel?
That’s not even yet broken in.
Downside it’ll have age-related maintenance like hoses and such. While the Grandslam is cheap to fix, so’s the Toyota.
I’m picking the Tercel for A-to-B transportation.
“Downside it’ll have age-related maintenance like hoses and such”
Cheap fixes in such a car.
I think this is a ’98 or older Grand Am. The ’99s had more teardrop-shaped headlights. (Although knowing GM, they might have continued to build the old model for fleets.)
I thought that too. I’m guessing it’s either a rental special, or the redesign kicked in halfway through the model year, or something. But yeah, it’s definitely the earlier bodystyle.
I’m going to go against the grain (probably) and opt for the Grand Am. My thinking was strictly in terms of “what if I just needed basic transportation?”, eschewing all else. The Pontiac would be noisy and raspy, and the interior switchgear might just turn to dust in your hands, but it offers more at a lower price point. The style might not be great, but the overall condition is quite good, and you get two more doors (in case you want to make it go slower than normal). I’d also feel less guilty about driving it in snow, mostly because a no-rust Toyota of this era almost a lowkey collector’s item.
That is how I treat almost all of these polls because in most cases they are boring cars that just happen to be old.
The purpose of an old beater is cheap A to B transport.
I still have nightmares of driving that vintage tercel back from an auction when I worked for a Toyota dealer in high school. The buzz it made trying to maintain 55 mph was louder than the noise the am only radio would make. Definitely no to it. The grand am would be much more liveable.
…the Q4 is a buzzy, harsh, unsophisticated thing, but the Tercel is slow and not as safe. Both are autos, so the Stick Choice is irrelevant, though my Nova had the same 3-speed the Tercel does, more than likely. As commuters, both would be OK, though the Tercel would have more appeal at something like The Crazy ’80s, while the Pontiac you’d park next to the guys with their perfectly preserved ’90s Buick and Saturn at the Cars&.
What do if you had a substantial budget to mess with them, then? The Tercel probably would accept a 4A-GE, but who knows if you could get suspension and brakes to match. If there’s commonality with the Corolla, you’re probably fine. Panda, watanabes, tofu sticker, laugh about it. The Pontiac had enough parts bin commonality you could probably build a compelling sporty car given time and know how. Given unlimited budget and talent I’d build a supertouring race car out of it but that’s well into the realm of daydreaming.
I think I have to lean Pontiac here. It’s cheaper and in good enough shape that for a spare car occasionally taken to cruise-ins and Cars& it’d be fine. The Tercel would also fill that role, but if I want to relive my College AE80 Nova, I want an AE80 Nova.
Where’s the none button?
Also amusing to see fourth being called an overdrive gear (unless both cars run 1:1 in third).
It’s either a 4T40-E or a 4T60-E, and in either case, yes, third is 1:1 and fourth is an overdrive, like nearly all 80s/90s/00s four-speed automatics.
The Tercel will likely still be quietly puttering around (slowly but with fantastic gas mileage) when the earth eventually falls into the sun in a few billion years. That assumes it stays away from Rust Belt states and doesn’t get flattened by a texting influencer in an Escalade because they didn’t see it below the hood line.
That being said, I’ll go Pontiac because if I’m going to die in a pre-airbag/door beam/any thought to safety tin can with no AC (the ad doesn’t say but there is virtually no way someone who bought a Tercel back in the day paid extra for it, no one did unless it was in Arizona), I at least want it to be mildly entertaining to drive and the Trecel is not, in even the most broad sense of the word, entertaining. When someone says, “Appliance for the Road”, it means Tercel.
That Pontiac is too damn ugly.
Or maybe it’s so beautiful it hurts to look at.
I hated my Grand Am because of the aftermarket security system. It would shut the car off at any time in hot weather. Which in AZ happens a LOT.
I still chose this Grand AM cause it’s cheap and at least has 1 airbag. I’d drive it until it died, and then just leave it where it died with a free sign on the windshield 🙂
I voted Grand Am. I can’t say I’m a fan of these cars, but a running, driving, non-biohazard car for $1450 is a usually winner in 2026.
For some bizarre reason I like the Toyota, though. It is plain and boring in a good way. It doesn’t have the tacky, weird modern styling elements found on modern cars. It is also in good, but not perfect condition. Had the price been a bit lower (maybe $2300) or the condition were perfect (so far, I see a few dents on the right side and at least two cigarette burns on the driver’s seat) I would have voted for it instead.
No mention of AC on the Tercel. That makes it even MORE of a penalty box.
Grand Am for me.
I’m going to get no pleasure out of driving either car, so I’m going with comfort and the Grand Am. And despite the racket that 2.4 is at least no slouch.
One of the axiomatic truths for gear heads: “GM cars will run badly longer than most cars will run.”
The exception is that Tercel, which will run well longer than the Poncho will stumble.
But if I spend twice the money on the Tercel and bring it to Wisconsin, the car will dissolve in approximately one winter. Rusty white Toyotas are fugly. Rusty red Pontiacs are… camouflaged by the cladding.
At this prices, the Grand Am is cheaper than three car payments and will be more pleasant. And I won’t die of boredom.
Pontiac for me, b/c at least a little excitement built, but also b/c those seats are an underappreciated bonus – GM really got them right for the price level; they hit the sweet spot between comfort and performance.
The Ghost of Rental Cars Past tried everything to get me to like the Grand Am more, but I just couldn’t. Maybe if it were less scruffy inside and had about the same mileage as the Tercel, but still at its low, low price of $1,450, I would have opted for it. So the little marshmallow casket it is.
The simplicity and durability are the exciting part.
Remember, Pontiac said it themselves: “We build excrement”
I would have voted the Pontiac if it was grand prix with a 3800 as my mom had a 99 grand prix when I was growing up and was always a reliable car with crap/next to no maintenance (was totaled in an accident 10+ years of ownership so she wound up with a 2dr 2002 Honda Accord which also provided similar reliability with the crap maintenance she gave her cars)
I’m a diehard circa-Malaise Toyota fan, and the Tercel’s grim commitment to absolute bottom tier content in combination with dispassionate, stone axe reliability appeals to me. But damn that is a big ask. Three Gs for three speeds, two doors and no joy? Oof.
I wouldn’t usually say it but I’m going to go for the Pontiac today. The Quad family of engines were pretty advanced for the General at the time, and the Grand Am itself is just one hell of a lot more car for literally half the money. Easy call.
Grand Am.
Personally, I wouldn’t have a concern using the Tercel as a daily BUT none of my family would ride in it or drive it.
It is a pre-airbag death trap.
The Grand Am at the very least gives you a chance to choose between leaving the scene of the crash with a clueless full-size pickup owner in an ambulance or with the coroner.
I struggled to stay awake reading either one of them, but for just over $1k I went with the Pontiac. At that price if it lasts a month I’m in the green.