I know I’ve given Toyota a hard time on here before for making boring cars, but that’s just because I’ve had a couple of them, and they were boring. But they were also well-made, reliable, and user-friendly, and I can certainly understand why people are so loyal to the brand. Today, we’re going to look at a couple of rare older Toyotas. Does their rarity make them more interesting? We’ll see.
Yesterday, we looked at a little truck, and a little truck substitute, and it was another one of those matchups that I had no idea which way the vote would go. As it turns out, it was pretty close: the Subaru Baja is in the lead by twenty votes at this point, so I’m going to call it the winner. Sorry, Chevy fans.
I guess that’s the way I’d go, too. The Colorado isn’t a bad little truck, but it’s not the sort of vehicle I want to be weird. It’s a Chevy; it should be straightforward and fixable with a hammer and some duct tape. The Baja is even weirder, but it’s a Subaru; it can get away with it. Besides, I kinda like that it shares its livery with a Sony Sports Discman.
I’m sure Toyota fans get tired of the “boring” trope, just like Camaro fans must get tired of mullet jokes and British car owners get tired of snide comments about Lucas electrics (those are all true, though). And yes, I know about the twin-turbo Supras and the GR Corollas and whatnot. But for every one of those sold, Toyota unleashed thousands of silver and beige Camrys, Priuses, and RAV4s upon the world, and before that, whole battalions of white Tercels and dull little pickup trucks. But once in a while, there was an interesting variant of one of those cars, and even though they’re not any more exciting to drive, they’re at least more intriguing to talk about. The sellers of both of today’s choices make it a point to mention their rarity, but at least they didn’t try to jack up the prices too high because of it. Let’s check them out.
1986 Toyota Camry LE Liftback – $2,900
Engine/drivetrain: 2.0-liter OHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Alhambra, CA
Odometer reading: 166,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
It’s hard to remember a time when the default answer to “what’s a good car” wasn’t the Toyota Camry. Its predecessor, the rear-wheel-drive Corona, was a well-regarded car, but it didn’t have anywhere near the dominance in the mid-size sedan category that the Camry achieved very quickly. By the time this final-year first-generation Camry was built in 1986, everybody knew what it was, and everybody knew it was good. There was no station wagon variant of the first Camry, but this one has the next best thing – a hatchback.
Power for the Camry in these days came from a 2.0-liter four-cylinder making a little under 100 horsepower, which sounds pathetic now, but it was in line with other midsized sedans at the time. And the Camry came standard with two niceties that those others lacked at least one of: electronic fuel injection, and a four-speed overdrive transmission. You could get a five-speed manual too, of course, but most buyers opted for the automatic. This one runs and drives well, and has just had a bunch of recent work done, including a full tune-up, a new fuel pump, and a new exhaust.
The seller calls the interior “clean,” but I think they have a different definition of that word than I do. The upholstery is decent, except for a stain on the rear seat, but the steering column trim is missing, as are some bits and pieces of the driver’s door panel. Good luck finding those pieces anywhere; there’s no market for restoration parts for an ’86 Camry (yet), and even if you found one in a junkyard, odds are it wouldn’t be blue inside.
Outside, it’s mostly just tired-looking. A couple of the door bump strips are coming unglued, the black paint is peeling off some trim, and I don’t know where you’re going to find a replacement for that cracked turn signal lens. I mean, it’s not bad for an inexpensive beater, but I certainly wouldn’t call it a potential collector’s item like the seller does.
1997 Toyota Paseo Convertible – $3,400
Engine/drivetrain: 1.5-liter DOHC inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Lone Tree, CO
Odometer reading: 186,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
The Toyota Paseo is the sort of car that simply doesn’t exist anymore, a sporty two-door based on an economy car. Once, they were everywhere: Sciroccos and Preludes and Storms and ZX2s offered a sporty alternative to their more workaday cousins. The Paseo was based on the humble Tercel, with a little more style, a little more power, and in this case, a whole lot more sunshine.
The Paseo is powered by a 1.5-liter twin-cam engine and a five-speed manual gearbox. This one has had quite a bit of work done recently, including a new oil pump and oil pan. I bet someone ran over something and punctured the pan. The seller says it runs well, but the oil light comes on at idle – which makes me wonder if the repairs were done correctly. I’d want to see receipts, and have an independent mechanic verify that the oil pressure is acceptable.
It’s a little fancier inside than a Tercel, but that’s not hard to do. The white gauge faces are a nice touch. I see what looks like a piece of duct tape on the seat, where the seat belt comes across, but other than that it’s clean. The seller says the air conditioning works too, and the top is in good shape.
It’s a little faded outside, but that’s not uncommon with red cars. You could probably bring it back with some buffing compound. But it’s straight, and it isn’t rusty. Honestly, I almost forgot there even was a convertible version of the Paseo until I saw this ad. It didn’t sell well, and this 1997 model was one of the last. I guess you could kind of consider it a collector’s item – but not a particularly desirable one.
Collectibility aside, these are both still decent, reliable cars, assuming a couple of things check out, and still capable of being driven daily. That’s not true of all old cars, as we all know. Maybe that’s the advantage of collectible Toyotas; the reliability and durability is baked right in. So which one would you call a classic?
The hatchback killed the Camry for me, ugly…
I’ll take the Paseo. Shifting gears and getting a tan at the same time!
I’m going Camry here. Solid platform, interesting design, the rims are peak 80s, and it looks like a well cared for survivor. Is it a future collector’s item? Absolutely not! It’s a car that would be great to run around in, worth detailing, and maybe you take it out to an 80s themed car show if you can shine it up.
The Paseo…it’s a convertible with repairs that at least demand a second look. That sounds like more than I want to deal with.
Camry only because when I was a member of a BBS for 2nd gen RX-7 enthusiasts in the late 90s/early 2000s we went through a period of getting spam-bombed by members of a “rival” niche car site called, and I shit you not, Paseo Pimps.
The Venn diagram of 2nd gen RX-7 and Toyota Paseo owners must be two separate circles – what did you do to enrage the Paseo Pimps?
I just love that the Camy still exists. CA is such a magical place when it comes to cars, I don’t think I’ve seen one of those since the late 90’s. Here in the northeast, most Toyotas of that vintage have long since rotted into the ground.
I’d prefer that the Paseo were a hardtop (I remember when these first came out, and though I was all about water-cooled Mark 1 VWs at the time, I still liked the simplicity of the Paseo) I’ll take that, provided that I don’t have to buy a new top for it anytime soon. It’s surely no sportscar (I wonder if Toyota did any structural reinforcement at all when they took the top off… I’m gonna assume it’ll flex noticeably over bumps/holes in the road) but with a manual transmission and cheery disposition, probably still fun to drive around town.
I don’t dislike the Camry at all, but that one looks tired and I see those early hatchbacks (or any first gen Camry) so rarely that finding the missing bits and pieces would be too much of an effort.
I wouldn’t mind dropping a new engine into an otherwise nice condition Paseo, and this one looks nice enough to warrant the effort. I’m sure there are a lot of interesting performance options to choose from when going that route.
I wouldn’t want either as a daily driver, so the Paseo is the obvious winner.
I’m going to go with the Camry. I’ll detail the hell out of it, touch up the trim with paint, and start an epic search for the steering column cover. There are some great examples of people fixing and replacing interior parts and taillight lenses out there, so that could be my new hobby. I think there’s potential.
I was going for the Camry but the steering wheel screams STOLEN!.
And I don’t have a mullet. Though I parted the z28 next to a British car and now it has strange electrical issues.
The out of sequence plates might mean it is on a salvage title. Salvage title in California means getting new plates as well.
“out of sequence”? What do you mean by that? I’m kind of fascinated with CA plates; I recently learned that they stay with the car as it moves between owners.
Since the plates stay with the car, the first digit gives a rough idea of when it was registered. A model year well off from the plate sequence is either from out of state, a salvage title or went form vanity plates to regular plates due to a sale.
8-series plates are ~2018-2021 or so.
This car was probably originally on 2-series plates if it is originally a California car.
Oh, gotcha. Do they issue new plates every time they change the design, or would the 2 series be the old blue plate with yellow letters (I think that’s what 80’s CA plates looked like)
I remember when the assistant principal of my HS got a Camry like this as a new car in ’83 (I believe). He kept pronouncing it as “CHAM-ray” – to uplcass it somehow. He was also a bit of a prick…shocking, right? Anyway, that Camry might have had a decent chance if it was the regular sedan – I always thought that the hatchbacks looked weird – and was in better shape overall. The Paseo is a time capsule of 90’s optimisim. Even if it wasn’t a racer, it would be a fun and engaging driver.
I remember test driving an ’86 Camry and then an ’86 Accord. The Accord was just so much better in almost every way and that’s what we bought. I had forgotten how ugly the IP was on the Camry. Anyway, the Paseo drop top looks decent and a lot more fun.
This is like a personality test, and I’m kinda glad to see it going 80/20 for the optimists with “well, the engine might not throw a rod and the convertible top might not leak.”
hope >> doom
When I met my wife she drove an 86 Camry notchback with the 5 speed, so it gets my nostalgia vote. They held up remarkably well despite a ton of major oil leaks. The A/C even worked.
That Paseo is about 1000x more interesting than most cars available today. I’d genuinely like to own it, though the oil pressure issue is… significant. The Camry is an interesting survivor, but not quite in the condition that it needs to be in to command any serious amount of cash.
Getting the oil pressure checked during the PPI would make the decision. If the Paseo isn’t getting ready to sieze up, then it’s the easy winner. The hatchback aspect is the only thing that is at all interesting about the Camry. Otherwise, it’s just a car that was dull but capable but which is now dull, beat to hell on the inside, and still capable. Fun is nowhere to be found on that car, but it will keep running for a good long time. The Paseo would be a great little summer runabout and a lot of fun, IF it passes the oil pressure test.
A fun, cheap convertible versus literally anything else? What kind of comparison is this?
The Camry is just a good, honest piece of transportation, while the Paseo is writing a check it has no chance of cashing. The PAseo is like getting a ticket to a big Broadway show based around a hugely talented star, only to have the third understudy take the stage that night. I’ll take the Camry, especially with the oil light issue on the Paseo. I think the fact that I own a Miata makes the Paseo feel especially sad.