newbie question

[dg415]

Hi all,

So I'm a complete newbie to the 86. I've spent a long time admiring this car from afar, trying to read up as much info on it as I can on the net. I also got some experience "driving" it in Gran Turismo (if that even counts) and it probably doesn't need to be said that I've grown quite fond of it. I decided that I might try to buy one if I can find one in my area, so I started snooping around local classifieds to see if anyone was selling one. To my dismay, I discovered that the 86 is actually not very easy to find at all, and the few that are around are either heavily modified, trashed, or both.

But then something amazing happened.

I was looking around Craigslist and I discovered an ad for an 86 being sold in my area! Not only that, but the 86 is completely BONE stock, unmodified, and was never used for any sort of street racing/drifting/etc. The guy that is selling it apparently has no idea what he has, because when I spoke with him on the phone he didn't even know what kind of engine he had! He just said it had an "ae-86 engine", to which I replied asking him to look under the hood. It turns out he's got one of those 4-AC carb engines, not a 4-AGE which would have probably been more preferable. But, regardless of this, we're talking a bone-stock never-drifted all-original genuine 1985 AE-86 Corolla coupe that RUNS.

Now here's the bad news. The engine's got over 300,000 miles on it, and I have no idea what condition the tranny and suspension are in. It's probably safe to assume that the chassis has been deformed quite a bit over the last few decades and the engine is nearing the end of it's life. The suspension and transmission could probably use some work too, considering the age of the car. According to the guy who's selling it, the car's been pretty well maintained throughout it's life and the engine just keeps on going (and I know that the 4-AC in particular is a relatively hardy engine in general)

There is probably no way that I would be able to avoid spending time and money on repairs, and would probably eventually have to either completely rebuild the engine or swap in a new one, but I still think that this might be a great opportunity for me to obtain a pretty rare and sought-after ride. The guy is asking $2400 for the car, but I'm willing to bet I could shake him down to maybe around $1900. Does anyone think this is a good deal? If it were you in my shoes, would you go for it? And if so, how much time/money/work in general do you think it would take to keep this thing running smooth? I'm just looking for some basic ballpark estimates here... Personally, I'm not really necessarily even interested in turning it into a drift car or a racer. If I do buy it, I might just keep it stock as a daily driver for a while, driving on the stock, heavily underpowered 4-AC with an open differential... What do you guys think? I'd really appreciate some feedback from someone who is more knowledgeable about these cars than I am!

[InitialB]

Most 4AC engines can handle 300k like a boss. Unless you're me. I say check it out. Look for bondo/rust and body/chassis alignment. If anything looks potentially bad, it is.

I can't believe how lucky I got when I bought mine in 2011. 1k!

[MtLemmon86]

If you are capable of doing most of the work a complete overhaul on my GT-S came out too $2090 in parts, to have somebody else do it that figure would be closer to $4500 if not more. It drives like a dream now though.

[Glock30]

4ACs aren't that horrible. If budget is a concern then you will be saving for a while to get a GTS. Personally I wish I would have bought a GTS back when you could get them for 2500 (yea... I made the mistake and went cheap) but my 4AC pulls pretty strong. Honestly if it is clean I would pick it up for 1900. These are doing nothing but getting more and more rare (especially unlmolested ones). So long as you don't have rust (or a little depending on what part of the US you are in) The body/frame will be good with 300k. You may end up working on the motor sooner or later, but if taken care of Toyota engines can last a good long while.

[corolla_lover]

The 4ac engine is a very good engine, it may not make a whole lot of power however i have found most of the time they last linger than the 4ag just because they do not rev as high and people do not beat on them as much. One of the biggest things i would be concerned about is the rust because you can find a new engine for only a couple hundred bucks but rust repair can end up costing thousands of dollars. One of the things i strongly suggest are taking out the two screws out of the black plastic vent seen when you open the doors and it pops right out, from there you can look in it with a flashlight and see if there was any bodywork done to the quarter panel (they rust a lot towards the bottom). Also in the trunk area on the sides under the plastic piece is another common place they rust.

Regardless, unless the whole thing is rusted out the car is probably worth the price unless you want to search for years to find one cheaper. Keep in mind older cars with a lot of miles will need work to keep running however in my opinion all that extra work is worth the great raw driving experience.

Good luck

[Moto_Club4AG]

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