Daughters first car

My daughter just got her first car/truck. She was insistent on this 1985 S-10 with the 2.5 ltr and manual tranny.

Problem is, it will barly idle, and has like a flat spot in throttle responce on the low side. Mechanic say, it is how it is. I dont believe that, so Im here to ask the masses if she got a real P.O.S. or is there help for this tired olf 4 cyl.?

Oh ya, every now and then the check engine light comes on, but it wasnt on the day it was at the mechanics shop.

first thing, s10 is a great truck. if the light has come on there is some sort of malfunction and there will be a code stored. take it to autozone or just about any part store and they will read them for free. if it comes and goes i bet its egr valve (easy fix). just get codes read and then come back and let us know the deal.
also a tune up, oil change, feul and air filter change would be a good idea.

The mechanic had the truck 2 days, scoped it, compression tested it, and they said it did not need a tune up. Compression was low 90's in 2 cyls. and 100's in the other 2. Granted, its tired, but the throttle should give good response reguardless right? Would this EGR valve cause this kind of sluggishness and poor idle? We did the oil change and air filter, had the drivers door hinge rebuilt. It has a new radiator and battery. Speedo doesnt work , so who knows how many miles this thing has on it really. Will the code really be stored, or does the light have to be on to get a reading?

The code will be stored, it doesn't have to be on to read the error. I fiddled with fixing my EGR system a week ago and, yes, it does cause sluggishness, bad throttle response, and poor idle (mine was running on one cylinder for a few minutes until i revved it up high and it seemed to clean itself out and run "fine")

Go to another mechanic ... that one sounds like a rookie !!!

I don't know if the computer could store codes in 85, that's the last year of carburated s-10's if I'm correct.

It could definitaly use a tune up and probably hasn't had one for a while

If it doesn't work better then get her to save up and get that motor re-built.
90's is too low compression for any motor to work properly. Although you should get this re-tested by someone that knows what they are doing