It's been nearly a quarter of a century since my Toyota left Japan in 1981, and yet it's still going as strong as it ever was (60hp)
Last week I rear-ended a mini van in my 1900lbs. Corolla-Tercel, I thought my car was going to die. The minivan which probably weighed nearly twice as much was almost totally uninjured, my little Tercel on the other hand was in sorry shape, the radiator had hit the water-pump-pulley and was vomitting coolant onto the road, the bumper had been pushed in nearly six inches on the passenger side (but the driver side less than one inch) I was actually able to drive the little bleeding Tercel to the nearest garage without it overheating (though I did coast with the engine off the last couple hundred feet into the parking lot)
It took the guy a couple of days to find get a new radiator for such an old car, but he got it in, and after yanking on the front end of the car with a pickup-truck and chains was able to pull the passenger side out again.
Today I got the car back, and what can I say? I was thinking it was never going to be the same - and I was right -
it runs better than it did before the accident!!!
I was thinking that the alignment was going to be all messed up... I was wrong it's still runs straight, stranger still, the clutch works smoother and the gear linkage is even more precise (I haven't missed reverse even once yet, something that'd happen all the time before the accident)
And I know that the mechanic didn't touch any of those things.
I guess you really do have to
break-in those Toyotas to get them running smooth (silly pun intended)
May
The Golden Nugget (what the former owner named it) live on forever! - I'm only the second owner of this car and I hope to have it around for at least as long as the first owner did (19 years!)
Anybody else have immortal Toyotas?