bought a 89 tercel my first car

[joey420]

Hey,, I'm new to driving and forums . I bought a89 TErcel with 58 thousand km on it,,, the women must have just drivin it to church. i have a couple little questions to get used to the car and this forum for future references I'm wondering common problems on this car or if i am all good,,, it seems to be in great condition,,, how long will this car last me? can i drive to calgary from ottawa,, the tires are 13 inches,,, can biggeer tires fit on the rim.., i paid 100 bucks for the car,,is it worth putting a bit of money into it,,, there only 6 inches for a deck,, does that mean i can only get a 6 inch deck for a radio? what does everyone think of this car?? thank you!!!

[jdmccright]

Sounds like you found a steal. Tercels aren't the coolest cars but they are reliable. If the ladies have taken care of the mechanicals on a regular basis, you should be fine. You don't mention if it is manual or automatic transmission, but I'll surmise that older folk like the previous owner prefer an auto. Again, as long as the fluid's been changed regularly I can't foresee any problems. I will say that because of its age, I'm sure that the internal seals, o-rings, and gaskets are likely embrittled, so thrashing the car around would cause them to crack and leak...so, no bracket racing.

For the radio, I don't know what the 6 inches measured, but if the opening is 6 inches tall, that is a double-DIN opening. www.crutchfield.com has a great site for figuring out what stereo components will fit into any vehicle...radio, speakers, bass boxes, etc. I'll just mention that big systems will probably cause rattles from the age, so be prepared to hunt those down to keep your ride sounding sweet.

Finally, I'm sure you can find some nice looking 14- or maybe 15-inch wheels, just be sure that the tires are sized correctly to keep your speedo accurate. Typically, a 20mm increase in width requires a 5% drop in aspect ratio. Many tire store sites have calculators for you to figure out how much you can change the width, aspect ratio, and wheel diameter without straying too far from the original outer diameter. Also make sure they aren't so wide that the sidewalls rub against anything on the inner wheelwells. Here's one site:

http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp

Hope this helps!