1986 Toyota Camry LE

After 11 months of valiant and more or less trouble free service, the Camry has gone to the great junkyard in the sky. We were on a trip to Chicago when its transmission went. It was a slow fail, but it was dead. Since repair would cost between $1,800 to $2,400 and to diagnose it would be $500, we decided that it was time for our time together to end. We really hated to get rid of the Camry. It was one of the most reliable cars I've ever owned. Godspeed, Blue.

Welcome to the newest member of the junkyard. This car is a 1986 Toyota Camry LE 4-door hatchback. Yes, 4-door hatchback. It's an odd layout, but a very practical one. We got this car in late May of 2001 from Sarah's parents. We thank you both very, very much. It started with about 146 thousand on the odometer, but we added another 1400 getting it back home. The car performed flawlessly.

It's not your run-of-the-mill Camry. It's the luxury model. It has power windows, power locks, soft, velour seats, and a slew of other options we really didn't expect it to have. It has a lot of nice touches such as remote controls for the hatch and the gas filler door, the usual cruise control, and air conditioning that still works. That's very nice. It also has a couple of things I've never seen before.

There's a button on the console shifter that enables and disables an overdrive gear. For those of you who don't know what overdrive is, it's a very high gear that's very practical for highway driving.

With it, this car's mileage hovered around 30 miles to the gallon at speeds averaging about 75mph. That's very nice, too. It also has a toggle switch on the console that says "POWER" and "NORM."

I read the manual and it says that one can select "POWER" for more power for starting out with heavy loads. It turns out it's a manual control for the electronically controlled transmission.  Toggling these switches changes where in the rev range the transmission will change gears.  The overdrive button works quite well as well. This car is also equipped with an AM stereo radio. I've never seen one of these, either. Our favorite local AM alternative station says they broadcast in AM stereo, so I'll have to check that out.

The car is also equipped with little lights and compartments everywhere, and the overall ride is pretty cushy. I'm a happy camper.

4/26/02

It's all over for the Camry. We were on our way to Chicago when the transmission started slipping big time. To fix it was prohibitively expensive, it was 250mi away from the house, it was 16 years old, and just to find out what was wrong with it was going to cost us around $500. It was a tough decision to make, but we decided to junk our lovely car. I feel terrible about this, as it was still a very nice car on the inside and it still ran like a champ. Suck, suck, suck. It did us the favor of getting close to Madison, WI and after we stopped because of its slipping for the second time, it still gave us enough time to drive it to a place that would junk it for us. Even in dying, it saved us sixty-odd bucks on a tow.

Would I buy another Camry? Probably not until Saint Paul busts a big car stealing ring. There has to be one around. The city apparently has sent out a warning to all owners of Toyota Camrys from '88 to present to tell them to be careful how they leave their cars as they may not be there when they get back. Other than that, I couldn't recommend it highly enough. Apart from needing a bit more engine, it was very nearly the perfect car.

For the record, it died with 160,000mi on the odometer. The only thing that didn't work on it was the air conditioning.

4/20/02

I can't believe it. Someone has tried to steal our car again. This time it was near Dixie's over on Grand Ave. Sarah had gone to a work function at Dixie's and when she came out, the door lock barrel was hanging out of the side of the door. It wouldn't be so bad if these scum had actually stolen the car, but they didn't. Thus, it's going to be another $70 to have the door pounded out and the lock redone. Thanks, assholes. Next time, take the damn thing.

4/10/02

The car hit the shop again for some repairs. We replaced the lower control arms and that sharpened up the steering considerably. It still looks as if it needs struts, but that's for later. We also commissioned some work on the air conditioning. The shop's trying to find a good, used compressor for us. We'll be bringing it back in a few days for that repair.

We also had the driver's door lock fixed. The thieving scum in our neighborhood has decided our 16 year old car is still desirable and so they've tried to steal it. Once in front of our house in North Minneapolis and once out front of the house here in Saint Paul, tearing hell out of the steering column. We had the lock fixed to the tune of about $70. Having a driver's side door lock that doesn't work when you habitually lock the doors is a mondo pain in the ass.

3/20/02

We've had the car for about 9 months and today was its first trip to the shop. It had developed a lope at idle and a rattle from the exhaust pipe. It's also been broken into twice. Once at the old house and once here at the new place. Both times someone savaged the driver's side door lock. After the first attack it still worked, although it didn't unlock all the doors when you turned the key. After the second attack, the assholes busted up the plastic on the steering column and really made hash out of the door and its keyway. Our shop has a tool for bending these sorts of dents out, so we had them straighten it out and fix the keyway. I'm surprised that it now works better than it originally did. I guess it pays to ask your mechanic if he/she can fix the annoying little problems that come with day to day use and abuse of your car. We blew about $350 on it, but fixing these niggling, little problems was well worth the cash.

We'll have to take it back sometime soon though. The control arm bushings are worn and the steering is kinda vague and pully on acceleration. We will also HAVE to fix the AC before summer.