Good morning! Well, yesterday I promised you cars that were ready to go. I have made good on that promise. But even though these both run just fine and have had some recent maintenance to keep them that way, they’re not what you’d call desirable.
Yesterday we looked at two broken Ford Escorts, and it’s no surprise that the much nicer and generally more reliable later generation took the prize. Add in the fact that it’s a wagon, and this seems like an obvious choice. It’s only a hundred bucks more to buy, and it should be cheap and easy to fix.
But I will add this caveat: it’s an Ohio car. The leaking brake line in question may very well be one of the steel lines, and it could have rusted through. If that is the case, it would be worth checking the rest of it for underbody rust as well. If it’s more or less clean, then you’re good to go. But if it’s Swiss cheese underneath, and the older ’86 is rust-free, that tips the scales the other way – or at least it does for me. I hate dealing with rust.
Internet classifieds below a certain price level are littered with “easy fixes” like those two Escorts. Sometimes the fix is actually easy; sometimes not. Sometimes the car in question goes on to be a nice reliable driver for a good long time; sometimes not. A lot of folks would rather just shell out a bit more for a car that already runs well and doesn’t need anything right away.
There are two typical schools of thought when it comes to looking for cheap reliable cars. The first is “just get a Toyota,” which is often good advice; you won’t fall in love with it, but it will get you to work and back. The other is “look for an older person’s car,” which usually means something domestic, with fewer miles, but maybe a bit stodgy. We’re going to check out one of each, and you can decide which way you’d rather go.
1993 Toyota Corolla DX – $3,000
Engine/drivetrain: 1.8-liter dual overhead cam inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Mountlake Terrace, WA
Odometer reading: 225,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
A common trope in science fiction is the idea of a “food pill”: All the nutrients your body needs, distilled down to one little pill. It’s an intriguing idea for convenience, but it ignores one simple fact – people like to eat. Food is not simply a means of acquiring energy and nutrients; it’s pleasurable and social, and providing it in the most efficient way possible deprives us of that pleasure. Toyota has spent decades developing the Corolla into the automotive equivalent of a food pill, while largely ignoring the fact that driving can be pleasurable, as well.
I used to own a Corolla of this generation, and while it was utterly reliable and got respectable gas mileage, it was devoid of personality and balked at any attempts at spirited driving. And mine was even a five-speed manual, but that just turned it from a food pill to a plain rice cake. This one, with an automatic, is probably about as much fun as the DMV.
It has been well taken care of, though, and the seat covers are there for protection, not to hide anything. The seller just cleaned and detailed the interior, and it does look mighty nice in there. The car runs well, and comes with some parts for future use; the seller worked at an auto parts store for a while and collected some stuff. The speedometer is wonky, but it has an aftermarket GPS speedometer to supplement it.
Outside, it’s straight, and rust-free, but we should talk about those reflective tape stripes. I mean, safety first, I guess, but on the roof, even? Really?
1988 Plymouth Sundance – $2,200
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2- or 2.5-liter overhead cam inline 4, three-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Everett, WA
Odometer reading: 71,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Come to think of it, I have a food analogy for this car as well: When I was in college, we noticed a pattern at the cafeteria: One day we would have hamburgers, then the next day we would have Salisbury steak, which was leftover burgers covered in mushroom gravy, then the day after that they served us Tater Tot casserole, when they chopped up the remaining burgers, doused them in cream of something-or-other soup, added some frozen green beans, covered the whole thing with Tater Tots, and baked it into oblivion. Chrysler’s K platform may have started out as a hamburger, but what we have here with the P-platform Plymouth Sundance is nothing but leftovers.
To be fair, while the cafeteria leftovers went downhill fast, Chrysler did manage to improve this basic architecture with every generation. The Plymouth Sundance and Dodge Shadow were available with either the basic 2.2 liter K car engine or the larger and more refined 2.5-liter version. I can’t tell them apart by sight; the only way I could tell you which engine this car has is to read the VECI label under the hood. Either way, it drives the front wheels through a good old A413 Torqueflite automatic.
This car is apparently part of an estate sale and had a bunch of work done to it to get it ready, including new tires, an oil change, and a full tune-up. There may be more to do, depending on how long it was sitting, but it’s a good start. Most of it looks decent, but I get the feeling that Nana didn’t have a garage; there is some badly sun-scorched paint on the roof and rear deck and a little surface rust. Inside, it’s pretty good, but there is one tear in the upholstery. You could probably stitch it up, or throw a seat cover on it.
The Sundance’s claim to fame is that it’s a hatchback, even though it looks like a small sedan. And there’s quite a lot of room back there if you fold down the seats; in fact, I can tell you from experience you can fit a full-sized futon frame and mattress in a Sundance if it’s taken apart.
Yes, they’re both automatics again. I’ll try to find a couple of stickshifts for tomorrow. These will both get you around just fine, though not with any great deal of excitement. One stands out in traffic in the worst way, and the other would have been completely invisible twenty years ago; it stands out now because it’s rare these days. Which one would you rather be seen in?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
I’ll admit the Toyota has MANY more miles, but I’d take it. An 80’s Plymouth? Are you looking for trouble or what? And it’s pretty obvious which car has been well-kept, even if the reflective tape is a little helicopter parent-y.
I’m guessing the Corolla was used for something like rural postal delivery. That could explain the stripes and the high miles but relatively good condition. I know some people who signed up for that as a part time post retirement job. They scrupulously maintain their vehicles. So that Corolla could be very well taken care of.
225,000 miles vs 71,000 miles… This is a no brainer.
Plus, a coworker’s GF owns a Corolla of that generation and complains about it constantly…says it’s the shittiest car he’s ever worked on, and that’s saying a lot. It seems to have built to a very low cost.
My brother bought a red 1993 Corolla with all of option boxes ticked for his wife. His Corolla had been like a very reliable old friend who was always there for you. During the winter times, Corolla had a set of studded tyres on, and it was so much fun driving on snowy and icy roads in Colorado.
A decade of faithful service later, a distracted driver in her Cadillac Escalade failed to brake in time and smashed into Corolla’s rear from 40 mph. What surprised the police officers, emergency personnel, and my brother was how much the body remained undamaged or unbent while the entire rear end was smashed into nothing. The police officers were able to open all of four doors effortlessly. His wife and young toddler were unharmed but shaken.
Cadillac Escalade was written off as totaled despite the minor damage to the bumpers and front end. My brother was wondering why Cadillac was totaled until he looked at the side profile photos. The chassis frame was bent in the middle so it wasn’t repairable.
We still miss this Corolla to this day…
OK, so we’re talking super-boring, super-basic transportation. That means it needs to be super-reliable. So that means that you pretty much have to take the Toyota over the Plymouth. (Or damn near anything else, for that matter.)
I’ll take the “yoda” since the Sundance is trash even though it has low miles. That “yoda” is CLEAN…I thought it was gonna be a driver’s ed “safety” car or something at first
This was an easy choice. Sundance all the way!
As anodyne as this Corolla may seem, it holds a distinction (for me) as being from the last generation of cars before Toyota Stopped Trying. The Corolla and Camry that followed this generation were considerably uglier than their predecessors, and they would hold on for an agonizingly long time without a significant refresh.
I think this generation [E100] of Corolla is cute enough, especially with its big wraparound taillights with grey trim, and it even had those cool electroluminescent gauges — before Toyota ripped them out as part of a mild refresh and replaced them with something more boring, as seen in this example. A harbinger of what would happen to Toyota’s entire corporate lineup.
Safety strips really? Hope they peel easy. Oh well voted for the Mopar anyway
I owned or had immediate access to a Shadow, a pair of Omnis, and an Aries, as well as a few early Chrysler minivans from the era. I even had a LeBaron convertible for a while.
They were decent cars for the day, and more reliable for me than their reputations suggest. But in general, they were more utilitarian than anything I’ve ever seen before or since. There’s no way I’m getting another unless there’s something really special about it, like having a headliner made of $100 bills.
I’d probably be interested enough to compare the Sundance if it was in near showroom condition, but as presented, I’m taking the other car sight unseen.
Corolla for me. Even though the mileage is way higher, it’s a much better basic design. So if/when something breaks, when you fix it, it will stay fixed for a lot longer than that late 1980s Chrysler product will.
The Corolla is like halfway through the expected life assuming it was well maintained? The main concern I’d have with it are the aging parts/seals/etc.
I have very specific special memories of the 1988 Plymouth Sundance, as my high school shop class participated in the annual Plymouth-AAA Troubleshooting Contest, and the hands on section of the contest (we were the only non-technical high school to make it that far in our state) involved finding some faults set up in a brand-new Plymouth Sundance at our local National Guard Armory. Things like a throttle cable disconnected from the throttle, a spark plug wire with an internal break/fault in it. Stuff like that.
I’m not sure what I’d do with such a car, as they were terrible cars in their time, and were pretty much disposable. Would the possible Radwood cache bet worth the asking price?
I grew up learning to drive on a Plymouth Sundance and Dodge Omni. For sentimentality, the Sundance. However, for all intents and purposes, the Corolla is a winner, they’re tanks and run forever.
Sundance, Sundance, Sundance!
Voting Corolla and removing that tape. It will run forever as boring as it is reliable.
That Sundance was garbage when new. No way I’m driving a rusty faded 80’s Chrysler product for $2200 that probably still needs a “little more work”. Also, it looks more like it was abandoned along that fence and it’s missing the plates so the first trip after purchase will be to the DMV. Hooray!
That food pill analogy is amazing and is such a relatable way of explaining things to non car people. Thank you for that!
As for the vote, meh. Yeah I would rather tackle rusty brake lines than drive either of these, and while you may call the sundance leftovers, I call it a food pill as well. I went sundance, I think. If not I should have, but only because it’s a better name. Though that tear in the seat seems to say someone farted with a scary amount of force!
That Corolla was 100% used as a chase car with an “Oversize Load” sign strapped to its roof, or possibly used as an airport car in some low-rent FBO that occasionally got pressed into service on the tarmac.
Regardless, I’m taking the Corolla. It may be bland, but rice cakes are also good for you.
For a beater that will run until the oil runs out or we cook ourselves into extinction, Corolla it is.
As a former (Brief) Sundance owner, I’m gonna take the reliable option and go Toyota. Those stripes will make sure I can find it even if I forget my glasses. I’d probably toss a Ghostbusters graphic on each door and the hood.
The lower mileage Plymouth was tempting, but those crash test graphics on the Toyota got me. What a way to spice up a very dull daily?
The Corolla. It’s your defeatest attitude that ruined the fun for you in your Corolla Mark. My white ’99 automatic is a hoot to bomb around town, and even more fun on a RallyX course. I have no doubt it would be more fun with a manual, but frankly as big as I am, and as cramped as that foot well is for me, I’m not mad that it doesn’t have a clutch pedal down there taking up precious real estate for my 6E wide feet.
I have a white ’99 Prizm with a stick, and can confirm that it’s truly fun to drive. It’s so simple and light, that it just zips around without any drama. It does have 20hp more than the ’93 would have, so there’s that, but having had a ’96 also, they’re just simple reliable honest little cars that can be fun when compared to the boring penalty boxes sold as economy cars today.
My buddy has the previous generation Prizm with a stick, and he loves the little bugger too.
I don’t know why, but it just didn’t click with me. It might have something to do with having dailied both a first-gen Neon and an NA Miata before it. My “fun” meter was calibrated by those, and the Understeer Special with its rubber-band shift linkage just left me cold.
Well, it’s certainly no NA Miata, but it’s a great little car. I was shocked to find a multilink rear end under it, being used to cheap American shit boxes with a beam axle back there. And for me it’s a supplemental daily driver to my other daily driver, a crew cab Sierra, so it is of course wildly more fun to drive than that. It handles REALLY well on the dirt! A little dab of weight transfer to the front will send the back sliding through the corners, it’s so fun!
There’s a reason the E100 Corolla is the national car of Afghanistan. You want something that will keep going in a land that routinely humbles armies, that’s your car.