Is that an ap1 or ap2? Hard to tell.

I never really liked my 2000 ap1. I think I had too high of expectations for it so when the power was very disappointing (coming from a modded evo9). Yeah, the handling was great, but I never felt really comfortable at its limits whether the backend would go out on me.

I looked at an ap2 a few years ago, and it's a lot better (torque wise), but still have to rev it out to go anywhere....

 

AP2, its a 2005, so it still had the throttle cable instead of drive by wire, and doesn't have traction control. Agreed on lack of power down low even on the AP2, but its livable. Doesn't really come alive until you hit the higher RPM range.

 

I remember these were selling on BAT for over $30K back in 2018. Are they still holding their value?

 

Mine certainly doesn't, as I drive it alot, and its sitting at 137k miles.
The low mileage good ones will command 30-40k, the really low mlleage ones can get really high. Then there are the outright greedy mother@##s like this. Its that or the price you post when your wife says you have to get rid of the car.

 

Nice window sticker. Love to see 100% Made in Japan Good price too...and $1000 to fuel Life was so much easier then

 

Crikey on $100k+ for an S2000. The reality is, people ruin cars almost as naturally as breathing air. I have an AE86 that I have owned since 1994 when nobody cared about that car at all. I would go to car meets during my brief life in Virginia and people at the car meets would mock the car. They would deride it and three years later, they all wanted one because of an anime strip (Initial D) and the sudden popularity of the drifting scene.

My AE86 was really never just a car to me. It was my first car. I bought it about six months after graduating from college for $4500, which was about $1k over bluebook at that time. Low mileage and I bought it from the second owner. I have to say that, despite having low torque and horsepower, that car taught me a lot about driving and punished me for making mistakes. That car will slide pretty good when you maybe weren't expecting it to. I have had to make a few saves. They were exciting learning experiences.

 

When I was a kid, my dad worked for a Toyota dealer and was always given a Toyota pickup to drive home and use on the weekends. He'd rotate through them and get a new one every 6 months or so. They were never fancy - always 2WD, often had a vinyl bench seat, etc.

I saw this "From the Archives" comparison test on Car and Driver yesterday, which make me think of those trucks.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...ucks-compared/

 

Yet another truck I could get behind. Loving these old truck photos. The styling of this one was pretty neat as is the interior. Just what you need for in a truck. Massaging seats and mood lighting just doesn't belong in a truck. At least to me. Lol

Quarter windows on any vehicle automatically makes it 100 times better. Completely no reason to get rid of them. Perhaps someone has a reason?

 

I had a 1981 almost exactly like that. Bought it as a 3 speed auto put in a 5-speed. Bench seat and a bunch of other parts from a camperized version. The most dead simple truck possible they are dirt cheap to run.

 

Reminds me of this:



Someone I knew growing up had one exactly like this for a long, long time. Drove it plenty so it's not like it sat and didn't accumulate miles. Must have finally rusted out since I haven't seen it at his place in a number of years.

 

There was one significant problem with those 1980s-vintage Toyota trucks. They notoriously rusted out, in a horizontal line, all around the vehicle, right where the truck bed was welded onto the frame. That was because of the 25% tariff on Japanese trucks back then...to get around the tariff, Toyota shipped the frame/cab/powertrain assemblies and beds over in two separate assemblies on the cargo ship, and then welded the beds on here at the Toyota West Coast warehouse. As I understood it, they were crappy, low-quality welds, and even if you otherwise kept the truck clean and free of salt, the rust would quickly develop, with no practical way of stopping it.

This is a rather extreme case below, but clearly shows the general problem.

 

Isn't that the same car that Top Gear famously tried to destroy but it kept on running despite doing things like leaving it in the ocean?

 

My 2nd car was also another salvaged car: a hand me down 1989 Camry (my parents gave my post to my sister). I had pretty good memories with this car...build was much better then Corolla, and felt a lot more upscale, even though I had the base model. The standard i4 felt strong and willing for me to floor it, and I def did (getting my first speeding ticket in it). I had the car for a few years before giving it to my best friend.

 

the first car I bought on my own (19?! Years ago?!!! ) it was less than 10 years old and less than 100k miles, but had endless problems and everything rusted….