In Web parlance using all-caps equates to yelling. The ad for today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe Celica GT ragtop is caps locked and loaded, but is its price anything to shout about?
It's the height of summer here in the northern hemisphere, and for those hot days and warm nights nothing is better than the flexibility afforded by a convertible. Today's car is just such a drop-top, much like yesterday's custom '72 Monte Carlo, although that's pretty much where the comparisons stop. That hair-tousling Chevy was pretty sweet, but for a hefty 82% of you, its price was a bitter pill, and it went down in a painful Crack Pipe loss.
Today's car is also - as noted - a convertible, but this 198-something Toyota Celica GT is about as far from that drop topical Chevy as it is from its former big brother, the Supra. You see, back in the early ‘80s the Celica and Supra weren't just bros, they were college roommate bros, the closest bros of them all. They'd party together, toss the ball around together, they were the closest of pals. And sometimes, over bong hits in their dorm room, they would confide in each other their deepest feelings, their aspirations and dreams. The Supra it seems, felt that he wasn't living up to his full potential. He felt that he was weighed down by the onus of his past, which was preventing him from fully expressing the machismo that he knew in his six cylinder heart of hearts he was born to express.
It was at this point that the Celica revealed that what he really wanted was a Bartles and Jaymes.
After that, they didn't hang out together all that much, although they still remained friends. After college the Supra fulfilled his dreams, gaining all kinds of macho upgrades including eventually twin turbos, independent suspension in the back, and the kind of styling that makes men jealous and women question why they bothered to wear panties that day. Things were really coming up Supra.
The Celica on the other hand, went FWD. Now, there were attempts to keep up with its big Bro. All wheel drive and turbo motors plus butch All Trac clothes providing some cred. But in the end, the Celica realized that it really wasn't all that comfortable with the noise and the scrabbling tires that a rally-bred persona demands. It felt more at ease driving to Applebee's after work for a few Chardonnays and an evening full of regret.
If you identify more with the gentler, more dilitantesque Celica, then sweep down the driveway and pop a box of wine in the fridge for this lipstick red convertible. The 4th-generation of Celica switched from rear- to front-drive in ‘85, with a strut-supported platform set up for decent if not heroics-inspiring handling. The oversteer of the past, and of its still rear drive Supra Bro, had been replaced by mild understeer that would more conveniently let you see the tree you were sliding into rather than surprise you with it from behind.
This convertible is claimed an ‘84, but that's just not right as this generation didn't debut in the U.S. until the ‘86 model year, and ASC didn't start chopping their roofs until 1987. I'm guessing this one is an ‘89 as I think (however I'm no expert here) that the rub strips were body color that year only. Regardless, there's not much difference between the three model years.
In fact all the GTs received the 116-bhp 2.0 OHC four under hood, and this one is regretfully backed up by an autotragic transmission. At least it has the overdrive kick-out switch on the stick to give your hand something to do when your nuts don't need rearranging.
Aside from some obvious dentsin the body, and a layer of filth in the grove surrounding that shifter, the car looks to be in pretty good shape. Not only that but there's the promise of a bunch of new parts in its pop a cap in its ads description. Sure the plastic rear window looks as cloudy as Octomom's judgement, but the seller says the top in which it clouds will at least keep the rain and pigeon attacks at bay.
Overall it's a modestly performing 2+2 convertible with Toyota reliability and a sassy single girl attitude. And it costs $1,000. That's a grand to those of you not so good with numbers. Pretty much any running car with clear tags should be worth that, right? Well, that's what we're here to find out. What do you think, is this Celica worth peeling off ten Benjamins along with its top? Or, is it just to far from Supra?
You decide!
Los Angeles Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears.
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