Good morning! It’s Friday once again, but I didn’t feel like doing another four-way shootout. Besides, Monday’s cars didn’t run, which means it wouldn’t really be a fair fight. So instead, I have two new contenders, chosen simply because they caught my eye.
In yesterday’s battle of the ’80s domestics, the Pepsi Prize Pontiac took an easy win, as I guessed it might. Being a grand cheaper and not a Chrysler was probably enough to give it the win. I’m going to keep throwing the occasional K-car at you all; someday, one of them will emerge victorious.
But in this case, as much as I do love the ’80s Chryslers, even I have to admit that a GM W-body is a nicer car to drive. Sure, some service items on the transverse V6 are a pain to get to, but the reliability, the ride quality, and in this case the styling all give it a clear edge. I almost featured a Chevy Celebrity instead of the Grand Prix, and in that case, I would have chosen the LeBaron. But I’m guessing it still would have lost the vote.
General likes and dislikes can color our judgment about all sorts of things before all the facts are in, and that definitely applies to cars. Today, for reasons unknown to even myself, I have chosen two red Japanese vehicles, and I am generally not a fan of either Japanese cars or the color red on cars. But I guess there are exceptions that prove every rule, and sometimes it’s nice to be reminded that our comfort zones were made to be stepped out of. Let’s see which one of these you prefer.
1987 Toyota Corolla FX16 GT-S – $6,500
Engine/drivetrain: 1.6-liter dual overhead cam inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Oregon City, OR
Odometer reading: 207,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Yes, I know. Just a couple of days ago, I wrote about a Toyota Corolla with an automatic, and complained about how boring it was. Yes, I know this one is only a little more powerful, and probably isn’t much more interesting to drive. But just look at it! It’s so much cooler than the other one. Call me a hypocrite if you want; I don’t care. That Corolla sucked; this Corolla rules.
This generation of Corolla marked the changeover from rear- to front-wheel-drive, but it didn’t happen all at once. The sedans and hatchbacks were FWD, but the coupe, in both notchback and liftback forms, was RWD. One of these was prominently featured in a cartoon you might have seen. This isn’t one of those – but thanks in large part to that show, you won’t find one of those at a price mere mortals can afford. However, if you can compromise on front-wheel-drive, you can get the same revvy little 4A-GE four-cylinder in this car: the FX16 GT-S.
Yeah, I wish it were a stickshift too. It seems like most affordable-ish survivors of cars like these are automatics; the stickshifts have all long since been hooned to death, or command silly prices. This one has a whole pile of miles on it, but you know, Toyota. It runs and drives just fine, thanks to a bunch of recent work. The interior shows some signs of wear, but honestly, for a car this old with this many miles, it’s pretty nice. And outside, I’ll give the red paint a pass because of those graphics. They’re the perfect complement to this car.
And it’s a hatchback, so there’s plenty of room for stuff. It also has a very cool feature that I think has finally disappeared: flip-out rear side windows. Minivans, I think, were the last holdouts for these, and I think some of those were power-operated, but years ago, you opened them by flipping a little lever at the back of the window, and they’d open a couple inches, just enough to let a breeze blow through.
1993 Nissan Hardbody 4WD Pickup – $4,999
Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, part-time 4WD
Location: Lynnwood, WA
Odometer reading: 145,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
This one is a little less off-brand for me; I had a Nissan/Datsun 720 pickup in college that I just loved, and my wife and I moved to Oregon in a WD21 Pathfinder with well over 300,000 miles on it. And my wife drove a D22 Frontier for years before we met, and still speaks fondly of it. Old Nissan trucks and us go way back, you might say.
Nissan offered a few different engines in these trucks over the years. This one has a KA24E four-cylinder, a good reliable engine that didn’t make as much power as the available V6, but got a whole lot better gas mileage. This one looks like someone tried to paint the valve cover at one point, and it didn’t hold up. High-temp engine paint, people. Your average Krylon stuff won’t cut it. This truck is at a dealership, and they’re always a little cagey about a car’s condition, but they’re offering test drives so I’ll assume it runs and drives well enough.
This looks like a really basic truck: manual transmission, bench seat, no air conditioning, and look at that giant blank spot on the dash where a tachometer should be. I’m surprised nobody over the years has stuck an aftermarket tach in there; it would probably be one of the first things I’d do.
It’s missing some clearcoat but otherwise looks pretty good outside. It has a couple of aftermarket doodads, like the running boards and bedliner, but nothing over the top. It’s a really sharp-looking little truck, actually, even in a shade of red.
Actually, looking at these two together, they’d make a pretty good two-car garage. So today is going to be one of those rare instances where I give you a “Both” option. Because honestly, I can’t choose between them myself. Have a great weekend, everyone!
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
The post Just Because I Think They’re Cool: 1987 Toyota Corolla FX16 vs 1993 Nissan Hardbody appeared first on The Autopian.
