40 Miles Per Gallon ... HECK YA!

My next adventure in the world of Toyota came in the form of a 1986 Tercel. This car was a workhorse from day one. As a matter of fact, it was my workhorse. I began my illustrious career in advertising with a job doing deliveries for a typography shop. They provided the vehicles, I provided the clean driving record. Among the fleet of three, were 2 Tercels and one Toyota pickup. Light Yellow, Burnt Orange and Dark Burgundy. With the drivers it was a first-come-first-choice basis on what vehicle you drove that day, but after a while we each grew into the car we liked best. Mine being the light yellow one.

This car was not new by any means of the word. By the time I started at the agency it had already been "Totaled" once and had well over 100,000 miles on the odometer. It was repaired remarkably well though, and although it was a SUPER STRIPPED DOWN version with a rubber floor and only a radio as an option granted by the company, I LOVED IT! Not long into my career the clutch on the car went out, and a new one was added via the company. This also assisted in my decision to buy the car when about a year later the company decided it was time to upgrade their fleet. They put both Tercels up for grabs at the price of $1500 each. I swept in, and it became mine. For the record, they kept the Pickup because it had been so badly beaten over time that there were no offers on it at all ... even though, it still worked very well. You'll read more on that vehicle though soon enough.

So, with a new car in my possession ( relatively new, sort of. it really was only 2.5 years old when I bought it ) I began to do restoration projects. My first was to add carpeting. This was easy enough to do, as Toyota makes cars that are absolutely user friendly for the enthusiast to customize. My next change was to purchase a split folding rear seat and change out the existing one. I contemplated tinting the windows and adding rear window flares along with specialty wheels, but decided to keep the car in original condition instead. I should say that my bank account made that decision actually. True.

And along the lines of the bank account, comes the perfection of the car. Here was a four cylinder, stick-shift, two door four-seater hatchback. Created in the mid 80's. Not a hybrid of today, yet the gas mileage ... 40 miles to the gallon! And this was back in the days when the price of gas still started with a ONE! I was able to make weekend trips from Minneapolis up to the "Iron Range" of Minnesota no problem. EVER! It was the perfect vehicle. Perfect for my budget and perfect for me.