The car is a 1988 Toyota Celica Alltrac. This car was picked up for $350 from a Craigslist ad, and was located in San Jose. After contacting the owner, my roommate and I drove down to San Jose and picked up our prize. The car has over 228,000 miles, a 5 speed, was hit in the back and the front hood area, and has 2 salvage titles on record. The previous owner was generous enough to provide all maintenance records and 2 repair manuals (thanks again Pedro!). A car with a turbo, 4 wheel drive, and a history of rally racing for $350, not too bad eh?
The paper work revealed a good maintenance history, including a rebuilt head, fresh intake manifold gaskets, and new bushings in the front suspension within the past 60,000 miles. (SCORE!)
After handing Pedro the agreed amount for the Celica, I drove it from San Jose to its new home, to the boonies of Loomis (north east of Sacramento). The drive there revealed a weak hood latch, since the hood seemed to lift at above legal freeway speeds. The alignment also seemed to be a bit off, but not bad considering the age and history of the car. I was a bit concerned the rear end accident had tweaked the rear suspension mounts which might result in twitchy / iffy handling. Fortunately the car seemed to be pretty stable along the drive to Loomis.
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