2_Liter_Turbo
New member
Found an ad on Craigslist for an 88 Celica GT Turbo for $975 OBO
I thought to myself, "They didn't have a GT Turbo, but they sure did make an alltrac that year", lol. So I e-mailed the guy and asked a few questions. He said the car ran and drove good and the interior was pretty clean with a dent in the back quarter panel. So I drove out to Molalla, OR this morning to check it out. The body was as he said except it had rust around the sunroof and windshield area, as well as some surface stuff here and there. Wasn't too bad, but it was present. Then I took a look in the inside. Needless to say, it wasn't all that clean! You had to use a paper clip to trip a circuit for the driver side window, and a lot of parts were either broken or repaired via a hardware store. I figured for $900 I couldn't expect too much, ha ha.
So then the guy went to start the car... he obviously doesn't know much about fuel injected cars as he had the throttle at WOT, and mashing the accelerator pedal trying to get it started. Keep in mind it has been sitting for some time. As soon as he did get it started (5 min or so) he revved the thing all the way to redline to "clear it out". I was beginning to have doubts already...
The radiator was cracked and leaking coolant, the throttle body coupler ($55 new from Toyota; only place to get it) was torn so it had a boost leak. While driving it the turbo didn't feel very healthy as well as it sputtering trying to build boost, lol.
So after about 20 minutes (and 3 phone calls from other people wanting to see it) I decided to pass on the car. I told the guy I really didn't want ANOTHER project car, that I wanted to get something that was decently reliable and I didn't have to spend a lot of money from the start, lol.
I know the car will be sold today, but I'm curious who bought it, ha ha.
Here are the pics I was sent in the e-mail:
I thought to myself, "They didn't have a GT Turbo, but they sure did make an alltrac that year", lol. So I e-mailed the guy and asked a few questions. He said the car ran and drove good and the interior was pretty clean with a dent in the back quarter panel. So I drove out to Molalla, OR this morning to check it out. The body was as he said except it had rust around the sunroof and windshield area, as well as some surface stuff here and there. Wasn't too bad, but it was present. Then I took a look in the inside. Needless to say, it wasn't all that clean! You had to use a paper clip to trip a circuit for the driver side window, and a lot of parts were either broken or repaired via a hardware store. I figured for $900 I couldn't expect too much, ha ha.
So then the guy went to start the car... he obviously doesn't know much about fuel injected cars as he had the throttle at WOT, and mashing the accelerator pedal trying to get it started. Keep in mind it has been sitting for some time. As soon as he did get it started (5 min or so) he revved the thing all the way to redline to "clear it out". I was beginning to have doubts already...
The radiator was cracked and leaking coolant, the throttle body coupler ($55 new from Toyota; only place to get it) was torn so it had a boost leak. While driving it the turbo didn't feel very healthy as well as it sputtering trying to build boost, lol.
So after about 20 minutes (and 3 phone calls from other people wanting to see it) I decided to pass on the car. I told the guy I really didn't want ANOTHER project car, that I wanted to get something that was decently reliable and I didn't have to spend a lot of money from the start, lol.
I know the car will be sold today, but I'm curious who bought it, ha ha.
Here are the pics I was sent in the e-mail: