this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
26 points (93.3% liked)
Cars - For Car Enthusiasts
3947 readers
3 users here now
About Community
c/Cars is the largest automotive enthusiast community on Lemmy and the fediverse. We're your central hub for vehicle-related discussion, industry news, reviews, projects, DIY guides, advice, stories, and more.
Rules
- Stay respectful to the community, hold civil discussions, even when others hold opinions that may differ from yours.
- This is not an NSFW community, and any such content will not be tolerated.
- Policy, not politics! Policy discussions revolve around the concept; political discussions revolve around the individual, party, association, etc. We only allow POLICY discussions and political discussions should go to c/politics.
- Must be related to cars, anything that does not have connection to cars will be considered spam/irrelevant and is subject to removal.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It can be done but I wouldn’t recommend it. Almost everything on a car ages over time, from copper switches oxidizing to rubber rotting out. Things constantly need work or replacement. Baselining a vehicle like this for daily use should mean replacing almost everything that tends to die from age on that vehicle. Faded/brittle radiators, hoses, belts, certain sensors, overflow tanks, rusty areas, etc.
It’s absolutely doable for someone that loves a specific car and has the drive/knowledge to make it reliable. However, it’s a lot more work than a newer car so it’s not a very practical choice.
To counter this point, the money you would spend on an '89 Corolla plus maintenance would probably be far cheaper than a newer vehicle.
This is purely anecdotal, but I have a few friends that have old Corolla's, and those things just do not die, despite heavy abuse.
Probably, if you do the work yourself.
However, time has value and there is no getting away from the fact that 30 year old cars need regular tinkering to stay reliable and comfortable to drive. If you love the car, have a backup, and like wrenching it can be a very rewarding experience. However, starting a maintenance project knowing it has to be done before you go to bed if you expect to drive to work in the morning is extremely stressful.
A 89 Corolla has collector value. OP can get a car 10-15 years newer for not much extra money and be in for a lot less headaches.
Old Corollas are just really good little nuggets. I think if OP was ready to have a shop check the car over and then slowly start working on the critically important items of repair himself. Then he should buy it.