$800 beater Celica

That's what you get for $800. 1997 base Celica in a mediocre color with 145k on the clock.

Mechanically it's pretty darn sound. It's not rusty that I can see. Cosmetically, well, it's 16 years old and I paid less than a kilobuck for it. It will be DD#2's daily so she doesn't have to wheel the Grand Caravan around any more. It's a little older and a little smaller than we were looking for, but hey, the price was right. She'll need to do some thorough cleaning, but it should come up OK.

It needs some interior trim - sun visors and a rear view mirror, if anybody has a parts car or knows where to ask. It also has dinky 14x5 or so wheels with 185/70 maypops on it. I don't know the bolt pattern and offset it needs, but my first goal is to find some inexpensive but decent 15x6 15x7s.

That's one of the best looking $800 beaters I've seen in a loong time!

Hopefully the mechanicals don't cause any issues, but since it's on old Toyota I wouldn't really expect many.

These look really good with the 7th gen (00-05) Celica GTS 16x7s, and can usually be found for cheap.

With how cheap 17" tires are these days, the 17x7 early Scion tC wheels look nice, too.

If you're set on 15s, the factory 6th gen celica GT wheels were nice as well.

I'm not set on 15s, but I don't want to increase the overall diameter too much. I don't think I want to go bigger than 16".

I figured SF1 would be a good resource. What's the most useful Celica or Toyota forum besides GRM?

First time in quite a while that didn't have all the clearcoat burned off. I thought they all did that.

Duke wrote: I'm not set on 15s, but I don't want to increase the overall diameter too much. I don't think I want to go bigger than 16". I figured SF1 would be a good resource. What's the most useful Celica or Toyota forum besides GRM?

I haven't had good experiences with the Celica forums. ToyotaNation is ok if you don't mind sorting through signal:noise ratio crap, but overall, this isn't a real active platform anymore.

AllTrac.net is the only one that i really view useful anymore, but that's probably not too useful to you. Newcelica.org is good for the 7th gens...

Wish i had hung on to mine... i would have rather sold it to you for $800-$1000 than to the kid that bought it for $1500.

So really... after babbling, i'd say just try here first. There's not anything special or weird about these cars.

Wow, nice score.

Quick finds:
http://delaware.craigslist.org/pts/4046669025.html
http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/pts/4097937471.html
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/pts/4106331341.html

$800 for anything that runs and doesn't have huge rust holes is a good buy. Low mileage for the price too! Well bought.

JohnRW1621 wrote: Wow, nice score. Quick finds: http://delaware.craigslist.org/pts/4046669025.html http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/pts/4106331341.html

Last link is the 7th gen GTS wheels. I love 'em on 5th and 6th gens. Pictured here on my $600-as-seen-in-picture 92 GT hatch.

JohnRW1621 wrote: Wow, nice score. Quick finds: http://delaware.craigslist.org/pts/4046669025.html http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/pts/4097937471.html http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/pts/4106331341.html

That's awesome! The first one is local, too. Thanks!

That looks like a $2-3K car in Ohio...

A different colour for a Celica for sure. Looks like a nice score for $800 thought!

7AFE motor. That's a pretty good lump. I think ya did good.

Wish I could find one around here for $800. Good score!

Wow! Great looking $800 car!

So...lemme get this straight... you got a running, driving Toyota that isn't a Tercel for under $800... 7AFE is a VERY good engine... decent torque. I'm not a fan of those Celicas... but for an invisible daily... its a steal

Check the wear items... brakes, axles (CV joints), bushings... it could also probably use a decent set of shocks...

I actually like that color. Too bad about the front bumper cover paint but for $800 who the hell cares.

If you're not hopping it up i dont even see a problem with those wheels. If you ARE hopping it up i would spend my wheel budget on a 5spd swap.

And hey, 'isnt a tercel' doesnt even make sense. 90s Tercels are way more desirable than 90s base model automatic celicas. Something about 40mpg.

Thanks, all. I forgot to say I also got an inch-thick stack of service records from the second owner, covering about the last 7 years and 70k miles.

I need to check the pads (or at least look through the receipts to see how old these are) but the CVs are quiet and smooth. Bushings feel pretty good, it tracks straight, and although I assume these are the original struts, they feel pretty darn good. There's no shimmy at any speed.

I don't really plan to hop it up other than to give it a thorough cleaning inside and out, and fix the little annoyances.

The main reasons that I'm looking to increase the wheel size is that 14" tires suck in general (it feels woefully under-tired) and these look really dinky in person. The current tires are good for another couple of months, but look pretty aged and show signs of chronic under-inflation. The wheel finish is corroding off in a lot of places, the center caps are missing or faded, and overall they look pretty roachy. I don't intend to put $800 wheels on an $800 car, but if I can score a set of decent takeoffs or used wheels, I will.

I'm pretty jealous. I've been looking for a cleanish 5th gen for quite some time for under 3k.

While I don't like the sixth gen quite as much.. I think I could make an exception for this price. Good buy.

That would make a nice $1800 beater.

I believe there was a GRM project Celica in the same colour. I like it. Too bad about the slush box.

That car would be gone in a day for that money here. I'd buy it and flip it at the very least.

Oh, I was in line at the DMV to get it inspected and titled when I took those pics...

Wow, that looks great for $800! A set of those GT-S wheels would make it look really sharp. Nice find!

Can i suggest a gen3 3sgte swap and gt4 front end lol