The search is somehow over even before it seemed to begin; Jen and I now each possess one fifth of a navy blue ‘86 Toyota Corona. It’s older than us, but I daresay Jen and I have each separately traversed more miles than this baby: it’s only at 190,000 km. That’s kilometers. It has a giant boot, it’s an automatic (a rare thing here), and it does not appear to even have a “cam belt,” let alone need one replaced. And it’s ours.
We bought it for $1500 (cash), but since the guys will have it until October, and Jen and I are peacing out in April, we just paid $200 each. Jamie, Lewis, and their friend Steven, who arrives from Scotland tomorrow, picked up the rest.
This car used to belong to a hairdresser/bar manager named Shirley who works with the guys at the hotel; apparently she planned on passing it down to her daughter, but her daughter turned it down upon discovering that it lacks a CD player, so Shirley offered it to us. She’s a friend of theirs at work. She came over and cut Lewis’s hair and mine by the washing machine a couple weeks ago. Kelly at the Swiss told us that she’s never seen Shirley’s husband sober and she’s not sure she’d buy his car, but, it has a brand new Warrant of Fitness, the shocks did not appear to wobble, and all of our packs fit in the back at the same time. Sold.
Jen and I were a little flustered by how quickly the process went. “Yeah, we’ll take it,” Jamie said casually, after we’d done a ten-minute inspection, and Shirley said, “Cool, just pay me at work,” and Jen and I were going, “Wait, wait! Shouldn’t we take it to a shop for a second opinion? Check its owner history? Look up its value in a blue book? Shouldn’t we get one of our dads over here to look at it?”
Our dads, unfortunately, are a little bit far away, so we have no choice but to man up and accept that, for $200, we’ll take what’s there. After all, it only needs to last six weeks.
The belt is also known as a timing belt and I am almost positive that the car has one. The belts will either last forever of break at the worst time.
ReplyDeleteWhen the belt breaks what will usually happen is that the some of the valves stay open (down position) the piston will come up and hit the valve.
This action will break and bend things. Once this happens it is easier to replace the whole engine or just buy another car. Those engines that Toyota used were/are known a bullet proof. They can take a lot of abuse and keep going. Just keep the revs below the redline.
Well it is done! May it last you all on the quest through New Zealand to find what you are looking for. Soak in the beauty, take lots of pictures and enjoy! And call home occassionally.
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