Start of a Love Affair - Pictures and Stories of Your First Toyota Experience

[Seanz0rz]

My first experience with a Toyota Truck was my parents' '90 4Runner. i was about 3 when they bought it in Oct of '89, one of the very first 2nd gens to make it to the states. i have so many fond memories of that vehicle, and towards the end of our 8 years of ownership, lots of memories of failed exhaust manifolds and numerous front spindle issues. it was finally costing too much, and had to be replaced. while we had it, we took it camping every year up to Sequoia.

going through old pictures with my mom, i found this:
http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae38/hamiltonfabrication/00250C.jpg

our 4Runner, dog Baxter, and me out in front of our house in Lake Arrowhead. was probably around 1990.


so do you guys have any fond memories and or pictures of your parents' Toyota when you were little?

[4x4mike]

My first was a Hilux pickup that I had as a wee tike. It was matchbox car size, had the mirrors on the front fenders, tailgate with the cam like locking buckles and was a mustard color. It was my favorite car until about the time micro machines came out. I was way into those and Legos up until I got into bicycles. I've been into those ever since.

I wonder if my parents have any old pictures of me playing with it. My dad was way into photography and my mom had to be one of the early pioneers of scrap booking.

[Obi..]

I got nothing as far as Toyota's and a love affair, let alone pictures, simply because I didn't have a camera with me the first time in the back seat of my Celica.


Well that and I know that girl would be pissed if I shared any pics. :angel: :clap:

[Crinale]

haha, my 4runner is my first toyota :-P ... only had it a year and a half. My parents have an old camry, and its a very nice car to drive, but its no truck.. :asshat:

[some_odd_girl]

Going out on the dunes with Kevin! :D

I know I rode around in trucks when I was little, but I don't remember what kind and it was just for farm work... 'helping' my cousins with haying (I was the youngest, I couldn't even hope to lift a bale lol)

[corax]

My first Toy was an '88 standard cab that I picked up after putting the delSol on its roof. Bed was rotted, but the cab was fine so I bought a flux core welder and learned how to weld building a flat bed. I rebuilt a friends manual trans for his HF pipe kinker and built the front bumper. The engine spun a rod bearing so I got a pre-'85 22RE (so I could run a double row timing chain), bored it .080", P/P the cyl head & intake, polished/balanced/blue-printed the bottom end, 10.5:1 forged pistons and a (I forget what kind) camshaft - in the end it would have been cheaper to engine swap it, but man that engine ran.I ended up selling it to some guy near Richmond VA after I had the 4runner streetable

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk171/batardsalamano/previous%20rides/pic21.jpg

[iceman601]

Don't know how it came about but we always had a thing for the Celica. My dad's first car was a 1981 Toyota Celica Supra, my first was a 1984 Celica ST Coupe, and my brother's was a 1994 Celica ST Liftback.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f154/babyangel47/4x4%20Pron/celicaSupra.jpg

I never took any pictures of mine.....but it looked just like this but it was cream white and with a some dings here and there :D
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f154/babyangel47/4x4%20Pron/84-Celica.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f154/babyangel47/4x4%20Pron/j-Celica.jpg

All the cars we have owned were mostly toyotas.
-81 Celica Supra (Gone)
-84 Celica ST (Gone)
-85 Pickup (Gone)
-91 Pickup (Gone)
-91 Supra (Gone)
-92 4Runner (Gone)
-94 Celica ST (Gone)
-97 4Runner
-2000 Camry
-2000 Avalon (Gone)
-2003 Tundra (Gone)
-2007 Tundra

[CJM]

I got my grandmothers somewhat used/abused 93 camry v6. The funny thing is I learned that from 92-04 they used a variant of the 3.slow, but were much more powerfull cause of the weight of the car. Infact I learned that they retarded the timing slightly as they accidentally made it as peppy as the previous gen supra of the time. I of course upped the timing a bit and played with the throttle kickdown cable so it was really a mover. Shame, cause the trans started to not want to shift from first to second unless you gently eased it in. Engine also started to burn oil, front/rear struts needed to be redone and it was just getting old. I sold it for 2500 in 04 and it owed me nothing as I maybe spent 500 on it the entire time I had it.

Next I bought my T100 after searching forever for a4runner or tacoma. Its gutless cause of such a low gearing (4.30) for some reason even with the smaller 15 in wheels and 31's. Right now it vibrates like nuts and I cant figure out why, the rear axle seal refused to stop leaking no matter what I do and the #2 plug recently blew out the head, valve cover cracked, etc. Im keeping it alive cause my new to me F250 needs a bit of work and Im low on cash.

I also had at one point a really bea tup 86 4runner with 22re and stick. I bought it on ebay and decided to take a chance. Turns out the seller was an utter liar but I thought I could make it a worthwhile woods truck. The shifter bushign was so bad that despite knowing really well how to drive a stick i missed gears sometimes, the body bushing were gone in a few spots due to rot/rust, the under carriage was rotted, the starter eventually went and the thing was just to much work. I sold it to some guy who drove it (mind you I never even registered/insured it or anything) back to his house some 2 hours away. I have no idea how he made it..

Eventually Ill have another. Im thinking perhaps a 5 speed 5vz taco if I can find one that aint rotted or been redone for a decent price in a few years. For now ill fix my F250 and play with my atv, which is alot cheaper if I beat it up to fix.

[L33T35T Tacoma]

When I was really young we had a 1990 Chevy Astrovan, and my dad had a late 80's Olds Cutlass Supreme. The Astrovan was in the shop more than it was on the road, and the olds just needed to go. My brother got a Corolla for commuting, but was upside down on it, so my parents took over payments. After the lease was up on the Corolla, my dad got a 99 Camry. Then my mom got a 2000 Sienna. In 2001, I got my first car, a 94 Tercel. Sold it a year later for more than we bought it for (low miles, clean paint) and that's when I got my 95 4Runner. Then I picked up my 85 4Runner, then my 2003 Tacoma, and now my MR2.

Cliff notes:
99 Camry (dads)
2000 Sienna (moms)
94 Tercel (my first car, sold)
95 4Runner - sold
85 4Runner - sold
2003 Tacoma
1989 MR2

[MaK92-4Rnr]

My first Toyota experience was when I was 5. My dad had bought a 1989 toyota ext cab 2wd for work. He bought it with 180k ish miles on it, sold it to his dad for 500 at 200k. then when his dad moved back to wisconsin he sold it back to him for 500 with 280k on it. he eventually sold it a few years later for 1000 bucks with 300k+ miles on it ( 22res go forever )

Later on down the road when i was about 11-12 my dad picked up a 1986 toyota pick up ext cab 4x4 white with brown stripes for 300 bucks.. a very clueless coworker of my dads said rear axle was shot and needed a new transmission but all it needed was a new U joint... so for 700 bucks he got a perfect condition pick up. Later on down the road the truck was totalled ( mini van slammed into the back of it at about 45-50 mph ) my dad was at a dead stop and parked too close to the person in front of him at an intersection. totalled the vehicle. blew out all the windows, radiator destroyed, bed destroyed, frame damage, fan destroyed, fenders, hood, and cab was tweaked, or destroyed. needless to say, he was less than 8 miles home. and it still drove home. insurance settled on 6,500 for the truck. and he went and bought himself a brand new 0 miles 1998 BMW M Roadster.

We didn't get involved in Toyota's until my brother bought his tacoma, and I bought my 4Runner.

[DHC6twinotter]

The first Toyota in my family was a '78 Toyota HiAce van that my parents bought new when they moved to the Philippines. I was born 4 years after they bought the van, but here is a pic of the van with my parents and my sister:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a256/DH6twinotter/misc/OurHiAce.jpg

It was a base model and had a 4 speed manual tranny and a gas motor, but I'm not sure which motor it was. I'm leaning towards it being an 18R, but it may have been a 12, 16, or 20R. There was no radio, no AC, and no carpet. I remember thinking how cool it was that I could look through the bolt holes in the floor and watch the road go by.

We had the van until we left the Philippines in '90. It had never given us any trouble, and we really worked it hard. My parents would load it up with a half-ton of equipment and drive it across the mountains on some pretty crazy roads. Because the Philippines has more than 7,000 islands, we had to ferry the van pretty often. My parents had a lot of stories of the loaded van nearly getting ditched in the ocean as the deckhands would drive across wooden planks while loading the van onto ships.

Over the years, the hubcaps and emblems had been stolen, and once, even our spare tire was stolen. My mom and I were in the parked van when it happened, but the thieves had the tire out before we could figure out what all the noise was. My mom ended up having to buy the wheel back, and after a bit of bartering, got it back for 100 pesos ($2-3, IIRC).

I had a lot of fond memories in that van. My dad was always a GM guy, so when we moved back to the states in '90, he bought an '84 Buick Century that we (parents and my two siblings) traveled in, and pretty much lived out of, for the next 4-5 years. With the exception of our Plymouth minivan, my dad has always purchased Buicks. His '94 Regal with the 3.8 is just about to hit 290k.

My '90 4Runner was my first vehicle. In '01, I bought it from a friend for $2400. It had 134k on it. It now has over 220k, and it runs great, although it needs brake work and the tranny doesn't always work right. I'm sold on Toyota, and I will probably always own one.

My brother has an '04 IS300 with a manual tranny. It has been a really good car for him, and other than a clutch when he first bought the car, he has done very little work to it. He has close to 180k on it now. His first car was an '88 Celica All-Trac (AWD and turbo). He picked it up as a project for $350, but he isn't mechanically inclined at all, so he sold it.

So anyways, that's the history of Toyota in our family. :D

[Googer]

I bought my first new vehicle it was a 1984 Toyota SR5 Pickup 4x4 with a 22r I lived so close to work that it had very low miles, as I got married and my family grew I needed a larger vehicle but I kept it and only drove it on the weekends when I needed to load up some tools and go work on my rental properties the years passed and it ran great but it did leak oil, my son reached the age of 17 and I handed him the keys, It only had 108,000 mils on it. He drove it for about 3 months before he blew up the motor by letting it run out of oil. I put a new motor in it and have it to tis day.

[Googer]

Nice!