KIDNEY, ANYONE? 55,000-mile AE86 Toyota Corolla

1985 Toyota SR5 AE86 08

Like the beautiful brown Datsun 510 last week, this is not that AE86, but a lesser loved 1984 Toyota Corolla SR5. Still, it’s a 55,000-mile, RWD hachiroku, probably the best preserved example in the entire country and it’s on eBay right now. 

1985 Toyota SR5 AE86 04

Sure, it won’t have the legendary twin-cam 4A-GE, the GT-S suspension, or rear disc brakes. It doesn’t even have the Toyota T50 5-speed transmission. But just look at this thing. It’s practically a brand new car. Finished in High Metal Two-Tone (or gray panda for the layman), it looks like it came off the assembly line yesterday and its carbureted 4A-C is clean enough to eat off of.

1985 Toyota SR5 AE86 20

Even if you did have a spare drivetrain laying around, getting it to GT-S spec would require replacing everything from the headlight eyelids to the fuel tank and nearly the entire interior too. Then again, would you really want to mess with such originality? What exactly would you do with a museum-quality SR5 automatic?

1985 Toyota SR5 AE86 32

Someone will find out soon enough. As of the time of this writing, 29 bids have pushed the price up to $3,250. It’s too bad this isn’t a GT-S, because we’d wager you could add a zero to the end of that number. Check out the photo gallery below or head straight to the auction.

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14 Responses to KIDNEY, ANYONE? 55,000-mile AE86 Toyota Corolla

  1. Need says:

    Hachi-go, not hachiroku.

    • Ben says:

      The serial number on US-market SR5s is AE86 so it’s still a hachiroku, confusingly enough.

    • 84hachi says:

      Look under the hood of any GT-S or SR-5 (model years 1984-1987) and on the firewall you’ll see at the very top “AE86”. The difference comes in on the actual vincode, where GT-S’s start out with “JT2AE88” and SR-5’s have “JT2AE86”. This doesn’t matter anyways, as those aren’t chassis codes, they’re vin codes, for registration purposes. BOTH cars are AE86 chassis’.

    • dickie says:

      fanboy one-upping is a fun past time.

  2. cesariojpn says:

    Hate those taillights…….smoke tinted lenses for me.

    • dickie says:

      it would be hilarious if the buyer saw your comment and ruined the originality (arguably the only thing that gives this example the apparent value it has) by smoking his tail lights. i would probably fall out of my chair laughing.

  3. BLCFR says:

    That must be 55k mid-July miles if it spent its whole life in Oregon.

  4. DerrickS says:

    I have mixed feelings about cars like these. Personally, I buy a car to drive, not look at, so I would prefer to see this auto in a museum or owned by someone who will put about 100 miles a year on it going to shows.

    I would not buy it, because as soon as you do anything to it, like accumulate too many miles or do any kind of part swapping, you have lost the “value”.

  5. E-AT_me says:

    All is good, until automatic.. 🙁 oh well. still amazing.

  6. Aaron says:

    I would donate it to a Toyota museum, with hopes of some speshul parts in return 🙂

  7. Patrick Strong says:

    I’m going to make the radical suggestion that this car be purchased as a daily driver. It’s too low spec and has too many miles to be a museum-grade “collectable,” but in a world where Camrys weigh two tons and 25 MPG is considered to be respectable gas mileage for a compact car, this SR5 makes a great deal of sense as an alternative for a JNC enthusiast/commuter looking to make a statement.

  8. VegetableOil says:

    If this is the best preserved example in the USA, then this is the best in Japan: http://www.speedhunters.com/2011/08/Toyota_corolla_ae86_with_48_original_KMS_found_time_capsule_/

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