Just Scrapped A Classic Toyota- Who Cares?

[frampie244]

I have just scrapped my Toyota 1000. 1977 45000 mile

Failed MOT on 2 front ball joints, quoted £170 each side by Toyota for new ones.........

no help or discount offered by Toyota main dealers in Poole, not interested despite their suprise at the cost and me quoting the Toyota Owners club....!

this was a good car and i loved it, couldnt source any parts new or second hand anywhere. i also offered it on these bulletin boards and in classic magazines at a sensible price, no interest.

Classic Toyota.........no thanks, i will get a make of car that there is some interest in.

if you think i am less than impressed.........you would be right............... weigh your classics cars in, there is little interest in them from Toyota or anyone else................. i am off to buy a Ford

[peterart]

Cliche time........................good money after bad...............out of the frying pan..............a FORD?!!!! That 1000 must have been leaking some serious fumes into the interior!

[Karma Supra]

Sorry to hear that chap... I hope you havent scrapped her yet... its always worth hanging on!!!!

Forget toyota dealerships... don't expect them to be interested... if they are not extorting you for a new car they are not interested......

There are very few toyota dealerships, with staff that actually are pasionate about the cars......

Although my local (coxon henley) is utterly !Removed!, the parts department is better then spot on. their manager is truely passionate about toyotas, (infact it was their head of parts that once bought in a copy of jap performance and showed m an add of a car they thought was right up my street..... you can now see it in my avatar, being an '88 it is well out of their usual list, and under the "pain in the **** to gat parts for" category, yet he will go out of his way to help me out).

Classic cars are by nature a PITA... but its worth it for the pleasure... my ball joints are £120 each, I am just glad I can still get them....

Hang on there, hold your head up and be proud to own something different....

If you can't hack that... maybe you deserve a ford.

[frampie244]

I dont want a Ford, MG or Rover, i love Toyotas...........but the back up and complete lack of interest from main dealer is staggering.

The car is only one of 200 left in the UK. you would think that Toyota would be proud to keep the car on the road as an everyday classic..........obviously not.

i have hunted high and low for the spares, new or second hand. i refuse to deal with Toyota main dealers on principal now, they did not even bother to reply to a courteous letter to the General Manager asking to meet me half way on cost.

it will be scrapped this weekend, i am then delivering the crushed metal box to the dealership on Monday morning.

any suggestions on a usable classic with good back up or interested suppliers of spares........i am open to offers

[Bos]

My first Toyota was a 1000, back in 1978.

When I sold it it had done more than 120k miles and was still going as good as new.

I would have thought for the sake of £400 it would be worth repairing it , if the bodywork is still OK.

[Karma Supra]

My "usable classic" isa my '88 mkiii supra TT... there are probably about 5 or so like it in the uk Parts are still avaliable, and recently they have chopped a few prices too...

[Twincam.GTi]

Whoa, Whoa frampie244

Peace brother and Chill out

... and I (As a runner of many old bangers through the years and my involvement with parts supply/manufacturers at work) will try and explain things a little (which will hopefully save the old-timer and elighten you to the Toyota parts situation). :)

Virtually every part for every Toyota from 1957 is available as a GENUINE part from Toyota ...in Japan (and at a price :ffs: ).

Due to this Toyota Japan have a parts enquiry system which every dealership in the world is 'linked to' as the Toyota parts CD only goes back to 1977/78 (e.g. Celica models covered are RA/TA40 range and earlier TA/RA 20 Series are not)

Unfortunately some (not all !) Toyota UK dealerships (and I believe New Zealand dealerships ) cannot always be bothered to find/go to the trouble to order/ import ...or even inquire about said items into Great Britain if for example they will only have a turn-over of say one particuar item sold every 5 years.

As a side note you may think it is difficult/take a long time for rare part to come from Japan ...but most of items are not stored in Japan! ...they are in warehouses in Belgium !!! ...due to cheeper storage rates !

So infact your avarage Japanese enthusiast restoring say a Toyota Publica or Crown in Japan does infact have to wait for parts from Belgium (So item originally made in Japan ...goes to Belgium for storage ...then back again to happy Jappy!) ...isn't life bizzare!

Although you state price is horrific ...and I AGREE ...how many other manufacturers do you know of that could supply you with NEW and GENUINE parts for a vehicle made nearly 30 year ago?

You say you might go FORD ...fine but did you know in recent times they are not even able to supply parts for late 80's vehicles ...try getting bits for say a 1985 XR3, RS1600i or SERIES 1 RS Turbo ...you might be in for a BIG dissapointment.

MG ...okay as a MGB enthusiast I Have to agree every last item is easily available BUT it's not genuine and thus some of the Items are of very dubious quality! :ffs:

Did you also know under international manufacturing law the Car Manufacturers only have to keep spares for vehicles up to 10 year old! An extreme and unfortnate example of this was the Opel Manta; in 1998 because the last Manta was produced in 1988 GM Europe Division scraped nearly all the unique parts to this model and did not even offer them to Manta Clubs...of which there was a lot in Germany and rest of Europe at the time.

Personnally my experiance of Toyota parts departments locally has been Superb (Hylton of Telford and William A Lewis of Telford).

The parts chap seems to thrive on discovering rare items and even the service manager shows GENUINE interest as he always comes over for a look etc. Only last week I managed to get some parts for a friends 1972 Celica TA22. Also when vehciles are over 12 year old they offer a discount.

[alistair2]

Good lord man! Try owning a Vauxhall, Hillman, Humber... at least you can still get parts for your car. Vauxhall scrapped all the stuff for their cars more than 7 years out of production and wouldn't even sell stuff on to the clubs. Its worth more as a tax write-off to land fill it.

You should know that the manufacturer cares not a jot about the classic enthusiast. If he things he can sell you a new car every three years he might care.

I haven't been to a main daler for a part for any car I've owned in 15 years or more. Motor factors are a fraction the price, or the classic specialists.

I wanted some ball joints for my Ventora and I had to hunt round for nearly 18 months to find some then pay through the nose for them.

You sound like a spoilt child snivelling about how the world's not there just to please you.

[StarletMan]

any suggestions on a usable classic with good back up or interested suppliers of spares........i am open to offers

What about a Hillman Imp. Good support for spare parts including body panels and an excellent owners club.

[goldenwonder]

When did you offer it for sale at a'sensible price' ?? I missed that! Assume you still have it? How much are you looking for it? Take it noty much if you say you're going to scrap it. What's wrong woth you man, how can you let something as minor as that get the better of you with such a great car!

If it is cheap enough & still available, let me know & i'll be down with a trailer for it!

[frampie244]

Thanks for all the advice.

i love the car, i am quite capable of repairing the car or buying the track control arms.

i just can not agree that a track control arm is worth £170, it is just a bent bit of angle iron with a ball joint attached. not worth more than £30 tops. i do not like being ripped off, for car parts or any other product.

the car has now been sold for £350

my main gripe is the dreadful lack of interest from Toyota in probably the oldest Toyota in Dorset still left in daily use, surely a good advert for the brand .........it took me by surprise and i have thrown my toys out of the pram and i am not putting them back in!

[peterart]

..................eeerrrr..................any decent toys for sale in that lot.......? :)

[alistair2]

Dealers don't get a monkeys. I had a Ford dealer very rude to me once when I went to enquire about parts for a Mk3 Cortina. Basically anything frm the 60s or 70s is an embarrasment to them as the decades of rust and what have you. They want people to forget about those old cars and hey - buy a new Avensis / Focus /whatever. The localish toyota agent usd to have a 1967 Corona on display, I loved it, but it was takne out of the showroom and I did hear that there were "adverse comments" on it from potential cu$tomers.

For most people old = embarrassing.

Unless they are making ££££ on a finance package on a new car most dealers don't care, and the ones that do (a rarity) arn't in the business of charity are they.

[Twincam.GTi]

Well Said Alistair2

Just about says it all

But happily as I said earlier it's NOT always the case:

Personnally my experiance of Toyota parts departments locally has been Superb (Hylton of Telford and William A Lewis of Telford).

The parts chap seems to thrive on discovering rare items and even the service manager shows GENUINE interest as he always comes over for a look etc. Only last week I managed to get some parts for a friends 1972 Celica TA22. Also when vehciles are over 12 year old they offer a discount.

alistair2

The localish toyota agent usd to have a 1967 Corona on display, I loved it, but it was takne out of the showroom and I did hear that there were "adverse comments" on it from potential cu$tomers.

There is an article about this car in the Toyota Enthusiasts club magazine, it was one of the first ever in the country!

Article did say "it was not displayed in later times for some unknown reason" ......hmmm perhaps you have just answered the question... how pathetic

[celicacity]

my main gripe is the dreadful lack of interest from Toyota in probably the oldest Toyota in Dorset still left in daily use,

As the guys have pointed out, Toyota GB and its dealers are sales focused - if you don't want a new car at regular intervals, most dealers don't want to know.

However, if you had asked questions on the board BEFORE getting rid of the car, you might just have found what you needed, without all the moaning and whinging. Geoff, the parts manager at Autobase Bristol is interested and knowledgeable when to comes to vintage Toyotas. Failing that there are a number of 'networks' out there who if they don't have what you want, might just know someone who does.

And Oldest Toyota in Dorset still in daily use? You should get out more - oh, you can't now can you.

[frampie244]

However, if you had asked questions on the board BEFORE getting rid of the car, you might just have found what you needed, without all the moaning and whinging. Geoff, the parts manager at Autobase Bristol is interested and knowledgeable when to comes to vintage Toyotas. Failing that there are a number of 'networks' out there who if they don't have what you want, might just know someone who does.

And Oldest Toyota in Dorset still in daily use? You should get out more - oh, you can't now can you.

CELICACITY

Thanks for the wise words...........not

i did ask on these boards, had a big fat zero response. All the "networks i tried could not help, and I tried a lot.

The oldest Toyota in Dorset still in daily use? well these are the words of the main dealer..... NOT ME!!

I would have thought that for Toyota to have a 30 year old car still on the road is a good endorsment of the brand and its longevity?!! the car is now being shipped to Nigeria to be used on the roads out there, they like old rear wheel drive Japanese cars I am told!

I can still get out, i have 3 other cars, all that do not cost £170 for a ball joint

Toyota 1000 RIP