Junkyard Find: Manny, Moe, and Jack Edition 1991 Toyota Tercel Coupe

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

A couple of years have passed since the last Manny, Moe, and Jack Edition Junkyard Find, so we’re due for another car that was customized with every manner of stick-on hood scoop, property-value-lowering vinyl decal, and brightly-colored interior-trim piece that can be had at your local auto-parts chain store. Here’s a fourth-gen Toyota Tercel done up as a shoestring-budget Fast-n-Furious-type machine.

Even though this car has the 94-horsepower 3E-E engine and automatic transmission, its last owner wanted it to look a bit faster than stock.

I hate to criticize this sort of thing too hard, because a garishly modified Tercel is still better than the dreadful tedium of a stock Tercel.

That’s because the Tercel was the car for drivers who thought the Corolla was too much of a high-performance luxury car.

Not even 100,000 miles. I suspect a broken odometer here.

Some of the details make this car more of a 100-footer than a 50-footer.








Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • -Nate -Nate on Feb 26, 2015

    @ Shaker ; Just so . I have a broken skull , back and neck , the Dr's keep trying to get me to take that oxy crap , I hate it and won't touch it . They call it " Hillbilly Heroin " with good reason ~ a good friend of mine who's also disabled , moved to Tenn. so as to afford living , his Daughter fell in with a local white trash boy who was on oxycontin and of course , as soon as she popped out his son , got her hooked on it and in time , the needle too , she died this year leaving another innocent Child Motherless . The hillbilly white trash boy doesn't seem to care and in fact , says loudly that America deserves to support him . That anyone who's not in terrible pain would even try this crap astounds me . -Nate

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    • -Nate -Nate on Feb 27, 2015

      @shaker No worries ~ At least I'm still alive =8-) . I hate dope of all stripes as it killed (often indirectly) most of the folks I grew up with 60 years ago . I find that meditation helps me get past the worst of the pain . I *do* so love my recliner ! =8-) it's the _third_ one I've had , this one really fits me well , I sleep in it more often than my bed these days , that's fine with me . I still ride my Motos , occasionally , slowly , carefully and yes painfully . maybe two hours maximum , I guess I'll never die The Alcan or Sturgis now =8-^ . FWIW , I'm Scots-irsh and come from a long line of drunks so I paid attention to the misery growing up and decided not to take up drinking / dope like so many choose to do . No one forces you to suck on the bottle , ciggy or crack pipe , it's _YOUR_ fault in the end . -Nate

  • Blakteky Blakteky on Mar 27, 2015

    Haha! The internet is a small place, I pulled the brake booster and master cylinder out of this EXACT car last weekend, then I found the article today. Sweet! Every hose and electrical sheathing was painted, dyed or replaced with a blue version as well. Hella FnF. The brake booster is happily living in my 1982 RWD Corolla now. (The old booster was leaking vacuum)

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