Junkyard Find: 1984 Toyota Camry LE Liftback
We don’t normally put the words “Camry” and “rare” together in the same sentence, but this series is all about finding rare-but-not-valuable oddities (e.g., one of the very last GM J-body. When it comes to rare Camrys, there’s the seldom-seen-in-the-wild Camry All-Trac and the nearly-as-rare Camry Liftback, and I’d found exactly one example of each in wrecking yards prior to today’s find. Yes, here’s another first-gen Camry liftback, this time dressed in whatever Toyota called this strange metallic purplish-brown hue.
Before car companies got into the whole brevity thing and started slapping plain old LE badges on slightly-upscale trim levels, Toyota added these attractive Limited Edition gold badges on Camry trunklids.
228,126 miles was very good for a car built 30 years ago.
The interior isn’t bad and— this being a California car— there’s no rust. Why is this Camry in the junkyard? Perhaps the engine or transmission crapped out, or maybe the car got towed away for too many parking tickets.
The 91-horsepower 1S-L engine was enough for 1984, and for 1984 buyers of Toyota sedans.
Air conditioning!
The lack of the macho-ness we expect in 1980s JDM car ads is disappointing here, but this is a Camry.
I’m sure the automobile industry longs for the days of fuel-economy testing that gave the early Camry a 44 mpg highway rating. At 47 mph with a tailwind, maybe.
Room for a rock group… or a group of rocks!
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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"You stole my Jesus-fish, didn't you?!" This one is screaming for a Crabspirits treatment....
Oh wow. This was my first car. Mine, however, was a DX rather than an LE. That meant unpainted bumpers and scratchy seats. There were some good things about this car. It was super easy to do maintenance. I could very easily pop out a headlight and replace it. The stereo was easy to swap as well. No installation kit required. The bad? Well, the transmission didn't last forever. The power steering rack had a high failure rate as well. Don't even think about going up a steep hill with the A/C on. Still, it was a good first car, all things considered. See if y'all can find a Camry Diesel. Now those are mega-rare!