Im planning on buying a 1998 Toyota Caldina GTT it’s 39k miles, no accidents, 2 owners. I just am curious on if it is worth it. i make a little bit over minimum and am concerned about parts/routine maintence possibly even mods. Just need some more information on if it is even WORTH buying the car and driving it daily. Also curious on average how much would it be. My dad is saying there is different parts because it is an original Jdm with right hand drive and japanese on the radio.
by OriginalFalse
8 Comments
How much does it cost? And the radio is the least of your worries, a new one costs like $100 and a 6 pack to your friend to install it.
Besides the steering rack, you could probably find universal parts from other models of Toyota’s.
Not for a daily driver. The parts will be hard to source and take a while to come if you need something. It is also 25+ yrs old so stuff will break inevitably and will need to be repaired. This is a guarantee. If you got some spare cash and it’s a project car, I’d say go for it but I personally wouldn’t do it for a daily driver with no disposable money to throw at it
Caldinas share some parts with USDM cars but not a ton.
My recommendation is that if you really like a caldina specifically, get a base model instead of the gtt. It’ll be more reliable and cost WAY less.
It’s a celica wagon. Caldinas were a bit of a Toyota parts bin car so you’d be surprised how much it shares with local Toyotas. The panels and glass on the other hand would be pretty rare if you get into a bingle.
Worth is a rather subjective value judgement and only you can decide what something is worth to you. While one can estimate worth, it’s always a moving target. There’s a million factors that go into what anything is worth in the marketplace at any given moment in time.
That being said, money only matters if you don’t have enough and that’s going to be different for each person. Most cars are money pits. Good ones at least provide some utility in return. Great ones sometimes appreciate but that’s extremely rare. This Toyota will forever be a relatively low value car with limited appeal in the marketplace. And that will affect everything about the ownership experience.
Instead, I prefer to think about objects and actions in terms of impact and return. Can I afford it? Do I want it? Life is short. Do what you want.
this is a super cool wagon and absolutely “woth” it, but only if you have the means to support yourself and a project car. If you dont have another form of reliable transportation this car could easily become a nightmare for you.
These share some parts with US cars, but not all. It’s a toyota from the golden era so it will _probably_ be reliable enough but when something inevitably goes south you’re going to have to get creative. Certain parts will be plentiful but others are straight up unobtanium.
You should also call around to local mechanics and ask if there are any that will even work on a car like this. Many shops wont even look at older JDM cars because they dont want to deal with the liability. there are no easily accessible manuals and USDM parts databases dont work on cars like this.
TLDR: Awesome car, the 3S-GTE engine in this is legendary! Make sure you have at least ONE of the following before buying: A bunch of money, A bunch of time, A spare reliable car.
8k
I daily ST246 Caldina in Finland, really good cars in the winter especially