Toyota Stalking, er...um, SPOTTING with Charlie™ (Cars, vans, SUVs, Lexus, Scion, and brochures)!

What do you think of the Scion TC in terms of reliability? My cousin had a 2006 had that was unfortunately totaled by a red light runner years ago, and she loved that car; She bought it used and paid cash, and had was unable to find a decent one that she could actually afford after that.


February 13th, 2022:

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

 

One of the gym teachers at my middle school in Northern Virginia when I was in 8th grade (2002-2003) had a red 1993 Nissan NX, which definitely had a Mazda MX-3 vibe to it! I believe it was the successor to the Pulsar, and nowhere near as popular so they didn't make as many...

 

The NX had the same formula as the Paseo and MX-3.....sporty car based on econobox bones. In this case the Sentra. The NX1600 had the 1.6L engine and the NX2000 had the 2.0L engine from the Sentra SE-R and Infiniti G20 (Sentra in a tuxedo).

 

Coach Thornton loved that damn thing; I knew exactly what a Nissan Pulsar was, but I had never seen an NX before at that point in my life. I saw him in the parking lot after school and asked him what kind of car it was; I was at least 13 years old and there weren't many cars I'd never heard of at that point in my life, but I believe I actually thought that it was some sort of Toyota at the time!

 

Not sure re the TC but in general the brand is reliable. I almost bought one before finding my 2006 Colorado

My manager when I worked retail at 18-19 had a 1992 NX 2000 in red with T roofs. The dot on wheels.

 

February 14th, 2022:

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

 

I saw this particularly sharp Camry LE while running an errand for work today; How do I know it's an LE...?

At least for 2002-2003, 4-wheel disc brakes were standard on all Camry trims except the LE 4-cylinder; Getting a V6 with the LE trim by default gave you rear disc brakes. The SE and XLE came with 4-wheel disc regardless of which engine you got; It was possible to get an LE 4-cylinder with rear disc brakes in this generation, but this particular example has rear drum brakes, which means it is a super base model! Regardless, this is one of the nicer 2002-2006 Camrys that I've seen, and it is clear that somebody really cares about this car!


February 17th, 2022:

Warrington, Pennsylvania

 

Aside from the right front fender damage, this base model Corolla that I saw earlier today was in surprisingly mint condition; I have a feeling that the damage is fairly recent. Also, most of the Corollas of this era that I see are fairly well-equipped LE models; This is a CE that probably has A/C and likely no other options...


February 18th, 2022:

Warrington, Pennsylvania

 

One of two deceptively similar silver Celicas that I saw at a car meet tonight; This one had an automatic transmission and was not in the best of shape cosmetically, and unfortunately the license plate didn't yield any results on Carfax; Celicas of all years, even final generation ones like the two I saw tonight, are getting harder and harder to find. Totally stock examples in mint condition are virtually impossible to find!


February 18th, 2022:

Hatfield, Pennsylvania

 

February 18th, 2022:

Hatfield, Pennsylvania

 

2001 Celica GT, and it's a stick shift (the other silver was a GT-S with automatic transmission)!


February 18th, 2022:

Hatfield, Pennsylvania

 

@ColoradoTJ

2011 Lexus IS350


February 18th, 2022:

Hatfield, Pennsylvania

 

Same car and another Toyota 86...


February 18th, 2022:

Hatfield, Pennsylvania

 

The black one again...


February 18th, 2022:

Hatfield, Pennsylvania

 

I've said it before and I while say it again; I still see a decent amount of 1st Gen (2004-2007) Scion XBs on the road, ranging in condition from total shitboxes that look like they could fall apart at any time to decked out show cars. The 2nd Gen (roughly 2008-2014...?) XBs are not as common as the older ones, but still far more plentiful than XAs and XDs. The XA is the 1st Gen and the XD, which we have here, is the 2nd Gen...


February 19th, 2020:

Pipersville, Pennsylvania

 

I like the styling of both generations of XB better than the XA and XD, and apparently people who actually bought them thought so too. The 2nd Gen XB has more horsepower than the XD; The XB has like 160, while the XD only has like 128.

The XA and the 1st Gen XB were mechanically identical, including the engine, and that same 103hp 4-cylinder; My cousin had 2006 XA that she bought from the original owners in 2009. It had like 90K miles on it, but it was in great shape and the price was right; She paid like $6,500 cash for the car and drove it for like five years. It had about 160K miles on it when she sold it, and it still ran and drove great! The A/C was ice cold, it had a great factory Pioneer sound system, and it never had any mechanical issues. I drove it a few times, and despite its small size, it was deceptively large and quite comfortable (I'm about 6 feet tall and it was comfortable to drive); It was adequate in terms of power, but with the 4-speed automatic slushbox, merging onto a highway could be...interesting, to say the least!

That was a great little car, and if I didn't have my Tacoma, I probably would have bought it from my cousin! She sold it for like $2,500-$3,500 and I got $100 from that for detailing it for her!

 

A buddy of mine hit 210K on his 2008. Not sure but I believe it still was running fine when he traded it

 

February 20th, 2022:

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

 

@shakerhood

I developed a respect for the Prius after test driving a used one almost a year ago; It had high miles, but it was in incredibly good shape. If I'd bought it, I probably could have sold it now and gotten double what I paid for it! The silver 2010 that I test drove last winter had almost 170K miles, but had a backup camera and the JBL stereo system, which would have saved me about a grand in work on stereo upgrades; The silver one was also in much better shape than this one, despite being 2 years older than this blue one and having almost 30K more miles! This blue 2012 does not have a backup camera or the JBL speakers, and it has a lot more cosmetic issues than the silver one I test drove in early 2021; On another note, the 2010 was under $5,600 (again, this was in February or March of 2021, before used car prices went nuts)!


February 20th, 2022:

Hatfield, Pennsylvania

 

This one wasn't in horrible condition, but it had a lot of dents and dings compared to silver 2010...