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

a little bit, but the Vibe is pulling that trailer and everything looks hooked up correct.

 

That sucks to see, at least its not severe damage

 

I saw a Miata and a Prius both towing small trailers, talk about bizarre.

 

Those little teardrop campers are intended to be towed by cars that wouldn't ordinarily be used to tow; I saw a 1999-2004 Mustang V6 convertible pulling a UHAUL trailer at a gas station years ago.

 

Raceway Park has a drifting school of some sort, and they have a rotation of RWD beaters used specifically for this purpose; This 2001 Lexus IS300 (I ran the plate through Carfax and found it to still be valid) is one of those vehicles. These cars are highly sought after among people I talked to, and I have no idea what led to this particular one being taken off the road, as all of the body damage probably occurred after it entered service as a drifting trainer and this car was probably in decent condition beforehand...


April 30th, 2022:

Englishtown, New Jersey

 

It's been a while, but I've seen ISs on the road that didn't look much better than this one.

 

Ditto; This red 2002 didn't even have an engine in it, it also had a Pennsylvania plate, and unlike the green 2001 I actually ran a full Carfax report. The Carfax report confirmed what I'd suspected; This car has a salvage title, and it was actually totaled in an accident back in 2007, but it was repaired and seems to have been on the road for close to a decade after the accident that was severe enough to total it! The salvage title is said on Carfax to have resulted from the car driving off the road and sustaining damage to the left front, and the car had 49,725 miles at the time the title was signed over to the insurance company; For what was at the time a five-year-old Lexus with less than 50K miles to have been totaled, I'm guessing that it was some pretty significant damage! There were no obvious signs of the damage that caused the car to be totaled, and in my opinion a Lexus IS with a rebuilt/salvage title would be a perfect vehicle to use for drift practice! The fact that this car is missing the engine (and likely the transmission), the front fascia, and most of the interior tells me that something expensive likely broke and they used the good parts to keep the green car going. I have no idea what might have caused the damage to the windshield...


April 30th, 2022:

Englishtown, New Jersey

 

Or just want something compact. My friend has a Ford Escape and a teardrop

 

Originally a thread called Anybody on TW own a HighAce or other JDM Toyota van?...

@ChrisIz recently shared pictures of the one he used to own on one of my other threads; Anybody else on TW own one?!?!

Thanks to the 25-year loophole, I have been seeing more and more of these 1990s JDM vans in America.

The most popular example without a doubt is the Mitsubishi Delica, followed by the Toyota HiAce; I have seen four HiAces in the last years (three at shows including this one and one at specialty dealerships), and I have also seen two JDM Nissan vans at shows (a 1997 Elgrand last June and a 1993 Homy just last weekend). I saw this one at the annual spring swap meet/car show at Raceway Park yesterday; I met a guy at cruise night in Hatboro who had a 1996 HiAce in a similar combo, but it had aftermarket wheels and a diesel engine. This example, according to the emblem on the liftgate, has a 2.4L EFI 4-cylinder...

1994 HiAce Super Custom


April 30th, 2022:

Englishtown, New Jersey

 

The Toyota Previa debuted in North America in 1990 as a 1991 model, and among other things it was criticized for being underpowered; From 1991 to 1993, the only engine available on the US-market Previa was 135hp 2.4L 4-cylinder, and a supercharged version with almost 160hp replaced it in 1994. I looked it up online, and the 2.4L engine powering this HiAce makes just 118hp; This van has 4-speed automatic transmission and dual A/C, so I can imagine that highway driving with the A/C cranked on a hot day is leisurely to say the least...



I still want one!

 

Rear seating area...

 

Rear A/C!

 

Didn't Toyota at one time have some small van that had an engine inside the passenger compartment?

 

Yeah; It was just called the "Van" in North America and they stopped selling it here in like 1989. It was called the LiteAce in Japan and other markets; I have yet to see one in person...

 

Thanks, l think l remember seeing one back in the 80s.

 

I found this on Wikipedia; JDM LiteAce that has been imported to Canada. This is more or less what US models looked like...

 

US-spec 1980s Toyota Vans (internet pictures)...