A powerful car doesn’t always mean one with loads of actual physical power or one that can burn the tires off from a stoplight race standpoint. Sometimes, it means a car that has had an incredible and powerful impact on the car scene. It’s impossible to overlook a car like this 1986 Toyota Camry Liftback as being from one of the most popular car families of all time, the Camry. It can be found here on eBay in Irvine, California with a $6,900 buy-it-now price or you can make an offer.
This car is 180 degrees from what a lot of Barn Finds readers come here for. It isn’t an American-made dusty muscle car. It doesn’t have a snorting V8 and hairy-knuckle 4-speed on the floor. I like those things, too, but I also like cars like this Camry, especially in this unusual liftback, or hatchback, body style. Some of you may have seen my version of this car in a different color but almost as nice, other than wearing an unfortunate shipping scar that happened on the way from Tulsa, OK to our house back in 2017.
That clunky, square, awkward, ungainly (hey, am I describing myself or the car?!) design – it’s so 1980s, so cool. The taillights are almost as humongous as the bumper is, no? There’s a lot of room under that goofy-cool hunched hatchback, or liftback as they’re more commonly known. The V10 Camry was made for the 1983 through 1986 model years and this was the era when Toyota saw an incredible increase in their market share in the US.
The interior of this car looks almost like new, both front and rear, as does the body on this car. I don’t see any rust and the seller doesn’t mention rust at all in their listing.
The engines were upgraded a bit for the 1986 models with 3 more horsepower from the 2.0L inline-four with 95 horsepower. The seller says that this one has been gone through with a new timing belt, full tune-up, and almost new tires. Have any of you owned a Camry of this era?
This is exactly the type of car that I come to Barn Finds for. I could not care less about Chevlles and Chargers. Please keep the quirky stuff coming. I suspect that there are many more like me out here. I enjoy seeing and learning about these types of cars that you will never see on magazine covers (or anywhere else for that matter). If it wasnt for websites like Barn Finds, Jalopnik, and BaT, these gems of automotive obscurity would be all but forgotten. And they deserve to be remembered and appreciated, as far as I’m concerned.
I always seem to click on Scotty’s articles on Barn Finds, I don’t know whether I should be concerned or proud.
I agree! I do like the muscle cars, too, but these underdog icons of by-gone eras are my favorites. This one is beautiful; wish I had the money to bring her home!
I second that. I look forward to the oddball write ups like this one. I’m a Toyota fan also. I am partial to the 87-92 Camry that followed this one. No quirky lift back model, but there was a wagon as I recall. The fit and finish of Toyota’s and Honda’s from this time frame can go up against any car maker. Nice find.
I third that! I scroll past a lot of cars to get to the 80’s stuff to read first then go back and look at the others. Grew up in the 80’s and enjoy the walk down memory lane. Regular family cars are my favorite, keep em coming!
Now compare this to the 1986 T-1000 highlighted a few days ago. For a couple thousand more you’re getting twice the car and something you can actually drive around in and enjoy.
The 6000 was Pontiac’s competitor to this, or the G-body Bonneville (too bad Season 2 of Stranger Things didn’t feature a street race between Bob Newby and Mike’s dad…)
I believe, like the Corolla, it was this car that really made Americans take notice. We couldn’t ignore Toyota any longer. Here was a foreign car that had everything. It became Toyotas biggest seller, even to this day. Doesn’t do anything for me, they never did, but for America, it was a hit. The only problem I see today, is finding certain parts. Don’t think a Toyota dealer will help you with a 35 year old car. They threw, ( as instructed by the manufacturer years ago) all replacement parts in the dumpster, and unless someone fished them out, and now selling said parts on Ebay at an exorbitant rate, you’re kind of screwed. The author found that out on a certain vintage NIssan rear strut, that was almost unobtainable. These were great cars, regardless.
Nissan’s parts support and Toyota’s parts support are two different things. There are lots of reasons why Toyota has remained one of the healthiest cars companies in the world over the past forty years no matter what the economy is doing or if a politicized justice department is trying to scare them into unionizing their plants while Nissan’s story has been about booms and busts.
Speaking of parts support, one of my earliest lessons was when I couldn’t get 350 V8 parts for my college-job’s 1978ish Chevrolet Big-10 pickup from the Chevrolet dealer in the winter of 1988. Fabricating parts for it in a freezing parking lot in a driving wind was probably a fairly painless way to learn about how much GM respects its customers.
You folks are thee best, thanks much. I/we never know if a vehicle will be liked or not. Thanks for the nice comments! Just after I got it, I took my Camry liftback to my regular Toyota dealership just to show it to them. I just drove it into one of the two oil change lanes and it was like a tornado, every tech and service guy and gal and the sales people were all over it. A lot of them hadn’t even been born yet in 1984 so it was literally like seeing a dinosaur. Or, maybe they were thinking that about me.
Howard, that Stanza wagon NOS rear strut was a classic needle-in-a-haystack find for sure. Great memory! It just shows that belonging to online forums related to your vehicles can turn up some valuable and otherwise hidden info, like when someone has something for sale.
Stanza wagons are great!One of my first vehicles, a blue 86.
Nice looking car. I remember when the Toyota Camry looked like this. At the time, I didn’t find it very attractive, at least not when compared to the Cressida, and the Celica Supra. But the more a car maker changes a car’s appearance, the more I like the style of the first generation car. Although off topic, I remember when Toyota introduced the Tundra pickup truck. At the time, I didn’t find the Tundra attractive at all. Every time Toyota changed the appearance of the truck, particularly the front of the Tundra, I decided “maybe the first couple of years of the Tundra wasn’t a bad looking truck after all.”
In the 90s when the T-100s were new, I could not stand them. Now, I would almost kill for a pristine 4×4 with manual trans.
I was working at a Toyota dealership in CT. when the Camry debuted . They were an instant hit , although they didn’t do anything for me at the time. The only problem I recall they had was a recall on was the igniter , which would just die and leave you stranded . We changed so many of those, but the replacement igniters worked perfectly. Like many imports, the tin worm ate these things alive . Its cool to still see one after all these years !
A trip down memory lane as I owned one of these Camrys. A great car with that liftback and fold down seats. The shock towers rusted out and it was too expensive to fix. A darn good design, I bought a Camry wagon after the liftback, was only half as good. I am still a Toyota person and on my second Sienna, although there was a TR-6 not somlong ago, but only for a while.
While it’s in remarkably nice shape, this car brings back awful memories. My Sister bought the sedan version brand new at her husband’s request. My Dad and I both thought it was ugly, and so did my sister. This car singlehandedly turned me off to Toyota forever. It also has the distinction of being the most trouble prone car my sister has ever owned, (followed by her current 09 RAV4). From about the 15,000 mile mark it ate head gaskets, ultimately having the cylinder head warp at 69,000. By then(it was 4 years old) it was so badly rusted that the rocker panels were completely gone and it was junked. It also holds the distinction of being the only car I’ve ever gotten car sick in, every time I rode in the back seat. The pitching and vibrations back there, coupled with the noise was nauseating. Someone made a comment about this being so much more car than the T1000 from yesterday’s posts. Well that may be but at the time my sister owned that lousy Camry, I owned an 83 Chevette that was more reliable and dependable, got better gas mileage and when I sold it with 189,000 miles on it to a co-worker, has nowhere near the rust that Camry had at 69,000.
That’s unusual, sorry, every car maker has it’s “Monday” cars. The poor worker that screwed up your sisters car probably was sent to work in the sulfur mines in N. China. While I don’t care for Asian cars, it’s certainly not because of their mechanical’s. It’s their styling, bland interiors, WORST seats in the industry, but they shine in the mechanical aspect. Aside from my latest GoldWing and that POS ’05 Honda Civic,, every Asian vehicle I had or known, always started, rarely used oil, long after the body gave away around it. They can’t be judged by their thin metal. And for the record, the Chevette was a good car, but more foreign than US. It was almost all Opel.
Actually that was my brother in law’s argument when they junked it, so he convinced my sister to replace it with a 1990 Camry. That one was easier on the eyes and gave no trouble, eventually becoming my nephew’s first car. That experience led my sister to buy the 09 RAV 4, which has been another problem child and has convinced her to not buy another Toyota ever again. I agree with you on all points on Asian vehicles. I typically cannot get past the horrid looks, bland driving dynamics and uncomfortable interiors.
Somebody absolutely, totally, jump on this car. Scotty is quite right, as are others. The car is excellent and uncommon. I have no room. I applaud the new owner.
Always interesting to hear from the other side of the fence. All my automotive horror stories are limited to American made cars unfortunately. Seven Toyota’s in and the only one that left us stranded was the 99 Camry with 200k. The shift cable snapped. Even then I put the E-brake on, popped the hood and shifted the Transmssion by hand to get It to a garage.
My parents bought a new silver 1986 Camry LE with digital dash. It was a great car that I drove to HS in the late 90’s before handing it off to my brother. Loved the digital dash. A great car, and one I wish we still had. Would love to have this one.
I have owned 5 Camrys, ’84 (like this one), 104k trouble free miles, ’87, 328K, ’90, 170k, ’96, 100k, and a 2002, (140k) that my sister still has. My current ’16 Highlander has 50k with ZERO problems, it is my 4th Highlander. I have had the same experience as Bakyrdhero, all of my car nightmares involve American cars. I remember the ’84 (this body style) as having big, plush seats, which was great for my 6’4″ frame.
Just want to say I agree about the comments about quirky cars. My favorite American made cars are Mustangs. Love all of them , but so does almost every one. Can sling areas cat with out hitting one and should you miss that , you’ll hit a Camaro. So yeah I want to see those American classics. But I really enjoy the stuff people used to throw away. What ever the era.
Today, seeing this may be even rarer than seeing a ’90s TWO door Camry.
Very flat long hood for a front wheel driver – like the Citation.
I’m more of a Phlathead guy myself. Odd cars are phine, but, not in my world. To each their own and BTW 🍻
If I want to stare at boxy appliances, I’ll look at my fridge. Pass.
Another ho hum Toyota, the worlds least collectible car design. After I got rid of my Nissan, I went back to Buick and I am staying with American for the time being. Toyota was consumer reports con job car make and because of that I have never been a fan of Toyota, Lexus or Scion.
This would be a great daily that would last years.
Nobody needs the screens and sensors new cars have.
Miguel is right…this would make a great daily driver. Decent economy, reliable, some capacity to haul. I wouldn’t mind owning it, although I wouldn’t want to pay the asking price. I never had one of these yet.
I don’t see any rust, but I also don’t see any clutch pedal. That just cools off any interest I might have had.
I had a Mazda 626 Liftback w/ turbo from about the same vintage. The 5-speed manual made it a great car.
Sounds like you haven’t been to the dealer in a while – think you can get a new one with a manual? – nope. Only a yaris or corolla. Yawn on all 3.
Hope you are not a corvette fan – even a billionaire can’t get a new mid eng one with a manual!
Besides, it’s not ez for today’s “drivers” to drive, shift & text all at the same time – i bet that’s why so few are sold.
& they are now selling more electric cars than ICE car’s with manuals!
I haven’t been to a (new car) dealer for quite a while. My last new car was a ’97 Dodge Caravan, with automatic. New cars are mostly for people who are willing to borrow money to buy a rapidly deprecating asset. I don’t do that. Also, automatics have come a long way since the 1980s. A 4-cyl. Toyota with automatic from the eighties is a slug. Not so with a new Toyota, even a Yaris or Corolla automatic moves out quite well. So, I’ll stick (heh, heh) with my older three pedal cars. My unicorn daily driver is a 2006 Accord with V-6 and six-speed. Fast, and torque like an old American V-8. BTW, you can get a new Accord with three pedal manual.