One-Family, 225k 1987 Toyota 4×4 Looks Like a Cream Puff
Back in the day, nobody dreamed a basic Toyota 4×4 would be a collectible — which makes them hot tickets now.
As folks on YotaTech know, Toyota is known for making trucks which score somewhere between the sunrise and a mother’s love when it comes to reliability. So the fact that this 1987 4×4 we recently stumbled across on Bring a Trailer has 225,000 miles on the clock shouldn’t cause anyone to raise any eyebrows. Some quick math shows that number works out to about 6,800 miles per year, which is just over two oil changes worth of driving, using the old-school 3000-mile rule of thumb. It’s barely broken in!
In the headline, we called this rig a cream puff, and that’s not just because the exterior is a dead match for delicious pastry cream. While it’s not perfect, it’s really about as close as you could expect something that wasn’t sealed in a time capsule to be. And since we’re old enough to remember seeing these babies when they were new? Rest assured, nobody was going to great lengths to preserve a four-cylinder Japanese pickup during the Reagan administration.
Most everything here is appreciatively stock, and there’s even a color-matched cap included. While the original wheels were swapped out at the time of purchase, we happen to like the look of the white rims, and wouldn’t change a thing when it comes to the truck’s appearance.
Since it’s been resprayed, we don’t know if it’s fair to call this truck a survivor. But since the reasons for the new paint job was damage from a sandstorm, meaning it was purely a cosmetic thing, we think that says a lot about the family who owns this baby.
Seriously, there are plenty of folks who would have either just sold the truck, or driven it with the scrappy finish, as opposed to going through the trouble of a full repaint. And while this is sure to fetch a good price when the hammer drops, even bad paint jobs aren’t cheap. This was obviously done because the folks sincerely appreciated the rugged little Toyota, and we respect that.
Interior-wise, everything looks squeaky clean. The seats have been recovered in gray vinyl, and the rest of the interior, save the aftermarket tape deck, looks factory fresh. We recognize that steering wheel as being the same one which was on Corollas of the same year, as one of best friends drove one in high school. How cute are the dinky little horn buttons?
From looking at this pic, there’s no way you’d think this truck had covered 225,000 miles, and for having spent its life in Arizona, the dash looks to be in amazing shape. Since this interior regularly saw temps hot enough to literally bake cookies, we’d expect to see some sun damage, but none appears evident.
Like the rest of the truck, the engine bay is clean as a whistle. The valve covers are said to leak, and honestly, that strikes us as a little strange. With everything else being so pristine, we just wonder why this relatively minor job hasn’t been done.
Given how much maintenance has been done elsewhere, our spider sense says this is such a minor leak, it’s not even worth dealing with. It certainly doesn’t look apparent in the pics, so new owners might not even have to worry about this old rig marking its territory.
So we know prices for this era of truck have been on the rise lately. How high do you think it will go? Are we looking at something attainable, or the kind of crazy-high figure which makes us consider giving up the car hobby for tennis?
We’ll all have an answer in a few days time, but it obviously wouldn’t hurt to lob some guesses into the ether before then. Head into the forums and let us know what you think this baby will fetch!
Photos: Bring a Trailer