AE 94

[duncan_mclean]

I am new to the club and as an ex-KE Corolla owner I am looking for a little advice about the AE 94. I have found a 1993 model with a 4A fuel injected engine and 100,000 on the clock. The car appears to be in very good and well maintained condition but the owner has overcapitalised by respraying and other cosmetic things. Can anyone advise on this model please? Is the engine reliable and can I get parts for it easily? What is a fair price to pay for one? Any general advice gratefully received. Thanks.

[Hiro]

It's an A-powered Corolla - it'll run until the cows come home (as opposed to a K-powered one, which will outlive the cows themselves). Parts are cheap, plentiful, and for the most part the car and engine are bulletproof. AE92s are susceptible to rust in a few key places (windscreen/a-pillars, hatch, fuel filler mainly), the manual gearboxes can develop issues with the third-gear synchros over time (and can pop out of 5th easily if you rest your hand too much on the gear stick when cruising) and the engines are known to burn oil once they get old, but nothing major.

As for value, if it's clean with no rust and good rego then it's probably worth $1-2k, obviously the SX/GTi 4AGE-powered versions are more desirable (and also more likely to be flogged/poorly modified) but a late-model with low ks can be just as good (if not better) as a runaround/daily.

[duncan_mclean]

Thankyou for your reply, that's very useful. Unfortunatley the owner wants more than $4000. As I say he has overcapitalised on paintwork, etc. Not sure how I can get him to be more reasonable....

[Hiro]

If it was a really neat minter then $3k might be reasonable, sounds like he's trying to recoup the cost of his paint job though (which you never get back). Is it a full custom job or just a re-spray in the original colour? The AE92s were very popular with the fully hektik Autosalon crowd so lairy paint and chrome wheels are unfortunately a common sight, and often devalue the car significantly if the buyer isn't into the exact same style.

[duncan_mclean]

No it's not been spoiled by a lairy paint job. It was resprayed (after being vandalised) in the original colour (in 'BMW quality' paint apparently!) and it has the appearance of being almost showroom. I am sure the engine is good aswell although I would get it checked out before buying with a compression test etc. I offered him 3 grand and even offered to stretch to a bit more but he wouldn't budge. I even reminded him that I can't insure it for more than about $2,800 but he still wouldn't sell. Any advice?