Today I own my TA60 Carina for exactly three years! I bought it on the seventh of the seventh of the seventh (07-07-2007), so in other words: lucky seven! This is what the car looked like when I bought it:

When I bought the Carina TA60
You can even see my old AE86 parked in front of it!

I bought the car after my girlfriend (in the meanwhile she became my wife) became pregnant of our son. When test fitting the child seats in the AE86 it was clear that the only way to fit the child seat was to put it in the front seat. Since everyone trying to sit in the back of the AE86 was complaining about every speedbump I took, cramps and more of that I realized it would be impossible to keep the AE86. So I tried to find a four door Cressida, Corona or Carina and found this Carina in a good deal. Basically the TA60 Carina can be considered a four door AE86 with a puny engine: it has (almost) the same axle, the same gearbox, the same steering rack, same front struts and the only difference is the absence of a 4AGE and a LSD!

Carina TA60 Enginebay: the indestructible 2T engine!
About the Carina itself: when I bought it it had only 73000 kilometers on the odometer. It had been imported from Germany and I am the third owner of the car. The car belonged to elderly people living near Koln and the car is exactly how you would expect elderly people to buy a car in the early 80s: lowest spec possible and automatic.
Actually the car having an automatic gearbox saved the Carina from being exported to Africa: they only want manual cars for export to Africa.

Celica Supra (Celica XX) wheels
The car is basically still the same as when I bought it: it still has the same engine, autobox and open diff. Only upgrades done were shocks, brakes (mintex up front), Marchal yellow foglights and Celica XX alloys. I do have plans for engine and gearbox swap, but I still haven’t made up my mind yet on which engine and gearbox… Could be a 4AGE, 2TG or even an 18R-G.

My Carina: Marchal yellow foglights
Normally it is impossible to get it sideways, but on rainy days this car is a hoot and I love it when I manage to get it sliding! Also people do not expect such an old clunker to do stuff like that and certainly not a family car! The car learned me much more than the AE86 could ever have done!

The Carina brought me luck so far: never had to spend large sums of money on it and it only failed on me once because I neglected to buy gas in time… Currently the age of the car is showing its toll: the bootlid and the roof have start to show some rust so there is definitely a need for a respray sometime soon!

And this is how the Carina looked this morning at 6:00:

Carina TA60 headlight and foglight
She is cheerful, isn’t she?