I’m at the Subaru dealership in Englewood for regular servicing on our 2019 Forrester. Every time I come here, I love to look at this old Justy. It’s a subcompact car that hasn’t been manufactured since 1994 and the aesthetic reminds me of the first car I ever drove, a 1986 Toyota Corolla. When I was a teenager, my dad bought me my first car. It was a choice between an ’86 Corolla and a slightly newer hatchback, maybe an ’89 or ’90 Toyota. I don’t remember for sure.
At the time, hatchbacks weren’t fashionable so I went with the older ’86 Corolla. I think my dad paid about $1000 for it. If I could do it again, I would have gone with the hatchback. It would have been more fun. I also would have put more time and money into maintenance (if I could do it again, not because it was a hatchback). The transmission in the ’86 Corolla wound up failing about a year later. It had about 100k miles on it, but knowing what I know now about Toyotas, I should have been able to get another 100k miles out of it, easy, with proper maintenance.
The Subaru Justy would be perfect for driving on narrow New York City streets and squeezing into small parking spaces. I think I would have a lot of fun driving it, especially if I could figure out how to squeeze an upgraded stereo system into it.
Here’s a cool video about ’90s cars:
Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog 