Toyota Previa question...

I've been looking for something "van-ish" for quite a while and this popped up.  Should I jump on it?

Everyone claims to love them, but I bet most haven't had to work on one.

I had one for a bit. They are definitely unique. The rotating second row is a really cool feature if you haul people frequently. They drive and handle reasonably well for a van, but they are slooow compared to modern stuff. Someone on here mentioned putting a turbo on one instead of the remote supercharger for more power.

Uh, duh. YES is the answer to your question. 

That's easily the lowest mile AllTrak SC I've seen. By like 100k miles. And a good price too. 

They are the only mid engine,  supercharged,  rwd vehicles I can afford lol.

RonnieFnD said:

They are the only mid engine,  supercharged,  AWD vehicles I can afford lol.

Fixed

I came >this< close to buying one for my vanlife adventures. I was interested because they have more room than most minivans, IIRC. I ended up with an E250, but I absolutely loved the two Previas I drove (both SC with out AWD). There's something unique about the driving position, the windshield, the way they move through corners. I just really liked the experience. I was way geeked out on them for a while. Check Toyota Van Tech forums. They are kind of a rare bird in that they are sort of bespoke, but are not sports cars/collector cars.

They do have their issues. The HG like to leak. I think it might be related to the fact that the engine lays on its side, that's my crack theory why Subarus eat HG too.  The two I test drove were both leaking oil from the HG. Check for that (you have to lie down and look). A lot of them have the worn out SADs unit (the weird prop shaft that turns the aux stuff like PS and so forth). You'll know because they whistle when you accelerate. 

I remember the front shocks are a huge pain to replace, like dash out kind of situation. 

I still want one, but they are getting OLD and its hard to find one as fresh as the one you are looking at. I have a friend that has one (AWD but no SC) and he has 300k some miles on it. It does need a new trans though, and he is struggling to find one. Some parts are NLA and some techs without three elbows don't want to work on them because of the packaging challenges.

As was mentioned above, I wouldn't be too excited to work on one, but that's true of my E250 too. 

Toyota did a bunch of stuff to accommodate typical repairs. The supercharger, alternator, and power steering pump are under the hood, driven by shaft off of the front of the engine. There is also a remote oil tank under the hood that refills the engine oil in case you don't monitor oil levels. Checking oil isn't hard, you just have to flip the seat forward, open a panel, and pull the dipstick. I did a headgasket with the engine in the car on mine. It was a really dumb idea. Pull the engine and save yourself lots of time and scraped hands and knuckles.

Looks rusty to me... I would definitely be inspecting the undercarriage.

Wrench on a 914, these aren't as hard as they look.

Will an LS swap fit in the stock engine compartment?

Super cool but that specimen looks super rotted out.  

In reply to MadScientistMatt :

I seriously doubt it. The 2.4 I4 that resides in there is probably 12" high, given that it's pretty much on its side. I have a hard time imagining an LS is short enough. Fun idea though.

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

In all fairness, it IS a 35 year old Iowa vehicle...

A Toyota mechanic told me that these were in his opinion, the best built vehicle Toyota ever made - including all US versions of the Hilux and the Lexus LS. And he said that is a good thing because they're the most annoying and tedious to work on.