2000 Toyota Altezza RS200 review from Australia and New Zealand

Ball joints worn at 90k.

A/C failed at 110k.

Rear shocks failed at 114k.

Rear suspension bushes failed at 114k, requiring whole lower suspension A arms to be replaced.

Moisture in both headlights at 120k.

Fuel gauge only ever worked intermittently.

Gloss black paintwork started to self destruct at 110k; oxidation and flaking.

Brought the car for two reasons. It looked fantastic in gloss black with 18inch telephone dial alloys, great japanese interpretation of a 3 series BMW. The second reason was that it was by Toyota, so I expected reliability and reasonable running costs.

Good bits:

It looked great, and was admired by many out and about.

Front seats were comfortable and supportive, steering had a nice meaty sports feel and it handled well.

Great factory sound system too, with sat nav capability.

It was a good size too, not massive and bloated like many modern cars, so parking was easy.

Bad bits:

Performance from the Yamaha Beams engine was peaky, so the car was lethargic under the variable valve timing threshold. To make matters worse, the 5 speed tiptronic gearbox was total garbage. In auto it constantly shuffled around gears, and if it needed to downshift a couple of ratios, it would take an age to do so, leaving a few seconds of no acceleration at the most inconvenient times. Overtaking required shifting manually, and the spacing of the gear ratios meant having to upshift in the middle of an overtaking maneuver. If there were four people aboard, you just wouldn't bother as the car was just too heavy. The engine ran on premium fuel, and was extremely uneconomical for a 2.0L 4cyl car.

The cost of the suspension parts were eye watering.

Servicing itself was affordable, but if anything other than belts, plugs or filters was needed, it was expensive.

Fit and finish of the dashboard was not good enough for a premium car of the post 2000 era, and when we sold it at 120k the paint was deteriorating, there were trim rattles, and the seat fabric was wearing.