Faults:

I owned this car for 2 days, took it into the mechanic and was told the block would need replacing.

A week later the mechanic called and said as a result of the sellers mucking around with the engine, the engine would need to be replaced. This along with a new power steering pump cost me $2000.

Had the boot rack replaced at 135000kms.

General Comments:

If I hadn't of picked a dud, I think I would have really liked this car.

It was great for me while I was at Uni, and used 3/4 a tank of fuel to get from Newcastle to Canberra.

Used a lot of oil, we never discovered why.

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong since I bought it. The door open warning noise comes on whether the key is in the ignition or removed. It was doing that when I bought it.

General Comments:

The car looks very stylish for it's age.

It is comfortable to drive with plenty of room in the front. Rear seats have limited headroom.

It's not a car for winning drag races at traffic lights but it is respectable for a 1.5L.

At 18 kilometers per litre of fuel the economy is impressive.

Faults:

Left rear wheel bearings replaced ($160 NZ). Plastic headlamp covers deteriorating a bit so I used a little Jif cream followed by a plastic polish.

General Comments:

Car is ex Japan and is actually branded as a Toyota Cynos. Paid $5,800 NZ (about $4,000 US) in Oct. 2004. Very nice car, 33 to 36 mpg consistently. Fun to drive especially the sport/manual ECT. 11 gallon fuel tank (45 litres) could be a bit bigger. Petrol in NZ is @ $5.30 NZ/gal (Dec. 2005) so fuel economy is really appreciated. Comfy front seats and decent trunk space. Wish it had cruise control.

Previously owned a 1985 Tercel (US) and it ran 13 years (150,000 miles) on just gas, oil & tyres.

Faults:

I had to replace the timing belt when I got the car.

I had to put new breaks on when I got the car.

General Comments:

This car is great on petrol, it only costs me $40 to fill and a full tank lasts me two weeks and I drive to school everyday which is 30Km away.

The performance is great, it is so zippy. One night I was going 155km and could feel that it wanted to keep going.

Every time I get in it, it starts first time every time.

It is a great first car and I would buy a Toyota over and over again.

Faults:

Has a slight oil leak however is not major and not using any oil either.

General Comments:

Going to this car from a twin turbo car, I wasn't expecting too much performance wise, but was surprised with the up and go this little car has.

Being just under 6 foot, I only just fit in the cabin, hit a bump hard enough and I sometimes bump my head on the roof otherwise it's a comfortable vehicle to drive.

As others have mentioned, the back seat is extremely small, primarily due to the low back window, however when buying a coupe, you're not expecting to take many passengers :)

Faults:

Battery connection/Fuel injection connections faulty. Sometimes the car would not start and all electrical systems would fail, including hazard lights and horn. (Only happened when starting the car not during driving)

After I got it going again by jiggling the battery connection, the car would idle poorly dipping to about 200rpm before slowly returning to normal.

Heater/Fan backlights do not always work.

General Comments:

This car is an excellent first car. It's fairly sporty looking and cheap to run.

Handling is quite decent and while performance isn't great, it's right where it should be for a 1.5L engine.

Headroom was marginal for me being 5"9 but it was tolerable and it is a 2+2 coupe afterall.

Rear seat space is quite good (leg room) except head room is non existent, passengers were always hitting their head on the rear window.

All in all I was very happy with the car for the price I paid for it. Apart from the battery connection which I believe was a small easily fixable problem, I think this car was very reliable engine wise.