Faults:

Heat stopped working after 5 minutes of driving. I disconnected the control cable to the heater core modulator on the firewall and I can now run A/C or Heat as needed.

General Comments:

Fun car to drive, especially in traffic.

Most comfortable car I've been in. Inflatable lumbar supports make a huge difference.

Very good on gas. Getting 28 mpg.

Faults:

Had to replace the front brake pads and a leaky power steering pump hose right after I bought it. Other than ordinary wear items, like wiper blades and fluid changes, it has been trouble free for 32,000km --Amazing! However, it does use about one liter of oil every 5,000km or so (not noticeable from the exhaust), but that is to be expected with very high km.

The only real complaint I have with the car is that, like all Asian cars of the '80's, the body is very rusty. If the car wasn't so mechanically sound, it would likely be scrap.

General Comments:

The Celica is bullet-proof. The car was purchased for $1000 Canadian to take some wear-and-tear off my '98 BMW 328. It has well over 300,000km on it and it still drives very smoothly and effortlessly (I often prefer the Celica over the BMW for short trips to the store). Some of this can be attributed to the previous owner's meticulous maintenance. With the 5 speed manual gear-box it gets great gas mileage and is quite quick, though at 115hp, it is not a "fast" car.

With the rear seats folded down, you can get a surprising amount of cargo into the car via the rear hatch. The front seats in the stock "GT" model are average, but I located and installed some "GT-S" seats, which are worlds more comfortable than even my BMW seats.

Faults:

After one month, I had to replace the starter and the battery connectors as both were bad. Three months after I bought it, the clutch had started to give and without warning the car overheated and blew the top of the radiator as I was sitting in the McDonald's Drive-Through. I ended up replacing the clutch, radiator, head gasket, spark plugs, thermostat, and other parts, but recently I sold the car for 200 bucks as I had not the time or money to fix it.

General Comments:

Older Celicas like this will run for 200K to 300K if taken care of properly. The one I owned apparently was not. When I bought it, it had no oil or antifreeze. But besides that, when it ran, it was very quick and very fun. I really loved the handling, even though the struts were shot. Believe me, compared to my mom's Grand Voyager, this thing handled like it was on rails.

Faults:

I am re-submitting my review, 13 months after I purchased the car. My previous review is entitled "killer looks and the driving characteristics to go with it."

Needed to replace 16 year old spark plug wires.

Replaced cap and rotor.

Replaced all 4 brake pads.

Driver's side emergency brake shoes have worn out.

Flex pipe disconnected from catalytic converter. Now that was loud!

Purchased new rims and tires.

Sometimes burns a little bit of oil, but nothing serious.

Air conditioning no longer works

Cruise control has a vacuum leak, but I disconnected and removed the cruise control.

Second gear sometimes pops into neutral from a 3rd to 2nd downshift as you let out the clutch.

Light surface rust in all wheel wells. Nothing serious.

One minor accident, cost $1500 to replace driver's side fender, repair crack in the bumper and a new headlight unit.

General Comments:

I have lightly modified the engine since I bought it. I have added a Pacesetter 4 into 1 header for a Celica GT, but modified it to fit the GTS. I have also added a Vibrant Performance aftermarket muffler, NGK silicone spark plug wires and polished the exhaust ports and put in a K&N drop in filter and drilled holes in the air filter box. For 135hp, and now modified, approximately 150 or so, this is a very quick car. I can beat V6 Ford Probe GTs with it.

My suspension and steering is all stock and the car handles great, but I do think a triangulated strut bar in the front would greatly help under hard cornering.

Seating is 2+2,however as I am 5'10" and must drive with my seat as far back as it goes, that leaves about an inch and a half for leg room in the back. Front seating on the driver's side is very comfortable, and the lumbar support is great. The passenger seat, in my opinion, is very comfortable, but there is not enough side support, as it feels like it is too open, and could use lumbar support as well.

The driver's seat is awesome, I will not trade it for an aftermarket racing seat. The car, due to it's size is hard to get in and out of, as it sits very low.

There are not many aftermarket parts available for it. There are headers, exhuast systems, springs, struts, cam gears etc, but there is a very limited selection. It seems like many more parts are for the lower end model GT, instead of the higher performance GTS.

In conclusion, the 1996-1989 Celica is an ansolutely wonderful car to drive. It is quick, has great handling, is very comfortable, gets good gas mileage (around 550km from a 60L tank running on 94 octane),parts are cheap and for a 16 year old car, it still has style.

I think this car has been one of Toyota's best efforts.