Faults:

Rear suspension link had to be replaced. Not dangerous, just rattling. Passed its MOT with it rattling. Cost £20 to replace.

General Comments:

Truly thought I had reached middle age when I bought my Corolla and tried to sell it after having it 3 months because of its image. However, after 3 years and negligible faults, I now have huge respect for this little car. I bought it for absolute peanuts as it was an automatic, and it just goes and goes. I do all the maintenance myself, and recently when the rear section of the exhaust failed, I got the bit off eBay for £25! The local fast fit place wanted £95. Driven gently on a motorway run, 43 MPG is possible. Stop start city driving delivers late 20s MPG. The 1.6 VVti engine uses a bit of oil (a litre every 3000 miles), but I know some use a lot more due to a design fault with this engine.

As regards handling and the overall design of the car, it is very dated, even when it was new in 2000. I sell cars for a living and have worked for most major manufacturers over the years. A Ford Focus was a hugely better car than the Corolla in nearly every respect from handling to interior ergonomics. The equivalent VW Golf had a much nicer interior. The Corolla beats all else, though, excepting a Civic when it comes to reliability. Thats why I now love it. It'll probably soldier on for another few years until the body falls off with rust. Reckon the mechanical bits will still be bombproof. It's a pity no one makes a car with Swedish rustproofing and Japanese mechanicals!

Faults:

The clutch release bearing became noisy after 9000 miles. It was replaced under warranty.

The clutch has always juddered.

The brakes became squeaky at 3000 miles, but cured by a service.

I had trouble starting it once after running the engine a couple of times briefly and then leaving it for a day. Maybe it flooded.

General Comments:

I have always been a fan of Toyotas and this is a fine car. However it's not as well built or niggle free as the previous Japanese built Corolla I owned.

It has never let me down and is superior to any European car I have owned. I will definitely consider buying another and recommend this model to anyone who wants good honest A to B transport.

Faults:

No major mechanical problems. Lots of annoyances though. Gears are very notchy, especially 1st to 2nd change.

Drivers seat very unsupportive, and getting worse by the day. I am not a tall or heavy person.

MPG is also dropping, car is regularly serviced and oil changed etc, full Toyota service history from new, so its definitely not neglect.

Acceleration also deteriorating at low end. When it came back from the last service, the mpg was worse still, I'm only getting 28mpg now where I was getting 35-40 before.

General Comments:

This car is superb round town and on short motorway trips, the acceleration is fantastic once you get into the power band (2500 revs), but suffers badly at low revs, its gutless below 1500. Interior trim is flimsy, the paintwork is atrocious, it scars even if you look at it. Annoying mystery "jingle jangle" sound from the suspension, cannot find the cause. Onboard stereo has great speakers let down by rubbish head unit. Biggest annoyance is the rear seat, this is totally crazy. Toyota provide a split rear seat, but only the back splits, the seat part doesn't!!!??? What is the point of this? absolutely useless and it must be an oversight by Toyota on this model, as I have seen this on several other Corollas. Road noise mentioned by others is very tyre dependant, I changed the supplied tyres for a set of Avons and it's a lot quieter nw. There is very worrying noise from the underside when you drive over gravel or grit, this is due to lack of soundproofing on the floorpan. I am very happy with the car overall, but there are a lot of corners cut in the production of this model.

Faults:

The car pulls to the left. The geometry has been adjusted twice (on both occasions either 3 of 4 wheels were 'out') but it still pulls to the left - and Toyota could not care less.

General Comments:

This 2000 UK car looks like it has a major design fault.

Faults:

The interior light in the boot (trunk) only worked sporadically, but no loose connection could be found.

Occasionally the engine would stutter while cruising at about 3000 RPM.

A droning sound accompanied by vibration was apparent at 2750 RPM. This was not affected by tyre rotation (so presumably not an unbalanced wheel) or by disengaging drive (so presumably the drivetrain was not at fault). The car was bought new and had not been crashed.

General Comments:

The car was quick in a straight line but was frightening on corners and in side winds. The handling problem could be caused by the tyre size (165 R 14) - narrower than the smaller Yaris. There was a complete lack of feel on fast bends with lots of understeer. It was impossible to drive with confidence.

The side wind stability problem was more serious. If it was at all windy, it was difficult to hold the car in its lane. If it was passed by a larger vehicle such as a bus or truck it would be blown off course.

I had similar side wind problems with a Toyota Starlet in 1988.

The rear legroom was poor for a car in this class.