1990 Toyota Carina XL from UK and Ireland - Comments

Healthy appetite for sidelight bulbs.

Cam box oil seals started to leak at about 78000 miles.

For the age of the design the car has lasted very well considering it has had quite a hard life.

The engine on the whole is very pleasant and being a 16 valve it has enough go to overtake slower moving traffic and be mildly entertaining in a straight line.

The car's ride and handling are however pretty disappointing, bordering on infuriating at times; very often the car does not feel at all safe at speed or under emergency steering and braking.

Other than this, and the often heavy fuel consumption, the car is very good; it is plentifully spacious and the power steering, whilst a little inaccurate at speed, is fantastic for parking.

The seats are comfortable for long periods of time and the cabin is user-friendly, if a little bland.

Although very much yesterday's technology, the Carina II is nontheless a good used buy if you need something cheap, versatile and extremely reliable. I believe my car will carry on well past 100,000 miles without a hint of trouble.

Handling has been compromised for extremely super smooth ride comfort which can be turbulent at high speeds.

I have a Toyota Carina II GL 1988 that has done 151,000 miles and is still going strong. When I bought it, it had done 138,000 miles, but that did not deter me. The car has never failed to start even in winter. Anyone who says the Japanese don't make the most reliable, rust resistant cars is terribly mistaken.

Mines a '92 1600,150000miles,40 mpg,0-60mph 10 seconds,105 bhp, driven very fast on irish roads, indestructable, bomb proof engine, understeers a lot in the rain, worth almost nothing.I'll keep it forever.

I'm about to purchase my second Carina GL. Last one was 1989 (G) cost £550, this one 1991 (J) cost £400. I would agree with most of the comments made above. These cars can be bland in many respects, but they somehow grow on you without you realising, and everything keeps working (touch wood). Also, they're more spacious than you at first think. A great buy if you can find a good one.

My carina is a 91, 1.6, got 154K on the clock, bought it with 114K, have not a bit of troube since my purchase. Find it to be fond of the juice, and sometimes runs a little rough, however changing the carb, as I have done, did nothing for it. if anyone has any suggestions on how to reduce fuel consumption, plese let me kno.. lets hope it stays driving like it does, I find it very comfortable, no rattles, or anything like that.

Thinging of getting an alfa 156 next car, what do ye think?

Try to change the sparkplugs and/or the airfilter, if you didn't do it already. Regarding the Alfa: Keep the Carina if you want a small car budget... Mine (1.6, 1989) has done 318000km now... No problems and still running great! By the way, in the summer it can easily do 13-15 km/l.

I only last week purchased my first Carina 2. It's a 1.6XL Lift back 91 J. My last car BMW 525 decided to give up the ghost and die, so I was needing a car straight away. Although, I have paid £700 for the car, I must say it's in perfect condition and comes along with 1 previous owner and 63,500 on the clock with the original service record stamped up and all bills to show. So far, I really like the car. I went to Halfords the other day to see if they sell driving gloves and a flat cap. As the car was a demo for the first 6 months of it's life, it comes with Metallic paint, rear spoiler and alloys. Hope it carries on and on and on.

I envy you! Take good care of this car, give it anti-rust protection every year and you will have inexpensive and comfortable transport for at least the next 10 years. Mine has done over 320.000 km and the mechanics still work great. However I regret deeply that I didn't rust protect it.

I’ll like to purchase a Carina II, preferably one of the 1991 or 1992 models. Incidentally, I have searched the web for information and have found very little.

I’ll like a classification of the various engine Options available (e.g. 1.6L Xli, 2.0 Gli, etc). Can I get a 1991 or 1992 Carina II built with ‘Air conditioners’, ‘Auto transmission’, ‘Power windows’, ‘Power door locks’, ‘Alloyed rims’, etc.

Comments on my concerns will be highly appreciated.

Hi CHUKS, I'm from Singapore & drive a 1989 Carina (known as Corona CD here-Engine type:AT171) 1.6L petrol auto. Got it just over 5 yrs back. Now has 340000km on the clock. Had abt 200000km when bought it.

Has power windows/mirrors/ steering/aircon & CD player (All added on after import as import tax very high here. Changed radiator, f & are brake pads, ball joints, F wheel bearings,2 power window motors, alternator, 4 tires & A/C compressor all at abt 280k.

Last 30K car"sways" over uneven roads, but problem seems to be going away???

Otherwise it's a great car to own & maintain. Get abt 13KM/L which is good & power bad when below 2K RPM, but gets better above 3K RPM.

Love my Corona CD (Carina)

Any comments can email me at pisces696@yahoo.com.

Carina 11's are toughies. The rough running mentioned above is most probably the advance/retard weights in the dizzy - them and the sticking indicator flasher unit are the two most common faults with this model, but they can be forgiven as this 20 year old cruiser can blast past the boy racers when you bury the foot into the carpet, and it just munches up the miles on a long run.

Mines an 1.6 16v 89, and everything electric still works - try saying that with any non-japanese car, as well as which it still runs like a clock despite 150k miles of harsh Irish roads and fast driving, and is more economical than my 95 Charade (a 1.3). I have towed and jump started more modern cars with this old bus than I can remember, but it has never missed a beat itself. I take delight that it cost less than 1 months finance on a new car, and wears its years so well.

I'll add my endorsement of the Carina II - I have an '89 2.0L diesel estate and it's been bulletproof for the past five years I've owned it. I bought it low-mileage from a retired guy who'd really looked after it and it drives like a new car, still. Not a squeak, rattle or anything untoward. The only thing that's cropped up so far is a dodgy alternator, but that's hardly a major fault in any car, especially a twenty year old one.

The paintwork is really good overall, but you have to attend to any deep scratches quickly, as the underlying steel isn't very high quality, in my opinion.