1993 Toyota Celica GT 2.2L from North America

Summary:

Great little car

Faults:

Power Steering hose leaks. I have to refill it about once a week.

General Comments:

This is a great little car. I purchased it in a bind while my last car was dying, and I found this one for $550. The engine is still peppy for the miles on it, and I get 27-30 highway and around 25 in the city. It's dependable and even performed well in the winter (Northern IL). I would recommend this car to anyone looking for fairly economical transportation.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 1st September, 2008

1993 Toyota Celica ST 1.6L from North America

Summary:

Good car, easy to maintain. Power seems lacking on uphill driving

Faults:

Started stopped working at 128,000.

Battery died at 130,000.

Engine mount broken at 132,000.

Radiator starts to leak at 142,000.

Rear right passenger seat belt broken at 135,000.

(I replaced it myself, with an used part).

Trunk strut support is bad since I purchased the car. I just pop up the trunk slowly with some hand lifting. This way you can prevent from damaging the trunk corner.

General Comments:

I really like this car. The design is quite modern, considering that it's made in 1993. The smooth curves of the body panel look really outstanding comparing with cars of the same period. The car looks nicer with spoiler. The paint is not very good. Quite a bit oxidation on the roof, and during the 3 years (2003-2006) I own it, paint on the hood started to get oxidized.

Handling is good. The car is very responsive, accelerates fast (stick shift), and takes corners with good balance. The steering wheel is very smooth, drives easily with one hand.

Seating position is low, comparing with Corolla or Camry. But it's easy to find a comfortable position. Seats on the back is also very comfortable, but it can only sit 2 people on the back.

The engine (1.6L) has enough power on highway, but it does not keep up the speed even on slight uphill slope. The speed would drop from 65 to 55MPH, even when I floor the pedal. At that speed, you cannot downshift, so I feel a bit disappointed on this issue.

The dash display, console controls are all well positioned, easy to see and use.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 27th August, 2008

1993 Toyota Celica GTR 2.0 from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

Beautiful, and my wallet loves it

Faults:

Sister somehow blew my engine around 149,000kms (was no oil in the engine) but managed to get another one (which only did 30,000kms).

3 cigarette burns on the carpet (my sister).

My friend somehow managed to burn my clutch, but paid to replace it..

Air intake was dry and broken; was very hard to find in my area and sort of expensive.

Car seems to attract a lot of people who like to vandalise my car wherever I park (most of the problems were my sister).

Overall a very reliable car; major problems were my sister driving the car.

General Comments:

The car was imported and has been in my family since 2000, when my sister owned it, and I managed to beg her to sell it to me, but then once it was mine my sister began neglecting it when she borrowed it (blew the motor).

This was the first car I drove, and my first car.

The car is rare in Australia. It came with a 3SGE motor and 4 wheel steering (Australian models only came with the 5SFE motor and did not come with 4WS).

Very comfy while driving ,and is great on petrol (my wallet loves that) when not being pushed, which was rarely. Also the interior is in excellent condition since it looks like new.

I have added some things to the car such as 17" rims with 225/40 tyres, 2.5" exhaust, Exedy Heavy duty clutch (after my friend damaged the old one), King springs and a sports steering wheel and boss kit.

The car looks crazy, and some of my friends thought it was rear wheel drive (shows that they know nothing about cars), and everyone I meet loves my car.

Overall I really do look after the car, and the car has not gave me any problems yet..

Only problem.

Where I live it's sort of hard to find parts for the car (air intake). and its kinda expensive to get them from Toyota.

This car is great economically (if not thrashed) and I recommend it. It's done quite low Kilometre for its age (since the engine was replaced as well).

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 26th August, 2007