2002 Toyota Celica 190 VVTLI from UK and Ireland - Comments

No faults at all.

A good looking, reliable, economical, and amusingly quick coupe which turns plenty of heads.

The screaming 1.8 litre engine is a peach, revving to almost 9,000 RPM with a spine tingling snarl. Performance, assuming all the revs are used is plain silly for a 1.8 litre normally aspirated engine. 0-60 comes up in about 7 seconds and I can confirm it will pass 130 mph with plenty in reserve. Reckon on 145 ish as a maximum.

Steering, handling and brakes are all superb, and the chassis never struggles to deploy the power, despite the combination of 190 bhp and front drive. The Celica feels brilliantly sorted, and is great fun to hustle round the lanes. Body roll is non existent, grip strong, and on the limit response predictable without being boring. It's a fun and easy car to drive fast.

The other very pleasing aspect of this car is its fuel consumption. Staying under 6,000 RPM (where the valve timing and lift switches to its high rev mode), it easily notches up 38 mpg, and you have to be seriously caning it to ever dip below 30 mpg. That is very impressive for such a quick car.

Dislikes? It's not brilliantly refined on the motorway, and the orange dials look a bit tacky, especially the digital fuel and temp gauges which look completely out of place. The other gripe is the way the engine can also feel a bit lethargic low down, although the kick in the pants it delivers as you howl past 6,000 RPM compensates more than adequately. I still find Toyotas VVTLI more tractable and useable than the Honda VTEC system however, and the engine will pull from under 30 mph in sixth without complaining at all.

Overall, I'm well pleased, and would definitely buy another.

I have a 1987 Toyota Celica ST and I love it. It is my favorite car to have in highschool. It is a quick little 2.0 4 cyl. engine, and is very good at turns. I would rather have a 2002 Celica, but this little car kicks.

I am currently scaling the market for the best value for

money coupe. At present, the Celica 190 coupe and Vauxhall

Astra 2.0L Turbo (also 190 bhp) are the two most

favourable on my list, though the Celica has the edge with

the better fuel consumption. Reading your comments about

the Celica 190 Coupe has now confirmed my decision.

I'll be after a Flame Red one!!

Cheers & Happy Motoring.

Having happily caned numerous hot hatchbacks, and a few other coupe's in my time, the new Celica 190 has been a revelation. I wanted a Subaru WRX, but after being convinced by my girlfriend to testdrive a Celica I was hooked.

A True Drivers Car.

This thing can be slammed into 110mph bends with almost predictable neutrality. The rear is so well behaved, even when braking into corners. Letting off the power over bends on crests results again in fairly neutral drift - where other cars would be well sideways. The pedals are all at the right heights for healtoeing etc, and the handbrake, being drum-in-disc, works a treat. Steering rack has a nicely balanced ratio for a road car. It stops on a dime.

Here are the niggles, but they are far outweighed by the pluses:

1.) Second cam profiles don't come on until 6000rpm. You really have to pedal this thing to 8000+ if you are going to keep it in the power band between gearchanges.

2.) Ermmm... that's it I think... Leather seats get a bit hot in the summer...

Go and try one out today!

Steve@santrix.co.uk.

I owned a astra turbo coupe and swapped it for a celica 190 great choice feels a lot better and looks the part and the interior is a lot better too, but I think the astra has bit better performance though, but I wouldn't go back never.

The 1.8 integra type R, is quicker and better overall car performance wise.

Thanks for the informative original review & following comments - it's helping to swing the balance in favour of the the Celica 190 over the CTR for me when it comes to deciding my next car. I totally respect the CTR as a cult hot-hatch, but for me, the Celica is the more characterful car: I mean, what other modern sub-£20,000 or thereabouts coupe looks like that?! Forget the torque issue (not an issue to me - I love the ambiguous nature of the vvt engine. Also, 'cos I'm getting a little bit more old and boring (33!) and the Celica seems like the slightly more practical of the two when considering fuel consumption and front tyre-wear etc.

I've had a Celica 190 for a year now and all I can say is that the car is out of this world. Yes an Integra Type R is Quicker (only slightly) but the Celica is far more refined.

It's a very comfortable car - full leather trim is so sweet and not available in the Integra. This is what swung it for me when deciding which one to buy (I'm a bit Honda fan btw). The Celica is much easier to live with.

The engine is every bit as mental as you would expect from a car that revs past 8000rpm, but keep it below 4000rpm and it drives like any other city car.

Handling is very predictable. It corners sooooo tight without body roll and with the right throttle pressure in bends you can actually manipulate the car between understeer and oversteer - very neat, but I state here and now VERY DANGEROUS - keep that kind of behaviour to the track.

For me, it's the best looking car in it's class by a country mile and people never stop complementing me over it.

Fuel consumption is great when it's driven easy. I've had no mechanical problems with it so far. Only the usual maintenance - new pads (discs all round) & service. Previous owner never had to do anything serious.

There IS ONE thing that dissapoints me. There is some bubbling on the paint on two of the alloy wheels. I've researched this and apparently it's approblem that other people have noticed. Aside from that I cannot say one bad thing about this car. Will I get another one? YES without hesitation!

Has anybody considered the FTO Mivec as an option? I'm looking at a 2000 VVTL-i Celica and a 1998 FTO Mivec 2.0 same interior spec ie (climate CD etc). Love the sound of both engines and I appreciate the engineering. For me the Integra is a bit pure as mentioned above, and not that refined! Excellent car though.

The FTO has it on looks (for me), but the Celica interior is much nicer as I do have to live with this car. Any suggestions?

I've got a Toyota Celica 2002 vvtli 190 T-Sport, and I love the car, but it's a few weeks now that when I pull away it's got a strange rattle from the engine compartment or exhaust. Could anyone please help me. Thank you, Damian.

Probably a heat shield rattling. Nothing to worry about, but if you are bothered by it, jack the car up and have a look, or take it to an exhaust/tyre place, and it shouldn't be a massive job.