2001 Toyota Celica VVTi 190 review from UK and Ireland

The A/c has broken, (the compressor seized - due to lack of oil in the refrigerant (manufacturing issue when new) car is out of warranty now - so will cost over £1000 to fix.

There is a very very slight big end knock (I mean that by you can only hear it if you put your ear right next to the sump with the plastic undertray removed. This is a 27 000 mile car, correctly maintained with recomnended lubricants and genuine parts, and is not thrashed. As it is mainly used for daily comuting at rush hour.

2 sets of alloys corroded (1st was replaced under warranty) current set are corroding like the originals.

Farting (sorry, best word to describe it) noise when pulling away - suspect internally loose catalyst element or leaky olive joint gasket (dealer said they all do that - and is "normal").

Excessive corrosion of the inner brake disc surfaces on the front, (although car is used daily). New discs and pads now fitted and cleaned guides and slides etc. It is now doing it again (this car uses single pot sliding calipers.. but its happening on piston side, so it's impossible to be the calipers or piston sticking).

Uncooperative Gearbox - possible baulking problem on 3rd gear causing difficulty in engaging gear (gets worse the faster you drive) and also a possible linkage problem.. If go from reverse to 1st, you get reverse again, try again, and it still goes into reverse (dealer says they are all like that and it is "normal", sir)

Gearbox is now making a grating noise in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear on overrun.

Low speed engine knock (detonation), if you're a bit heavy letting up the clutch without enough revs (possible cause of big end problems??). This type of high revving engine does not like being laboured.

Trim rattles galore - the interior quality is nowhere near as solid as older models.

Intermittent dimming of the headlights whilst driving at 30ish mph. The CD player also skips at the same time, so possible electrical/charging system fault.

The Alarm had a mind of its own (fixed now) - Sensor is over-sensitive to vibration. Metal objects in the centre console screw up the sensor.

Paint is very thin, and soft so chips and scratches very easily.

This is our 4th Celica, we have owned Celicas for the past 16 years, all these cars have been impeccably reliable, except this one which is a very poor car by any standard. This will be our last Celica.

This is a very fast car. But the engine is very peaky and has a narrow power band which only is available near the redline. It doesn't not have much low rpm power. The "VVTLi" does not kick in until well over 6000rpm. Forcing you to thrash it to get the best performance. Great for fast road driving - but a pain round town and for cruising as you need to constantly keep changing gear to avoid labouring the engine.

The handling is extremely good, it feels much lighter than the older models and gives good feedback through the steering. But it does suffer badly with torque steer, and the factory Yokohama tyre are not very good for wet grip or traction. It also can be twitchy under hard braking from high speed.

The gearbox has very short and close ratio gearing. Great for boy racers and suits engine nicely, although it is easy to drop out the power band resulting in "block" changes to get the engine back on the boil. The gearbox is spoilt by being uncooperative and stiff to change gear.

Due to the the low gearing, motorway cruising is noisy as the engine revs very highly at motorway speeds.

The interior is nicely laid out, but is cheap plastic, and is poorer quality than older models. Rear vinyl seats don't match the front leather seats (petty cost cutting). And the front seats have no memory, so when folded for rear access, they reset to a uncomfortable bolt upright position. It also has a few rattles. Boot as per all Celicas is large and has the usual restricted height, but is very practical. Although it seems to be slightly smaller than older models.

Dealers were unwilling to help with the multitude of problems with the car and preferred to fob us off on warranty work.