2001 Toyota Celica VVTi 190 from UK and Ireland - Comments

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.

I've had my celica 190 since october 2005 and I'm well happy with it, but have an intermittent electrical problem as well. My headlights flicker at the same time as my stereo blips. Its as if the radio is tracking in on the RDS signal. Have had Toyota look at it...they've tested the headlights and stereo and both are fine. They then contacted Toyota technical and after 4 days had a call back from my Toyota dealer. Have been recommended to change my ECU at a cost of £800+!! Whats more, they then can't guarantee that it will cure the problem, so whats the point? The flicker is very annoying, but doesn't seem to effect the running of the car. Any suggestions please? The other option I was given was to take out an extended warranty on the car and claim on that after afew months (not officially of course!) That would be approx £430 for the year, but would see them rectifying the problem. I'm just wondering if I could get my ECU remapped or rebooted which may solve this problem (and maybe a lot cheaper!) That's of course if it is the ECU in the first place? Another guy on here reckons it could be the charging system etc... who knows eh?

Look forward to hearing anyones comments on this.

My 01 Celica 190 had P-Zeros rather than Yokos on it from the factory, and it handled brilliantly (despite the list of other stuff that went wrong). What was interesting though, was that I had them replaced with supposedly identical tyres from my local supplier when they wore out, and the handling was never the same afterwards. Wet grip considerably diminished, and more understeer at the limit.

My car was stolen a couple of years ago and hasn't been seen since, but I still remember it fondly for its manic engine and fun factor. It still remains the most unreliable car I have ever owned though, and that includes an Alfa Romeo 33 I owned for four years! I doubt the thieves would have been particularly chuffed with their acquisition as the (second) gearbox was just about to grenade itself, and it had a misfire that drove you nuts! Beautiful looking thing though, in a very Ferrari-esque red with the full Dynamic Pack. Real fun to drive when it worked too.

Not got a celica, but got it's brother Mr2 mk3 as for the problem's with the standerd cd player keep stoppin and skippin I've had know problem's with a ripp speed dvd player that I wired in, but the light's dim when usin the electric window's, but the size of the battery is not an inpressive size so may be under powered. I find it pop's out of gear instead of a smooth change and the engine tick's like the tappet's have no oil runnin through them. but love the over steer in the wet weather.

I have a 190 and it used to suffer from the radio and lights scenario. Every time I flashed the lights the radio went off for a short moment. Was under warranty so the dealer fitted an newer ECU. Toyota know about the fault, mines fine now though.

Big end knock is very common - a japanese engine importer I know can remove and refit a Celica (01-) engine in his sleep cos' he has replaced so many. There is a design fault leading to excess oil consumption, with no show on the gauge until fatal damage has occurred, engine will knock like mad or lock up, pull the dipstick, no oil - can happen at any point, without warning. Not the Celica of old this one. The early d4d diesels are not much better. Race to the bottom Toyota?