Faults:

Nothing so far.

General Comments:

I love this car, even though I am a 17 year old guy and this car isn't exactly REEKING with testosterone... but it gets me from Point A to Point B while being easy on gas.

It has more acceleration that I expected. If you're going 55 m.p.h. and you floor it, you're almost instantly going 70. A nice surprise. I would like a tach, but I have to remind myself I got the base model.

I'm pretty sure I got a steal on this Corolla, for a 2001 with only 31,000 miles on it, for $5,300!

The interior is very comfortable. Even though this is the base CE model, I think it should have a tilting wheel. I'm 5"4 and the driving position is a little awkward, but I'm getting used to it.

This Corolla has the same stereo head unit as my previous Tacoma, but this car sounds 500 percent better when compared to my Tacoma. Nice clear sound, with above average bass for a 4 speaker set-up.

I would recommend this car to anyone that wants a gas sipping, reliable, comfortable car.

Faults:

Replaced rear struts at 56000. Needed replacing again by the time I sold it.

Oil pan seal leaked. Shop said it was a poorly done repair under previous owner. This only reduced the oil loss problem.

Sludge problem starting at 60000.

General Comments:

This little car handles poorly in weather. It tends to slip in rain and snow on standard tires. It's stable for its weight in crosswinds, though. Cornering is excellent.

Initial pick-up is decent. However, it struggles at high speeds. Overtaking at speeds over 45 mph is strictly for the brave. Even after I figured out that it has a very long fourth and started downshifting a lot, uphill power was still very poor. Oddly, its performance under cruise control was decent.

The dashboard illumination in the "sport" trim is reddish and not very good on the eyes. The external thermometer was a nice little toy but just about the only thing apart from the tach that set it apart from the standard trims.

The interior is quite adequate for a small car and I never had complaints about room from my passengers, though a baby seat was a tight fit. The seats were about what you'd expect for a cheap car and scored extra poorly on lumbar support.

I'm thankful that I kept my old Corolla and eventually went back to it. This model year was enough to put me off Toyotas for the future.

Faults:

This car is great except for the third brake light in the rear window. The thing caught fire twice. It seems that the plastic begins to melt with the heat from the bulb, and then the plastic housing contacts the bulb. Then the plastic begins to smolder and eventually catches fire. I've seen the smoke and what not coming from the back window...

This has happened twice so far, and each time cost around $70 - $90 (not to sure) just for the parts alone from the dealer. I've replaced the entire housing, bulb, socket and had the wiring checked each time. There seems to be nothing wrong with the wiring, and I checked and there seems to be no recalls or TSB.

The interior of this car is also not very good. Unlike our previous Corolla, the headliner is falling down, the door panels are warping a bit, and the seat material seems to wear and fade faster. The trim around the doors is also starting to peel very badly, and makes the car look horrid, and the inside door handle has broken twice so far. Although the interior is obviously more modern, my 1989 Pontiac 6000s interior is in way better condition than this car, and I don't really baby that car compared to this one. The interior pieces (before they began to get deteriorate) felt of much higher quality than my 1989 Pontiac Firebird, a car that is known to not have a very solid interior, but the pieces although they feel cheap in that car have not deteriorated when compared to this car. I'm rather shocked about that.

Aside from that the car seems to be great. It rides fairly well, the A/C blows cold, and it has decent power. The engine itself is very reliable and has yet to have a breakdown since we first got it. Just brakes and tires so far.

General Comments:

Overall? Not being biased here, as I am telling what I think about my car. I don't prefer American nor do I prefer Japanese (I own both obviously). This is a good car. The brake light catching fire thing is kind of a turn off... but aside from that it is great.

To sum it up, this Corolla is very reliable engine wise and it is pretty comfortable. However, when compared to older models (based on my older Corolla and Camry), Toyota seems to have cheaped out on the interior and trim details.