1985 Toyota Corolla CS Sedan review from Australia and New Zealand

Needed a new clutch at 130,000.

Driver's side window came out of its track.

Rear suspension needed replacing soon after I sold it.

Some usual maintenance:

Coolant flush

4 new tyres

Battery.

The rear muffler got a hole in it so I replaced it with a 2" Lukey sports system from Exhaust Technology.

The paint was fading quite badly due to it not being garaged by the previous owner.

This was my first car.

I bought it from a dealer who harped on and on about how reliable and bulletproof these Corollas were. He was right!!

This car had a very strong engine and felt like it had been looked after well.

I had it just over a year and did 2 major services on it.

I was surprised by how much get up and go it had for a little old carburetored 1.5. Once I dragged off a Pulsar ET Turbo (Which looked a little worse for wear I'll admit).

This car didn't handle too well when pushed, there was a lot of body roll and not too much grip although the skinny 165/75 tyres probably had a lot to do with this.

After I put the exhaust on and mounted a tacho on the dash I enjoyed driving this car a lot more.

This car sounded great, especially around 3000 rpm when the power band really kicked in. Unfortunately the engine didn't like to rev that much, after about 5500 rpm it was all over and power just tailed off.

I very very foolishly (in a financial sense anyway) sold this car to buy an Alfasud Sprint. I would recommend this model Corolla to anyone looking to buy one; it never broke down on me, it sounded good with the exhaust and it went alright, even up hills.