2000 Toyota Corolla LX review from North America

Nothing at all has gone wrong yet. And so far it doesn't look like anything will be going wrong soon. No rattles, clicks, buzzes, etc.

The car does exactly what it should do. Run. Not only does it run, it starts on the first turn of the key, even in the bitter cold of Wisconsin. The ride is virtually flawless, smooth and comfortable even for someone who's 6' 3". The shocks give a very gentle ride though even speedbumps can be felt (keep in mind that this car is still almost 5 years old though!).

There is some swaying on the highway from wind buffeting, but the all wheel drive my Corolla is equipped with is very good at keeping the car stable. Even better, the car manages to get pretty good fuel economy despite having AWD. I get about 28-29 in the city and about 38 on the highway. In fact, I drove for about 4 hours on half a tank, going on the highway about 2/3 of the time and the other 1/3 in the city. An average of 36.5 mpg. Not too bad.

Even though I've had the car for a bit over 600 miles, I've had no complaints with it and I definitely understand why Toyota is so well respected. If they put this much work ethic and consideration into their lower-tier cars, I hope I have a chance to try the upper-tier sometime! I'd definitely buy from Toyota again (so far) and it isn't even showing that the car was made in the US, which is great.

The only thing I am a little anxious about is how much I paid for it. Aside from extras, taxes, licensing and interest on the financing, the car cost me $8,500 when the car had 58k on it. I did come back to the dealer and talked about the terms of the sale and as a gesture of good faith, they gave me $200 back. Basically, I was sick of my '88 Acura Integra (it hated being in 5th gear) and so I wanted a new car fast, so I bought the third car I saw in a weekend. Not a smart move, but I think I could've done worse. Opinions are welcome.