1983 Toyota Cressida review from North America

The ignition coil was replaced when I first got the car.

The rotors had to be replaced because they were warped due to worn brake pads.

Because the tires on the car were over five years old, one of them blew out on me.

Heater stopped working.

Horn wouldn't work most of the time.

Transmission began to slip somewhat selling the car.

Car was burning about 1 quart of oil about every 1,000 miles.

Car had a tendency to vibrate when going over 70 MPH.

Cruise control went out in about a month into ownership.

Air conditioning had never worked while I had the car.

Transmission fluid and power-steering fluid leaked.

Paint was already fading.

The Toyota Cressida was supposed to be a replacement car for my Oldsmobile since I was having so many problems with. However, I couldn't keep the car long because it had a discontinued title and couldn't be registered anymore.

The acceleration of this car was actually pretty good for its age. It had good get-up and go. One neat thing about this car was that the transmission had 3 modes: ECON, NORMAL, and PWR. These modes controlled the gearing of the automatic transmission. This meant that you could set up the gearing for fuel economy or performance. This was a great idea by Toyota. Handling, however, wasn't that great as the car shook and vibrated somewhat at speeds of over 70 MPH. Otherwise, the overall performance was good. Grade: B.

The car was also pretty reliable for the most part, which is something I was expecting for a Toyota. The only times I had to use AAA was when the ignition coil went bad when I had just gotten the car and when a tire blew out (my fault for not getting new tires). Other than that, the car got me around without any problems. Grade: B.

In terms of comfort, the car fared OK. However, the small amount of room (which falls into the trap of many Japanese cars) makes it a little cramped at times but not so bad as to make it really uncomfortable. The seats were pretty comfortable as I never had a sore back after trips. As time went on, the heater went out, so the interior of the car was freezing cold during the winter. The ride was pretty quiet as well. Overall, the comfort of this car wasn't bad at all. Grade: C+

The running costs of this car weren't too bad. At first, it cost some money to do some things like replace the brake pads, rotors, and ignition coil. But, after that, we didn't put much money into it at all. The amount of money put into this car was nowhere near as much as the previous one, though. Grade: C+

Despite some common problems with a 17-year-old car, this Toyota was alright for getting around considering its age and the fact that it was a salvaged car. And we only gave $300 for it and didn't have maintenance records. These cars should last if they are maintained properly.