1995 Toyota Tercel Reviews - Page 7 of 8

The washer fluid container leaks and won't hold fluid.

Shifts really hard into 2nd.

Brakes and tires need replaced a lot, but I think it's because I drive it hard.

Fun little car.

I plan on adding all the performance parts I can find.

Toyota, and Japan overall, build a fantastic car.

Light as a feather for great acceleration.

Suspension has held together even after all the crap I've put it through.

Very reliable!

Unfortunately because Toyota had to cut a few corners on this car to get it into the range of affordability they were looking for, there are a few minor drawbacks to the tercel. Looking past its noisy interior, cheap vinyl seat covering, a bad antenna/radio signal, the tercel is an awesome car. For me the only problems I've encountered are; one, bad rear-view rattling when my sub hits, and two, a "puffing" coming from the manifold (hmmm I wonder what that could be). Unfortunately, the only header to be seen being sold online for this car runs 500 dollars!

This car is cool because it's made by Toyota, therefore very easily modded and quite inexpensive, also I feel safe with driver and passenger airbags. Performace off the line is blah as you'd expect from this 93hp fuel-sipper. Still because it's a toyota there are a few really cheap performance mods for it including;

1. A cheap strut bar for this car can be bought for 20-30 dollars.

2. A cheap aftermarket high-performance intake for this car can be found everywhere online for less than 50 dollars.

3. Cheap blue-tined headlights and backup lights can be found for less than 20 dollars each.

4. If you have the cash you can even buy a NOS kit for this car for a little over 500 dollars.

5. In the back there are two holes in the metal underneath the carpeting near the brake lights, they did this so if you want you can drill or easily Dremel out two 6.5 inch holes in the carpeting and install 6.5 inch speakers. (they didn't install them for you to save money, but were cool and made it way easier to upgrade :)

The front suspension has never really been good. The right front strut will definitely require replacement. This particular model has also gone through a few water pumps (two since I've owned it), and the system is now leaking, again. Hopefully, it won't be the water pump. The previous owner foolishly put green coolant in this system. The green coolant tends to ruin the water pump seals. The car also tends to have a lot of engine/wind noise.

Overall, this vehicle has been extremely reliable. It still gets 37.5 miles to the gallon. Self maintenance can be a bit tricky. The oil filter is a tad difficult to get to with a wrench.

I had no problems till now.

The only thing is that the interior is a bit noisy.

This sure is a quick car, and after I changed the exhaust, filter, and a few other engine mods, I think I won another 10Bhp. It sure is a fast car, and I will not change it with anything else. I recently fitted Cobra bucket seats, re-trimmed with leather along with the rear original seats.

Brakes and rotors replaced at 47,000 miles for about $350.

Side trim peeled away from car and had to be re-glued at 10,000 miles and again at 40,000 miles.

Vinyl seats cracked and peeled after about 5 years of ownership.

For an econo-box, this is an excellent car. It is very reliable and extremely cheap to operate. Performance was slightly better in the manual than with automatic, but overall the car is sluggish (what do you expect from a 1.5L fuel miser). Handling is poor on such thin tires and road noise is rather high. For short commutes this car was fine. Long trips were very fatiguing.