1996 Toyota Tercel Standard review from North America

The car is extremely easy to maintain. The only time it has been in the shop was to change the timing belt (every 60000 miles, about $250) and the oxygen sensor went bad at 118000 miles ($400.-).

I performed all other scheduled maintainance on the vehicle on a regular basis. To date it has never let me down, not once.

The standard 4-speed Tercel I own is just reliable basic transportation. It handles OK, but it certainly is not a muscle car. I get between 37 mpg in the city and 44 mpg on the highway going about 65-70 mph. Mileage drops to around 41 mpg if I go 80-85 mph. Yes, it can actually go that fast! Over the life of the car I averaged around 40 mpg (5.9L/100 km).

Recently it started using some oil which it didn't do in its younger years. There is no oil on the plugs and the performance (or lack there off) has not changed noticeably.

The interior held up pretty well over the years and the seats still look nice after 9 years of daily use.

The handling of the car is good with a tight turning radius and responsive steering.

The 4-speed transmission has huge gaps between the gears which doesn't help acceleration either. The 4th gear is laid out as an overdrive which helps fuel economy, but hurts performance.

In summary I would recommend this car if you are looking for basic, cheap and reliable transportation. If you like comfort and/or performance look elsewhere.