Can you help me choose the right celica model?

After riding in my freinds celica I was hooked. The cockpit dash just blew me away and how the car looked with a body kit just made me drool. So after going through years of wanting an integra or an ex civic, I think I've changed my mind. My friends was a 2003 gt auto and I thought it was really peppy considering it was an auto. The suspension and handling on it rocked and her's was fully loaded with all the packages. So now going before summer starts I'm looking to getting a newer car and the celica is where I'm going. This is where I need help deciding which model I want. Either a gt or gt-s. Can you help me?

Let me start to why I want a celica. First I drive a 90 honda civic, 70hp, 4spd manual (you read right), no power steering, no a/c, vinyl seats. It's a great mpg car, but It just plain sucks as a daily driver. I love modding it and have done so much to it, like a crx dash swap and a complete si seat swap. But I think I deserve better. I'm sick of being slow and actually being beaten by mini-vans being fully loaded. It's just not a good car to do an engine swap in.

Now being the slow one, I want a fast car whooping my friends integra's, probes v6's and of course the supped up civic's out there. And I would recommend having an auto due to the fact I just like them. I love driving my manual but I want something different now. I love to mod things, especially interior and exterior looks. And the mpg is a big factor in the decision here. Driving a 39 mpg car and going to dropping 10-12 mpg's is gonna be hard for me to get used to so I want a fuel economy car too and I realize it's hard to have good mpg with good power. And last I want features. I want the sunroof, the power everything, the alarm system and a/c. I'm sick of having nothing on my civic. A 2000 model is something I want with a 12k budget here.

So after reading my situation, what do you think would be best for me, the gt or gt-s? I can't really decide and having not really owned a celica before, I don't know. Thanks in advance guys! :)

if u thought the gt was fast you should drive a gt-s they got 180 hp compared to the gt 140 hp. they are a great car and ull still get 28mpg i think. either that or go with an all trac but those will be hard to find. are you a member of toyota nation cause i recognize ur picture below ypour name?

I still think you should get a 5-speed (or 6 in the gt-s). A fast car with a manual is totally diffrent from an economy car. Test drive one and you'll see!

i suggest the GT-s

but you might also look into the GT as you already like it and it would be cheaper

Find a used 00+ GT-S. My cuzen "had" 1 but she wrecked it. It was the first stick car i drove cause i had to learn before i bought my car. Dam those things are quick as fu** even though i didnt reach over 5krpm which is their real potential.

Now how snappy is a gt 5-spd or auto? And reviewing my stats here, it says the auto gets better mpg than the 5-spd, is this true cause if so then I would probably prefer an auto. But if it comes down to the point where a manual is the only one I can get at the moment, i'll take it.

I think you would want a stick instead because autos will shift WAY too early before the VVTi starts *sometimes it do*. So yeah you would want to control the car by forcing it to 5->8k rpm and feel the power instead of auto switching around 4500rpm.

yea i hate my auto it get6s really boring to drive. i wish i would have got a 5 speed but i was only 16 whenn i got this car and i didnt know what i was doing

If you are saying "fast" and "7th gen Celica" in the same sentence, get a 6-speed GT-S and be done with it. Even after installing a stage 1 turbo kit on a GT, it will still only be as fast as a well driven stock GT-S or I/E GT-S.

I think you would want a stick instead because autos will shift WAY too early before the VVTi starts *sometimes it do*. So yeah you would want to control the car by forcing it to 5->8k rpm and feel the power instead of auto switching around 4500rpm.

The Auto GT-S doesn't have any problem shifting before Lift kicks in.. it's when the 4-speed tranny shifts it falls waaaaay out of Lift and it takes a lifetime to get back in. A 5-speed tranny still wouldn't be able to land in lift.

If you are saying "fast" and "7th gen Celica" in the same sentence, get a 6-speed GT-S and be done with it. Even after installing a stage 1 turbo kit on a GT, it will still only be as fast as a well driven stock GT-S or I/E GT-S.
y do you say this yet in the turbo section say a tubo gt gets 210+ WHP?

u need to get ur facts stright before you say anything bro

and a turbo gt would kill a gts even at 5 psi of boost

depending on what size turbo your using expect 8-11 hp per psi of boost

and regardless of what poeple are telling you triptonic will kill a manual, triptonic shifts faster than any manual (driver), get better launches, and you can still hit the high revvs with it and retain the gas mielage of an auto, and not have to worry about the clutch on start or you can turn it off in traffic, but i believe triptonic only comes in gts but dont quote me on that

It depends on what you want to do to the car.If you want to keep it n/a you would want to get the gts. But if you want to throw in a turbo go for the gt.

y do you say this yet in the turbo section say a tubo gt gets 210+ WHP?

u need to get ur facts stright before you say anything bro

and a turbo gt would kill a gts even at 5 psi of boost

depending on what size turbo your using expect 8-11 hp per psi of boost

and regardless of what poeple are telling you triptonic will kill a manual, triptonic shifts faster than any manual (driver), get better launches, and you can still hit the high revvs with it and retain the gas mielage of an auto, and not have to worry about the clutch on start or you can turn it off in traffic, but i believe triptonic only comes in gts but dont quote me on that

I say this because the guys running stage 1 kits on their GT's haven't been able to get anything better than a 14.5 or so.


The tiptronic in the GT-S is junk. If you shift at the rev limiter you will land in the next gear about 200rpms before lift... And for the record, cars with a manual tranny get better gas mileage than an auto.

Yes, the GT-S is the only one that comes with the tiptronic.

no affence but it sounds like he would be better off with a RSX auto

meh the rsx gets better gas mielage but the gts handles better, so whatever he wants

I'm just saying, I don't know if he can really utilize a GT-S for what he wants. Sounds like he wants more straight line. And since he wants an auto I think a RSX would fair better then the Celica. And he sounds like he's into the whole show thing. I like the Celicas but I think RSX has more cosmetics out there (even though i think the Celica looks better =P ).