why toyota corolla??

[DavidKim91]

im thinking of buying a older toyota corolla.. box ones..
this would be my first car..
can anyone tell me their goods and bads and other things that i should know before i buy one..
thanks

[badbrakes]

On the good side, I'd say reliability and quality. Never had to change anything on my 96 other than regular maintenance (it has 180 000 kms). On less positive, depending on the year, probably not the safest vehicle... also small engine low HP.

[DavidKim91]

not a very safe vehicle?? how so??
and i dont really care about hp.. just need to go around town

[cmhj2000]

If your main concern is reliability and getting from point A to B, I'd not worry too much.

Know of several old Corollas that have a kazillion miles on them. In many cases the body is starting to go but they get back and forth every day.

The Corolla reputation was usefull in my buying a 2005 Pontiac Vibe, which is based off the Corolla driveline. While I only have 20K miles logged in a bit under 2 years I'm very pleased with it to date.

Of course like any car, maintenance is the key.

[badbrakes]

On your question around safety... maybe someone has more details but I've read that some of the corollas, depending on year, had low crash testing result... the car is small and light and older models may not have the clever engineering around safety that smaller cars nowadays have.

[wrightz28]

My current Corolla (89) is holding up quite well, mechanically. The rear quarters are getting fairly bad, but the rest of the car isn't too bad. Gets great gas mileage when you drive it like it's a 4 cyl instead of an 8

The one I sold (85) quite a few years back with high miles. I sold because it needed head work and I needed a car, so I parked it unitl I could work on it and of course ended up buying a 'new' car and after I fixed the head up I had no use for it, so it was sold and sitll see it cruising around to this day. (disince sticker in the window, so I know it is/was mine.)

[DavidKim91]

just wondering...
what is its top speed???
me and my sister want to comepare with her dodge neon. lol
oh and is this a good car for me to work on and learn more about cars???
this is gonna be my first car and i want it to be like a project..
but if its not a good car to do that on let me know..
thanks

[wrightz28]

Well, mine being some 18 years young, and in accordance with tire rating, I don't push it past 70.

Not sure how much of a project you're looking for with this. The biggest work I've had to do is the timing belt and water pump. I did have to pull the cylinder head a few weekends ago and chase all the thread holes, for soem reason out of the blue, the exhaust manifold bolts decided to let loose an dnot retighten, even with new bolts I then noticed the same was occuring with the head bolts, damndest thing

But yes, they are a little 'easier' to learn on.

[DavidKim91]

well not like project as in just repairs... but as in installing parts and upgrading parts...
i ovbiously will be doing repairs as well because im looking for like a 1989 (seems like a poplular year)..
can you tell me what i should look for in a corolla?? example whats working whats not...what goes wrong alot in corolla's.. or what i should specifically notice in them when buying..
and are there alot of aftermarket parts for corolla's?
sry if these are dumb questions

[wrightz28]

Both my Corollas, timing belts. Biggest thing. And they are a PITA due to the tensioner. The actual work isn't that bad, it's that dumb little tensioner.

I might suggest trying to stick with a EFI (electronic fuel injection) engine, which picked up in 90. Reason being is my 89 decided to start eating coils (I have a thread here on it). After I found nothing out of the norm with the majority of it's internal parts, I figured I wing a "new" distributer at it. Let me tell you, I got really nervous finding only one Corolla out of 20 some odd ones that actually was carbuerated.

The even betteer part with the EFI is that a bulk of the vacuum hoses associoted with a carb are gone. Take a look under the hood of carb Toyota motor, it's a mess in there But, carbs do have their advantages as well, so to each their own.

Other common probs I've noted, axle shafts, brakes and the aforementiond body rott.

[DavidKim91]

so biggest problem is the tensioner???
my dads taurus does that noawdays.. its a 93..
it just wont put too much pressure on it..
can you get fuel injection into a 89???
and body rott.... thats just rust on the outer side right?? not like the whole frame going down the gutter

[wrightz28]

The timing belt tensioner, not the serpentine (accesory belt).

I'm not exactly sure if 1/2 the 89's are EFI, could be, I wanna say I saw some, but the 90 is the same body.

Body rott, common to these is above the front and rear wheels. I have some I found hidden from a previous owner on the rocker panel, but that look slike it stemmed from a bad mud flap job, or leaky rear window.

[DavidKim91]

so the body rott is just the out side.. like rust..
not like the whole inside frame and all..
so 89 and 90 are the same just one has EFI and one doesnt...?

[wrightz28]

hehe, wouldn't you know, mudflap fell off last night

No real frame to rott, it's a unibody. Just the quarter apnels and fenders, same as any 15+ year old car.

[DavidKim91]

sweet... cant wait to buy a corolla..
how much would it cost to repair the rust damage?? cheap? expensive?
(last question... im sure your sick of answering these .. haha)