Owner feedback; 04-08ish Corolla's. Input please.

[99Runnr]

I own a 98 Civic right now. It's a "nice car" for what I use it for; gas mileage, cheap ownership, ect. I gotta be honest though, I just can't stand the constant threat of theft, idiot's trying to race, anytime I go to walmart seeing the crowd of them playing Vin Diesel.

I merely don't want to own the car for reasons such as this. I'm 27 now and just want a car I can drive and not give a crap about. So I have chosen to go after a Corolla. I don't really think there is too much else that's reliable, plain, high MPG, god awful boring that people don't care about.

I have done consumer reports and whatnot on these cars. I drove one, but it had been tampered with a bit. Does anyone own one of these cars/have experience? Here are my primary questions;

Anything you can tell me that's notorious for going bad that I won't discover short of registering to a Corolla forum?

Any preference/longevity issues with the automatics over manuals? The one I test drove was a stick with 80k. It had a very weak feeling clutch, that engaged at the very top of the pedal. Toyota said it was normal but I wasn't buying it.

Or anything else you guys could think to mention. I want something new enough that time isn't a battle over mileage, and modern enough it has decent air bags and such. For 5-8k, I don't think there is much better out there? Thank you.

 

[Lester Lugnut]

Move to a southern state.

Your 18 yr. old Honda will go unnoticed.

 

[99Runnr]

Lol sounds practical

 

[philsey]

To answer your question, my experience with an '08 Corolla is good. Bought used for my sister w/45k miles, ex-Enterprise, 100% reliable for 4 years, still owned. But if you think the cost of swapping a (known-good) car for the reasons mentioned, is a good one, well .... it's your money.

 

[99Runnr]

To answer your question, my experience with an '08 Corolla is good. Bought used for my sister w/45k miles, ex-Enterprise, 100% reliable for 4 years, still owned. But if you think the cost of swapping a (known-good) car for the reasons mentioned, is a good one, well .... it's your money.

I know dozens of people who owned Civic's. There are more who have had theirs stolen, or stolen multiple times, over those who haven't had any issues. I had someone attempt to steal it in the Autozone parking lot while I ran inside to return a rental tool in under 5 minutes.

I am not overestimating the risks of owning this car. I like it honestly, but as I said, I want something I can drive practically and walk away not picturing it stolen before I return. It's stopped me from going to concerts, games, or anything where I leave it out of sight for any duration of time.

Not really a whole lot of options aside from getting a plain vehicle to drive. It's top 5 on the stolen vehicle list, I guess I underestimated those figures when I purchased it quickly for cheap commuting.

 

[99Runnr]

Well I made the right move. Nobody has seemed to care or saw my logic in doing this apparently, however...

I sold my civic today. I washed it, typed a detailed ad and put it on CL with the mods/maintenance list I did. As my 4runner got, everything and then some it needed. I sold the car to the first person who looked at it.

Today we met, paid me, we did the necessary DOL paperwork and shook hands. 5 hours later, someone broke into the car in his driveway and tried to steal it. Window and tint gone, head unit gone, ignition destroyed and some other things.

I left a deposit on a Corolla today. $3800 for an 06 Corolla with 79k original miles. Been outside it's whole life, but full maintenance records (oil changes and such at the dealer). Original owner, going to cut/buff the paint and it will look like a new car. Not a bad trade, and I'll be out a whole $300 and have a car people don't care about. :biggrin2:

 

[smokeatrr]

Just got rid of my 05 corolla CE automatic. Be glad you have an 06. the 05 has interior noise issues. I have been told the windows were thinner and would not stay up. The radio would have to turned up almost completely up to hear riding on the interstate. I had the the hood and roof repainted(dark blue). All flat surfaces needed repainting and for some reason the seam between the trunk lid and the fenders. I did the maintenance myself, by the book, using almost exclusively Toyota parts except oil (Mobil 1). I put 275 K on it with very few issues. I did buy it new

 

[BearsFanRyan]

Traded my '09 corolla and '02 Tundra for my 4runner. Never could stand the corolla, just had it for gas mileage as I was driving a lot at that time. Tundra died and I was stuck with only the corolla, after one day of no Tundra is when I did the trade-in's. Couldn't stand the thought of the corolla being my own vehicle. Never had a problem with it, just couldn't stand the drivability of it. Felt like a go cart. Had 60k when I traded it in.

 

[99Runnr]

Traded my '09 corolla and '02 Tundra for my 4runner. Never could stand the corolla, just had it for gas mileage as I was driving a lot at that time. Tundra died and I was stuck with only the corolla, after one day of no Tundra is when I did the trade-in's. Couldn't stand the thought of the corolla being my own vehicle. Never had a problem with it, just couldn't stand the drivability of it. Felt like a go cart. Had 60k when I traded it in.

Thanks for the input. I just based my searches off a reliability and curb appeal of the car. As we know, it's not much with these Corolla's.

I am buying this through a family member. Do either of you have a better suggestion in the sub-7k price range for high mpg but more fun to drive? They don't have the title and I'm in suspense in the meantime. I can always find a different rig. I did test drive 2 Corolla's and it was indeed like watching paint dry on the excitement bar. :noidea:

 

[BearsFanRyan]

Thanks for the input. I just based my searches off a reliability and curb appeal of the car. As we know, it's not much with these Corolla's.

I am buying this through a family member. Do either of you have a better suggestion in the sub-7k price range for high mpg but more fun to drive? They don't have the title and I'm in suspense in the meantime. I can always find a different rig. I did test drive 2 Corolla's and it was indeed like watching paint dry on the excitement bar. :noidea:

Not really, I have only owned trucks. The corolla was my first and last car purchase. I researched all the high mpg cars at the time and ended up with the corolla probably because all my vehicles but one have been toyotas.

 

[99Runnr]

Not really, I have only owned trucks. The corolla was my first and last car purchase. I researched all the high mpg cars at the time and ended up with the corolla probably because all my vehicles but one have been toyotas.

I hear you. The Corolla really was boring though. Any economy car is slow and fairly boring to pilot. However, it was almost like I added 20 years to my life driving the Corolla for just 15 minutes lol.

I bought a 2014 Corolla S a couple years ago. It's definitely a better car, but I'm not aiming to spend money like that again. Especially when the older stuff from Honda/Toyota get the same MPG and cost 1/3 as much.

 

[Koko4]

I recently sold my 5-speed '97 Civic with 230k and purchased a '14 Corolla, mainly because I needed something that I KNEW wasn't going to leave me stranded. I travel out-of-state every month for work, mostly using my own vehicle. That played a huge part in my decision to buy a newer car.

I can say that it's not anything special as far as the "wow-factor", but I didn't buy it for that. I bought it, as you said, for cheap, dependable transportation. I never had the theft issues with the Honda, but I did have a harmonic balancer wiggle off of the crankshaft in the middle of Mississippi once..All-in-all, the Honda provided many worry-free miles.

If you're anything like me, then you have a preconceived notion that manual transmissions are more reliable / better than their automatic counterparts. This is not the case with the Corolla. I had a VERY hard time telling myself to go with an automatic, and especially the new CVT, but I'll get to that in a second.

Corollas of about that vintage (early 2000's and up, I believe) had a lot of issues with their manual transmissions. I think it was related to the bearings that they used. It was a C-series transmission if I remember right (C50, C59? I don't remember). I researched it a LOT before making my decision to stay away from their manual transmissions. Just browse around in the Corolla forums and you'll find a lot of pre 100k failures. And if you look around for a used replacement, you'll see that the demand has raised the prices pretty high for them. I remember for my Civic, I would see the manuals for ~$150 for sale, just about everywhere! Don't expect that with the Corolla.

I ended up with a '14 that has the CVT transmission. Some people say CVT is boring because it feels like one really large gear, however with this CVT, Toyota actually programmed in different "stages" so it actually feels like it's shifting through the gears, similar to a traditional automatic. The only time you really notice that it's a CVT is when you accelerate strongly, and then it will stay at a certain RPM to give you the most optimal ratio.

I was reassured after learning that the CVT has been used in Toyotas for over 10 years (just in other markets, not in the North American market). I have 30k on mine and haven't had any issues with it.

Let me know if I can be of any help, or if you have any specific questions. My sister owns a '09 Corolla and hasn't had any issues out of it - it's got 70k now. Sorry for kind of going off on a tangent there!