Couple of Corolla T-Sport questions!

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Akagi

Akagi

Akagi

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Hi all, I know at least a couple of you have, or at least have had one of these.

I have a couple of questions...

When I test drove one, there seemed to be a slight whine at low revs at partial throttle and when releasing the throttle at low revs - is this indicative of an issue, or is this just the nature of the engine?

Is the clutch bite naturally quite high and the clutch fairly firm/springy? The only things I have driven by comparison are VW's and Audi's which had feather light clutches, and a Nissan which had a very stiff clutch.

Some of them had an issue with the heater not blowing hot air, and only blowing "warmish" air, which could present an issue when clearing windows and so on, this is related to the heater matrix I believe. Any ideas what needs to be sorted out to fix this? The one I looked at had this issue for example.

Should be going to view another soon, and the first one I looked at is back up for sale again also.

Please don't bother posting if all you have to offer is negativity towards the car, or an attempt to discourage me from getting one - I have had quite enough of that already.

Taa. :)
 
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The noise I heard was also in third, off throttle while decelerating! And it didn't happen every time I tried to re-create it, only some of the time!

Sounds like the same thing. I'm wondering if it is actually anything to be worried about...
 
I'm going to look at another on Saturday, another facelift with 84,000 miles on the clock, private seller this time, asking a very fair price for it. No alacantara interior - just normal red & grey cloth, only one key, and the drivers seat is jammed but the seller has spare seat runners. It is £2K though, which leaves lots of change for fixing the seat runner, buying a new set of tyres, and maybe even getting a second key done.

paradigm said:
Isn't rejecting advice how you ended up lumbered with a Polo that you want rid of?

I'm interested as to how you have arrived at the decision that of all the mediocre/luke warm hatchbacks out there, you've decided on the Corolla?
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No that isn't really why I have the Polo, plus I loved the Polo as a first car, and still do, it is just that mine isn't a good example of one!

And i'm not surprised you are interested, confused even! So I'll sum it up quickly... Out of all of the hot/warm hatches, it has the lowest fuel consumption, the lowest tax, the lowest insurance, the lowest price, they are meant to be very reliable, they are cam chained so I don't have to worry about changing the belt, they are less common than their more popular counterparts, they are less desirable to steal, they have thatcham approved alarm systems, VVTL-I goes BWAAAAAAAAAAH, they are a bit sleepery, and I personally like how they look.
 
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No plans for bucket seats!

Possible plans for a short shifter, induction modifications, and suspension. :)

Wheels at a later date maybe, but in the mean time a set of nice tyres will do!
 
adam cool dude said:
If you ever do have some spare change laying about look up Se7en stage 2 cams. There is a video somewhere which compares stock vs stage 2 and it is relatively cheap too at 700ish for the cams and fitting.
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I have already looked up the cams, and explored a lot of other opportunities for modification as well! :D

I have offered the seller of this T-Sport £100 to remove the advert (eBay listing ends on Thursday) and secure the car until Saturday.
 
Dav4 said:
U mad :confused: youre giving him £100 to take the ad off without looking at it? What if it's a pile of crap? Which it could be priced at 2k. Is it on auction or buy it now? As I never trust auctions on eBay! The good cars are nearly always on classified ad's.
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It is an auction with a starting bid of 1700 and no bids on it. I would be buying outside of eBay not through eBay.

If it is a pile of crap then I walk away, but signs all seem to point to it being a pretty solid example. It looks to be in good condition from the pictures provided, including pictures of the engine bay, and pictures of a stamped up service log book. It has apparently had new brakes, two new tyres, new plugs, a new battery, and other bits and bobs recently.

It is priced below similar examples, so I am prepared for there to be a few little bits and bobs to sort out, but I am fairly confident that there won't be any horrendous mechanical gremlins.

I have found a buyer for the Polo at short notice for £500 as well, so if I sell the Polo for £500 and buy the Corolla for £2000, thats an outgoing of £1500. I almost got that other Corolla for £2400 + the Polo as trade-in the other week. £1500 vs £2400... :)

This one also doesn't appear to have the same cosmetic blemishes, the aerial is very much not snapped off, the brakes don't need doing, it has 5K less miles on the clock, and the heater apparently blows hot air, so it hopefully doesn't have the heater issue.
 
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I have been in contact with the seller and obtained a lot more details than seen in the advert before even thinking about asking her to take it off of eBay and arrange a viewing. She has apparently been driving it around locally for 2 or 3 years as a student, and has been very helpful trying to answer my questions despite the fact that she has said she isn't that au fait with cars.

It has been serviced/maintained independently since she has had it, hence why the book is only stamped up to 2012, she says it has been very reliable and has never broken down (I know to take this sort of thing with a pinch of salt), it had new spark plugs and an oil change two months ago, the battery was replaced a few months ago, the brake disks and pads were done two months ago as were two new tyres, there is apparently no issue with the heater/A/C blowing hot/cold, no other issues that she is aware of (or at least has mentioned) aside from the seat runner being damaged. She is also providing me with a replacement seat runner and bits so that I can sort it out before I drive it away, if I choose to buy it.

I also asked her if she could take me out for a drive in it and demonstrate that it shifts into all gears correctly, the clutch doesn't slip, it shifts onto the cam properly, there is no loud whine decelerating in third like in the other one I went to see, the ABS works correctly, and so on - she said that was absolutely fine.

The only issues with it which I am aware of are the seat, and the fact that it only has one key provided along with it. It is priced significantly under similar condition/mileage T-Sports at £2000, and I am happy to pay this for it if it is as described. I may try and knock the price down to £1900 because the MOT is due in October however. I'm not really fussed about the tints, tints can be removed, plus I doubt they would ever be picked up on anyway.

For this sort of money I am reasonably happy to sort out the odd little niggle here and there, as long as it is in good mechanical condition overall.

At the end of the day, even if I were to buy it for the full £2000, had a second key made, a brand new set of tyres fitted, and a few other bits and bobs, it will still be less than I *almost* paid for the other T-Sport I went to see.

Dogbreath said:
More reliable I would say, and a far better car all round. However, you'd need to pay more than £2k for a nice one, especially with the relatively low mileage this one has, so the Corolla does have the one single advantage of cheapness.
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And the fact that the insurance is £800 not £1600. :p
 
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[TW]Fox;28460640 said:
Why would you pay an independent to service your car (Those other stamps are from independents anyway) and not have them stamp the book?




Surely you'd drive it yourself. Nobody buys a used £2k performance hatch without a thorough test drive.




I would want to know why this is.
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She said it has been serviced by her friend who is a mechanic, just like my car has been serviced by a mixture of myself and my friend who is a mechanic. He doesn't stamp my book, I don't even have a book to stamp.

I would prefer to test drive it, but I can't legally test drive it can I? :confused:
I could ask her to let me do a few laps of a car-park in it, or I could risk driving it illegally, those are about my only options...

And it is £2000 because she needs to clear up the room on her driveway, the very same reason I'm selling the Polo for £500 when it is worth more like £800.
 
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I am not sure why the timing chain was replaced at 67K, this was done before she purchased the car.

I have asked her if she can take me to an industrial estate/large carpark/etc so that I can drive it for a few minutes to check everything feels okay.

I did look at day car insurance, for some reason I cant get quotes. (age related?)

There isn't really time for the MOT to get sorted, she was open from the start about when the MOT was due. It isn't ideal, but it is a risk I am reasonably willing to take. As I said I will discuss with her and perhaps try and get the price dropped slightly because of this.
 
There is nothing to suggest that it is rough enough to fail an MOT, or even that it is rough at all. It is Thursday tomorrow, there isn't time to book a slot for an MOT and get it done before Saturday morning.

She is 170 miles away, so I can't get it on any day other than a Saturday.
 
I am going to ask about taking it for an MOT on the day I go and see it, there are several local-to-her places with slots available on the Saturday early afternoon.

Janesy B said:
Why don't you want a car that's been looked after? That thing just screams shed to me.
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I'm really not sure why it "screams shed" to you. The bad photographs? The fact that it was owned by a woman? The fact that it has been independently serviced for the past few years? I dont really understand what could even slightly scream "shed".
 
There is no hesitance to MOT it? I haven't even mentioned the MOT situation to her?

I just said that I thought about it a bit late.

She says that it has been looked after an maintained, and the condition looks fine in all of the images.
 
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We shall see what happens. I will be checking it as thoroughly as I can, and I will have a friend with me who is familiar with cars - there will be no rush on Saturday.

Just because I chose to ping a £100 deposit their way doesn't mean I can't still walk away, it was my decision to do that because I wanted the chance to look at it. You might think it was a stupid decision, thats your opinion. You might be right!
 
You guys are too pessimistic... I'm going to look over it, flit through the documents, and make my own mind up.

As I said, I am happy to walk away despite the deposit and the long journey to see it. If I don't buy it I will still have a day out with a friend of mine in his coupé, have a chat and a laugh, and visit some places on the way back.

Think about it, the absolute worst case scenario is that it fails its MOT and needs a few hundred quid spending on it to make it pass. A risk which I am relatively comfortable to take given the fact that it would have to cost me a good £800 to fix before it will have cost as much as most other 80K facelift T-Sports.
 
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rodenal said:
Only kidding I'm sure it will all be lovely
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I know you don't mean that, you don't have to pretend to be happy for me just because I'm not listening. You're entitled to call me an idiot if you wish... But I'm hoping that my train of thought seems at least a little bit more logical after the post I made above? :p
 
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