Talk to me about.....the Corolla T-Sport

Chris1712

Chris1712

Chris1712

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Morning all. Time has come to change the car and these have really caught my eye.

For the moment I'd really like this thread to STAY on factors about the car to consider when buying used. I have up to 4k to play with and these would appear to offer great value at this price.

So, any current owners or people with background knowledge. It seems my budget will grab me something 02-04 with 60-80k on it.

For what its worth the reasons that have helped me pick one of these are below.

Seem to represent great value for my 4k in terms of age/mileage available
Need to retain some practicality (otherwise I'd probably stump for the Celica)
Reliability is important, Toyota have a good rep for this.
I want something more interesting than my 1.8 SXi Astra (W 2000)
But not so much more 'interesting' that its going to be more awkward to own, if you catch my drift.
Insurable @22 1ncb


Advice and Information greatly appreciated, I haven't found so much as an owners forum yet!
 
Chris1712 said:
Morning all.
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19th Jan 2010, 15:37

Good start, lol.

General consensus is that they are reliable, but typically Japanese built on the interior, and dull to drive. Nothing inherently wrong with them however. I'm not sure I'd warrant one as an "upgrade" from an Astra.
 
paradigm said:
19th Jan 2010, 15:37

Good start, lol.

General consensus is that they are reliable, but typically Japanese built on the interior, and dull to drive. Nothing inherently wrong with them however. I'm not sure I'd warrant one as an "upgrade" from an Astra.
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Well I see plenty of upgrades on the spec sheet, so I feel plenty justified to be looking at them.
I don't want to sound rude to everyone because I do value the opinion of the majority of the Motors forum, but I've seen far too many new car threads descend into why the OP shouldn't buy that car and I'd really like to avoid it as CURRENTLY, its top of my list.


Anyone got any real tips for ownership on these? Common problems, things to check?
 
However we can help to point out cars which are better than the Corolla which you may have missed. We don't want you spending £4k when next week you will see something else and think 'DAMN!'.
 
I really don't see a Toyota being more interesting than an Astra to be honest. They are fantastically reliable (as long as its been looked after, much like any car), but exciting they ain't. Mechanically that is. The build quality and quality of plastics etc is, as mentioned, typically Japanese, dull and cheap.

I would have said that the Corolla would be a sidestep as opposed to a step-up from the Astra. I'll stop short of suggesting other cars... as requested...

But if reliability is your thing... There aren't that many cars that would be more mechanically reliable...
 
the T-Sports have 190bhp iirc, which is quite a lot for £4000.
what other hatchback will give you that much power for price, age and mileage?

ok, the Corolla won't set your hair on fire but it's not that bad. imo it's better than an astra. it is a step forwards, albeit if only on the power front
 
Renaultsport Clio 172 is the obvious alternative performance wise, pick up a nice one for well under the £4K budget. Isn't going to be as reliable as the Toyota though.
 
mjt said:
the T-Sports have 190bhp iirc, which is quite a lot for £4000.
what other hatchback will give you that much power for price, age and mileage?

ok, the Corolla won't set your hair on fire but it's not that bad. imo it's better than an astra. it is a step forwards, albeit if only on the power front
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Yep. 172 or even.... an ST24? :p ;)
 
melchy said:
Renaultsport Clio 172 is the obvious alternative performance wise, pick up a nice one for well under the £4K budget. Isn't going to be as reliable as the Toyota though.
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Hardly what you'd call reliable though?

edit: you ninja edited before I could ninja edit... cunning...
 
Will be reliable even though it's powerful,

Interior is acceptable, handling will probbably leave much to be desired.

We have had a diesel T3 since new, it's 9 years old and nothing has gone wrong on it, it has done 70k around town.
 
I owned a T-sport for a couple years, i liked it, had zero issues with it, the engines nice if a little quirky, the handling is ok, its comfy and nice on long journeys with good space, i regularly carried a full load of 5 people on long journeys and no one complained, good all round car, nothing to shout about for sure but i'd easily have another. I've driven a few astra's through work and i didnt like them at all by comparison imo its a definete upgrade. The t-sports sit way to high, they need lowered imo!.
 
LSPIII said:
must... resist... urge... to... point... out... other... cars...
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The problem is I've looked at other cars, and the corolla has come out on top.

Just trying to remember others i've researched/considered......


Clio 172/182 - Love the idea of this and they are within my budget. However, they're just so small! I had a Clio (Phase 3 i think) as a courtesy car for 3 weeks and your pretty much shoulder to shoulder with the passenger, whacking their knee every gear change. I would like to stay around this mid family hatch range really. I am quite happy to go up in size but generally the kind of performance increase I would like is not available without sitting in a 3.0 V6, which so far have been uninsurable.

Seat Leon Cupra 1.8 20VT - Love these, but the pre-facelift looks phenomenally boring in non sport guise and the sport seems to be not so easy to come across. Plus they tend to be either pre 2001 for the money, OR 110k+.

Civic Type R - Arguably in the same ball park as the T-Sport, with better handling and better image. However, not in my budget.

Astra 2.0T - I do (sort of) like my astra and by all accounts these seem like an entertaining drive and an alright looker in 3dr SRi + Irmscher guise, but i want a change. i really like the new shape (shoot me) but they're not in budget.

ST170 - Don't particularly like the old shape Focus, is why I ended up with an Astra in the first place.

306 GTI-6 - Had a 306 dTurbo (TORKS!!!) as my first car and loved it, but again don't seem as good 'value' as a Corolla.


Thats all that I can remember at the moment, been perusing the market for ~6 weeks.
 
At the end of the day the best way to form an opinion is to go out and test drive one yourself. Maybe have a test drive in one or two of the other cars you have mentioned so that you can do a comparison.
 
melchy said:
At the end of the day the best way to form an opinion is to go out and test drive one yourself. Maybe have a test drive in one or two of the other cars you have mentioned so that you can do a comparison.
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I concurr. Hence why I'm going to look at one in Oxfordshire this weekend. Its an 02 plate with 64k on it up @ £3950. I have my 2000 1.8 Astra SXi with 46k on it to hopefully px with.

Is there much negotiation room with these cars? I imagine now is a good time to be buying a luxo barge as everyone is tightening belts and so on, but not sure about a warm hatch? I have noticed, that the same ones have been languishing on autotrader since the middle of November so I'm guessing demand is not that high.

If anyone has info on good PX prices then feel free to chime in :d.
 
I had a t sport for about 2 years awesome little car. never missed a beat and oh did it surprise some people with its power when it hit lift. If yuor after a car that can be driven around all day nice and relaxed and then when you need it have a surprising amount of poke it's the car for you.
 
melchy said:
At the end of the day the best way to form an opinion is to go out and test drive one yourself. Maybe have a test drive in one or two of the other cars you have mentioned so that you can do a comparison.
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As much as we can kick and scream, this is the best advice. Really, it's up to you and if you like that then go for it, who are we to decide what you want? Just make sure you're ruling the others out for the right reasons. :)
 
I think you wont really go wrong with one, there not as good as the competition in certain area's, but they are a good all round choice, which is probably why you've ended up thinking about one.

This was my old one, that was lowered on KW coilovers, which made the car a lot quicker because it cut down the epic amount of air going under the car at speed :D
000_0382.jpg
 
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