carzone new corolla import...

G Luxel

I have trawled carzone today and found a brand new Corolla saloon from Japan for 17,000 Euros. however the pics are taken in Japan and I am wondering how this car could be sold for so little..... Its an X spec so it is sort of terra/luna combined. Is there a World Wide warranty on this car?
what else should i look out for in buying??

ciarsd

Does the €17K incl. shipping/import/VAT costs? Might be a reason for the 'lower' value?

bazz26

Or it could be a scam.

E92

JDM cars have different seatbelt designs(cause the Japs are smaller), no security(maybe new ones are different, but car crime doersn't happen over there apparantly, so older JDM cars certainly weren't fitted with security equipment found on our cars) and are called JDM cars for a reason: they're designed for Japan, not for the European market, they also have engines set up for a higher fuel rating than is currently on sale(not sure if this affects bread and butter models like the Corolla, definately affects high performance models though), and in the Corolla's case, completely different engines and are limited to only 180 km/h(though I admit that it makes no difference here!).

In their favour is the larger engines which mean they have more power than our ones and of course the superior spec compared to an Irish model.

Buy an Irish spec one though.

MarkR

I don't think there would be any warranty on a gray import. It's an automatic and no vrt paid yet I would guess, although only €3388 for this.

If you are serious make sure to bring a mechanic, preferably one who can spot crash damage, just in case..

I love jap cars, great spec on them, never noticed anything strange about the seatbelts, that's a new one on me. Jap cars are mapped to run on 100 ron petrol, ours is about 95, so some small performance loss maybe.

Volvoboy

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=842606

I take it this is the one, wont really have much of a chance to get body parts here for it as it differs from our market model, he aint a gagrage probably small time dealer, id take my chances with our model thanks!




-VB-

TheDriver

hate to say the obvious, but it looks an import, something bit strange about it to be honest.

colm_mcm

no warranty, resale going to be low too. that said the novelty value and extra spec will do it for some people. people like you G Luxel - going on your user name

the satnav and radio won't work properly here by th way

E92

I don't know what's attracting you to the Corolla, I was in a taxi Corolla(Irish spec one though) of that type yesterday, and I found that my 7 year old Volvo S40 is better put together(the door handles in particular look like they came from a fisher price set of toys), better over the bumps(and heaven knows, the S40 is not the best car to deal with bumps), and even though this one was a diesel,I thought it was quite slow (so needless to say the petrol will have to be avoided at all costs) through the gears actually, it certainly has none of the jois de vivre of a Polo TDI which is also a 1.4(and only 74 bhp) and IMHO feels as quick through the gears as my 1.8 S40.

The D-4D Corolla feels as gutsy as a 1.6 in an Avensis type car at best.

I have to say I was quite disappointed with the Corolla, our family's Avensis which by Toyota standards is a stone age design(since its due for replacement very soon) is a much better car. Its certainly not a bad car, theres nothing it does wrong, but it doesn't do anything particularly well either. I couldn't see what had improved on it compared to the old Corolla(the 02-06 version). And even when moving, there is no denying which fuel is under the bonnet of the diesel either. It was rather louder than I was expecting(as in louder than a VAG diesel, and they definately don't try to disguise what pump you need to fill them up with)

That said, since I was in a taxi, I didn't get the chance to drive it(obviously), so I don't know whats its like to drive, maybe it drives well, maybe my taxi driver wasn't pushing it(though I doubt it since the rev counter was seeing the north side of 4,000 rpm) and the controls are nice and fluid,I have no way of knowing.

But as a passenger the best way to describe it is as a device for moving people quicker than a bus.

colm_mcm

From what I've seen, the new Corolla has improved on the outgoing model in terms of space, noise levels, safety, standard equipment and interior build quality.
Drive one -If you can find a dealer that actually has one in stock.

E92

It is a better car than its' predecessor, but its better in the same way a facelifted version of a car is better than a non facelifted version. There isn't a lot in it. In the UK, its sister Auris is no safer than its predecessor, its got no extra safety features(of course because Toyota Ireland think that cars should come with nothing as standard the new one has safety features all the rest bar the Opel Astra Life added a good few years ago). And I was in the top of the range Luna model(which incidentally is no better equipped than the Avensis Strata and that is only one from the bottom in the Avensis range).

colm_mcm

The Auris and Corolla models all have 5 star safety ratings and 9 airbags including a drivers knee airbag, which no other car in that class has. compared with 4 star and 4 airbags on the previous model.

The Luna model isn't the top spec in the Auris.
The Auris Luna has leather steering wheel and gearknob, and heated mirrors over the Avensis Strata.

bazz26

The Corolla/Auris is no better than the Avensis I had for the last 4.5 years imo. Given the choice I would rather stump up the extra cash for the entry level Avensis despite it being a bit long in the tooth now.

I think Toyota missed an opportunity to do something different with the Auris when they changed the name. While I have always had a soft spot for Toyota I do feel that the Auris hardly looks or feels 5 years more advanced than the model it replaced.

The new Civic is light years ahead of it from almost every aspect. Granted alot of people don't like it's styling but it has grown on me. Also the current model has totally distanced itself from the previous one.

what_car

bazz26 wrote: »

The Corolla/Auris is no better than the Avensis I had for the last 4.5 years imo. Given the choice I would rather stump up the extra cash for the entry level Avensis despite it being a bit long in the tooth now.

I think Toyota missed an opportunity to do something different with the Auris when they changed the name. While I have always had a soft spot for Toyota I do feel that the Auris hardly looks or feels 5 years more advanced than the model it replaced.

The new Civic is light years ahead of it from almost every aspect. Granted alot of people don't like it's styling but it has grown on me. Also the current model has totally distanced itself from the previous one.

it should be called the "Toyota Arse".
"Toyota" probably the most boring cars in the world..

hopefully the new avensis will be nice, well anyways the corolla looks better than the nissan/renault tiida......... yuck


also from the honda uk site, is says the new accord is due on sale mid 08 in the uk! check out http://www.honda.co.uk/accordconcept/
the tail lights look very similar to the current model. erm, ill hold on so, and forget bout the is220 for now.

do they normally launch uk and ireland models at the same time?

G Luxel

well thank you for all your comments. I did email the seller but I havent received a response yet. I also checked out another car, a 05 corolla 1.3 and received an email to say the car was imported two months ago but having looked at the email again, ive noticed that the email had originated from a 3rd party, ie the automated service from carzone and the seller was living abroad. This time the price quoted is 18,000 euros, more than the 07 by an extra 1,000. There were a lot of spelling errors in the email so I assume that its a scam.