views on toyota carina

Kristok

Im thinking of getting rid of my 206 and getting 96/97 toyota carina duy to they fact that im tired of driving a tiny car and ive grown out of my boy racer phase. Anyone know if they are a good car or if they have any major probs i should look out for ?!? they are not to expensive and ive noticed allot of taxis seem to be carinas whatever thats worth.

Fabritzo

Dunno about the carina, very bland, it wont do anything for your self esteem anyhoo, speaking of taxis, I was in a focus 1.6 taxi the other day and it's true what people say about them, very nice car.

kikel

Excellent car from a reliablity point of view, hence all the taxis. Engine good for 250,000 miles.

Parents got a 97 carina 2.0l TD there is 161K miles on clock. absolutly no issues.

Banjo013

Toyotas in general are made of iron and will go forever. You'll get a few hundred thousand miles out of them without a days trouble if the manufactureres service schedule is followed.

Incidentally if a car is being driven as a taxi, you can be fairly sure it's a reliable machine. How many Alfas have you seen as a taxi for example ?! Prob none because they're not reliable.

Toyota (especially older ones) are as bland as butter though ... they a bit like Ryanair - they do exactly what they say on the box with no frills, but what they do they do well, and they're big attraction is reliability and longevity.

ds20prefecture

Banjo013 wrote:

Incidentally if a car is being driven as a taxi, you can be fairly sure it's a reliable machine.

I would tend to agree, in most cases. E.g. the number of Skodas.

How many Alfas have you seen as a taxi for example ?! Prob none because they're not reliable.

I have been in one or two. I don't think the stylish interiors are up to the wear and tear, but the silver 156 JTD I was in had 130k on the clock and seemed fine, mechanically. I think its more their comparative lack of space for the price than unreliability.

I haven't seen many BMW taxiis - does that make them unreliable?

I think taxi drivers buy something low cost that will take big mileage with minimal service costs. Hence Skoda are the current favourites. Note the sharp decline in Mercedes taxiis recently.

Borzoi

Kristok wrote:

Anyone know if they are a good car or if they have any major probs i should look out for
.

I sold my old '93 Carina E 1.6 in 2001, at that stage it had 113,000 on the clock, and still ran like new. The only time I had problems was at about 100K when the battery went - which was the factory fitted one, so can't complain.

Not terribly exciting interior or exterior, but a good car.

bazz26

The only problem really that the Carina E suffered from was the gearbox. They have been known to go through a couple but generally speaking they are very reliable. I know they had a issue with build quality of the interior trim at first when production switched from Japan to the UK around 1993 but that was sorted. If you go for the 96/97 facelifted model you will get ABS and twin airbags as standard. Very roomy even by today's standards and the boot is quite big also.

If your budget can stretch a bit further then take a look at a 97/98 Avensis, much improved on the Carina in all departments including gearbox. 1998 examples are going for around €5k to €6k now.

Again mileage is not an issue with these cars, petrol models will go over 200k with ease and the diesel while not very refined will give good economy and last even longer. Incidently the diesel got a turbo from 96 onwards so this is the one to go for if you are going down that road.