Anybody own a Corolla?

Fantastic little cars, I had a 7th gen (1995) with the little 1.6 4AFE and it went forever, 5 speed manual with 289k when I sold it on the original clutch. My friend has an 09 and has nothing bad to say about it, as mentioned earlier not the best handling car but will never leave you stranded with proper maintnence. If you get one with the 1ZZ (1.8) check the timing chain tensioners and the timing cover for oil leaks. They are known to do that as they age. Also the oil consumption on those cars up until around 2005 IIRC, but if your concerned Toyota can do an oil consumption test. For a DD they are hard to beat, I just can't stand sitting that low to the ground!

 

I don't know if this one applied to all of them, my 2002 never burn any oil and I drove cross country from Virginia to Cali when I move for the military. Only maintenance I did in 3+ years of owning the car was gas, tires, and brake pads.

 

They will tell you that, and even the service guys agree that Toyota's acceptable guidelines for oil usage are bullshit.

 

I had an 09 I got rid of when I got the Tacoma. No issues with it whatsoever. My dad has a 14 and loves his.

 

Not all Corolla's was affected but unfortunately a lot was. Toyota even have a website dedicated to this because they are still doing the repairs. My Scion was an 08. Campaign LSC ZE7.

 

I see that makes sense, I heard of it before but didn't know that it had affected that many.

 

My thoughts exactly. Any car using a quart of oil a month is unacceptable. Basically in a 5K oil change interval, they expect you to go through 5 quarts and it is "normal".

 

We had NEW cars with less than 20k on the clock, with the 2AZFE using a quart of month being told that was acceptable. I never blamed a single customer for ditching that car.
OP, just inspect the car carefully. Or if you buy a new one your in the clear

 

My friend just picked up a 2016 Corolla iM. Like all Scions there were no options other than colors. Came with power folding mirrors, cruise control, auto climate control & a pretty decent touch screen radio. I love that little car for what it is, reminds me of my old Nissan Versa hatch. I love CVT's for their efficiency both at low rpm cruising regardless of speed as well as their ability to hold the engine in its powerband as long as needed. To say there's a lag when you floor it.... well I've driven automatic slushbox transmissions that felt like they needed to download shift logic from the cloud whenever I pressed the skinny pedal. Buy it for what it is: an econo-box. If you expect a S600L, you'll be disappointed. If you expect it to ride like a Bentley, you'll be disappointed. If you expect it to get the range of a diesel VW with a 20 gallon tank, you'll be disappointed. Small car, small engine, small gas tank, small suspension: thems be what they be. But for a city car/commuter I think they're awesome.

 

02 and older with the 1zzfe. See them in all the time with about a quart of oil in them. The revised ones are much better. Easiest way to spot the old burner engine is the aluminium intake manifold that looks like exhaust runners.

 

The new 17' corollas all got a lot more safety features with standard pre collision hardware, lane departure etc. This is good for many people, and it can all be disabled if not desired.

I haven't seen many issues with the 13+ CVT generation corollas. The engine is quite dated now, only the valve-matic has really been introduced (valvematic is in the iM as the only choice).

The CVT is a little annoying but can be fun in the S or now SE/XSE models. The manual is solid and offered in many trim levels.

 

Excellent car. My wife had an 07 that we got with 84000 miles on it (I wasn't a part of this purchase). Oil was black, spark plugs were Russian, tranny fluid was brown. I did a tune up (not including a timing belt) putting OEM spark plugs and filters on, and switched to a high mileage synthetic blend oil. Oil changes every 5k, did a pan drain and fill on the trans at each oil change until it was finally pink, and we had it for another 60,000 miles before selling it to get a Subaru. I fully planned on running that car into the ground but my wife didn't want to deal with another Northeast winter in a 2wd car. We got her a 2013 Subaru Impreza with 14000 miles on it for a steal. I do miss the mileage of the corolla (regularly 35-40mpg hwy even at 130k) but she's happier and more confident in her Subaru.

If your driving conditions are fine for a 2wd car all year long, the Corolla is a fantastic option. The factory spark plugs are rated for 120,000 miles for christ sake.

 

Wifie has a '03 Corolla with 180,000 still running good.
If you take care of your cars they'll go a long way.

 

Wife has a 15. Not a bad car. Great mpg way nicer interior than my tacoma

 

Thanks for all the input the wife picked this 2015 S+ model up yesterday I was nervous about getting a compact car (I'm 6 foot 260 pounds) but I swear I feel like I have more room in this car than I do my Tacoma!

 

Smoooooth. Time for Kings!

 

My girlfriends car died about 2yrs ago and with a house shes financially strapped
Bought her a 92 corolla with about 100k mile no rust, few small dents and a mint interior for $1100
Car runs like a champ, easy to work on and have only done routine maintenance
Has about 130k on it now
Only problem is it need a ac compressor and has r12 freon
When parked next to my taco with the lift looks like I could drive right over it
Feels like a go cart when I drive it

 

Congrats OP. Here's to years of minimal maintenance

 

I owned a 2013. Slow as molasses and not truly the "safest" in crash testing. But their cheap to maintain, hold their value rather well and will last forever if properly maintained.

 

While I like the current Corolla, my favorite car in the segment is the Mazda 3.