Faults:

Air conditioner.

Starter.

Exhaust rattle.

Dashboard cracked.

Paint on the window frames faded.

Engine burned oil, 1 quart a month.

General Comments:

I was told that the car was seen at the local junkyard a few months after it was traded with no accident damage; I’m assuming the next owner never topped off the oil and blew the motor.

Faults:

This is a very reliable car, and I've owned three of them in the past. Other than normal replacement items (oil, antifreeze, automatic transmission oil, brakes, etc), I've had virtually no problems with this car. The only thing I've replaced are...

- The driver's door handle at 209,134 kilometres.

- The distributor o-ring at 209,318 kilometres.

- The mechanical fuel pump at 214,000 kilometres.

- Both power steering boots at 247,502 kilometres.

This car was awesome. I've had two other ones in the past (a 1984 and another 1985 Toyota Corolla). I find that the automatic transmission with no overdrive tend to crap out more easily. (1984 Corolla had no reverse at 240,000 km, 1985 Corolla stopped shifting at 250,000 km). This 1985 Corolla I had now had overdrive and the motor finally ran on three cylinders at around 260,057 kilometres. :(

General Comments:

This is the best car I have ever owned. I have bought it in 2002 for $636.00 at a car dealer and it had 208,000 kilometres on it. I went to a technical school with it and drove to work with it. I live in Edmonton and I drove to Vancouver many times with it.

It finally blow a cylinder and ran on three cylinders. I made it from Stony Plain to Vancouver, back to Lytton and finally to Chilliwack, B.C. on three cylinders. I sold it to the scrap yard for $125.00. This is a really reliable car, and I've had three of them.

Faults:

I had to rebuild my LSD differential at 180,000 miles.

My clutch needed replacement at 185,000 miles.

My struts needed replacement at 185,000 miles.

This car has a strong motor that just loves revs. Give it an oil change every 3,000 miles and change your fluids on a regular basis, and it won't give you any problems.

General Comments:

This car is just simply amazing. Forget traction control, forget ABS, forget stability control, with this car it's just you, the car, and the road, and that is what is most important. It allows you to be connected and one with the car and the road, and that just gives you the greatest driving experience in the universe.

At just 2,100 pounds this car can move. Sometimes you can have have too much power, and can cause you to actually be slower, of course depending on the type of road. A car with a lot of power would do well on an open straight road, but this little Corolla can outrun anything on tight winding roads, where there is little room to accelerate past 2nd or 3rd gear. It gives you chills when you drive through the corners in this car.

Throttle responce on this 4AGE DOHC 16v is just neck snapping. The instant response of a high revving N/A engine is intoxicating.

The handling of this car is incredible, partly due to its sheer weight and size, and partly due to its suspension and chassis, simple and capable. Most if not all cars will respond with understeer when pushed to the limit, this car responds with oversteer. Understeer is not really that controllable, where as oversteer is very controllable if you know how to control the car and counter-steer. This allows you to push the Eight-Six beyond the limit.

This car never ceases to amaze me, the more and more I drive it, the more and more I love it. As I find out new things, learn new techniques, and gain more experience, this car just guides me through everything, every experience I encounter.

I don't recommend this car to everyone, only to the person who can appreciate it for what it really is. It's not a super fast and powerful car, it's not a luxurious car by any means (no power windows, power door locks, power seats, etc) nor is it a particularly "nice" car, and when I mean "nice", I mean not everyone will like it, it's 25 years old, some people will trash on it, saying that it's a really old car. It's not the car for the type of person who likes to go really really fast, or show off in front of others. It's a "drivers car", the type of car that a true "driver" can appreciate, enjoy, learn, practice and gain experience in. "The Eight-Six trains the driver."