Faults:

Uses about a quart of oil every 1000 miles since day 1.

Developed piston slap at about 80,000 miles, which gets worse with time, but goes away when the engine warms up.

General Comments:

Though not as good as the '86 Chevy Nova (really a Corolla) it replaced, it's still a decent car.

Much faster off the line with the manual transmission.

I don't have to replace half the exhaust every year here in the rust-belt.

The flywheel seems a little light, making it easy to stall letting out the clutch from a standstill.

Great on gas, getting 32 to 45 MPG.

It's only been in the shop once for new front pads and rotors at 90K. I do my own oil changes and got one without electric windows, locks, etc., which I found increases reliability and decreases maintenance hassles.

It's been extremely reliable, despite the piston slap and high oil consumption.

Faults:

I had to have the engine replaced at 125000 miles. They told me it was a bad rod bearing. Knowing my luck with cars, I bought an extended warranty when I bought the car. The dealership jerked me around, and the warranty company took forever to come out and inspect the car to make sure it was covered. So after 3 weeks I got the car back with a rebuilt engine and it only cost $100.

Other than that, I've had to change the headlamps 4 or 5 times, about two on each side. Don't know why, maybe because they're daytime runners and they're on all the time?

General Comments:

Other than the ordeal I explained above, I have no major complaints. The car is comfortable, it has more pickup than a 4-cylinder Camry, and it's gas efficient. I've gotten close to 40 mpg in this car. It's also great in the snow, I've seen newer cars get stuck in places and my Corolla just keeps going. If I were to buy another Toyota, I probably wouldn't get another model with the 1.8 vvt-i engine. Just to be safe.

Faults:

The only thing that breaks down on this car, is the trunk has plastic thumb nail type of harness that hold the covering down, and it tends to pop off so the covering does fall over a bit and get in the way.

The trunk has a flat carpet that does rip off the board.

These are very minor annoyances.

General Comments:

I love this car, it costs very little to maintain. I drive around 7-9k/yr so I change oil 1.5/yr. I do other regular maintenance such as clean air filter, replace spark plugs, fluids, tires, wipers, but all minor regular stuff and it's easy to do it yourself.

I have to do aircare here, and it passes every time.

It has pretty good pep, so city and hwy driving is more than adequate in this brutal traffic.

Seats are comfy, even on long road trips and visibility is excellent.

The HVAC is great, A/C still blows cold and in winter it takes around 10 minutes to warm up the engine for warm air.

I have wider 185 tires, and traffic sucks, so I think that's why the fuel economy is not as good at 10L/100km in city (other sites say it does around 8!). I don't go on hwy much, but I guess around 7L/100km.

Faults:

Since I had it in April, I put 32000kms on it and the car had high kms when I bought it.

All I had to buy for it was regular maintenance parts (brakes, spark plugs, PCV valve, air filter, oil etc..).

Other than that, I spent nothing on the car; it's been extremely good to me.

General Comments:

I've only had the car for 5 months now, and it had high kms on it when I bought it. Knowing it was a Toyota, I took my chances and got it, and I'm glad I did.

I've put 32000kms on it already within 5 months and it works extremely well. I haven't had one problem yet and really like it a lot.

It handles very well for a 4 door and is very sporty. It also had very good pick up with the 5 speed transmission with the 1.8L VVT-i engine. Gas mileage is also really good.

The seats are pretty comfortable, and I like the interior also, but it does lack some foot room space for back passengers.

Overall it's a great sporty family car.