Faults:

Alternator twice, head gasket, struts, wheel bearings, shocks, master cylinder.

General Comments:

I believe this was a great car to own when it had less mileage on it. I bought it three years ago when it had 210,000 on it. Paid 500 for it, as it sat broken down with no past history about the car. What surprises me is the engine and transmission (auto) are original, and the car has 290000 on it and is still running fine for all that mileage on it. Good gas mileage and very reliable. Never been stuck on the side of the road.

Little things are going wrong due to the wear and tear it's gone through. It's probably time to retire it before I start spending too much money on repairs.

The car would have been a lot more comfortable if it was a four door. It's hard for people to get in and out of the back seat.

I must be one of the lucky ones when it comes to power. I think it has enough power to not have any complaints about its acceleration.

I just have water only in the radiator, and on the hottest days (110 degrees) the car runs quite cool with no problems with overheating. It is just a very good economy car.

If I could find another one with under 100000 miles on it, I would buy it. It's cheap on insurance and to repair.

Faults:

What didn't go wrong with this car. Basically to write them all would be unfair. I honestly believe that this car had a hard life. The blue book shows it had had 6 or more owners before me. It had serious problems with the power steering (often bursting/leaking everywhere) as well as almost every seal leaking at some stage or another.

Oh, and the rust in this car was horrible.

I probably spend $500-600 (cost of labour and parts here is a lot cheaper) trying to fix it up before I gave up.

General Comments:

I actually liked this car a lot as it was my first car. It worked great for the first 6 months, and for that time I truly believed many of the good reviews about it on this site. I also received many complements from friends who rode in it. One of my friends liked it so much he bought it of me for half what I paid for it, and I helped him push it out of the garden it had been sitting in for 2 weeks (had left me stranded too many times, so it retired there).

My friend is a pretty good mechanic so he fixed it up pretty nicely. It still however has its issues, and around 2 months ago I helped him tow it from the side of the road back to his place as it conked out on him.

Anyway, I'm sure if you can buy one in good nick it wouldn't be that bad. A later year Corolla seems like it would have held up better though. Just my experience/opinion.