Faults:

The air conditioning has a slight smell when operating - getting toward needing a recharge. Because the old coolant uses CFC's I have to get it completely replaced so I'm postponing this one until summer.

Boot lid shocks need recharging.

One of the headlights sometimes doesn't go down - dependant on the angle the car is parked at (in the vertical plane) - intermittent, but not a huge worry.

Oh and strange wiring - the boot door (it's a lift-back) is wired to the same door switch as the drivers/passengers door - open the boot and the dash warning light for 'door open' comes on, as does the roof light. The boot light is on a manual switch. I had the same situation with my Corolla - it strikes me as weird?

The A/C fan doesn't appear to have a 'medium' setting. There's Low, Med, High on the switch, but Low and Med are exactly the same.

Basically, a couple of minor things, *no* serious problems at all.

General Comments:

I love this car!

I've been a Toyota fan (by-product of my fathers fan-dom) for years, now that I've owned a couple nothing has changed.

I replaced my Corolla after writing it off in an accident (!) and I came across this Celica by pure accident. It was the first car I looked at and the one I ultimately bought the next day!

I've never seen any of the SR models anywhere else, not on the Internet or IRL (if anyone has one and can tell me what the non-obvious differences are between it and the GT / ZR models please post a comment!)

It handles extremely well - 4 wheel steering makes a big difference. It's FWD which is where it lacks - 4WD would be nicer but it wasn't within my budget. It's a pleasure to drive, has plenty of 'go' for overtaking and open road driving, and I have no plans to get rid of this car any time soon. :)

Faults:

Nothing too major, new alternator at 120,000km.

New clutch at 140,000km.

New front CV joints at 120,000km.

General Comments:

It's amazing what Toyota could do in 1989 that it can't do now. This car was the last Celica (until the recent 1.8 VVTi model), that could rightfully claim to be a genuine sports car and not a hairdresser mobile.

While it might be a bit soft in the handling now, the 2.0 Twin Cam still hunts...I'm looking to buy a new car, and I'm having trouble finding something with similar performance for less than $AU30K!

Faults:

Nothing at all. A few rattles here and there. Nothing major.

General Comments:

This car is a Japan spec car which means it runs at 220hp as opposed to the ones that came out in Europe (200hp) and America (200hp).

It came from Japan lowered and with a large bore exhaust fitted from the second joint back.

This car is undeniably quick and would rate in the top ten percent of fast cars on New Zealand roads. This will blow away all but heavily modified boy racers in their VR-4s, Legacy RS and Mazda Familias. It is a match for all but the latest model HSV's so bye bye V8's.

Four-wheel drive is the large deciding factor in this car. Good, safe tail out action, safety in the wet and the ability to leave most two wheel drives floundering when it gets to the twisty stuff.

Faults:

Had the car for 10 months.

Only let me down twice, once with a dead battery (though the cells were dry). Other time was a strange engine flooding incident. Failed to start on the first turnover, and then gave symptoms of flooding. Other than that, almost no problems, great for a 10 year old car.

General Comments:

Good performance, excellent reliability.

A little thirsty for fuel, but that wouldn't be a problem if you could resist rising the rpm over 3-4k (not easy!).

And, it looks good too. 10 years old, no sign of any rust.