Faults:

Toyota Corolla's are known for their engine oil problems. Oil leaks or burns, you will need to add a quart of oil depending on how many miles you put on the car. I bought the car at 155000, and at 186000 the engine blew out on me.

If you are buying a Corolla, I would advise you to check for oil problems. Do not worry about anything else, this is the single problem that will drive you nuts.

General Comments:

Performance wise it was average, although I wished it will perform better with a stick shift.

Electrical connections were all better than most other car manufacturers.

Faults:

Nothing wrong with the car.

General Comments:

Very great, and new models of Corolla do not compete with it. It covers 16km/litre diesel. It's really fantastic.

Faults:

Engine check light at 90,000km. It was something unimportant though.

General Comments:

This is a very economical vehicle. Cheap on gas and maintenance, yet that comes at a cost. Yes it is a VVT-I engine, and yes it is a light weight vehicle, but the 1.8L four banger can be boring and at times frustrating. You would have to apply more gas than you normally would on any other car to roll from a stop at an acceptable pace, and that causes lots of engine noise or whining, and this vehicle has no soundproofing. The materials used in this car may look really cheap and plain, but they are pretty tough and don't break easy.

The ride is pretty comfortable and very soft, so it handles bumps and potholes pretty well. Seating is tight and hard and extremely uncomfortable.

Even though this is a FWD car, it handles pretty bad in snow and rain even with snow tires.

Only buy this car if you want something economical with low maintainability, because this car is certainly not sporty or luxurious, nor is it a blast to drive. Better choice than the 1.6L Civic though.

Faults:

Piston rings went bad at 78,000 miles.

General Comments:

I previously owned a 1994 Grand Am that I really disliked. When the Grand Am got a little over 100,000 miles on it, I decided to go out and get a Toyota.

I loved this little car and had very few problems with it, until I went to get my oil changed one day (I followed procedure and did oil between 3,000 and 5,000 miles) and my car was dry! When I got it checked out, I discovered that my piston rings were bad. I did a little research and found that this was a common problem on the Corolla between 1998-2002. I guess Toyota won't recognize it as a problem because it happens in cars with higher miles.

If you have any questions with how common the problem is, just type in a google search on "Toyota Corolla burning oil" and you will see all the web sites that come up about it.

The dealership told me they never see this problem, but when I called a local Toyota mechanic in town, he said he sees at least one a month! Both mechanics told me my block would need to be replaced due to the aluminum cylinders. It would have cost me $4,000 in parts alone.

I would have kept this car forever if this problem hadn't arisen. I was very sad to see this car go. I always thought that Japanese cars were superior to American cars, but at least my American car made it to 100,000.

Faults:

Suspension problems. My car ate tires like you wouldn't believe. Between 55K and 107K, I put no less than THREE sets of tires on it. I had struts and alignments done, all around and nothing seemed to help.

General Comments:

The car is basic transportation. I got good service out of it despite the suspension problems. I was using a service shop that knew me and the car and they were as puzzled as I was on why it was constantly chewing up tires.

I thought that it was generally a noisy car. Lots of road noise.

On the plus side, the interior upholstery held up well, and the instrumentation on the dash was great. Door locks and windows (power) all worked well.

Unfortunately, I had a brain fart and totaled the car in a serious accident last Wednesday. I can't say enough about the air bag/seatbelt system. It quite possibly saved my life - at least serious head and facial injury.