Very reliable, very dependable little car. It's like the energizer bunny, it keeps going, and going, and going.

little small for tall people, very little head room in back for almost any adult

This care didn't give me a problem at all until it hit around 120,000 miles. The heads had to be redone. My husband is the do it yourself type so it only cost $250 at the machine shop to have them re-worked. You have to order a special head bolt wrench from from snap-on (they are the only people that carry it, you can't buy it from the dealer) to remove the heads yourself. It took about 2 days worth of work to do the whole thing. The timing belt needs to be replaced every 60,000 miles as regular maintenance. It also runs much better on synthetic oil. It now has 130,000 miles on it and I expect it to be around until atleast 200,000. I would recommend this car to anyone under 5'10''.

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Buick Park Avenue - left me stranded more than once
Jeep Wrangler - had to go when kids came along
Hyundai Excel - I plead temporary insanity
Jeep Grand Wagoneer - my husband's greatest joy, a nickle and dime monster to me

fuel economy, dependable, low maintenace and operating costs

vinyl seats melted, small back seat,

This car has been great over the last 8 years. I put 150000 miles on it with no problems except a broken timing belt at 115000 miles.
I got some cloth seats from a junkyard out of a newer Tercel that got totaled in a wreck. My original vinyl seats cracked and melted in the summer sun.
I put a good sound system in the car shortly after I bought it and that has made a huge difference in how much I like the car.
It is now starting to go through a lot of oil but I think I'll try to wring another 50000 miles out of it.
I never did much in terms of maintenance, just the regular stuff on the schedule in the manual.

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Great gas mileage, reliability, affordable price

Lack of horsepower

My first car... The Tercel is a very reliable car. Aside from regular maintenance, I have NEVER had to take it in for a major problem. I can't stress how good this car has been to me. I have driven the car very hard, at speeds and RPMs that it was not intended to be driven at, but the car just will not quit. Probably one of the smartest buys I've ever made. 10 years, 135,000 miles and it's still running with no problems! Sadly, I will miss my Tercel when I finally buy a new car.

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Fabulous reliability, very economical to operate, fits any parking space, good styling, excellent Toyota fit and finish, good 5 speed shifter.

Fair engine acceleration, a handful in high winds, no cruise control for trips, fair performance from A/C.

Recommended. My 4-door DX 5-speed has 111K miles on it and is still running well. Reliability and economy are the Tercel's strengths. I am the original owner and it has been a trouble-free car. After 8 years I still get 36 MPG city and 42 MPG hwy. Tercels are better city cars than highway cars, but my Tercel has logged a lot of highway time travelling for business and pleasure in the Midwest/East/Northeast. The black interior in mine heats up in full Summer sun and the A/C has a hard time keeping up. Other interior colors are likely not as affected as mine.
At 6'1" I am about as tall as a driver that can fit in the car, and I find it reasonably comfortable except for long (9+ hour) trips since the console and cupholder hit my calf. Shorter drivers should have no problem.
The DX trim level is nicer than base. Mine has the clock, mirrors, split folding rear seat, A/C, defogger, stereo cassette, upgraded interior, and pearl silver paint. The styling is very similar to the other Toyota/Lexus designs of 1992/1993. It is worth buying one, even at a premium, and it is worth repairing one that needs some fixing.

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Honda, Saturn, Mazda, other Toyota. The Honda and Toyota products are similar quality, but I prefer the Toyota controls and dealer service.

Fantastic Car! What every car should be. This car should define the term "car". This car had great gas mileage, handling, and comfort for a long time.

Eventually it wears out. I bought this 1992 in 1996 for 6000, it had 32,000 when I bought it, and had been in a minor wreck which slightly tweaked the alignment. I changed the oil every 4,500 miles and took it on over 20 road trips. On most road trips I pushed this car to 90 mph for 6+ hours sustained.

Eventually... (232,000 miles) it started burning oil. A quart every two weeks. And then I had some strange spark plug problems, with fancy spark plugs I bought and the distributor cables broke and I drove it 500 miles on two cylinders and 6 months later my engine was totaled.
I bought a used engine for $1600, and that burns oil, but other than that the car runs great.

It needed a new clutch when it was 8 years old too....

Oh... The seats disintigrated in the northern california heat(110+) . But with seat covers who cares.

Buy this car. Don't buy a flashy car. If you intend to buy a flashy car you are first required to read Thorstein Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class."

This car does the job.

Take your flash and send it packing...

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1981 Corrolla, 1979 Toyota Corona

It's my first car, and so it wouldn't have to be special to earn my love, but it is a great little car. I've put it through a lot - learning on how to drive a standard and it never complains. It's a lot easier to drive than some other manuals I've tried! The oil ran dry once and it was fine - I'll never let it happen again just in case though. I've had it for over eight months and apart from a new air filter or two, some spark plugs and a few oil changes, I've only had to replace the condensor. I can handle $130 every eight months in repair bills! The gas milage is really good too. Also, the car never needs to be plugged in no matter how much the temerature falls. Sometimes, it just needs a little more TLC and convincing to stay started in the morning, but I don't mind giving it to my car.

There really isn't too much power. Most of the time I don't mind too much, slow and steady wins the race, right? However, since I do a lot of highway driving, sometimes it would be nice to be able to pass in a normal amount of time. Don't get me wrong, when it gets going, the little car can go, just that it takes a while to get it going! I suppose that cruise would come in handy sometimes as well, but I guess that I really don't need such luxuries, lol.

I paid about $1000 dollars for it and while I guess that might be a little high considering it's 19 years old, I never though twice about it. There is no doubt in my mind that it wasn't worth it. My Dad has owned two of them - a new 1982 that he put 550,000km on before replacing the motor and then another 350,000km after replacing it on the original transmission, and a used 1981 that more than served the purpose. I would recomend it to anyone who is looking for a reliable car that's affordable and good on gas just so long as you understand that these cars take their time getting to a high speed. Being a single student, I'm not sure how it would handle car seats or anything, but you could always try.

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Good when it dont break down

Had to fix a lot of stuff including: engine, ball joints, tires, transmission, clutch------------Mind you it is old and it has 252500km on it

Id recommend it to a student. make sure you check it out before you buy because i didn't. Its awesome when nothing is wrong with it.

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It goes from a to b.

Very bad suspension and no power. I carpool a lot and when I do the suspension can't handle any weight. The rear suspension sags and bottoms out with 2 ladies in the rear. They claim it hurts their butts, too. None of these ladies weigh over 150lb...so max is 300lb in the back. With the passengers the motor feels like it has maybe 1 horsepower. I once had to carpool a larger women in the rear,she goes about 275lb. The car sank and moved like do-do...of course the other women were there to, so thats 575lbs in the rear plus my 140 and the frt passengers 110 and you have quite a load...enough to flaten the liitle crapper. But, this same load has virtually no effect on a freinds Cavalier!

crappy car but goes to a and b

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Jeep - fun

I bought this car as my first car ever at 19. It handled well, looked good, and the gas mileage was great!!!! At one point I was averaging 42 mpg hwy! Right now I have over 90,000 miles on it and the only thing I've had to replace are the tires (this car came with very small strange japanese tires, I can't even remember what they were called but they lasted a good six years). I'll admit, I'm not one to really keep up on scheduled car maintenance, but this car has had two complete tune-ups in 9 years (oops!)
Nice and small, I have found this car will fit into the even the smallest spaces on roads (once drove through a tiny ally behind a bank that wouldn't fit two bicyclists comfortably)
Shifts comfortably

Like I said, in the beginning, I loved it, however:
The vinyl on top of the back seat started melting from the sun coming through the back window after I had the car about 3 years.
The vinyl front passenger and driver seat are badly ripped even though I have always used carseat covers.
It's starting to burn a lot of oil (I have noticed this most recently in the past six months).
NOT the greatest car for someone with a small child and a car seat!!! Impossible to set the seat in the back without being a professional contortionist. (didn't realize this until I had my son in 1998)
Horrible engine noise from freeway driving, you have to yell to be heard by your passengers.
Don't even think of trying to pass a car on a two lane highway unless you have a good two miles to accelerate!
Manual steering can be pretty tough
Took me forever to figure out how to get the built in jack out of the trunk

I paid 6995 for this car new in 1991. I would recommend this car to someone who just needs to get from point A to point B on a daily basis without needing to show any flash. This car is great on long, long hwy drives.
I would not recommend this car for anyone who is over 5'10" or anyone with small children.
Overall the value of this car is great!! With the low sticker price and high gas mileage, this car has gotten me through my twenties pretty good. For the overall rating my biggest complaints about this car are cosmetic. I will NEVER get vinyl seats in any car again! They rip, melt; burn your legs in the summer and generally look gross.

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compact, flexible. Cheap.

handling, awful sharp turns at corner. lack of power.

This was my first car 9 years ago. It is compact, easy to park. But it doesn't handle very well. It will move sideways if there is strong crosswind on the high way. Not enough power, 85-90MPH is probably the fastest you can get with this one. Very bad at corners and that almost caused my life. Once I was at an exit just realizing I need to exit at 15MPH and I was at 60MPH? I hit on the brakes and the car was totally out of control and skipped to the left and it scratched a flag pole. My left headlight is broken and rim of one tire is bent. So scary luckily I didn't get hurt at all.

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