Joining The Family

[alfista]

Hi All,

n00b here - hopefully this post agrees with forum rules - I had a hard time finding info on the 'mission' of this board.

I'm about to pick up my Corolla today and was looking for feedback before I commit.

I'm getting a 2003 LE Auto with 16kmi on it. Cruise control, power windows/locks - Gold color in nice shape. Carfax reports it was used as a rental which I both love and hate at the same time. I'm paying outright and negotiated to $13.5k with no 'extras' (e.g. extended warranty, factory alarm - they said aftermarket would void warranty ;-). I live just outside of NYC.

My goal is to love this car (hated the saturn I was driving that died). I will drive about 25kmi in it and probably not be mod'ing it much if at all - but I plan on hanging out in these boards to catch the fever.

Any one have any advice or comments before I bite? Once I bite I'll be interested in recommendations on alarm systems and how to hook up an ipod to the CD-only system :-)

TIA!

Jason

[ashan]

welcome man

its strange but I thought that all corolla models in the 2003 range came with

factory alarm and transponder key

the best bet is to get a toyota approved dealer to fit it

as for the ipod its a pain in the a$$

if you do find out how to do it please let me know

[alfista]

Hi Ashan!

Thanks for the reply. Picked up my corolla last night and am so far pretty happy - and hope to become a regular on the boards here :-)

I couldn't find anything about the alarm (and admit I don't know much about them). My saturn had a red LED that was called an alarm and the car beeped if you unlocked it without the power lock button. Not sure if the corolla is the same way. It has no LED although I saw others that did. I didn't want to be pressured into buying something that I could do cheaper/better aftermarket. I'll do some more reading tonight.

For the iPod - would my best bet be to try to get a used cassette option from eBay and add it to the system? I would love to just have a headphone jack under the dash somewhere that went to any inputs in the amp. Don't know if any are there.

The only thing that has bothered me about the car so far is when I bring down the sun visor all the way, it collides with the rear view mirror requiring re-adjustment :ffs:. Working around this while driving is risky. Does everyone suffer this problem. Anyone try to do anything about it?

Is there a good list of mods or hacks most people do to their corollas? I've never considered my car more than just to get me from point A to point B, but as described above, I want to change that with this one...

Thanks again!

J