Corolla Tsport

[rich-mansfield]

Hi All,

Thanks again for all your TSport opinions from my last thread.

I thought I'd let you know that after a couple of long test drives, I have ordered my black 2005 Corolla TSport, which will be mine on March the 1st :D

I also thought I would share my opinions on some of the dealers that I visited around my area (near Camberley).

My main issue was the lack of TSport demonstrators, it seems that the dealers in my area (Sandhurst/Farnham/Guildford) share a single car and have trouble ensuring it is there for booked appointments , Reading's car is also fairly unavailable.

I did manage to get a test drive when I went home to see my parents in Swindon, but they were not very interested in actually selling the car to me, just in getting me in and out as soon as possible.

In the end, I went to King's Toyota in Winchester, and spoke to a guy called Paul, and also to the dealers manager, who were both more than willing for us to go out for a couple of hours in their demonstrator, after he had a quick blat with us in the car first of all.

Obviously I haven't picked the car up yet, but the pre-sales service here was very good, all the other dealers didn't really seem interested.

I'm probably going to have a few more questions over the next few weeks before and after I get the car!

Cheers all!

Rich.

[monty]

very good choice mate... i got mine just before the new year.... 2005 reg though... amasing car no complaints whatsoever ... happy motoring

[mtbjeff]

Did you try Octagon? I hada couple of test drives from them, one in a pre-facelift model and then one in an '04.

(Hope you like the new CTS)

[rich-mansfield]

Did you try Octagon? I hada couple of test drives from them, one in a pre-facelift model and then one in an '04.

(Hope you like the new CTS)

←

Yeah, it was the Reading Octagon on Rose Kiln Lane, they were the second best out of all the places I tried for seeming to want to sell me a car.

They just cancelled my booked test drive because the guy who usually has the CTS was taking it on holiday with him for a few days, which I guess shows how nice the TSport is :)

[monty]

i am having trouble with my dealer at the mo too they went and registered the car in wife's name the di ck he ad s ... he tried to tell me he had to because i have the car insured in her name until the end of the month because we want to have both policy's ending at the same time... the dvlni say it doesnt matter who's name its under as long as i am named driver they can register it in my name... will let y'all know what happens although i couldnt see it as being a problem that arises alot!!!

[Country_Est]

As regards dealers in round reading ect, when I got my T-Sport in Oct last year, had no probs with the test drive at Inchsape Toyota in Basingstoke. Even down to having booked a test drive in the Avensis and Diesel Corolla, when we turned up and drove the avensis (handled like a boat) we said can we swap the diesel corrola for the T-sport, and allthough not cleaned and polished we had the car within 5 mins for a test drive, then bought one :hokus-pokus: .

Also found no problem with the Toyota Dealer in Braknell (near the John Nike centre) as they had both old and facelift T-Sports to test.

trev. B)

[rich-mansfield]

I think I was probably just a bit unlucky with the car availability.

The main thing that was different between the dealers was how much they were interested in actually selling a car. I had 3 test drives in Civic Type-R's (at Swindon, Guildford and Fleet) and all the Honda garages went out of their way to help me, the only Toyota garage I visited that had the same level of service was the Winchester one.

Obviously I realise this won't be the case at all dealers, but thought I would share my experiences of the ones that I did visit, in case anyone was interested

I'm counting down the weeks until I get the car.... March the 1st still seems a long way away at the moment :)

[ColinM]

I approached the Guildford Toyota dealer last year and asked for a brochure on the face-lifted Corolla to be sent to me when available. All seemed well at that stage, but once the new model came out there was still no sign of the brochure in the post. 2 phone calls later, and almost total indifference from the dealer, I gave up.

10 days later, and after only 1 visit to the Sandhurst Toyota dealer, I had p/x'd my old car and I was in possession of a brand new face-lifted model. Funny old world................