Hi, New Driver Here

[cagneuk]

HI, Just wanted to say hello. I'm 29, just passed my driving test on Tuesday and bought a 5 door M reg 95 Toyota Carina E GS 1.6 16 valve yesterday,

One prev owner from new, full service history, 5 months mot and tax remaining, lovely car.

only paid £495 for it as prev owner was a friend's mother and he's persuaded her to buy a new avensis.

My wife's been giving me grief to take lessons and pass and get a car for a few years now and only since we're now expecting our first child I decided to take the plunge, passed after 25 lessons.

I know very little about cars but I've started to take quite an interest now I have one of my own so any helpful tips would be great.

Anyway, just thought I'd come on ans say hi and I'm looking forward to many years of happy toyota driving.

Cagne

p.s. is there anyway the original radio can be replaced, it's a tape player and I'm ordering a cd/mp3 player replacement. I've checked the internet but can't seem to find anything on how to do this

Thanks again

Cagne

[Wombleman]

You've picked a good car for the family, I've a six-year old and 2 1/2 year old - it copes with all child seats etc plus the cavernous boot will accommodate the buggy/change bags etc and leave you room for the shopping.

Regular checks on the oil level, tyre pressures, coolant are all you really need with a Toyota. Change the oil and filter every 6,000 miles.

2 things that will kill your car - severe overheating and cam belt failure - check when this was last changed (mind you this will cost about £160 all in at a garage).

Happy motoring - I'll fish about for how to change the radio (the fascia panel comes off leaving 'standard' looking units - there are plenty of threads on this site re. wiring). My CD and tape don't work and I've been meaning to sort it for ages.

Oh - and don't let Kwik-Fit near the exhaust (see my other thread)

[T600]

Hi Cagne, welcome to TOC.

Congratulations on passing test and buying the car.

My dad's has the Carina though his is an H reg; he bought it when it was 3 years old and had 30K on the clock. He's never had any problems with it and it's now on over 120K. They've got amazing reliability. His is starting to show a little rust, but not surprising as it's never been kept in a garage and he's not been that bothered about touching up stone chips etc.

Re the stereo - yes, shouldn't be a big job. If you're not sure how to do this, you'll find some places will fit it for about £40 or so + parts. Halfords are usually best place to try unless you know of a good independent auto electrician.

If you want to do the fitting yourself you'll still need the parts, the essential thing being the loom adapter which you can probably get from Halfords for about £15. Essentially they convert the loom to standard DIN fittings so that you can fit any modern head unit easily. Just give them the age and model of the car when odering it. You might have issues with the electric arial connections as they're sometimes a bit strange on Toyotas.

Tony

[Moggy]

p.s. is there anyway the original radio can be replaced, it's a tape player and I'm ordering a cd/mp3 player replacement. I've checked the internet but can't seem to find anything  on how to do this

Thanks again

Cagne

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you will need a set of iso cables, some block connectors and a multimeter for fitting if your going to have a go yourself, most of its recording the wires places on the back of the orignal sterio ie ground positive speaker left/right etc, mine was a blaupunkt with 2 spade connectors on the back then the oddest speaker connectors ive seen in a while lol 2 pin plugs, all of the wires were shown on the player via a diagram, if its the same sterio there a doddle to replace ive a sony cdx m8800 in my carina now :D