Carina E

[carin]

I heard rumors that the Carina E was built in the UK, at least in the later years, where the old Carina II was japanese-made.

Does anyone know if any Carina E's are made in Japan, or are all UK made?

If there exists japanese-made Carina E's then when did they start making them in the UK?

[SMW]

Toyota's decision to establish a manufacturing operation in Europe was announced in 1989 and Toyota Manufacturing UK was established in December that year.

There are two manufacturing plants in the UK representing a total investment in excess of £1.7 billion and currently over 5,500 members are employed.

The vehicle manufacturing plant is located at Burnaston in Derbyshire, the engine manufacturing plant is located at Deeside in North Wales.

The first car, a Carina E, drove off the Burnaston production line on 16 December 1992.

The Avensis replaced the Carina E in 1997 and in 2003 the new generation Avensis was launched. In 1998 a second model, the Corolla, was introduced and in 2001 the new generation Corolla was launched. The processes at Burnaston include stamping, welding, painting, plastic mouldings and assembly and at Deeside machining, assembly and aluminium casting.

From Toyota Manufacturing Website

[carin]

Okay, I own a Carina II XL -88 model and its getting old, but it's an extremely reliable car, outstanding quality, but I want a newer, better looking car.

But I heard the japanese-produced carinas and other models in general were of higher quality than those made in europe, makes sense to me, but why on earth do they make a japanese car in europe?

Especially there were some carinas made in late 90's in turkey that was really crappy compared to the others.

How can they possible keep the japanese quality of the far east if it's made in europe?

Those asians are a hard working people who only make the finest, toyota makes imo the best quality cars in the world, extremely reliable and with very few faults and repair, but i keep getting second thoughts about it when i hear they produce the cars in europe..

By the way, the first batch of Carina E was actually made in Japan, i've seen Carina E's being registered in April 1992, so are they of higher quality? I read somewhere else that the UK Carina E's arrived in 1993.. but I guess they arrived late 1992. Guess I should find one of the early 92 models, so I make sure I get a japanese made Carina.

[sjrainsford]

We're only talking minor build quality issues here like fit and finish. There's nothing major to worry about on Carina E's. I had an Avensis and it was faultless, nothing that could be attributed to it being built in britain. One of the main issues is the parts that are supplied from europe.

Take it from me, those guys at burnaston do a great job when building the cars. Ok, it may not be up to jap standards but it's near. Their production systems are the best in the world.

[carin]

dont get me wrong, im not mocking britian or anything, i myself live in sweden.

i just dont think anything made in europe can match japanese standards, but the first

batch of carina e's are made in japan, the very first, most 1992 model E's are japanese-made.

[Beardie]

Check Chassis numbers. Those early models are mostly JTK (japan) and later 93 - are SBK (British). Having owned both I would have a 92 model before a 97 any day of the week. Sorry guys but some UK components are just not a patch on the jap quality. Its a case of that any motor car is only as good as the components it's made from. Have a good relationship with the component manufacturers and you''ll have a top car!

[CarinaNL]

The special models like the Carina E GTi are all build in Japan.

Personaly I'd go for the GTi ( I own one ;) ) and you haven very good performance, even for today's standards (I can beat a Avensis 2.2 D-Cat 177hp).

But when you want you have lots of comfort and economy (1l every 13-14km if you want to). Plus they come fully loaded with kit.