Back To Toyota Ownership With A £400 Carina E

[Andrewp]

Hello :)

Thought I'd better put this post here having been away from the Toyota fold for a few years since selling my Yaris T-Spirit some years ago.

I spent ages trawling through the car sites and usual auction sites on the net to find a replacement for my Mazda 626 diesel before it turned 100000 miles, a new C1 / Aygo was considered, or possibly a 7 or 8 year old Corolla but I decided to aim for a Carina E 1.6 for its simplicity, economy and zero depreciation. With 99500 miles showing on the Mazda I spotted on the website of my local classifieds weekly the car which sounded ideal: A private sale of a 1994 Carina E 1.6 XLi saloon with FSH and 6 months tax and test..... and a decent CD player. A huge electric sunroof is also a big attraction for me to aid staying awake after a long nightshift, after parting with the same amount of money it cost to fill just 5 family car petrol tanks the Toyota is now on my driveway.

I've only had the car less than a week but have already added 400 miles to the current 59000 and am more than pleased with it; it will be hard pressed into performing my 100 mile daily commute to work as well as distant school runs etc.

Fit and finish is superb, there's no rust or dents, the underneath looks like a one year old car, its running like one too and it's doing about 46MPG while I'm being careful. Within my 27 years of driving I've owned a 1980 Corolla 1300 saloon, 1987 Corolla 1.3 GL liftback, 1974 Celica ST, 1984 Camry 1.8, 1987 Carina II executive, a Yaris 1.0 S and 1.3 T-Spirit as well as many, many others (mostly Japanese). Hopefully the Carina will prove as reliable as all my previous Toyotas and I won't be posting too many threads in the technical section!

Here's a photo of my Carina taken today, its ugly after-market wheel trims have been removed but am not sure if I should look for some original Carina (early GLi) trims or leave the car looking "mean and purposeful" with its shiny black wheels which do sort of blend in with the standard black bumpers.

Andrew

[clelland]

welcome dude and its not my cup of tea but looks like u grabbed urself a bargain with that 1 mate nice 1

[Fizz]

Wow.. that looks clean as you like!

Mum used to own a Carina II 1.8 Exec and it was bomb proof!

Im sure the E will give you many a happy and reliable motoring mile! :)

[Boro Sera]

Hi and welcome.

Looks like a bargain !