Toyota Celica 1.8

...an era. I bought my Toyota Celica aged 29, single (recently dumped), but defiant. I'd had Toyotas as a hire car on various jobs and really liked them for their looks and driveability. I went to the Toyota garage for a bit of fun really, seduced by the idea of a test drive to pass the day. I tried the Corolla and Avensis and they were OK but they didn't have that (apologies to another car manufacturer) Va Va Voom! The car salesman said he didn't have ...
...reputation of cheap parts, the Toyota garages in my opinion are extortionate. I lost my rear view mirror the other day, they wanted to charge me £44 for the piece of mirror, and another £45 to fit it - half an hour's labour in the workshop! Now I know the mirrors are heated (nice little touch for snowy, misty days), but I figured I could probably fit it myself. If I had lost the whole wing part with its electric connections to allow you to easily ... more

This is the end of an era. I bought my Toyota Celica aged 29, single (recently dumped), but defiant. I'd had Toyotas as a hire car on various jobs and really liked them for their looks and driveability. I went to the Toyota garage for a bit of fun really, seduced by the idea of a test drive to pass the day. I tried the Corolla and Avensis and they were OK but they didn't have that (apologies to another car manufacturer) Va Va Voom! The car salesman said he didn't have any other appointments so if there was anything else I fancied taking out, be his guest. As I wandered around the garage this cheeky little silver car jumped out at me. It was so curvy, so sexy. It surpassed every other car in the vicinity and seemed to be calling my name.

The Celica sits really low on the ground and doesn't allow for graceful entering of exiting! But once you've lowered yourself in, the seat fits snugly around you and the controls are turned gently towards you making you feel like a RAF pilot in a cockpit. The steering wheel is adjustable. I lowered it to just above my knees so I could see over it and through the front windscreen. A car had never felt so right.

Needless to say the test drive was heaven and I went back to the salesman's office to list all the reasons I would not be able to buy the car.

'I'll never be able to afford the insurance'; 'I won't be able to afford the repayments' and 'I won't get much money for my old car'. 'Why don't you phone your insurance company and bank from my office while I go and look over your car' said the very clever salesman. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say insurance companies like Toyotas (the insurance hardly went up from my very boring soon to be ex. Corsa), my bank manager likes me and the salesman seemed to like my Corsa very much.

'Mum, I've bought a silver sports car!'

A few facts. My Celica is R reg (1998), 1.8 S. It has 3 doors. It is the old style curvy shape, a design that I think is infinitely more attractive than the more modern angular shape. The dealer had put expensive new Italian Momo wheels on the car thinking it would never sell with the smaller alloys the previous owner had had. I never noticed them! But with such high performance tyres if you don't check the air pressure regularly you will notice the car's grip on the road really suffers. Take you hands off the wheel for a second and the car is likely to jerk off right or left with a bump in the road. Correct this with the air pressure and the car handles beautifully. Of course, being so low on the ground you do tend to feel the idiosyncrasies of the road surface.

In my opinion the car is underpowered. It's a heavy car and although it slips into and stays quite happily in 5th as soon as you go over 45mph, when you are going uphill or starting from stationary the car doesn't have quite the 'oomph' it should. But a 2 litre engine put the car well out of my price budget and I would rather have a slightly underpowered beauty than a lighter suitably powered boring car.

The other area that lets the Celica down is related to its beautiful shape. It is virtually impossible to gauge the length of your front and end! The bonnet slips away in front of you, and the small-ish rear screen gives you no idea where your backside ends. I am very good at parking (you have to be in London) but I find it really difficult to park this car. I'm also ashamed to say I've put a few bumps in the back too.

As the car gets older (mines done just over 100,000 miles now) it starts to drink oil. There are no discernable leaks but make sure you carry spare engine oil with you at all times. On one occasion I've been completely empty without the warning light coming on. Other times the warning light has come on when you break suddenly, and despite filling up only 2 or 3 weeks ago you need to do so again if you have done lots of driving. Another sign of advancing years is the air conditioning system which in its youth provided a veritable hurricane of freezing air, now is sadly lacking in the summer. I could get the air conditioning fluid replaced I suppose, but I've always preferred winding down the windows, choosing one of the two sun roof positions and not experiencing that artificial shock of air con.

Now, while Japanese cars have the reputation of cheap parts, the Toyota garages in my opinion are extortionate. I lost my rear view mirror the other day, they wanted to charge me £44 for the piece of mirror, and another £45 to fit it - half an hour's labour in the workshop! Now I know the mirrors are heated (nice little touch for snowy, misty days), but I figured I could probably fit it myself. If I had lost the whole wing part with its electric connections to allow you to easily move the angles of the mirrors (very handy for different shapes of drivers), it would have cost me over £150. The moral of the story - tuck your car well in on busy roads. New windscreen wipers seem terribly expensive too, and if you're naughty enough to fit cheaper non-Toyota ones you are often rewarded with an annoying squeak. My full yearly services for a 7 year old car rarely give me any change from £700 which is an awful lot of money in my opinion when you're also forking out for MOTs and Road Tax.

And now we come to the biggest problem of all with this car. Three independent specialists have confirmed that it is not possible to fit a rear facing baby seat in my car. The two back seats are 'bucket' shaped - very sporty looking and while your passengers marvel at the sumptuous shape of your car they have to shoe-horn themselves into the snug 'bottom shaped' rear seats. If they are over 5'3 they will have a crick in their neck by the end of the journey. This is a 4 seater car that wants to be a 2 seater. So while it's merely uncomfortable for your rear passengers, it is apparently down right dangerous for your babies. Baby seats with ISO Fix bases such as the Mamas and Papas ones simply will not sit in the scooped out seat shape. Stand alone baby seats such as the Britax one sit at such an upright angle your baby will be tilted forward leading potentially to neck or breathing problems. The car has airbags in the front which cannot be turned off without interfering with the electrics - something no Toyota dealership or garage is willing to do.

I can't believe I've found so many problems with the Celica! I feel like a traitor to its' soon-to-be memory. Believe me - despite all of the above, I've loved every minute driving my Celica. Its unique styling makes it stand out in a car park. It has perfect steering, and corners like a race car. The rear spoiler is perfectly proportioned and stylish looking. It comes in a choice of colours (including a very plasticy looking 'white') but the biggest seller seems to be silver. Currently I can't fit more than £44 of petrol in the tank which lasts me a good 300 miles. The slight under-powering means you can happily cruise along the motorway without being too tempted to break the speed limit in 'license losing' proportions. The front seats are easily adjustable, and very comfortable for both driver and passenger. Unfortunately when you tip the passenger seat forward to access the back seats it always reverts to a back breaking upright position, but this is a small snag. The boot space is HUGE! Big enough to fit my whole baby travel system if I could only get the bl**dy car seat to fit. The rear seats fold down easily and we've carried 4 garden chairs and a full size patio heater in the car. Shopping bags disappear into its cavernous space. Hidden away in the boot is a 6 CD changer with doesn't jump unlike some stereo systems I've experienced. The 4 speakers are great although when you're going full speed the engine does tend to be a bit noisy. The Celica comes with alarm and immobiliser. Despite the afore-mentioned expensive services, Toyota engines just go on and on, with high scores for reliability from all the Which reports. They also seem to hold their second hand value well.

So there you have it. I was just about to turn 30 and single when I bought this car. I'm now (ahem) a few years older, very happily attached and about to give birth. I cried last night when I finally concluded I'm going to have to sell my beloved car. It's been my turning 30 crisis appeaser. It's been my fun mobile. And I know I'm not going to be able to get a silly car again until I'm about 50 years old and I'm in serious mourning. I don't even want to think what it's going to be like when I have to hand over the keys. I'm going to feel different with a sensible car, it's going to rob me of some of my spirit. But then again, maybe I'll be so sleep deprived I won't even notice?!
 

...less