Carina, Corona, Corolla (Toyota Carina E)

Member Name: EazyDude

Product:	Toyota Carina E
Date:	21/11/01 (914 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: BIG car, Retains style, Reliable

Disadvantages: Whiny engine (1.6), Steering grates on full lock

Now these are all fairly big Toyota selling cars, but I can't quite work out why they insist (or used to anyway) on naming them after bits of flowers.

Carina - The bit where two petals unite
Corona - The crown shaped bit of petals (like a daffodil)
Corolla - The petals considered as a group

Go figure.

Anyhoo... I've recently acquired a Carina E XLi 1.6, but it's been in the family for a while. In fact, dad bought it with 7000 miles and only one month old. Since then it's done us pretty good service now standing at 85000 miles odd. Please bear in mind that I'm not exactly a car fanatic, nor have I driven loads and loads of cars to compare them to. In fact, I've really only driven a Nissan Micra!

The Car
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On first appearance, quite a nice looking car I think. We've got 3 now in our flat car park, and they don't look all that bad. The shape has not really become all that dated as the Avensis has superceded the Carina E, but retains a similar styling. The car is quite a long one, giving you loads of boot space, expecially when the seats fold virtually flat. The build on this car isn't exactly a Mercedes, but then what do you expect from a Japanese car?

Visibility
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The bootline, or rather the raking window on the hatchback model, seems a bit small to see anything out of. Your view from the driver's seat isn't exactly superb as that long car makes it seem like that rear window is miles away. From the driver's seat it is very difficult to initially judge where the end of the car is when parking.
I have noticed now that there is a HUGE blindspot to the rear of the car. I have been zipping down the motorway, at a perfectly legal speed, and then suddenly noticed that a car that I know is around to my left or right... suddenly disappears from view. This has caught dad out once when I've been in the car. The classic Mirror Signal Ma
noeuvre was performed, only to be hooted at as he hadn't seen the car alongside. So just a mental note here, be careful.

Comfort
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The seats in my newly acquired car are not the most comfy of seats, but for an 8 year old car, I didn't expect them to be. Wear and tear has not started to show through as yet, but then we did use seat covers the whole time. On a long drive in the back, mum has complained of the slightly hard seats, but also the raking seats backwards. Surely it's more natural to sit more upright? There is plently of leg space though in the back and I mean plenty of leg space.

In the driver's seat the steering wheel seems just a mite too big. This just results in you relaxing those tense shoulders whilst driving through the rush hour traffic. The pedals are nicely spaced in the manual version, with a little foot rest for your poor little left foot on long drives. You can't mistake this for a clutch as it's waaaay over on the left hand side, secured, and raised.

The fan heater/demister thingy could be a bit better. There are definitely times when you want it to be warm, but it's not until 10 minutes down the road (if you haven't been sitting idle) that it starts to warm up inside. Of course then it gets too warm and you're constantly fiddling with the temperature. Demisting isn't terrific either, and this can take some time. Again, all compared to the Micra when it used to almost instantly clear.

Driving
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Ain't too bad y'know. I expected worse from an old(ish) car, but I wasn't disappointed. First thing that strikes me is the chunky gearbox. You can definitely feel it go clunk-clunk from gear to gear. Quite a nice feel, but used to be a bit of an effort for mum. Whilst on the gearbox I have to say that I think that it's slightly weirdly geared:

1st - You spend absolutely no time in whatsoever. Touch the accelerator, the
n change to 2nd.
2nd - Most of slow moving traffic gear. Quite a wide range
3rd - Will take you up to 40 quite comfortably. Definitely the gear to stay in if there are speed cameras about. Tricky to stay at 30 though, for a 30 zone.
4th/5th - Open up on the motorway really.

The main thing to note about the 1.6 engine is that it whines. Annoyingly so, but it does at the top end of the gears. The engine doesn't seem to quite have that oomph until you hit the top 1/2 of the engine rev range (if you get what I mean).

Steering, as I mentioned is done from the ever so slightly oversized wheel. It's quite light and flimsy at times, so watch it on those corners. A bit unresponsive at the mid to end of turns. One thing that bugs me, really bugs me, is the fact that at slow speeds, ie parking speeds, and on full lock, there seems to be a funny grating sound. Like the wheels are touching the arcs. You'll know what I mean when you hear it again. Might well be a design fault as I haven't heard any other cars do it, but have one or two other Carina's.

I love the clutch on this car. There is almost no biting point, well, when compared to the Micra that I used to drive anyway. There's always a smooth uptake and you can barely tell the transition sometimes. The brakes are quite sharp and I think dad informs me that they're coming up to replaced once more. That's at 85000 miles.

Buying one?
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The only thing I could possibly say, is watch out for the radiator at this age. Ours just died and got replaced (which is why dad has a new car and I have this one). Another thing is that is that it's been pretty reliable. Starts every morning regardless of weather first time. Apart from that I can't really give you any sound advice I'm afraid.

Thanks for reading.

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