My budget: Around $1500-2000 before maintenance/repairs/registration/etc.
I'm going to be moving from San Diego to San Jose in early August. Between now and then I'll be using the car to drive to school and back in the evenings a few times a week (5-10 miles round trip) and to work and back on weekends and occasional road trips (Maybe a 100 mile round trip once a month at about 65 MPH). I'll be driving to San Jose when I move and there, I'll be living about a 10-15 mile commute away from where I will be working, so roughly 30-40 miles per day commute. I'm estimating I will put roughly 13,000 to 15,000 miles on the car before I decide to put her in the garage to get her "Phoenix Down".
What I want: 7th generation Corolla preferably in 5-speed with power internals, AC, clean title.
I've found quite a few in San Diego area but I'm also looking in LA. If the car is right, I would ask my friends to go with me to LA to pick it up. But I have some questions.
Are there any common issues other than the 4AFE oil leak issue? My Ford Taurus also had an oil burning issue but it was more like 1.5 quarts a month so I don't mind about a quart every 1000 miles. Given I will probably drive it for about 15,000 miles before I pay a mechanic to drop a 4AGE in, I can handle the expense/inconvenience of 15 quarts over the remaining lifetime of the 4AFE.
What are the bang/buck modifications that can be done to improve the quality of driving for the car? I don't mean straight line performance but basically anything that can get worn out after 15 years that's not too expensive to replace that just invigorates the driving of the car.
Do you think this is the best route? For those of you who have had issues with your 7th Gen, are there other cars you would've considered?
I'm also considering Accord's, Early 2000's Kia/Hyundai. The reason I removed Civics is because there tends to be a considerably high amount of wear and tear on Civics. The F&F generation really put a beating on a lot of Civics so despite their high reliability that's relatively similar to Corolla's, most of the Civics I see have gutted/Frankenstein repaired interior, mixed/matched OEM body parts with body kits, unpainted 'performance' fenders, lowering springs. I feel like bringing those cars back to a daily drivable condition would end up costing me more than $1500 on top of the price of the car. There also seems to be a prevalent "Honda tax" here in Southern California. Just because it's a Honda and they know that some people like to modify them, they slap $450-$2000 on top of the KBB value of the car. One guy even had the nerve to say his 1998 Civic with 180,000 miles would be $10,000 at a dealership. It's 16 years old and he thinks a dealer would sell it for the same price as a brand new Hyundai or Kia!
Anyway, I appreciate the future responses and I'm going to peruse through the forum and check out some modified 7th generation Corolla's while I wait for your responses!
:thanks: :hi:
I'm going to be moving from San Diego to San Jose in early August. Between now and then I'll be using the car to drive to school and back in the evenings a few times a week (5-10 miles round trip) and to work and back on weekends and occasional road trips (Maybe a 100 mile round trip once a month at about 65 MPH). I'll be driving to San Jose when I move and there, I'll be living about a 10-15 mile commute away from where I will be working, so roughly 30-40 miles per day commute. I'm estimating I will put roughly 13,000 to 15,000 miles on the car before I decide to put her in the garage to get her "Phoenix Down".
What I want: 7th generation Corolla preferably in 5-speed with power internals, AC, clean title.
I've found quite a few in San Diego area but I'm also looking in LA. If the car is right, I would ask my friends to go with me to LA to pick it up. But I have some questions.
Are there any common issues other than the 4AFE oil leak issue? My Ford Taurus also had an oil burning issue but it was more like 1.5 quarts a month so I don't mind about a quart every 1000 miles. Given I will probably drive it for about 15,000 miles before I pay a mechanic to drop a 4AGE in, I can handle the expense/inconvenience of 15 quarts over the remaining lifetime of the 4AFE.
What are the bang/buck modifications that can be done to improve the quality of driving for the car? I don't mean straight line performance but basically anything that can get worn out after 15 years that's not too expensive to replace that just invigorates the driving of the car.
Do you think this is the best route? For those of you who have had issues with your 7th Gen, are there other cars you would've considered?
I'm also considering Accord's, Early 2000's Kia/Hyundai. The reason I removed Civics is because there tends to be a considerably high amount of wear and tear on Civics. The F&F generation really put a beating on a lot of Civics so despite their high reliability that's relatively similar to Corolla's, most of the Civics I see have gutted/Frankenstein repaired interior, mixed/matched OEM body parts with body kits, unpainted 'performance' fenders, lowering springs. I feel like bringing those cars back to a daily drivable condition would end up costing me more than $1500 on top of the price of the car. There also seems to be a prevalent "Honda tax" here in Southern California. Just because it's a Honda and they know that some people like to modify them, they slap $450-$2000 on top of the KBB value of the car. One guy even had the nerve to say his 1998 Civic with 180,000 miles would be $10,000 at a dealership. It's 16 years old and he thinks a dealer would sell it for the same price as a brand new Hyundai or Kia!
Anyway, I appreciate the future responses and I'm going to peruse through the forum and check out some modified 7th generation Corolla's while I wait for your responses!
:thanks: :hi: