Not new to forum, but new to corolla

[bastion]

Just wanted to pop in and say hi. I am now the owner of an 03 Corolla S 5-speed manual. I had an 02 camry LE auto (as my previous posts will show), but I decided to switch to the corolla to get my monthly payments down, get back into a manual car that is more fun to drive, and as a side benifit get better MPG and lower insurance.

I'll be gutting the stereo and video system out of the camry this weekend and putting the stock stuff back in. Not going to bother with the springs tho, I'll just leave the vogtlands on for whoever buys it next and sell the originals I've still got in my garage. After they get done detailing the rolla on saturday, I'll stick my headunit, speakers, and ipod hookups in it, but probably leave the 7" tv screen out. I'm not sure there is a good place for it to go, plus we never really used it that much anyway. Probably sell it along with the camry springs. Then I'll have some funds to put towards dropping the center of gravity on the rolla. It's already got the factory ground effects trim kit installed, along with some nice enki 17" 10-spoke alloys wrapped in Goodyear Scorchers (with tires for life from being Toyota certified, w00t) so it should look pretty nice after a drop, and handle much better too. Gotta make the most out of those sticky tires.

I'll post some pictures after the detailing on Saturday. They will give it a thorough cleaning, inside and out, and there are a couple cosmetic issues that need fixin, but I'll be busy taking all the hardware out of the camry while the rolla is in the shop. So that's about it on the new car. So, anyone got some good info on suspension upgrades for this baby? Or a good replacement for the shifter knob since the standard one is kinda bleh? I'm all ears.

[bastion]

wow, slow down guys, one at a time please!


So anyway, didnt' get all the work done today. I took in a whole list of items to them, not sure what they'd be willing to fix. Turns out there was a messup, and the rolla, which was marked as Toyota certified, never went through the certification before they put it on the lot. The service tech told the salesman "We can't do all this, it's like $1300 worth of work. Go see Mark." Mark (sales specialist) said, "well, we told him to make a list, and since the car never went through the certification checkout, make sure the shop fixes any of the stuff he finds."

One of the cool things is that they are replacing the front console panel and tray doors, which I have to wait till monday for, cause it will be custom painted to match the existing trim, which was customed painted by the previous owner, one of the collision center paint specialaists He wasn't there today, but the sales tech is going to be talking to him on Monday to get a list of any additional mods he might have done.