2005 Corolla LE a good buy?

[Stonewall]

I may be closing the deal on 05 Corolla LE. I have seen, and experienced the starting issue but man this car is nice. To all of who have one...would you recommend it to others?

I have to drive 60 miles day so the gas mpg is important. Are most of you getting around 35mpg or so?

Please let me know ASAP.

[majortom1981]

I think that the 05 le corrolla is an awesome buy.

I have an 04 le and i love it.

I only drive 15 miles everyday to work but it gets good gas milage.

I live on long island in ny . i am not sure if ithaca has the same gas but i think so . If your area has ethanol in the gas do not expect 35 mpg in the car.

Excpect anywhere in the 20's . I get 30- 33 when i do a lot of highway driving

Stupid ethanol.

Anyway since the 05 is just an updated 04 i think its an awesome buy.

[Chinasgotrice]

Corrolla is an awesome buy, I just bought an 04 LE not even last week. Gas is great, with my style of driving it feels like I get 40 or more mpg on the highway. Go for it espically in your situation.

[NRM]

For the 05 they changed their drive-by-cable to a drive-by-wire system. If you're just a typical driver, this won't make a big difference to you, but if you're a tuner or such, it may. There'll be slightly more pedal response in the 03-04 Corollas as well as the ability to upgrade a supercharger if you ever felt the need. DBW basically sends the throttle through an electronic management system and judges how much air to allow to control the amount of gas used to power the car. The car will learn your driving and create an optimal response.

I own a 05 S, which is basically exactly the same as the 05 LE besides the interior trim and some other equipment. I don't have the starting problem and I personally don't know any Corolla owners with the problem, so I haven't personally seen what the issue is.

I drive a full day 200 mile daily commute 4 days a week for school, so I know about gas consumption. I have managed a 42MPG maximum with an average of 34MPG. I don't exactly drive like my grandmother, but I take it easy and maintain speed as well as possible. I have my tires at 40PSI, but do have quite a bit of clutter in my car (2 12" subwoofers, sound deadened doors and floor), but my car has handled it quite nicely.

From my standpoint, I TOTALLY reccommend this car. It's my absolute love. It's clean, convenient, and overall a great buy. The acceleration is quite nippy for a 130HP engine and I love most of the standard features.

[Mins]

I was in deep consideration between corolla le and elantra gt. Elantra has stronger, quieter engine and while corolla has better mpg. I chose corolla because the interior looks the most upscale compared to most other compacts, I love the 6-CD player which seemed quite unusual for an "inexpensive" car, and the gauges resembles a lexus.

After owning the car for over 3 months, i find out that i made the right choice, although I was somewhat disappointed on not getting expected mpg since it was one of the reason why i got a corolla.

I would say get a corolla le if polite manner of the car is your #1 priority. I did not experience the no-start problem yet, although many are affected by the problem.

[joel_musicman]

I saw a story about the EPA gas mileage estimates... For ANY car you buy, the EPA numbers on the sticker are 2-3 mpg higher than you'll actually get. Why?

EPA gets their numbers by putting the car on a treadmill in a lab with *NO* wind resistance. That very wind is what causes the decrease in real life driving. Then they just put that "your mileage may vary" so you can't get them for false advertising.

-Joel

[redgtxdi]

I would also like to 2nd those remarks by Joel.



Do NOT expect to get 35mpg. Expect 28 in the city and 35 on the freeway. That way if you get more, you'll be happy.

Here's how my record goes so far.....................

'89 Mazda B2200 (My first new car) Rated at ---> 21/26 Actually got ---> 20/25

'98 Toyota Camry (also bought new) Rated at ---> 23/30 Actually gets ---> 23/29

'98 Ford F150 (ditto) Rated at ---> 15/18 Actually gets -------> 13/16

'95 Prizm/Corolla (recent 'used' acquisition) Rated at -----> 26/30 Actually gets ----> 23/29

So, in essence, NO vehicle I've ever had gets *more* thant he EPA estimate and with the "CITY" exception on the Camry (I don't know how that sucker does it, but I've only had 22mpg a couple times so I'm not really counting those), most vehicles got less. Some much less than others.

[fontukyracer]

personaly the corolla is one of the best car's you can get .. but for your's $$'s worth get a corolla xrs's its all your $$'s worth.... plus a big horse power rather than a regular corolla .. gas milage i live in cali so gas is aboyut $3.15 so it realy depends on how heav,y your foot is..>?

[richs]

I have a 2005 LE, and I can verify that it's a nice car. I've never encountered the starting problem, either. The best we've gotten with the A/C on all the time is 28.5 MPG city. (We haven't taken it on any major highway trips yet.)

HOWEVER, be careful when you choose a Corolla to avoid fit-and-finish and assembly problems. I didn't look closely enough when we purchased ours, and it has a slightly misfitting dash, which Toyota will NOT fix after the fact. It's just a cosmetic issue, but it's clearly visible and it's irritating. My car also had a misaligned trunk lid (fixed under warranty) and the driver's door pillar plastic trim was bent when improperly installed at the factory (replaced under warranty). There were also three "holes" in the paint job that required touch-up painting by the dealer.

My car was built in the California plant. Some anecdotal evidence suggests that the Corollas assembled in Canada have fewer issues like this.

Anyway, just make sure you do a thorough visual inspection of the actual Corolla that you are buying to make sure that it doesn't suffer from these kinds of defects.