Which One Would You Buy?

[TopKat]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a Celica and have narrowed it down to two and just want to get opinions on which one to go for.

First one is black, 2000 model year, has good interior, sunroof, 117,000 miles (4 cyl.) automatic $6,333 out the door with tax, title, etc....

The other is a silver 2000 GT, has excellent interior, sunroof, 186,000 miles. This one is a stick and they want $5,995. - haven't done price negotiation yet and think I can get some taken off.

Both cars look great on the outside, both have new or almost new tires.

So..which one would you pick and why?

Thanks everyone!

[Bitter]

GT or GTS? same options on both? need more info.

Daily driver? Commuter car? Spirited driving? track use? what?

[TopKat]

Originally Posted by Bitter

GT or GTS? same options on both? need more info.

Daily driver? Commuter car? Spirited driving? track use? what?

The silver one is a GT, black one isn't. Essentially same options (ac, cd player, sunroof, etcl) on both cards.

This is a car for my 19 year old daughter - she will be using it as a daily driver in the city going to work and school and the occasional road trip.

Thanks so much for your reply!


*Note: she doesn't know how to drive a stick but I taught her a little today (enough to get the car around). She loves to drive, but I'm a little concerned about clutch wear
She can also drive my automatic while she learns the manual trans.

[PhatRoyale]

Considering the minimal price difference, I would get the one with lower miles.

Depending on how much your daughter drives, that difference could easily equal a few years of additional mechanical wear and tear on the drivetrain.

[VanBam]

It all depends on your daughter's persona/character. If she's a true car enthusiast or the adventurous challenge seeking responsible girl, I'd say the GT with stick speaking from my own perspective of interest [i'm a girl myself]. I learned how to drive with a manual transmission from the very start and don't regret it one bit. Sadly my Celica's automatic.

Realistically speaking: Commuting as a student, she is bound to drive during rush hour..it's best to stick with the automatic. Even if she may enjoy the manual at first, girls generally are known to have 0 tolerance of patience and will eventually lead to nagging. We all know you don't want that to happen.

Plus you're lucky the automatic has a lower milleage, yet has the same props as the stick. And the price difference isn't a big difference, it's only a couple of hundreds more. Those couple of hundreds you pitch in will save you the hassle of maintaining the clutch if you're too worried about it not lasting long with her. If she's the picky materialistic kind, she should also love the the colour. Black [to me atleast] is classier.

There isn't much difference in the mechanical aspect, so that's all the comparison I can think of.

[Bitter]

Get the GT then, the GTS manual trans isn't a very beginner friendly unit. Tight shift gates make it easy to miss-shift and break the engine. Also the GTS needs 91 or higher octane fuel, the GT takes 87. the GTS has more parts, the GT has fewer. Insurance on the GTS will be slightly higher. etc

Honestly though, get neither. the GTS isn't a very good daily driver for the above reasons. the GT till 2002 had oil burning problems the same as the corolla/prizm.

[VanBam]

Good points. Pickiness aside though, I can imagine some of those issues happening with alot of other newer generation cars, not only with Celicas, especially when mistreated..you're never gonna find that PERFECT car with 0 problems especially when keeping a budget and sticking to middle class makes. Kudos to him if he can afford a beauty like the new Aston Martin..point being, maintenance is always gonna be there..for the new and the old..expensive but less maintenance for the new, cheap but more maintenance for the old.

It's all the same shit man. I still believe Celicas are clean and reliable compared to most average cars.

What would you recommend instead?

[Bitter]

either a previous gen Celica (rock solid engines), or a later model Celica (02 and up) where they 1. fixed the oil burning issues with the 1zz and 2. made the trans ALOT better on the 2zz.

Don't think that oil burning is too bad? it can get so bad that you'll burn through all 4 qts of oil between 3,000 mile oil changes. That gets expensive, since you'll also be replacing cat converters and oxygen sensors on a very regular basis.

Keep shopping, there are more than just those TWO cars for sale in the world. Heck, even a used Civic LX 5spd is a wonderful commuter car. Enough zip to merge with traffic, cheap parts, easy to fix, and there's a million of them out there so they're cheap to find in decent shape.