Thinking about a used Corolla, Yaris or Prius!

[ryansride2017]

In the first week of January, I picked up a 2003 Corolla S off of Craigslist for 4,200. It was a one-owner vehicle with 147,000 miles. It had all the maintenance done at the Toyota dealership and came with associated documentation. All fluids were clean. The previous owner was a middle-aged man that would routinely travel to Florida. I would look for a high mileage, one owner beater. Many people have hang-ups on high mileage cars and are willing to let them go for great prices (Too many people believe that a car with over 100K miles is over the hill). If those vehicles were properly maintained and not driven hard, they can provide years worth of good transportation. I probably wouldn't have bought it if it was owned by several people, including some younger folk that may have pounded on it a bit.

 

[odie]

Here's an article called " Nine-Year-old-Prius retains its youth " on the battery life and gas mileage of a 2002 Prius with 206,000 miles compared to a newer PRIUS in the February 2011 Consumer Reports . http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magaz...rview/index.htm . We see plenty of the 1st generation PRIUS about .

 

[SLCraig]

Corolla for sure.
I'm a fan of the mid 90's style the most, but they are all pretty old by now. I don't like the looks of the 03+ models but they are nicer inside than their predecessors and are reliable as can be.

 

[IndyIan]

Are you actually going to be saving money with two cars? Or you are just trying to keep the vette in good shape by avoiding winters with it?
I'd have a look at the Echo, its track is probably only an inch narrower than a corolla. The hatch back and sedans are actually very different cars based on different platforms. The hatch with a manual is actually very fun but is a bit cheaper inside, and the sedan pretty much is a corolla from a drivers point of view, only the corolla has less head room.
Go to a toyota dealer and try all 3 back to back, for commuting I'd be happy with any of them, but for autocross duty the hatch would actually be fun.

 

[Rix]

Originally Posted By: Hermann
What sort of mileage numbers are you looking for. Older Corolla's do not have overdrives on their automatics. They didn't start until about 05 IIRC. My only concern on the 2001 Prius would be the 10 year old batteries in a northern climate. My Toyota's have always been ultra reliable. They are a good choice for long term use with minimal repairs.


Uh... nope.
You could get a 4 speed auto back to around 88-ish or so.

I would START at 1990 for a reliable older corolla. (you want the EFI).
I personally prefer the cars with the IRS versus the twist beam rear. So around 02 and older, IIRC. I have a hard time remembering exactly when this newer stuff switched.

1st gen prii are starting to have an occasional battery or invertor issue. they get spendy to fix, when it's needed.

The yaris is.... well.... cheap.
They didn't sell a whole lot around here, so we don't see them much.

The corollas have had very few issues, the engine ecu being the main one, with some timing cover leaks and water pumps thrown in the mix. Overall, they have (always) been fantastic cars. There's nothing super about the cars themselves, they're pretty basic.
My favorite is the 96-97 with the 7a-fe (1.8l) with a manual trans.

 

[ryansride2017]

Originally Posted By: Rix


The corollas have had very few issues, the engine ecu being the main one, with some timing cover leaks and water pumps thrown in the mix. Overall, they have (always) been fantastic cars. There's nothing super about the cars themselves, they're pretty basic.


Good summary. That is exactly how I feel about our Corolla. If you want a driver enthusiast car, don't get a Corolla. But if you want to simply get the job done, with no flash, take a look at one.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Are you actually going to be saving money with two cars? Or you are just trying to keep the vette in good shape by avoiding winters with it?



It's really not about saving money, it's primarily about saving the Vette (and me!) from winter driving. But since I'll already have the car at that point, I'll save money on gas the more often I drive the second car to work in the non winter months as well, and it will allow me to keep the Corvette much longer too.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: ryansride2017


Good summary. That is exactly how I feel about our Corolla. If you want a driver enthusiast car, don't get a Corolla. But if you want to simply get the job done, with no flash, take a look at one.


That's exactly what it needs to be for me too. I've got the Corvette as my enthusiast car, so I don't need my second car to be something flashy that I care about, otherwise I'd end up spending too much time washing it and waxing it and stuff like that. This second car will be something that I can park anywhere and won't care if a shopping cart crashes into it. And maybe I'll run it through the car wash a couple of times a year (and maybe I'll even change it's oil once a year too)

 

[yaris0128]

Glad to hear you want to save your Vette for better times. Being a Yaris owner I love the car. Its a great runner and hard to beat for the price. Got mine fully loaded minus an automatic for $14,7xx. Only problem is the gas mileage they get isnt mind blowing. Its about even with a Corolla so I dont understand marketing a economic car thats not any better than the one its taking the place of. My del Sol thats 16 years old gets better mileage than the Yaris by nearly 10mpg. So if your looking for a good car with great mileage Id say look at 5th gen Civics. The D15's in those cars with 5spds are amazing.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: yaris0128
Glad to hear you want to save your Vette for better times. Being a Yaris owner I love the car. Its a great runner and hard to beat for the price. Got mine fully loaded minus an automatic for $14,7xx. Only problem is the gas mileage they get isnt mind blowing. Its about even with a Corolla so I dont understand marketing a economic car thats not any better than the one its taking the place of.


That seems odd that the Yaris wouldn't get a lot better mileage than the Corolla considering it's got the smaller 1.5L engine. Perhaps the Yaris is too heavy for that smaller engine and people end up having to drive them harder just to keep up with traffic compared to driving a Corolla with the bigger engine.

 

[odie]

The YARIS sedan is about same size as the '98 > 2002 Corolla / Prizm . The 2000 Prizm with the 5 speed manual we owned was equal to the gas mileage of the Yaris . Best tank we got with the Prizm was 43 m.p.g..

 

[yaris0128]

Originally Posted By: Patman


That seems odd that the Yaris wouldn't get a lot better mileage than the Corolla considering it's got the smaller 1.5L engine. Perhaps the Yaris is too heavy for that smaller engine and people end up having to drive them harder just to keep up with traffic compared to driving a Corolla with the bigger engine.

Well the hatch comes in at just under 2300pds. So its a light car for a decent powered engine. Its better than both my Hondas Ive got. I average 36-38mpg with it. Which to someone who drives a Corvette everyday that sounds fantastic but all I have ever had is economy cars. The car I had before the yaris was an 89 Probe GT that averaged 32-35mpg. So a turbo engine that was pretty quick and could do a lot more got nearly the same mileage?! Insane concept for me. I was kinda expecting more like Geo Metro type of numbers.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: yaris0128

Well the hatch comes in at just under 2300pds. So its a light car for a decent powered engine. Its better than both my Hondas Ive got. I average 36-38mpg with it. Which to someone who drives a Corvette everyday that sounds fantastic but all I have ever had is economy cars. The car I had before the yaris was an 89 Probe GT that averaged 32-35mpg. So a turbo engine that was pretty quick and could do a lot more got nearly the same mileage?! Insane concept for me. I was kinda expecting more like Geo Metro type of numbers.


Considering the price of gas in North America over the past few years I'm surprised there hasn't been a big push to make cars like the old Geo Metro 3 cylinders. Europe has a lot of cars with very tiny engines (1.0L) that get way better MPG than stuff sold over here, so why don't they sell them here too? I bet a 2000 lb car with a 70hp 1.0L 3 cylinder engine that gets 60 MPG highway would sell like hotcakes.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Patman
I bet a 2000 lb car with a 70hp 1.0L 3 cylinder engine that gets 60 MPG highway would sell like hotcakes.

You've just described Smart Fortwo. Sadly it's only rated at 33 mpg city / 41 mpg hwy. From personal experience, that engine runs like utter [censored].

What I think is cool is something like a VW Polo with a 1.2-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine. 105 hp and DSG trans and is rated at 53 mpg hwy (in Europe).

Or the 1.6 TDI version - 63 mpg hwy.

 

[yaris0128]

I wish Honda could do something like the CRX HF. That 4cyl beast had a good 60hp and 90ft torque, way better than the Metro and was rated at 60hwy. How come Honda does not have something like this today? There was the Civic VX in the 90's but that wasnt nearly as good.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

You've just described Smart Fortwo. Sadly it's only rated at 33 mpg city / 41 mpg hwy. From personal experience, that engine runs like utter [censored].




In Canada when they first introduced the Smart car it came with a 40hp diesel engine (from 2004 to 2007 I believe), and it was rated at 51 city and 61 highway! (and those are US gallons too, not the larger imperial gallons that car makers in Canada use to give their MPG ratings). But those just aren't for me, they are way too ugly and I don't need to own another two seater car! Another reason I want a second car is to own something that can carry more than one passenger! I also want to have something that can carry a bit more cargo when needed too, since my Corvette's hatch is filled with audio equipment (a couple of amps and a 12" sub) so it really can't haul much stuff at all back there now, not even a full load of groceries!

 

[odie]

Originally Posted By: odie
The YARIS sedan is about same size as the '98 > 2002 Corolla / Prizm . The 2000 Prizm with the 5 speed manual we owned was equal to the gas mileage of the Yaris . Best tank we got with the Prizm was 43 m.p.g..


Have got 43 m.p.g. on occasion with the YARIS automatic sedan and 3 door .

 

[Patman]

I'm now considering another alternative, an 06 or 07 Honda Civic coupe. I really like the coupe's styling and from the Google search that I did it looks like it's quite capable of getting the kind of gas mileage I'm looking for. The Civic coupe would be a little bit more of a "fun car" than the Corolla, so maybe I'd wax it once or twice a year instead of never

The Civic coupes are priced a couple of thousand higher than my original budget though, and it'll be a lot harder to find them with an automatic transmission too (but if I do, they are 5 speed autos which is nice!). But if I find an EX model, it comes with a 7 speaker audio system with subwoofer, so I wouldn't need to change that in the future. (I like to have nice stereos in my cars)

 

[mechanicx]

An '05+ Cobalt might be a consideration then. It's bigger engine won't get quite the gas milage of a Corolla, but the usually lower price will make up for it. Most of them came with automatics and some of them have a Pioneer sound system that sounds pretty good.

 

[JHZR2]

Im not a fan of the current civic. Read my review when I had a yaris across CA for a week and then a civic across CA for two weeks, back to back.

Here was my take:

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/2008-toyota-yaris.94217/