could anyone give me a quick opinion on this motorcheck report

andyseadog

decided to follow my heart not my head lads, and i'm going for a corolla

i looked at a few g6r's but in fairness they were all high mileage muck, so i'm going to have a look at a 2000 corolla SR tomorrow, the owner stated it was an english import so he's not trying to conceal the fact and that he has the paperwork to prove that it got a new short engine block in 2007 as part of the oil burning recall so thats all good and it has a FSH.

here's the motorcheck report

http://www.motorcheck.ie/report/00TS6151/XEV9W7

i think it seems clean enough? a few cautionary symbols but would you let it put you off the car? or what questions should i ask?

here is the car in question, its advertised on a private forum and isn't on donedeal or the likes so here's a few pictures.







honest opinions welcome

mickdw

Not alot to see in the report. No mileage info at all really so you would want to have a good look around it in that regard.
Something tells me the back bumper is poorly painted and there also seems to be a kink in the panel that runs across above the back bumper

Kildare Resident

If he was the person that brought it in from the U.K. he should have the service history, M.O.T. certs etc..... If he doesn't have them I'd run a mile from it.

Do a U.K. check on it, you can do it on line with the reg from the report.

Car from the U.K. with no service history etc..... STAY WELL CLEAR.......

unkel

andyseadog wrote: »

decided to follow my heart not my head lads, and i'm going for a corolla

Does not compute

Anyways good luck buying the car. How much is it if you don't mind me asking, about a grand? NCT is a bit more than a year which is not bad.

colm_mcm

I would imagine a clean sr in silver is worth way more than a grand...

unkel

colm_mcm wrote: »

I would imagine a clean sr in silver is worth way more than a grand...

Why would that be? Do these cars have some sort of following? If so I wonder why?

unkel

unkel wrote: »

Why would that be? Do these cars have some sort of following? If so I wonder why?

young lads see them as a cool car with a bit of poke, tested and straight you'd get 2 grand for one no bother.

colm_mcm

6 speed box, aircon, 3 doors, I think these cars were discussed here recently enough

unkel

Thanks lads.

Dunno how they can see them as cool though? 100BHP or so from a 1.6? Honda did 158bhp from an engine as tiny as that 10 years previously. Even Rover got over 100BHP out of an even smaller 1.4, again about 10 years before that car.

Or maybe it's a game keeping one step ahead of the insurance companies? Honda Civics over 60BHP are all but uninsurable for young lads so maybe they're trying out other low end Japanese cars that might not yet be known for bad insurance records?

BTW 2k for a 11 year old 1.6l basic small supermini is ridiculous money imho

colm_mcm

They're 109 hp

I don't think insurance is a problem on them.

unkel

colm_mcm wrote: »

I don't think insurance is a problem on them.

That's my thinking

Only in Ireland would a young lad think it is cool to drive a sh1tbox 1.6l car from the far east and pay thousands to own it and then thousands in insurance

Lol, you do like the ecoboxes.

andyseadog

i just like it, it looks snappy enough as in i dont think it looks too dated for a ten year old car, 3 door, alloys, sunroof, air con, all electrics, toyota reliability, 6 speed box is a bit of a novelty, i know 110bhp isn't much from a modern 1.6 but tbh i'm not after big power at all.

its a little bigger and more comfortable than my vitz which is something i will need shortly and it doesn't have the same skanger image to it either which was getting a little old.

the asking price is 2500, but needless to say that's up for negotiation.

the only downside is the mileage at 114,000 but i'd reckon if you treat that car right you could nearly double that mileage?

L-M

Looks a lovely example,best of luck with it if you go for it!

andyseadog

andyseadog wrote: »

..........

the asking price is 2500, but needless to say that's up for negotiation.

Not out of the way really.

andyseadog wrote: »

.......
the only downside is the mileage at 114,000 but i'd reckon if you treat that car right you could nearly double that mileage?

Yep.

unkel

RoverJames wrote: »

Lol, you do like the ecoboxes.

I am misunderstood around here sometimes

I've no problem with ecoboxes at all. If I had very little money and needed the cheapest way to motor about, I'd buy a 1l Micra, pay the tax for the year and try and drive economically. I've no problem with that.

But why do young lads with a bit more money spend it on something only a half step up from a Micra paying through their teeth for insurance while they're at it?

Why not drive a 1l car for a year or two, save a lot of money, build up your no claims bonus and then move up to a real car, not some sh1tty 1.6l piece of junk? I know it is uncool for a young lad to drive a Micra, and the lads will take the p1ss, but guess who will be laughing at them and their sh1tboxes when you have a real car in a few years time

andyseadog

well lads, i thought i better update you's i brought this car home sunday afternoon and i'm very happy with it. test until next september and tax until september of this year.

it needs a bit of tlc here and there but its generally a sound car. i'm sure i'l have a few questions to ask along the way anyhow! here's a few snaps of her after a good going over with Mr. Autoglym :pac:

Absurdum

unkel wrote: »

Why not drive a 1l car for a year or two, save a lot of money, build up your no claims bonus and then move up to a real car, not some sh1tty 1.6l piece of junk?

a little uncalled for imo, nothing at all wrong with a Corolla, let me guess, if it were a German sh1tbox, you'd be all over it :P

Wolverine_1999

It's a really nice looking example, not fond of them myself but this one seems to have been taken care of.

The interior is looking really dated however, is there anything that can be done to modernise the interior?

Nonoperational

Nice car. Doesn't look like a piece of junk to me anyway!

r3nu4l

Congratulations on the purchase, hope you get many more (happy motoring) miles out of it

Some seat covers and some mats would lift the dated look of the fabric but not much else can be done imo.

andyseadog

cheers for the comments guys, personally i like the layout of the dash, after getting out of a vitz with all that centralised, thinking outside the box, bubbly nonsense its nice to get back into a regular if slightly dull layout :P

as for the seats/ door cards it seems a popular modification is to use the seats from an ae111 levin/ trueno which are a straight swap with no messing around bar the belt buckles and these interiors for front and rear seats seem to sell for around 150-200 euros so that is definitely on the cards, the seats much nicer looking with a bigger bolster but still OEM.