Toyota Celica, what are they like?

jozi

Considering maybe buying one of these (199-2006 model), they seem to be cheap enough (under 1500 budget). I'm a BMW man, I know nothing about them at all except that there's a 140 and a 190hp model

What are they like to drive, reliability, mpg etc?

--- edit ---

Just noticed I posted this in the wrong section, could a mod move it to motors?

coolwings

Thread moved to Motors

Atlantic Dawn

Get the vvtli engine, this has 189bhp, the other engine only has 140bhp, as they are both 1.8 for motor tax and poke the vvtli is what you want. MPG I would say around early to mid 30's.

DaveJac

good cars, pretty reliable too friend of mine has one the last 4 years trouble free, just get one with good service history

jozi

There don't seem to be to many with the 189hp engine. Are they the same engine with a different tune or totally different engines?

L-M

Friend of mine has a 190 bhp one... Cracking car to go. It has the same high end lift that a Vtec would have, so enevitably you end up driving the bag out of it.

jozi

jozi wrote: »

There don't seem to be to many with the 189hp engine. Are they the same engine with a different tune or totally different engines?

No they are a different engine, the 190 has high lift cams. I have always liked the celica, nice looking car and nice seating position etc inside. Handle well too, just make sure its been serviced all along and they go through a bit of oil so no harm to check it on a test drive to see if the owner has been topping it up.

Toyotafanboi

Kairo Cold Underclothing wrote: »

No they are a different engine, the 190 has high lift cams. I have always liked the celica, nice looking car and nice seating position etc inside. Handle well too, just make sure its been serviced all along and they go through a bit of oil so no harm to check it on a test drive to see if the owner has been topping it up.

they are the same engine bottom end and ancillaries, box etc, just the the 190 having a different head as you say, but otherwise the same.

i think the oil burning was confined to just the 140's?

geotrig

Do these not have the superstrut suspension ? iirc i think they do (i could be wrong and thats the main thing i would worry about ,costly bit of kits to replace other than that one of my favorite cars

Tea 1000

geotrig wrote: »

Do these not have the superstrut suspension ? iirc i think they do (i could be wrong and thats the main thing i would worry about ,costly bit of kits to replace other than that one of my favorite cars

They do have a variation of it alright, around a grand to replace, should be good for the bones of 100k miles though.

I actually bought one of these a few weeks back - a '99 vvti (189bhp) with superstrut suspension and only 135k km on the clock - paid 1000 for it after having my mech give it the thumbs up and guard friend ran the reg to make sure all was as it seemed with it.

Beautiful car to drive - loads of poke, but you feel every little bump in the road with that suspension. Not necessarily a bad thing, but something to be aware of.
A surprisingly big boot, and quite economical to run as well - I'm getting about 250km to 30€ petrol if I'm driving normally in it, which is actually better than the 1.4 golf i changed from.

jozi

Is there anything visual to set the 190 and 140hp model apart? Just looking on donedeal and some dont have any mention of them being vvti-l or 190hp.

Toyotafanboi

jozi wrote: »

Is there anything visual to set the 190 and 140hp model apart? Just looking on donedeal and some dont have any mention of them being vvti-l or 190hp.

under the bonnet the biggest difference visually is that the 140 has a black plastic inlet manifold and the 190 has a silver alloy one. it also says either vvti or vvtli on the engine cover.

Taylor365

An obvious port of call are club sites.

Give these a look. Thought me everything i needed to know when buying/maintaining a celica.

http://www.celica-club.co.uk/

Stavros Murphy

The engines consume oil, often suddenly and out of the blue, then they consume engines, very, very rapidly.. not really something you can check either...just a thing to be wary of..you're then into I.V.I for the guts of 2k for a re-cond one..

Taylor365

Stavros Murphy wrote: »

The engines consume oil, often suddenly and out of the blue, then they consume engines, very, very rapidly.. not really something you can check either...just a thing to be wary of..you're then into I.V.I for the guts of 2k for a re-cond one..

Owned a 190 for 2 years and drove it hard.

Never had any ounce of trouble.

RichyX

Stavros Murphy wrote: »

The engines consume oil, often suddenly and out of the blue, then they consume engines, very, very rapidly.. not really something you can check either...just a thing to be wary of..you're then into I.V.I for the guts of 2k for a re-cond one..

Only on the early ones. The facelifted 140s don't appear to have the oil burning issue.

There's some debate online as to how worthwhile the 190 is relative to the 140. Apparently most of the extra power is at the top of the rev range, where you're not exactly going to be spending all of your time, unless your a boy racer.
I've heard it said the 190 has less power than the 140 lower down.

I've only driven 140s so I'd be interested in trying the 190 for myself.

Stavros Murphy

Taylor365 wrote: »

Owned a 190 for 2 years and drove it hard.

Never had any ounce of trouble.

Good stuff. I've had a transit since '05, not an ounce of bother. I've had several others that are a pita with all the usual faults. I also have an immaculate '96 jap celica and sold my 02 to my sil, an aircraft mechanic, whereby it shat itself on the M7 despite being cossetted. Oil control rings broke up and it ate itself.

I also have an MR2 and if you're gonna tell me that Toyota has covered itself in glory on the Celica/Mr2 front vis a vis engine quality/manufacturing standards/component quality, I'll politely agree to disagree. There's also an avensis with the same engine outside(the missu') that loves oil to a woeful degree. Not all, but lots, have issues. The new version MRS is also renowned for its chocolate engine - if you doubt it, look at the prices they make, buttons. And then go looking for a replacement celica engine with a meaningful warranty.

RichyX

Stavros Murphy wrote: »

I also have an MR2 and if you're gonna tell me that Toyota has covered itself in glory on the Celica/Mr2 front vis a vis engine quality/manufacturing standards/component quality, I'll politely agree to disagree. There's also an avensis with the same engine outside(the missu') that loves oil to a woeful degree. Not all, but lots, have issues. The new version MRS is also renowned for its chocolate engine - if you doubt it, look at the prices they make, buttons.

What year's your MR2?
I haven't heard anything about the facelift Celica 140s drinking oil so it's possible later MR2s are also cured.

GeneralC

wondering about the Celica's myself. A lot of them on the internet seem to have engine problems, is it possible to pick a clean one up for around 1500?