Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Thinkin' about gettin' a 04 Corolla

Are there many mods I could do? What's a site where I can see how 19's will look on it. Anyone have any experience with a corolla? Or a nice car that gets good gas mileage that is also affordable for a 19 year old? Lookin' at about the 13-15000 price range or less. Thanks.. I know, I know, I should have asked on a Corolla forum.. But I've always been here, and you all always have good advice. Thanks.

It won't be particulary fun or fast, but those things last FOREVER! I don't know anyone personally who has gotten less than 200k miles.

Are you buying it yourself or is someone buying it for you? The tirerack's website can show you what their rims would look like on the car.

HTH,
Pete

Mods? On a Corolla?

How about a wheel chair, a walker and a cane to carry in the trunk for trips with Grandma to Bingo nite?

I had a Corolla a few years ago, and when I asked TRD what I could do to upgrade my VERY underpowered engine, the major part of the answer was find someone to fabricate adaptation parts/mounts, so good stuff commercially available could SOMEHOW be installed on the Toyota. Are you likely to be happy with a new air filter without much else?

Best reliability of a car I'd ever owned (besides the clutches I went through getting chirps on 1-2 shifts) but the damn thing was built to be an econo-mileage champ.

So why put flashy wheels on a slow car? (OK, maybe someone you hope to impress will think it looks nice without knowing it's slow and sedate. Chevy did sell a lot of Camaros in the '60s with the crappy two speed automatic transmission.)

My mom has a 2000 Corolla, which I've only driven a few times. Compared to my Mystique, it takes about a billion turns of the steering wheel to go around a corner; heaven forbid I should have to do a U-turn in it. The ride is very nice thanks to the very soft suspension.

The interior is alright, materials don't feel tacky and cheap. The armrest in the driver's door is too low for me to rest my arm and hold the steering wheel at the same time. The ATX gear changer is a bit too easy to pop past reverse, but it's a minor annoyance. I wouldn't think that a tall person would be very comfortable in it, but I'm not tall so I can't verify that.

I dunno about mileage, since I don't drive it regularly, but I'm sure it's good. The weight of the 19" wheels would probably kill off good mileage though.

All in all, it's a very numb car, which is good if that's what you want. If you want driver involvement, look elsewhere. Do you really need a brand new car? I'm 19 myself and I'd look for a used car. You can get a pretty good one for 13-15k.

The engines are very loud and unrefined on the Corolla. They are bulletproof, however. A better choice would be a Honda Civic. Much more mod potential. There was talk of a Corolla with the Celica GT-S engine (180HP), but I don't know if that came to fruition or not. And please, whatever you decide to do, do not put 19"'s on a Corolla, or any economy car for that matter.

Why not a Focus Zx5?

Why not a Maxda 3?

Why not a Civic?

Why not a Ion? (Base model Ions with AC are $9,995)

Why not a Sentra 2.0?

Why not a Scion XA?

Why not a Hyundai Elantra? (C&D picked it ahead of the Corolla & Civic? With 13K you could get the GT model!)

Why not a Mitsubishi Lancer?


Corollas are just too ho-hum boring for me. I like the above cars better and if it were my money

ZX5 with 2.3L hands down. I love hatchbacks!

Thanks for the responses. Really helpful. The only reason I was asking about a corolla is because my stepmother just got one. She had an Explorer Sport Trac, but gas sucks these days and she drives an hour to work everyday, so she got a Corolla. And she was just talking about i should get one,so I was going to see what all i could do to it. I was thinking about the lancer too, i like those, how much are they? and no, i don't really need a new one. I was going to get a Trailblazer a while back, but gas prices had different ideas. I also considered a civic, like 98, the new ones i don't necessarily like. I drove my g/f's new one, and the acceleration sux. They may all be like that however, i just don't like the body style. Well, keep the comments coming. Thanks.

City driving is not bad, but forget about long highway drives, those cars are not comfortable at all. My mother in law has a 2001 atx , and even with the seat pushed all the way back you don't have alot of leg room, the car is just small and i personnaly don't like them.