Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Long-Term Ownership Reviews (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/)

-   -   Why did I buy a 12 Year old Toyota Corolla - My experience (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/167791-why-did-i-buy-12-year-old-toyota-corolla-my-experience-2.html)

Hi Swami. Nice thread and great photos as well. Glad to hear the family likes it. Wishing you a lot of fun with this car in addition to the Thar.

Congratulations Swami, that is one sweet looking garage you got there. 2 cars that perfectly complement each other. That Corolla looks awesome her age, kudos to the previous owners for maintaining her so well. Wish you all the best with this bulletproof beauty!

@ abhii176, sjcherian, hemanth, tanmay - thanks for your compliments.

Yes, the previous owner has really taken care of it very well. The seats, dash, door trims are all in perfect shape. Only the steering leather grip shows its time and I am now looking for someone in Chennai who can replicate the OE leather stitch with a new piece of leather on the steering wheel without removing it. If anyone know of a good contact in Chennai who does this, kindly share.

Swami

Dear Swami

Congrats on an immaculately maintained Corolla.
You have done a good choice and Corolla is a frugal and maintenance free car.

A friend of mine got a H4 2003 Corolla in 2013. It was purchased with 86K on the odo and now it is at 1.1 l kms.

Still efficient, still maintenance free and going strong.
The engine is a gem and Toyota support even for 10 year + cars is superlative.
Many happy miles to you and the "new" Corolla.

Congratulations swami. It makes absolute sense to go in for this car and is a very good decision. My friend recently bought a Wagon R Lxi of '06 vintage for 2.2L, looking at the amount of kit and the car that you received for a similar amount of cash is unbelievable.

Lateral upgrades are truly a joy. Well done.

Congrats on your new purchase. What can be better for a family sedan than the almighty Corolla. Very good choice and nice find as well. You should also thank the previous owners for keeping it in top shape. Wish you many happy miles. One question is what do you have to do if you want to keep it after another three years.

Congrats on your new acquisition clap: Looks pretty well maintained inside out. Wish you have happy miles ahead.
Regarding the alloy wheel painting, if you are planning for DIY limit painting only on the outer side. We (self & my friend) had a bad experience of Air leak after painting the inner surface (may be due to poor surface preparation before painting)

Thanks Carpainter, govigov, arnabchak for your wishes and comments.

Mr.Boss - As of today, I have done the first step of painting the alloy wheels. I did not even remove the wheels. Prepared the wheels, covered the tyres and sprayed them using Bright Silver and few clear coats only on the outside. Actually it has come out nice. But, it gives me an opportunity to see the subtle blemishes clearly now which I need to work again. I thought I will allow it to go like this for a week or so and then do some more filler work and complete it with couple of more coats of Silver and Clear. Then it should be good, I guess

Swami

Nice job on sensible buying and going with the heart in one. Toyotas have a really good reputation of reliability and longevity, and well deserved. Your car is quite young in terms of kms run, so you should get many more years/kms of reliable service yet.

The parts that would give out regardless are the rubber ones and frequently used ones like the driver's door hinges and lock, and all rubber seals (apart from the suspension). If you find the doors shutting in a noisy/bad way or sagging, then it could be the seals or hinges wearing out, and those are easy replacements to maintain the "feel good" factor of the car.

Toyota service is also reliable and consistent, so you should feel happy at a good sensible purchase. Not many would have been able to convince their families though, ask me. I tried pushing the used Corolla idea, and was shot down because the ones that fit the mental "used car" price band were quite old, and the newer ones would cost the same as a new "Compact Sedan" :D

Thanks for the review, do keep us posted on how she fares in the longer run.

Sir, Congratulations on your "new" ride. This Corolla looks really tight for her age. and from your description of the ride quality I guess you have got yourself a decent deal for the price.

I remember driving a relative corolla 2005 model around 90k on the ODO and it was really cumbersome. Lot of vibrations for a petrol, the beds had gone weak, suspensions were noisy etc. So in comparison this surely is a good one!

Many congratulations on the purchase. Not common to see someone buying a 12 year old car but the T brand defies that common line of thought. The car looks immaculate from outside and hardly shows its age. Wish you many happy and safe miles in the car.

Being an Altis user since 2010, I can vouch for the reliability, build quality and lower ownership cost of the Toyotas in general. My only grouse against Toyota is that they do not offer extended warranty beyond the standard 3 years. I had lumbar seat motor issues that cropped up before the warranty expired and had it changed under warranty. Now the problem has resurfaced but I'm out of warranty and a new motor would set me back by almost 7-8K.

Many Congratulations Swami. You got a perfect combination of cars now in your garage well complimented by your Enfield. Toyota is known for its reliability and you made a right choice. In hindsight, spending money on Civic wouldn't have made any sense and you ended up saving. May be if you have a remote thought of replacing a car after three years, you can start building your corpus and then upgrade at that time.
Happy Driving

Congratulations on getting such a well maintained Corolla!
Excellent write up and couldn't agree more with your cost analysis. As the saying goes, age is only a number. Car seems to suit your needs and requirements. What is the FE you're getting?

Thanks Rover2000 - The ride quality is pretty good and it drives really well. There are absolutely no vibrations and the engine is super smooth. But, on those extremely bad roads (really mean it) leading to my house, it has some suspension sort of noise which I will watch and check.

Thanks fuel_addict - As mentioned, one of my close family friend has a 2010 Petrol Altis and he gave me confidence on the brand as well and based on all these comments, it shows it is a good buy.

Thanks ShankarG

Thanks prakhar1998 - I have made a tank full and just waiting for another fill shortly which I think will give me a good idea. Last time, i did a short fill and just measured needle position to needle position and it showed somewhere around 12 Kms, but that way of calculation is not proper, i know. So, fingers crossed

Swami

Swami your split second decision helped you choose this wonderful vehicle. You have landed yourself with a beauty, she will be reliable and your parents and kids will love it for sure. Great decision on opting for a pre owned car.