Toyota Carina Review

It does, however, have one outstanding and redeaming feature. It works. Not just sometimes. not once in a while, but all the time. 120,000 miles of trouble free motoring and now it needs a new clutch. Not bad really. Had the thing from new (14 years) and we've never had much bother from it.

A fantastic car.

An average car for the average motorist, a car so boringly average its probably got two adult seats in the front and 2.2 variously sized child seats in the back, oh and a medium sized mongrel dog in the boot.

Take the looks one person expressed the view it was quite nice, most people expressed no opinion at all, In fact most people didn't even know what one looked like until shown it, and then they thought it was sort of okayish. Personally I think it looks like a Bag-o- ... rubbish, with diddy little pram wheels lost in its bulbous bum. The median opinion is that it looks pretty, .... pretty average that is.

The Interior is umm umm not bad, but its not good either. Its sort of blandly unappealing without actually having anything really objectionable its just very, very mediocre. The most remarkable parts of it are the ugly sunken well with the strange dog leg gear lever in it, which manages to collect all sorts of junk and dirt. And the handbrake which is set by the side of the gear stick and may look strange but actually works superbly and is the one piece of both useful and unusual design in the entire car. Other wise the interior is typically Japanese, The dash is well put together and efficient , but somehow soulless and comprises cheap to mid quality plastics the layout of which is better than some but notably worse than (mostly German ) others. Its clear and concise but oh so unimaginative, All in all its distinctly erm ....... average. what really ruins a Japanese interior though is their love of verbiage where most of us are happy to accept a small rectangular iconed button to be a window control , the left ones do the left , right the right and the rear set pair do the rear and the other one locks the rear windows. Its easy its straight forward, we find it understandable , why then do Japanese cars need to also carry the legends, up down, left, right ,rear, front, windows as well as little arrows and stickers with do not trap neck when winding up, It all works precisely and reliably but its this Japanese trait for verbal Dihorrear that really pulls the switch gear down just look how many words, lines and graphics they manage to squeeze on a single slightly oversize indicator stalk.

The seats are comfortable if somewhat high set leading to a feeling of riding on rather than in the car. It adjusts to some extent but in a strange dip away tilting rear sort of fashion. Its worse problem is the steps between fore and aft adjustment are not exactly finely pitched and I couldn't find the perfect leg position. Someone with legs a half inch either shorter or longer than mine will have no problem. From the seat you grip a wheel of somewhat hard nasty plastic, and press pedals of a light undemanding nature set far enough apart to accommodate my averagely sized feet easily enough.

The whole plot rides and steers in a safe if uninspiring fashion. The ride is slightly fussy and unsettled not reacting much to small bumps and undulations but rides big bumps fairly well. On the handling side its a slightly below average performer the steering is neither particularly light or heavy but its a sense of weight rather than of feeling it has, and feels slightly detached, not really transmitting much sense of what the front wheels are up to, back to the driver. In tight corners there seems to be a hint of rear steer almost as if the rear wheels are tucking under or starting to slide quite early.

The engine is actually not a bad unit, despite its sixteen valves it feels at low revs more like you would expect an eight valve unit too, with almost lusty torque at low revs, its redline is sixteen valve high but its run out of steam well before then, but at least it strong in that all important mid range area. The gear box is a bit of a mixed bag with a notchy shift into both second and fourth gears. despite the easy natured clutch and accelerator I still found it hard to get it to shift smoothly when charging up through the gears. Granny style changes completely off the gas were quiet and smooth but trying to make faster pace and get back on the gas it was strangely difficult to match revs to gear.

It also had a slight jerkiness on each transition from OFF to ON the throttle no matter how slowly or smoothly the revs were applied.

Space wise it seemed fairly good leg room looked quite generous but it does feel quite narrow like a Vectra.

The boot is fairly commodious as you would expect from something which such a humped back shape and the rear seats split in the now obligatory fashion. U fortunately the high tear dropped rear end makes parking a real pain as you cant see any of the rear end through any mirror.

Despite the fact Japanese are relatively small, they do have some gargantuan athletes. A sumo has never tried the rear seat belt in a carina though as it abjectly failed to have enough length on to fix a baby set in. No problem you say stick it in the front. Unfortunately being Japanese its well equipped and the passenger air bag makes that space a no no for baby seats.

Its a Toyota so that should mean stone axe reliability which is probably why most of these seem to be taxis. After all you don't drive a taxi for pleasure do you so the Carina will fit the bill perfectly. For the rest of us it would represent perfectly adequate transport, but anybody with the slightest interest in cars would be hard pressed to find good reason to buy one.

you complete motherf*ck*r. Do you you know anything about cars. you gay b*st*rd.

G reg white station wagon

The engine starts and runs perfectly with no visible exhaust fume. There is only a slight main-bearing rattle for a second or two on starting.

No Carina models were commercially imported to Australia, so there would be difficulty obtaining replacement body parts. Most mechanical spares are available, since the engine is the same as that used in the Mustang-shaped Celica models which sold well here in the 1970s.

Mother has just decided to buy a new Toyota Echo. Naturally, I would not allow her to trade-in the old Carina which I will now restore to as-new for a budget not expected to exceed A$1500 (about 600 pounds Stirling).