another rolla here
In the last 22 years I've put on 800,000 miles on my 2 two wheel drive pick-ups, business (concrete and masonry) and pleasure. When it came time for a new vehicle I decided to down size and got a basic corrola. NO power windows, no power locks, no traction control, no anti-lock brakes, just a minimalist car that goes everywhere(almost). Not only did I save thousands on initial price but I also save 60 dollars a year on insurance. Because my car has less motors and sensors and a lot less electric wires its much cheaper on maintenence, putting 400,000 miles on my vehicles that's a bunch of work I save. I like parking next to expensive cars, who will the theives target?
For driving in the snow I got studless ice tires, I haven't used them yet but my all season tires went through the snow easily enough. I usually wait for the plows to do their work before I go out, just seems sensible to me with the big SUVs hogging the road. Of course I don't get to break trail as often as I used to but that's a win-win situation, I'm a barefooter so I don't mess up the snow shoers trail
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The one drawback with the rolla is rough roads. I've driven the length of Jacque Cartier valley and around the perimeter road of BSP a couple times, but I go slowly.The clearance(5.5 inches) isn't bad but it's a light weight car with light weight suspension. Twenty miles an hour is too fast for the washboard roads of BSP. I don't drive down many logging roads, I figure I'm a hiker not an off-roader.
I think the corrolla is the most comfotable car I've ever driven, but I'm definitely in the minority, even among rolla owners. I take a lot of cat naps in my car and always wake-up refreshed, not sore from lousy seats.
Motobobo I think your mechanic is cheating you. Catalytic converter going is rare and when it does go there's usually a problem in combustion that causes it. The battery is cheap so that's predictable. I also never hear about fuel pump going so early. There are a lot of thieves masquerading as mechanics out there. I've got 55,000 miles on my 06 rolla and I've done all my own maintenance, taking plenty of pictures and saving all my receipts. I also bought a 100 dollar code reader for my car, you plug it in(usually under the steering wheel) and it gives a code describing your problem . You can look it up and go on line to find your problem. I like corrolland and 9th generation for info, those people are just as knowledgeable about cars as VFTTers are about mountains.
Really happy to hear that Tacoma and Suburu owners are satisfied, they seem to be excellant all round vehicles.
Sludge problem in Toyotas is definitely a problem, but when there's so many of them sold there's going to be a lot of problems, but the percentage is probably low. Oil changes are critical. One of the reasons for the sludge problem is people are bringing their cars to quick change places and they're not getting a good job. Another reason is there wasn't enough oil channels in the top end of the engine, Toyota put a couple more in their 1zzfe engines. That's why it's a good thing to learn to do your own oil changes, you really don't know what people are doing to your car.
grog
