New Corolla Owner

Welcome, George. What color didja get?

Got mine in Silver - thought I wanted Black... couldn't find one with the S. Now, I'm happy I got what I did.

I always thought the best way to buy a car is to save up lots of money, go to a dealer and get one from the cars available on the lot - just pay cash. After you get it, add any upgrades you want and live without ones that didn't come with the car as standard equipment.

I've got the silver Lunar Mist Metallic on my 03 CE. Still looks great after 5 years of outside parking.

Does stay clean between washes especially when it's kept waxed.

Enjoy your new Corolla.

I keep thinking of trading for a newer Toyota but can't see any reason to let my baby go. Only 51K miles and finally got the hunting idle gone.

Only issue is a brake squeal with new Toyota pads. TSB says that the entire front brake system must be replaced to be sure the squeal goes away. dealer (honest one to boot) says don't waste that kind of money on a cosmetic condition that only appears on the first stop of the day.

One day may trade, but not soon.

Yeah, I am very happy with the silver. Black just wouldn't have work out well here in dusty New Mexico! BTW: Do any of you know the offset on our wheels?

Thanks for all your comments,

George

Silver isn't a very passion inspiring color but it has so many fringe benefits. I got my '07 S almost a month ago. I went with the dark red having learned from previous black cars. My last car was a blue Saturn and that wasn't too bad. The red shows dirt after a few days but my biggest grief is bugs. I'm not sure why we have so many suicidal insects in Missouri (actually I blame the extra spring rains) but the front of my car is a real pain to keep clean.

Hopefully that will change come winter.

This is my first Toyota and I didn't get the car I wanted either. I wanted the S with a manual t., ABS, and a sunroof. There wasn't an S with ABS in the COUNTRY. There were a few LE's. It goes back to marketing in America. Since most Americans won't pay extra for ABS or side air-bags and such they just don't have them on the lots unless it's standard equipment. To keep the Corolla's cost close to it's domestic competition we loose out on a lot of options.

The only Corolla I drove prior to this one was in London where the small car market is quite different. Here they say that if you want luxury and safety, buy a bigger car. The Corolla overseas is designed to be a luxury sedan and they just remove some of those features in the States. That being said, the fact that the Corolla is designed to compete in Japan and Europe is, IMHO, why it is slightly more comfortable than the domestic competition.

I wasn't as worried about finding the CD changer though a lot of cars I found had them. I prefer to add my own aftermarket radio most of the time anyhow. I'd heard Toyota stock stereos weren't very good and I have to say that so far I concur with that opinion. Hopefully things will sound better when I get my Pioneer unit installed.

Congrats NM Geroge on the new car. I'm in the same boat, well same car actually. I've had my 07 manual Silver S for about a month now and with 900 miles have been very pleased so far. Only added the trunk mat, some carpet reminants to help with wear and tear on the floormats, and the fancy sport pedals (which look great but are a major p.i.t.a. to put on). Still in the market for a nice aftermarket Shift knob to match the pedals. Other than that I can confirm the Silver color is a pleasure regarding clean up and appearance (I wanted the black or grey, but ended up taking the silver off the lot for a steal).

Enjoy your car.

Dave

My wife has a '97 VW Golf that is black...after I finish detailing it, that car looks absolutely awesome! If it rains a day later, it looks like it hasn't been washed in months. I have spent an entire afternoon on it with a touch up stick to cover the innumerable nicks and scratches that occur over time- Black paint is a real PITA! My old silver '88 Toyota 4x4 pickup would look shiny, even in the winter when it was always raining and I couldn't keep it clean. (low maintenance)

Right now, I own an Impulse Red '03 Corolla CE 5 spd. (Not my favorite color, but I bought it used..) It's not too bad from a distance when it's dirty, but after a coat of Mcquire's fine cut cleaner, and Gold Class polish, it gleams like a ruby!

Still in the market for a nice aftermarket Shift knob to match the pedals.

I'm teaching summer school at the moment so I have some free time to shop around while the kids do their work. I was playing yesterday and have started to consider the cue ball style shifter knob. I found one made by Hurst. I was thinking it would look cool with the black interior and white gauges on my car. The windows are getting tinted today and the stereo will hopefully arrive soon (bought it online).

I see so many Corolla S's out there though. I was thinking of the tail-lights mentioned in a few other threads to help my car stand out a little more.

Be alert when buying the lights and avoid ebay.

So many on ebay are just garbage.

One seller even says some lights leak because the Chinese mfr packs them before the glue dries. They advise silicone caulk.

Who needs crap like that?

I bought clear corner lights for my 98' from an ebay seller and they great! No problems with leaking and installation was a breeze. Actually the only difficulty I faced was removing the old light on the passenger side. One of the clips was really jammed in the socket good, so I had to break the old light's casing to get it out.

As for aftermarket taillights, its more up to the driver's taste. I know for most Toyotas, chrome/aftermarket taillights look tacky and ricey, especially on the Corolla. I think the taillights on the 8th and 9th gen Corollas looks just fine stock. Just my opinion. About the only department Corolla is REALLY lacking in is acceleration. If you want to try standing out from the rest of the cars at the light, try installing a TRD supercharger, or swap in the XRS engine. I want to do that for my car (when I get the money)

My '99 VE is a midnight green color and it still looks good even though I've driven it in a wide variety of situations (even a fair amount of gravel roads). It has never been parked in a garage or waxed. I simply wash it when it's needed. About half the time the car is parked under some old large trees and it becomes a bird toilet, too.

~Benford's Law

You can go months without washing the car if it doesn't rain, and it still looks clean. Not that I've ever done that, none of my cars go more than a week, maybe two without a wash or a month without a wax.

Good God man, you might need psychiatric attention.

Seriously, if you are waxing you car 12 times a year, then you are wasting your time or useing really poor quality wax.

Chill... Washing a car makes it look better. A wax 1-2x yearly makes it easier to wash. That's about the whole story. Paint degrades from sunlight -- wax won't stop that. Rust starts in nooks and crannies that your wax will never get to.

Hope I didn't burst some sort of bubble, but your statement just tweaked a nerve.........

Some of the finest car care product manufacturers recommend waxing every 4-6 weeks for dark paint, and I'll grant that's proabably so they can sell more stuff. But, comparing my car with same color/age Corollas out there, it does make a big diff in the way my car looks. It also makes it much easier to keep clean. I wouldn't go more than 2 months without waxing.

Got mine in Silver - thought I wanted Black... couldn't find one with the S. Now, I'm happy I got what I did.

Black looks really nice on the showroom floor, it shines, you can see yourself in it, etc. If you make the mistake of buying a black car because of how nice it looks on the showroom floor, you're in for it.

Once summer comes or you just start driving it, you realize that a black car has a lot of downsides. One is that black cars, especially ones with black interiors get hotter than the hinges on the gates of hell in summer. On my Mazda I've seen temperatures as high as 130 degrees Fahrenheit on my outside temp monitor. Two is that you realize that in order to make black look as good as silver after 2 weeks of driving you need to wash it every single day. And finally you realize after several months of ownership that black cars show every chip, scratch and door ding more than any other color.

Silver on the other hand stays cool in the summer, cooler than any other color, including white. You can go months without washing the car if it doesn't rain, and it still looks clean. Not that I've ever done that, none of my cars go more than a week, maybe two without a wash or a month without a wax. Another nice thing about silver is that scratches are invisible unless they go down to the primer, and door dings can't be seen easily unless you lay your head flat against the side of the car.

As for not being able to find the exact car you wanted: Welcome to the club. I personally think that Corollas are some of the most absurdly equipped lot of cars available. In 2005 when I bought mine, the car I wanted would have been absolutely no problem to get had I wanted a Mazda3, Civic EX, Golf, Cobalt, Focus, Sentra. I didn't want any of those though, I wanted a Corolla. My Toyota dealer couldn't get me anything close to what I wanted. They could get me cars with a 6 disc CD and a sunroof but no ABS or a car with ABS and a 6 disc changer but no sunroof, or better yet a car with alloy wheels, and ABS but no sunroof, no 6 disc CD and no cruise. I wanted a car with ABS, alloy wheels. cruise, 6 disc CD, sunroof, etc. In order to get it I had to special order.

All I can say about special ordering any car is that you better have a lot of time on your hands and have an unlimited amount of patience. In the past my family ordered Ford and GM products and waited 60 days for them. Only once did a family member's car come in wrong and it actually had all the right equipment, but it also had a sunroof, which the dealer did not charge them for. I went in to order my car while I was home during holiday from school in early January 2005. I wanted the car in March and so I figured that was reasonable. The Toyota dealer told me to come back in February because Toyota special orders only took 30 days 45 days tops. So I took a long weekend late in January, came home and ordered my car. Not only did it not come in during March or April, but it came in during the second week of May. I can't exactly remember the delivery date, but it sticks in my mind that it was 87 days between order and delivery. Here's the great part: I was told my car was going to be delivered 3 separate times, once in March and twice in April. All three times I had someone drive to school to pick me up and take me home to get the car (I was a freshman and we weren't allowed to have cars on campus). All three times the car didn't come. The forth time they called me and told me the car was coming in I was home from school for summer. Of course I was skeptical when they called and so I told them to call me when they actually had the car on the lot. Three days later they called me and told me that my car was ready. I went to pick it up only to find that the wheels were not what I had ordered.

While the Toyota dealer did correct the problem, I was needless to say disappointed. I will never special order a car from them again.

Anyhow, have fun with your new car and welcome to the board.

-the99contour

I goy my '05 white Conquest auto sedan on special order; it took about 4 weeks to come from japan. A few months later when corollas got really popular, people I worked with waited about 8 weeks for a white one. In Australia, 85% of all corollas sold are the Ascent model, so guess what are on dealer forecourts....Conquests are hard to come by new. Despite the fact that I got it special ordered, I still got a BIG discount...