Please advice:2000 TOYOTA COROLLA AE112R ASCENT

[Ringpeezs]

Hi guys,

I am looking to buy a 2000 TOYOTA COROLLA AE112R ASCENT. Could anyone give me advice on what I should look out for? Are Corollas reliable? The price that red book has quoted for the car below is about $5500 while the owner wants $6999. That is a big difference in price. How much should I bargain?

2000 TOYOTA COROLLA AE112R ASCENT

Edited March 3, 2011 by Ringpeezs

[djchow85]

i think if u get it for less than 6k thats a decent buy but depends on km's too.

I think they're very reliable. They tend to have 4 wheel discs/airbags, depending on model i spose. There are a handful of jap cars of the sim class that dont have those options.

I'd ask for around 6k... but then again I'm not that good at bargaining.

I got my 98 conquest @ 74,000km's for 5900... orig selling for 6900.

140,000 kms... thats a lot for that price..

to be honest I think anyone that buys it for more than 5,500 is getting ripped.. I wouldnt even bother buying it for that km's..

If this guy sells it for more than 4.5k he's getting a bargain!

Edited March 4, 2011 by djchow85

[Ronnyboy]

140,000 kms... thats a lot for that price..

to be honest I think anyone that buys it for more than 5,500 is getting ripped.. I wouldnt even bother buying it for that km's..

If this guy sells it for more than 4.5k he's getting a bargain!

Seriously, 140K is is really good milage for a 11 year old car.

My Camry has done 126K and its just over 5 yrs old...

According to Redbook where the OP saw the market value of $5500, the average km for 2000 Corollas are 165,000-275,000 kms...

So if you look at it that way, your not getting ripped off. That said theres always room for bargaining...

[White Lightning]

Hi guys,

I am looking to buy a 2000 TOYOTA COROLLA AE112R ASCENT. Could anyone give me advice on what I should look out for? Are Corollas reliable? The price that red book has quoted for the car below is about $5500 while the owner wants $6999. That is a big difference in price. How much should I bargain?

2000 TOYOTA COROLLA AE112R ASCENT

Hey,

Have just sorta done this exercise myself and now I own a corolla as a result, so in short -

1) Corollas are reliable, however make sure u take the car for a test drive and listen out for all the things that you need to. If you don't know what you should be listening out for on the test drive, maybe get somebody who has a mechanical background that is a friend to take it for a test drive with / for you. You wanna make sure there's no weird sounds...

2) In reality Red Book is a lowballing POS... It's great in working to ur advantage if ur buying a car, as u can say to the person, "Hey buddy, redbook says its worth this!" and use it as a bartering tool, but at the end of the day, it gives rock bottom, worst case scenario figures.

3) The car ur looking at has fairly good kms. Bargain the guy down, but I'd try for at least $1000 down, but don't settle for anything less than $500 down. If he's smart he's advertised it for about a grand more than he knows its worth or what he actually wants for it because everybody usually tries to bargain ppl down when they buy a car, so he's expecting it. If you don't bargain him down its just an extra bonus for him.

[Hiro]

If he's smart he's advertised it for about a grand more than he knows its worth or what he actually wants for it because everybody usually tries to bargain ppl down when they buy a car, so he's expecting it.

Seems like it was originally advertised at $7999, so he's already dropped it by a grand :P (or it was a typo).

Anyway, things to look out for/be aware on these models:

1) They are the first of the Corollas that weren't locally made so that may impact on cost of parts, although being a common car Toyota would keep a fair bit in stock, plus they share basically everything engine/drivetrain/suspension-wise with the previous Australian-made models (AE10x).

2) Ascent is the base model, and thus you'll most likely be pretty bare on features. For instance, you'll only have drum rear brakes, no passenger airbag, manual windows, and a pretty basic tape-deck

3) The autos aren't the fastest cars in the world, so performance is leisurely to say the least. Suspension mods make a big difference to handling though

4) That ad only has exterior photos - sure it shows that the paint looks nice, but on an 11 year old car you'd be expecting some wear on the interior so maybe something is being hidden/deliberately not shown.

5) Don't think rust is much of a problem (Toyota really picked up their game in the late 90s as far as rust-proofing goes), but the 7AFE is renowned for burning oil once it starts to get old - culprits are either the valve stem seals or the oil control rings, both of which require removal of the head and aren't exactly cheap. In saying that, keep an eye on the oil levels and do oil changes every 5000km or so and you won't really notice it.

[djchow85]

good reminder since i own a 7afe as well!

im sure you can find the same car with a lot less km's though?

Edited March 6, 2011 by djchow85

[Ronnyboy]

im sure you can find the same car with a lot less km's though?

Yes you most certainly can. The price may vary on the other hand :)

[djchow85]

sorry, meant of also the similar price bracket...

[phoenixrolla]

One thing I know about the Corolla 2003 is that there were two places of manufacture for it....one is Japan and the other was South Africa....not sure if this applies to the 2000 model or not but with the brakes on the South Africa build you need to replace the pads, replace the rotors scenario but not with the Japan build....has to do with the brand of pad being Lucas.....pretty aggressive apparently.....if this is wrong info please feel free to correct me....

[Ronnyboy]

sorry, meant of also the similar price bracket...

In a Simple answer, Yes it is....

[Ringpeezs]

Hey guys thanks for all the replies. I settled for a 2001 model for $7000 with 9 mths rego and RWC thrown in. Based on red book figures, I worked out the price I would have to pay for a car with 120 000km. The figure that I worked out was $6850(without rego or RWC), so hopefully my calculations were correct and I didnt over pay.

Edited March 7, 2011 by Ringpeezs

[djchow85]

thats not bad... at the end of the day i think as long as your happy its all good.

Sometimes you may have to pay a bit to secure what you want...

[Lawz]

Hey guys thanks for all the replies. I settled for a 2001 model for $7000 with 9 mths rego and RWC thrown in. Based on red book figures, I worked out the price I would have to pay for a car with 120 000km. The figure that I worked out was $6850(without rego or RWC), so hopefully my calculations were correct and I didnt over pay.

That's a pretty good price for the Ks. For your piece of mind... if you bargined and stayed within the "realistic" figure you wanted and they eventually agreed... then you are a winner!

At the end of the day, you signed the papers and bought the car because you were satisified... so I wouldn't go back tracking to see if you over paid or not... that's just silly!

Congratulations on your purchase!

[Ronnyboy]

Congrats on the purchase :)