hi! Im no expert in the field, but I'll share with you my experience. My first official car was a 05 corolla sportivo. When I bought it had very little knowledge and the issues raised were concerning. However at the end of the day it really depends on what you are after yourself. I was looking for P Plate friendly cars that still give power, and I was also a Honda person. Honda's became out of my budget so I then looked around and found the corolla sportivo that runs a celica engine. After owning it for not too long I didn't have too many problems with, small problems that were easily fixed or aren't important enough to be worth fixing. The first big problem was the gearbox, that I struggled to shift during high RPM, after looking around there were lots of solutions available + if you drive it normally there should be not many problems(none I found so far). It's a very good regular drive, it's a 4 door hatch so very good with the family as well. Comfortable leather, lots of goodies inside tbh.. Hope it helps!