Buddha

Cool, thanks for that IZZ-FE, and sorry to you and Zeerolla for mixing the two of you up!

Just a quick question for you, Zeerolla, after seeing your pics ... good stuff, by the way! I notice you have a Remus muffler on your car, can I just ask what that one cost you and what difference its made to the car (performance/sound)? Cheers.

Fastest car I've been a passenger in ... my uncle used to own a VK Brock Commodore with around 400hp under the bonnet, a "touch" more than standard! As a 13/14 year old when he bought it, I couldn't imagine anything better. Coolest car I've driven ... Lexus GS300 on a Lexus drive day at Mt Cotton (south of Brisbane) ... doesn't seem cool until you're sitting on a wet skidpan with witches hats in a slalom formation, and they turn the electronic stability control off! B) The best I'd previously done in my feeble little life was to spin an old Cortina in the rain one night ... but to take someone else's $100K Lexus, with their blessing, and not only get it more and more sideways past each cone but then to put it into a couple of 360's, that was bliss!

I have wide and varied music tastes, depending on the time, my mood or where I'm driving, but my music of choice at the moment is Jet.

Yep, Vortex is now 98 octane ... they changed Ingall's number to 98 just for the Eastern Creek round as part of a promotion of the new Vortex fuel.

We've been incredibly creative with our wagon, and called it "Rolly" :P Our last car, a '98 Starlet, was named "Charlotte". And talking to your car isn't silly, I greet my car each day and give it a verbal pat on the back when we arrive at a destination, especially if its been a tough run.

I'm not sure how effective those fuel saver devices are ... we've just purchased an '04 Corolla wagon, but my previous car had almost 160,000 fairly hard kms on the clock ... I didn't have any extra devices on it, but driving mostly around town I expected a minimum 600 kms from every tank. Usually on a long country trip, we would expect at least 700 kms. Having said that, though, I absolutely agree with your comments about the car's reliability. In the almost 6 yrs/160k, I only serviced it and replaced consumables, like batteries and tyres, and touched up a few stone chips. You mentioned the headlining and seats ... my headlining had started to wrinkle a bit around the corners, but it never dropped. Also, although the seats are a bit flat, I didn't have any structural problems with them ... and weighing in at a bit over 120kg, I'm a touch bigger than the Japanese people they were originally designed for! :-) I'd thoroughly recommend a Starlet to anyone in the market for such a vehicle ... I have a mate with an Excel, same vintage as my Starlet but with half the kms, and although previously only a one woman owner, it is without a doubt the worst car I've ever driven ... and I never thought the Daewoo Matiz would be beaten on that score! :-) Cheers.

I'm not sure where you've seen "VVTi-L", but the only ones I've seen on Toyota's are VVTL-i (i.e. Corolla Sportivo, Celica) and the normal VVT-i (i.e. standard Corolla, Camry 4, Echo, MR2, Tarago, Kluger).

Hi all, I've read through this post with some interest, for two reasons. Firstly, seeing as the Sportivo engine/gearbox combo is essentially straight out of the Celica, I wonder if any current Celica owners have had the same troubles? Perhaps they might be able to suggest some way of dealing with it, especially as they have been so equipped since 1998/99. My other thought is that of the dealers you're taking your cars to? I remember having my last car (98 Starlet) serviced at a Toyota dealer here in QLD. I dropped my car off and a fella drove me to the train to get to work. On the way he was telling me about a mate of his who was thrashing his Celica pretty hard, and had managed to damage two gearboxes, the first one the dealer replaced, no questions, the second time they made him go halves on the replacement. Their attitude was, hey, its a sports car, and people who buy them are going to drive them harder than the granny in her auto Ascent hatch. As for revs, logic would suggest that anything short of the redline is AOK! I do have to admit, I haven't had a single complaint about our Conquest wagon, but I really hope Toyota helps sort out your cars soon. Cheers.