I am thinking of buying a 2002 toyota celica 1.8 vvti and went to have a look at one today and was looking and was impressed but, it is a jap import. I do not know much about imports and i am looking some advice before i think about buying. As it is in kilometres is it ok for the mot just to give them the milage in km? I know this might be a silly question but i just want to make sure lol!! The car has been through an english mot back in december and the car is currently registered to the owner here in n.i so i presume everything is legit with the car. Is there anything else i should look out for, any hidden charges or anything? If i do buy this it is off a dealer and he is offreing a 3 month warranty aswell. Just one more question for any celica owners or previous owners, is there anything i should look out for inspection wise or while driving apart form the obvious faults lol? Cheers
Aslong as its registered already in the UK with DVLA I cant see any hidden charges. With the MOT, aslong as MPH are displayed on the dials too it should be fine. Only thing you'll probably get stung on is insurance for it being an import
u do need a sticker at least to show mph or else they will fail you same problem with my brothers dc5 once he got the sticker on the clock showing mph as well as km you'll be fine after u can just take it off hope this info helps
just did an hpi check and it a 1999 celica but it was imported back in 2002!! checked the insuraance and my quote that i got yesterday before i knew it was an import is exactly the same, even after i have told them it was imported!! the check came back that everything was clear on it too. need to check and see tho if the dials are in mph just. cheers for the help guys
sounds like the car is already on the road reg'd/MOT'd, so you're all good, no problems, just tax/insure and drive For MOT in N.I it has to read MPH & KM so need a 'sticker' to make it a dual clock...otherwise, GREAT cars
Unless it was very cheap I wouldn't bother with an import, will cut the number of companies who insure you drastically and it's not like a 140 celica will be hard to find. Have you considered a t sport or 190? Car really needs the extra 50 horses IMO
Id say there isnt all that much difference on insurance if it was t-sport and ive seen quite a few around 4k mark and very nice examples, vvti 0-60 btw 8.2 - 8.5 vvtli 6.8 - 7.2 secs
i have found this speedo converter on ebay SPEEDO CONVERTER/DELIMITER TOYOTA SUPRA /CELICA /LUCIDA on eBay (end time 05-Apr-10 10:34:47 BST). I am just wondering if i fit this to the car will i have to change the actual speed dials? also has anybody else ever fitted one of these?
rite i am getting confused just looking at the ad for the celica and it says that it is a celica vvtli, is this the 190 bhp model?
Vvti is 140bhp. Vvtli is 190 bhp, It was released before the t sport. Owned one myself which was a great car. All black leather unlike the t sports black and grey which I wasn't fond of. Get yourself onto celica club uk.
Re: Have a good poke underneath as the UK ones can be real tatty and IIRC the Jap ones had no underseal. Make sure when warmed up the engine reaches lift (won't do it when cold btw so not a fault) Lift bolts Rusty hubs (UK wheels pitted badly). Tensioner belt problems (canaries under the bonnet) Tailgate struts pack in. Warranty recall in Japan for a poor weld on on of the front arches (bad robot at the factory) and a recall for a faulty fuel tank. Make sure the alarm is up to UK regs for insurance and if it sounds within a few mins after being armed then they are a nightmare to sort out but there is a work around. Poor tyres can make them very loud inside at speed. Can't think of anything else right now. Great cars though
Had the 140bhp one. If you can, go for the 190bhp. I owned my one for two years, and the only problem was the road noise from the rear when the tyres were getting low on tread. Sounded like the bearings, thankfully two tyres sorted it. Good solid car.
had 2 of them good car but the oil levels need checked once a week as if ya dont and it needs the oil its bye bye new engine time I sold my black one and couldnt stress enough to the guy who came to buy it about checking the oil seen it on gumtree last week now advertising a new engine and i even rang him to see why and he admitted just didnt look after the engine and forgot to check regularly
I think it's the pre-facelift 140's that you need to be very careful with regarding oil levels. The 190's aren't as bad. There are a few websites where you can enter the reg to find out if it is a 140 or a 190 (providing it has been registered correctly) I picked up a 190 recently, nice car to drive
Another vote for the 190, I had a 190 corolla for 3 years and it was totally reliable, it flew through the 3 mots without any problems and it was 8yrs old when I traded it. Never used much oil either.
I had the Tsport (hence my name on here) Bought her new in 2003 and was an awesome car, I did get the feeling at the time thought that the leather would not age well as it was very soft and plastics where very easy to mark. I had the car for 2 years though and it was used properly, nothing went wrong at all and all it cost me was servicing and tyres. Paint is the usual Jap butter but it does detail with much less effort than say a BMW with its rock hard paint. Bril cars, I miss mine
Awesome design i always thought, My dream would be to put the 2zzge into a mr2 roadster they would be rockets and handle the extra 50bhp brilliantly scare a few s2000's in the process.
I love my celica, never really had to many problems with it, well no more than anyone could have with any car i suppose
About time toyota brought back the celica and about time there was a GT4 version for the road like the one Fensport developed with a 3SGTE in it.
Another vote for the 190 engine. I have had a 140 before hand and running costs are fairly similar. Mine was a preface lift 140 and did use oil regularly which isn't at all a problem as long as its looked after its just the has it been looked after worry. The 190 has used about 1/2 a litre in 10k.