I have two teenagers learning to drive, and a third who will be learning in two years, so having a beater around would be awful handy right now.



A family member has offered to sell me a 97 Celica GT Convertible for $1500. I am not arguing the price, the car drives out well, it has 160K on the clock, and is in overall solid condition. The paint is decent, it has been in a wreck in the far past, the paint on the front is slightly off from the rear and it has a slight pull to the right, no shaking or shuddering up to 70MPH, just a mild pull (I am thinking a good alignment will sort that out).



It is going to need a radiator, as it has a crack in the plastic upper tank, previous owner swears he hasn't driven it since the crack was discovered. Liability insurance for it would be next to nothing.



It looks like a great vehicle for the kids to learn in, it has a manual transmission which I feel is a benefit, they may never want to drive a manual transmission again, but at least they will know how. My wife likes to drive convertibles in nice weather, so she could take it out once in a while too.



Anybody here with some real expertise about that model and generation Celica? As for performance, it drove OK, it felt responsive and seemed to handle well enough, but contrary to its looks I don't think it was really designed as a sports or performance car, more of a sporty looking car slightly nicer than a Corolla?

O2 sensors shouldn't be a problem if they need it, they are both readily accessible, water pump shouldn't be too bad either, looks like it was right under the alternator, which looked fairly easy to get off.



You mention tuning, I am not much of a tuner, but one thing I did notice on the car was the plug wires, they seemed incredibly thin, is that a thing with that era Toyota vehicles?



I am not sure about the maintenance history, but I looked hard under the hood and couldn't find a single Vatozone or Advance part under there, everything was Genuine Toyota. My experience tells me that people willing to pay for genuine parts on repairs of an older vehicle have taken excellent care of it and haven't missed a service. I may be getting maintenance records with the car, but am not sure yet.

That was my first thought, I had a 95 Cutlass Convertible that had top issues, the previous owner was a bit of an idiot with a toolbox and tried doing everything himself, including destroying a brand new top. The trouble with that car is that it was a very low production number vehicle and convertible specific parts were non existent. It looks like this one is a little more common, and the previous owner had the top replaced within the last two years with a quality sail cloth top, including new headliner and seals, and had it professionally done, so that part should be good for at least two or three more years.





I do think that the kids will learn to do vehicle maintenance on it as well. Most of the common repair and upkeep stuff on this car is very easy to get to, the engine is a 2.2l so the oil filter is right up front, all four plugs and wires are readily accessible, the belts don't look to bad, and if worse comes to worse it doesn't look very challenging to pull the engine.





Thanks for the information guys. I am pretty well versed on vehicles, but have owned Fords, Dodges and Volvos for a long time. I am somewhat familiar with the Toyota's and remember the Corolla's and Camry's (especially with the 4cyl 5spd combo) of that era being extremely reliable, but having never owned one it sure helps to hear from those who have.