From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnss!ihuxl!ignatz
Newsgroups: net.auto
Title: Celica '82
Article-I.D.: ihuxl.164
Posted: Thu Jun 10 12:20:35 1982
Received: Fri Jun 11 04:03:59 1982

I first ran into the Toy Celica when a friend had a '76 that took all the
punishment we could give it. I bought a new GT Liftback in '78, and just
traded it in this spring with 100,000 miles on it (I live in Chicago, but
commute to the suburbs on contracts. A lot.). In all that time, the ONLY
defect to surface was a badly welded gear in the transmission, which Toyota
paid for (labor and parts). I NEVER had trouble with the car, and the only
time I spent under the hood was normal maintenance, which I followed religiously.

I just bought the '82 Celica S-package. This is basically a Celica with some
external goodies (wide tires, some body mods), the Supra interior--seats,
radio, etc. minus the digital dash. It priced out at 14,000, but I got it
for ~8500 after the screaming was done with. I picked it up on Feb. 28th,
and am just turning over 10,000 miles. So far--NO DEFECTS WHATSOEVER. The
only problem was that the dealer forgot to charge the air conditioner with
freon.

I've had, in order, a '64 Ford Falcon (nice auto to learn mechanics on),
a '69 Coronet, a '70 Mark Donohue Javelin, and a '78 Celica. Except for
the last, I had to earn my marks as a major mechanic on each car. Internal
design--convenience for the mechanic, accessability of parts for maintenance
or repair, etc.--was, without fail, abominable. Even after 10 years, I was
finding manufacturing defects in the Detroit cars. And, as we all know,
(shadetree) mechanics end up spending up even more time on FRIEND'S cars,
so I've worked on just about all the models Detroit, Japan, and Germany can
toss up.

To close, then, the thrust of my flame (I didn't realize it was going to be
one till I got here) is that, I can take or leave the Celica body design.
But, until this one zonks out on me, I can't find a car yet that gives me
the reliable, uninterrupted service of this one. I have a couple of friends
who just bought Detroit iron--one, a Buick Skylark; after two weeks, he's
found 10 manufacturing defects of varying degrees of severity; the other,
a Chevy Cavalier; the jury's still out on this one, as he just got it.
When Detroit can give me the same quality and reliability as the Celica,
I'll buy it. But until then, I recommend this car to anyone.

				Dave Ihnat
				Analysts International Corporation
				contracted at BTL
				ihuxl!ignatz