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Superlatives? how about a smooth ride with a 200 hp engine/manual tranny that allows me to pass the occasional slowpoke easily. A great stereo. A non-sludging engine. A car that STILL draws envious stares from my IT buddies.
As for the Subaru - I haven't fully grown up yet, and would LOVE to rally around in a WRX: it's a rough ride w/out a moonroof and other comfort amenities, but can take a turn down a dirt road pretty well.
Emotional about what I don't want to see? How about I researched my car choice for a year, while you bought your car in an angry haze? Dude, no matter how you slice it, your rants still are VERY anti-Toyota. If you wish to continue to bad-mouth the car/the company ad nauseum to prospective buyers/visitors, then I have no problem writing about how much I enjoy my car.
Canc - no, my ex didn't get the car . Marriage is an experience every guy should experience at least once...
WebG - we'll have to agree to disagree. Just don't be surprised to see me counter you occasionally.
And once again to the rest of the forum, my apologies.
Happy Motoring!
Curly
Maybe someone could check their Solara; please correct me if I have this wrong. I think the "liefetime" filter is the one located at the pump, while the line filter could be changed if need be...
I'm not a big believer in 'bullet-proof' reliability from any carmaker, hence, I don't push for imports vs. domestics, or Toyota vs. anybody else. I'm just very happy with my car.
Is there any possibility that you can trade yours in and get an Acura CL from a different dealer? Or perhaps try the Infiniti G35 or Seabring?
The frist time it's done, let a mechanic do it, as the flare nuts are on extrememly tight.
The filter at the dealership should cost you $30. A Purolator filter should cost about $20.
Jrays, dude, 1 word for ya'...PROZAC!
Curlyq, I spoke to Bruce Ertmann, from the sludge forum, and he told me that the paint is different, than the other Toyotas, and Lexus. It is a common Solara compliant.
Webguyster. Don't feel that you've been mislead about Toyota and made a mistake buying one. Every objective measurement of reliability (JD Power, Consumer Reports, etc.) shows that Toyota is one of the most trouble free cars made. This is NOT the same as every Toyota being trouble free. All it means is that a buyer is less likely to have trouble with a Toyota.
(If you have the 1MZ (V-6) engine, there are two coolant drains on the engine besides the radiator drain. Be sure to have some thread sealant on hand if you remove these.)
Webguyster, since you are in my area, are you interested in pursuing Channel 2 problem solvers?
Any other owners interested in pursuing a class action lawsuit over the paint chipping issue?
Lastly, has anyone gone through arbitration with Toyota? Anyone won?
A COMPLETELY UNSATISFIED CUSTOMER,
Curly
Even if Havoline, Dexcool, etc...look somewhat red, it's not a good idea to mix coolant formulation as they may not be compatible with each other. This can (and has) damage many cooling systems in the past.
P.S. Watch out, cuz theres a couple lurkers that jump on you in this thread if you give your actual experiances, or opinions with this over-priced, "Lexus like quaility" (LOL) car!
As far as arbitration, from reading the various forums, I have not heard of anyone ever winning.
IMO, you seem to be somewhat like myself. I would not mind the defects this vehicle has, if it were not as expensive as it was. If it were MSRP'd at $15,000, like a Corolla, I would be singing songs of praise, for the money, chips, and all. But the fact is, it cost much more, and factor in tax, and the bells and whistles, and you have a $30,000 plus "sport coupe", and not the "relaiable Camry genes car" Edmunds totes it as.
For you and myself, we live in the middle of the country, with 4 seasons, so for others reading, they may not understand, like, say, if they are in sunny California, or some other place that, that this car, IMO, just doesn't hold up as well as other cars I have had, at least paint quailty wise.
I do still like the simple, swoopy lines of the design!
WebG - $30K w/ bells and whistles? You mean for the convertible, right?
If you guys were able to re-do your choices, which cars would you get?
by the way - i won't join you over the paint lawsuit; a LOT of other makes with the same environmentally-safe paints have the same chipping probs. the touch-up paint doesn't bother me... but then i don't have 150 chips.
however, i will wish you both good luck if you decide to try the legal route.
$30G's for the car. If you, or me, figure multiple taxes, title, plates, warranty, and even finance. Yeah! Look at your paperwork, cuz unless you got a REALLY, REALLY good deal, ask yourself, "How much all together did this car cost me!?!"
If I were to re-do my choices, I would have kept my 1997 Dodge Avenger, Indy RED!!! It would now have 72,000 miles on it, and I would have saved the cash! For all the minor things I did not like about that car, that resulted in me trading at 36k, the Solara is far worse build quality, IMO. As for the Avenger, it ended up being scrapped by Dodge, and rebadged Sebring Coupe, after its 5 year run!
Anyone see the 2003 Solara yet?
http://www.langka.com
Also, you wrote that your 2000 with 36k miles has depreciated 60%. Seriously? From what you paid (without the above items) to what you could get for it in an average private sale today? Or even trade-in value?
I had it to the dealer and they balanced the tires which made no improvement....dealer said it was a tire issue so I had taken it to Bridgestone tires and they re-balanced the tires and thoroughly checked each tire and found no defects in the tires.
The dealer now wants me to have the tires road forced balanced...
My question really is do I have a problem with my car or is the Solara a bumpy hard riding car.
I really like my Solara and hopefully will be able to have this problem corrected.
I also have a 95 Camry and I've noticed that the Solara is much less tiring on long trips than the Camry. Sort of surprised because the Solara is a Camry platform. I suspect that the Solara has better seats.
I didn't get the impression that the vibration problem was tire related - I think the tire balance thing you were told was a red herring. My new solara (SLE) has no vibration problems at all. Tell the service manager to can the dumb tire theory and find out why your wheel shimmys! I think it's the car.
Also, ignore the "smooth or bone jarring" stuff - that's an exaggeration. The car looses it's super-smooth composure on rough roads, but it doesn't deteriorate enough to kick you or jar you like most compacts do - in bad conditions it stops behaving like a luxury car and starts behaving like a typical American intermediate car does. After all, if it was a luxury car, it would cost $30,000!
Thanks!
was just curious as to anyone else here who decked out their Solara with TRD stage III package. If you guys are at all interested in improving cornering and handling i HIGHLY recommend lowering and geting new struts. Even with the whimpy stock wheels you will feel a huge difference. I drove mine for 2 years before decking it out. i finally have a TRUE TRD Solara complete with the supercharger.
Thanks
I was thinking though that since my car was not brand new when I bought it (it had 32,000 kilometres), the guy who had it before probably put regular grade gas in it. Since I've had it, I've only put premium, and some time on ethanol. Both, in my opinion, would clean out the engine right?
In any case, it's not a big deal considering the money I saved by buying it slightly used. And I'd get a cleaner-working engine.
Does the fuel injector/throttle body cleaning seem too much? I don't even know what a throttle body is (cringe).
I think I said it before, but I would see if the solenoid on the tranny is okay, too!?! After all those long octane rating discussions, how could you bring that up. From the previous postings, most people don't use premium, and there cars run GREAT. I use premium always, and my car still runs.
For cars (Toyotas) with great reputations, they have many, many complaint boards, amd grumbling people around the internet.
As for the whole octane issue, of course the Solara will run fine on regular grade. Premium fuel though increases mileage, reduces emissions, and doesn't deposit as much carbon in your engine. So I think the advantages are significant for about 10 cents a litre more. One of my friends has an Echo, which will also run extremely well on the cheapest gas, but she put premium in it for the same reasons I do.
The Camry/Solara/Echo 4 cylinder engine, on the otherhand, is designed for regular. Using premium is a waste of money:
1. You don't have a complete burn of the air-fuel mixture (more Hydrocarbons in the emissions)
2. Increased deposits (carbon)
3. Increased deposits will build up and increase the compression, thus in the future, you can only use premium.
4. To solve that problem....a de-carburization treatment ($150 to $200 US).
To prevent this....you need to advance the timing on the engine.
One of my buddies can only run premium in his Cavalier (???). Maybe this is why?
If you have the V6, you don't need to worry.
AHHHH!!! Anyone else get the 2nd SLUDGE POLICY??? I got mine!!! Will the sludge stuff go away??? If it was, and is not an issue, why does Toyota keep sending stuff???
The dealership is very eager to find out what the cause is, which I find extremely helpful. Especially since I'm still under the full warranty, I wanted to tackle this (minor) problem before it could aggravate and I could have been left stranded with an expired warranty.
I have experienced a similar surging problem to what I think has been described above. Some of the time, if I accelerate very slowly from a stop, almost to the point of keeping my foot off the gas and just let the idle accelerate the car, I feel a slight surging. Two or three times, again at low acceleration, the surging has been much more pronounced, to the point of being able to describe it as a jerking motion.
I haven't taken it to the dealership yet but plan to stop in during the next few days. At 34,000 KM I wouldn't think I should have to have the throttle and injector service done as mentioned above. Never had to do this before on cars that had over 150,000 km on them. I have been running regular gas but the manual stipulates regular not premium and given the 15% extra cost with no measurable improvement in fuel economy I find it hard to justify premium. Although if the dealership suggest this will solve the problem I guess I'll dish out the extra money at the pump.
Could this surge you describe be the A/C compressor kicking in??
fastdriver
I'm sorry to say that the fuel injector cleaning didn't work. Acceleration is extremely smooth though, but I've noticed a repeatable pattern. Accelerate slowly (don't floor it, just accelerate normally) until you get to 65-70 kms., and keep it there. My Solara, at that point, starts to jerk. The dealership suggests that I'm in a transmission threshold, because the transmission doesn't know if it should stay in that gear or downshift.