I like my Japanese Cars

[vin_petrol]

We appear to be buying a Toyota Corolla Verso. This is really Trash's choice, a compromise between a vehicle with the manoeuvrability of a Smart car and the capaciousness of a Ford Transit. All being well, she's collecting it on Thursday. It could be a good new Rock Bus though, seeing as it can (in theory) seat seven people, although two of them would have to be rather small. Still, it will seat five in comfort, having three fully adjustable seats across the back. It was up against the Mazda Five, which was actually slightly better (we test drove both) and the Mazda has sliding doors (handy with a toddler) and was slightly bigger. However, checking the What Car? web site we discovered a large number of scary reviews suggesting there's a significant design problem with the suspension on the Mazda. Lots of people reporting uneven tyre wear, and how it handles speed bumps really badly (apparently they don't have them in Japan). As the difference between the two was otherwise minor, and nobody had a bad word to say about the Toyota, we've bought that instead! It's a used model, about 10,000 miles on the clock, registered in April last year to Toyota themselves - it's an ex company car from a Toyota employee. It's the mid-range model and has all sorts of gadgets on it (cruise control, climate control, etc.) but only a 1.8 litre engine so no driving fast for me.

The colour is "Regency Red" for those that are interested. I wanted the black 350Z in the car park but I got told I couldn't have it :-(

The Toyota dealership had a big sign up with pictures of their F1 team, and an inspirational passage about how their aim is just one thing: to win both driver's and constructor's championship in the same season. *Ahem* the expression "mountain to climb" springs to mind...

Comments

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

I love my Toyota, but I really wish it handled better in the wet. Still, at least there've only been a couple of days of snow so far. It's getting a bit tatty now (it's 15 years old and wasn't well looked after), so I'll eventually have to replace it - hopefully with another Toyota. I've no idea what though - possibly an imported Soarer. I'd like a more modern car, but they're just too far out of my price range. =:-/