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My experience of buying & living with a preowned 9th gen Toyota Corolla

13th June 2023, 11:02 by Dev Shah

The car is not a refined one for sure especially by modern standards. It holds up well though. Even touching a 100 kph is felt strongly in the cabin.

BHPian cefiljoseph recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The beginning:

Apparently when someone is not able to find a job these days, they resort to becoming a financial influencer commonly known as a finfluencer

Don't get me wrong, I love finance and credit where it’s due, finfluencers have definitely helped raise the financial awareness among the youth. However, like most of us here, I too love cars for as long as I can remember.

Enter the finfluencer. They swear by two commandments. First, to start saving from as early as possible. Second, to stay away from liabilities like cars.

It looks like both my likings contradict each other. It's like being a vegan who's favourite food is steak.

How do I manage my passion for cars while being mindful of finances. Two words - cautious indulgence.

Deciding to get a car and choosing the model:

Here I am, a twenty year old who just moved to Mumbai for his first job. I always knew that the first thing to do after landing a job would be to get a car.

In my situation, the car was not just for enthusiastic reasons but also to commute to work. My office and apartment being in Thane, the public transport options were limited or difficult to get especially during the monsoons. This was the primary reason to get a car.

My father offered to get a car for me since I had only started earning. He was against getting a two-wheeler because of safety concerns. Since I would be buying the car with my parents money, I did not want to splurge and wanted to stick with the smallest budget possible. However, I didn't have to be conservative with maintenance or mileage as long as it was reasonable. This is because I would be taking care of upkeep and fuel largely.

After some thought, I decided to keep a budget of two lakhs and search for a car. This ensured that I don't end up with the bottom of the market and also get a decent car thanks to the endless options in Mumbai.

Once I decided the budget, it was time to zero in on the models. First rule I knew from years of watching videos and lurking OLX was to never buy the car at the upper end of the budget and to save 20-30 percent of the car's cost in immediate upkeep.

Therefore, I decided to search cars under 1.5 lakhs. The immediate choice that came to my mind was the Suzuki Alto K10. It was pocket friendly, fun and reliable. I thought this was the one to get and I shouldn't look any further.

On a later day, while going through OLX, I searched with a price filter of two lakhs and below. Suddenly, I realised the mistake in my decision when I saw other options like civics and corollas.

The Civic was eliminated for two main reasons. One is that contrary to common perception, keeping a Honda running is kind of expensive once the car is of that vintage(~15 years). Second was the notorious bottoming out suspension which would be suicidal in Mumbai where speed breakers are as unscientific as it can get.

Fiesta was also something I liked in that budget. However, I wouldn't be getting the nicest fiesta in that budget needless to mention the worry of having something from a manufacturer who left the country.

The choice was obvious - 9th generation Corolla (E120). Arguably the best mass market corolla ever made.

Press photo of the ninth generation Corolla:

I have a never ending list of great things to tell about the car. I never miss a chance to annoy every person I meet by telling about how good the ninth generation corolla is. In my humble opinion this is the best car someone car buy today with a budget of two lakhs. Give or take a little depending on the year.

Major W's for the E120:

Toyota reliability - having seen a first gen Innova and a Fortuner perform daily in my home without breaking the banks for over a decade has given me first hand experience of the Toyota reliability and support. Therefore, I have reasonable trust in the brand.
After sales support of Toyota - unlike many other brands, Toyota supports and services older vehicles/imports without a fuss. I was partially wrong about this which I will talk about later in the thread.
Safety - this was a major win for the corolla against my previous choice, the Alto K10. Right from the base model the cars came with all-wheel disc brakes. From 2005 facelift, they came with ABS as standard right from the base models as well. I wish customers and manufactures today gave more importance like to having safety equipment as standard over gizmos like sunroofs and wireless charging pads.
Comfort and Luxury - I found it low key funny that someone shopping with a small budget would be getting a luxurious car with reasonable reliability. Well, that is the beauty of buying used cars. The H5 variant that I eventually got had factory leather seats by Stanley. Even a basic couch from Stanley today costs a bomb so this sweetened the deal.
Performance - Toyota generally tunes their engines for good low end torque be it petrol, diesel or whatever. The sweet 1ZZ-FE motor of the ninth generation corolla was no exception to this. I also choose this particular model for the tuning potential of the 1ZZ. Famously, the much loved lotus Elise had this same engine albeit with a supercharger. Some other cool models like the Celica shared this engine too which made it cool in my eyes. To be fair, the engine has mediocre perforce higher up in the rev range and has a diesel like performance. This is why I decided to get the manual so that I can capture most of the torque when driving. Admittedly, Mumbai traffic sometimes makes me question the transmission choice.
Practicality - An enormous boot of 430 litres sweetens the deal and makes it a great touring car. It comes handy when I pick someone from airport as it could swallow two check-in and cabin bags each with some small things. The same comes handy during road-trips as well. The back seat is a little compromised to achieve this boot space. In later generations, this has been changed from what I understand. Speaking of back seats, the lack of AC vents is one disadvantages in this generation of the corolla. Since, I mostly don't have people in the back seats, this is hardly a problem. I however, oddly like travelling in the back seat. Due to the lack of insulation and age, I love the sensation of speed and especially torque felt in the backseat. However, I can see someone complaining about the back-seat on longer rides. Speaking of practicality, the more than usual ground clearance of corolla makes it feel like Toyota predicted the future with this car. While it results in an MPVish driving position, I would take the peace of mind of ground clearance any day over a little more handling. It is interesting to see that Toyota tried this with Corolla back then and is now bringing the same feature to the current generation Crown. Truly future-proof.
Styling and iconic nature of corolla- Corolla styling has always been evolutionary in nature. While corolla is disregarded as a basic beater car in developed parts of the world, in India corolla it is seen as baller car. Especially someone who bough the ninth generation new back then would know this. It was mostly owned by successful professional like doctors and charted accounts of the day. I considered this to be an advantage since the elderly people who owned these generally took great care of the car. So, it was still possible to find a reasonable example even after 15 years. Also, when a brand name such as corolla survives for multiple decades and sells millions of units, it can't be by luck. There is something truly great about a good old 'rolla.
Global car - being a global car, it can be assured the ninth gen corolla has been designed and manufactured to global standards. This gives me peace of mind in the quality of engineering and thought that has gone in the car. Moreover, it also gives me confidence that the team would have spent their dollars in areas that matter like safety.
Unbelievable and mind-boggling value - whenever someone gets into the car, they are shocked by how good the car is for the money. They are also thoroughly impressed when I show features like power folding mirrors for a car of this vintage. For the money, like I explained using the above points, you are getting everything you need in a car - performance, practicality, reasonable economy, reliability, luxury, safety, and what not. This sometimes proved to be challenge when I took the car to office and people higher above my grade saw me in a 'better' car. This was also when I realised that cars are primarily positional goods in Mumbai unlike where I am from in Kerala where people have cars to reflect their passion.

Meh's about the ninth generation Corolla:

At this price, I can't really say anything as a major negatives about the ninth generation corolla. However, I do have some things that makes the ownership less nice.

Driving experience - the shifting of the car is rubbery especially in the first two gears. The clutch is also hard to my liking. The steering wheel is also thinner than I like it to be. Having a higher ground clearance hurts the experience as well. This is no match for an octavia or a civic. It's the price to pay for added reliability and repairability.
Expensive running cost relative to the cost of the car - Okay, here comes the catch. The large petrol engine with mediocre mileage, expensive insurance (because engine displacement is greater than 1500cc), high spare costs sometimes even comparable to small germans, green taxes and renewals. All of these add to some effort and cost. However, I was ready to take the hit considering it is worth all this effort.
Poor performance of the head-lamps - Lighting is something that shows the age of the car. Often times, I find the need to turn on the brights to have adequate lighting while driving through darker areas. Hence, this is something that I consider should be upgraded. While I like to keep cars as stock as possible, lighting being a safety concern, I want to make it as good as possible.
Visibility concerns - The mirrors are small. This often results in poor visibility and blind spots when driving. It's hard to see incoming autos and bikes which hampers with the safety.
Aged Audio system - while it had a brilliant audio system at the time, it is no match for a modern one. All the features in the system from the 6-disc CD changer to the cassette player are obsolete today. I don't want to mess with the system baby upgrading it to a newer one. However, in the case of finding a period correct looking system, I am open to exploring options here. However, I would be extremely careful in find a replacement for this.
Lack of power in higher end - While the engine is great at lower-end RPMs, the higher end performance is lacklustre. I find myself downshifting or wanting more power as the speed increases. This would be something that's harder to address than other issues and I think I will have to live with it.
Sound insulation - The noise isolation is rather poor inside the cabin. The poor NVH levels with a rudimentary engine result in this. While there are fixes to this, I don't want to add more weight and insulation materials by opening the doors and stuff for the sake of it.
Fuel Efficiency - Being a large petrol car with a large engine doesn't help here. It gets a reasonable 9-10 kmpl when driven on mixed routes like my office commute. On highways, during long trips it gets better economy upwards of 12 if driven sedately. However, I always end up with a heavy right foot and never been able to get this consistently.

On the whole, I can't really hold up these complaints considering the current price of the car. Nonetheless, these are inconveniences that comes with ninth generation corolla particularly at this vintage. I will detail more about the experience in my initial experience later. Please do read along.

Hunting for a good example:

In retrospect, this is once place where I could have done better. I made some rookie mistakes in the excitement of getting my first car but still ended up with a reasonable deal and car.

Once I finalised on the ninth generation corolla, I started searching for a car primarily though OLX. Many of them were converted to CNG which ruined the car. I wanted a relatively clean stock car. Cars in good shape were lesser in number than I thought. Many examples were cosmetically and or mechanically abused. Many were also not taken care of presumably owing to the high cost of parts. Then, I saw a car with a Toyota Utrust in Wasan. It was a single owner car with about 170k kms on the odo with company service records. Seeing the high mileage I decided to move on. Later I saw cars with lesser mileage in worse shape. Therefore, I decided to go see the car in Wasan Utrust.

I was really shocked to see the car. It had some minor dents and scratches which is to be expected. Barring that, the car was extremely clean. The interiors were the most impressive part. Generally, the leather wears out in cars of this vintage but this one had it in top shape even with this high mileage. I tried to follow the team BHP checklist when evaluating the car. However, I did make some mistake due to the lack of experience coupled with my naivety. Since I was buying directly from Wasan, I didn't really do a thorough checkup and do the due diligence on my part. Moreover, I didn't examine the service history thoroughly either. I ended up paying a premium as well. Due to my busy schedule then of moving in and settling at the office, I could only go see the car at night which wasn't ideal either. These were definitely some mistakes and I hope everyone reading this could learn to avoid it.

Seeing the car, I was instantly in love. The old world charm sold me on the car. Right from twisting the key to unlocking the car to having a basic engine, it has just the right amount of things you needed in a car. Even being a Mercedes lover, I truly didn't want anything more than this corolla at that moment. It made me content and needless to say I was sold.

First look of the car at the dealer parking lot:

Rear three quarters show how the later generation clearly evolved from this:

The interior were relatively well kept for the age. The storage lid on the dashboard which often breaks in these cars were broken in my car too:

Rear seats offering reasonable space and has luxurious leather. The wide arm rest also helped in a better rear-seat experience:

The engine bay was relatively clean but not upto my standards and I would like to have professionally detailed in the future:

End of day, I was happy to get the car directly from Utrust since it would give me that added peace of mind. They also gave it a fresh service with oil change before handing over the car. Also, me being new to Mumbai, I didn't want to risk buying from an unknown party or dealer hence played it safe even if I had to pay some premium.

The damage including green tax, insurance and documentation was 1.4 lakhs for the car. I think a fair value should have been 20 k less. Anyways with the massive savings on depreciation and the value offered by the car, it is really hard to get a bad deal here. After all, money can always be made again but I can't be twenty again with a ninth gen corolla . Moreover, contrary to popular perception, I feel dreams like this motivate us to work harder and earn more. In today's day and age, it is far easier to make 20k than to save 20k. So, in the grand scheme of things, I knew everything would be work out fine and it did.

I did all the payments and stuff and on the coming Saturday, I went to take delivery of the car.

Buying from a dealer had some benefits. They gave it a wood wash and interior detailing before delivery, put on a pair of new number plates, an OEM car cover from the previous owner and put ribbons on it to make the experience pleasant: