Toyota Corolla 1.3 GL
Bought in October 2004 as my first run around; this is the story of the first car I’ve never cared about less.
During my second year of University I was going to be living in a house with some friends; being a uni student it wasn’t exactly going to be a mansion with a double garage. I knew that parking would be a possible issue and that car theft & vandalism weren’t unheard of, so for those reasons I decided to leave my Fiesta at home and buy something cheap for university.
The advantage of living further north meant that car prices were lower so it made sense to start the hunt when I was back. I’d set myself a rough budget of £300 and for that the car had to be MOT’d and if possible have a little tax left (this was in the good old days when you could transfer the tax). Any other factors such as mileage, history, spec etc would be less important and judged on the individual merit of the car.
After around a month of looking I found a Toyota Corolla online that ticked all the boxes and as a bonus, was only a few minutes away! I went to view the car and it turned out to be a part exchange taken in by a very small second hand car dealer. My last car buying experience was spent getting more and more disheartened at each dent and piece of rust I found. This was completely different and I had to set my sights accordingly…I found it fun.
With 56k on the clock, 9 months MOT and Tax, some history and lots of old paperwork & handbooks I couldn’t say no and with some amateur haggling it was mine for £190.
The obligatory 'arrived home' pictures:
The best bit by far was that for the first time in ages I was able to drive somewhere, park up, leave the car and get on with things.
As opposed to drive somewhere, try and find a ‘safe’ looking parking space away from people opening their doors onto me, leave the car and spend the next few hours worrying if anything was happening to it.
At this point I had very little experience with car mechanics but developed the mindset of ‘well if I really mess this up, the most I can lose is £190’ and then set about doing the odd jobs it needed.
First up was to give the car a service; oil, oil filter, HT leads, spark plugs, coolant, cam cover gasket and a handbrake adjustment.
A few weeks after that work the exhaust backbox decided to start blowing. As fun as it was for a 1.3 to sound like a V8 I needed to replace it. This was when I started learning about rusty old nuts and bolts.
A small thing to mention is that driving this really made me appreciate the different characteristics each car has. Previous to this car, my only other real driving experience was in my 1.1 and my 1.6 Fiesta so my frame of reference was decidedly small. On my first ‘spirited’ drive in the Corolla I remember thinking that the front end felt like it was floating around through corners. I realise how silly this seems looking back but I would defy most novice drivers to fully appreciate how different each car is. For me it was an eye opener that made me want to experience more cars and become a better driver.
Speaking of ‘spirited’ driving, I learned a lot about car control from this car. In a similar vein to my DIY attempts, I thought that if I did bin it, the most I’d lose £190 plus about £40 in service items.
(A small caveat here is that there's a time and place to drive fast)
During some rather enthusiastic driving I managed to break a CV joint, of course in the heat of the moment my immediate thought was that all was lost and I’d completely ruined it.
I had to abandon the car in a car park until I could figure out a way of getting it back to the house (no breakdown cover at the time). Some frantic internet searching revealed it could either be a driveshaft/CV joint or something in the gearbox itself had given way.
The next day I returned to the car park to retrieve my broken car only to find some degenerates had completely smashed the windscreen. Once I’d calmed down I realised that this was the entire reason I bought this car to begin with; to save my Fiesta from such treatment. It was a small crumb but it was something.
At this point I should mention that the term had finished and I needed to drive from Huddersfield to Southampton with a car minus its windscreen and any form of drive.
Once we’d managed to get the car back home I had to decide on my plan of action; Get the windscreen replaced out of my own pocket (no windscreen cover) and fix the potentially painful CV problem or call it a day, scrap the car and start hunting again.
I of course chose the sensible option and started jacking up the car to investigate the problem.
Being fairly inexperienced at the time I couldn’t see anything obviously wrong. Bemused, I put the car back on its wheels, started the engine, put it in gear and it pulled forwards! After a small test drive I came to the conclusion that I owned a magical self healing car and all was well…(I later realised that the spines of the driveshaft had simply slotted back into place but the circlip was still MIA)
With the car back in one piece I set off for Southampton and to cut a long story short (honest), the CV joint finally gave up in spectacular fashion about 15 miles from home.
Having never done something like this before, it was another opportunity to learn some more car maintenance. A trip to a local breakers yard resulted in some replacement parts and a bit more knowledge of how it all came apart.
It failed it's MOT due to the rust on the rear arch, which confused me until I realised it was 'near' a seatbelt mounting area. At the time I had no idea how to weld and enlisted the help of my uncle to make the repair.
This is how the car looked when I was ‘finished’ with it.
With the car sporting a fresh MOT and 6 months Tax it was time for me move onwards and upwards and put her up for sale. Having added up what the car owed me, including the purchase cost, I was able to sell it and break even. 9 months happy motoring for free with a brain full of new knowledge, I couldn’t ask for more.
