First Car - I want a Solara but I'm no expert

[Soarer24]

If your curious about the different models and feartures the solara would have come with, i would recommend checking out, cars.com or kbb.com. These will show you what typical options and packages would have been on these cars from the factory.

As for the cars your looking at, I would say in my opinion, i look for the lowest mileage, best condition car i can find. Options are important obviously, but it doesnt make sense to pay more for a car thats over normal mileage and looks beat up inside or out, just to get more options like leather and a V6. With fuel prices being wht they are I love my 4 cyl, SE sport. The V6 power would be nice, but i like the fuel efficiency more.

Also, remember, your the one spending the money for a vehicle. Forget what the dealer wants to tell you, if they really want to sell that car, they will work with you on the price and details like key fobs. Just dont seem too over anxious when dealing with them and make sure you check your resources such as carfax and having whatever vehicle you choose to buy, thuroughly inspected, i recommend taking it to a toyota dealer for the inspection. Goodluck!

[Black Bob]

Car 4 I saw last night has a lot of the extras I saw in the SE (V6 3.3L [I checked under the hood, thanks to everyone for pointing that mistake out, even the dealer didn't know he was wrong], sunroof, 6-CD changer, etc.). It doesn't have leather seats but it seems to have oil-guarding and what appears to be skirts on the front, back, and sides. I don't know if this picture will help or not but this is a picture of the car:



I wasn't sure but they look like factory installed ones so I'm thinking with all the extras on this that aren't normally found on an SE it's possible that the original owner ordered it custom or bought a custom order that the orderer didn't take off the lot.

It's a two-owner car apparently. It was leased off the local Toyota dealer here, then turned in there and bought by a student who moved back to his home country and sold the car to this dealer now.

It was still under warranty when this dealer got it and he noticed a weird noise in the gear changing from 2nd to 3rd and so he had a new transmission put into the car. The listing listed new brakes as well (but the dealer didn't bring it up). There's a few dings on the paint on the back (a rather short one but really deep into the bumper). There's some stains which I'm assuming will wash out (the front seats have nasty sweat stains all the way around the head rest parts, as well as the coffee cup holder is grossly coffee-coated) and the gear shift handle (which seems to be leather bound) is peeling from wear which is odd on a primarily automatic car (though it's possible it was driven in manual mode, which might explain the need for a new transmission but it's only a 2004 so that's kind of sad too). I did notice that many of the bolts under the hood were rusty but I'm not sure if that really affects the car too much.

.....

Paint-wise, on Car 4, I'm just a little concerned with the gouge in the back and the dings on the front. It has a wind deflector on the front which is Toyota branded so I think was factory or at least dealer installed, but the bolts are eating into the top of the bumper where the hood meets it at the front and that seems odd to me. Are they normally bolted around the edge of the hood so that it's resting partially on the bolts?

.......

From your picture Car #4 is actually an SE Sport with a stiffer suspension, not an SE. There is a difference in options. SE's didn't (and still don't) have an option of a body kit and the typical North American SE's had only single-CD. The typical SE Sport option was 6-cd changer and power sunroof (like mine). SLE's typically came with all the options except for the stiff suspension and carbon fiber dash.

[PXLpainter]

I've got one for sale if you're seriously interested in a modded car! May be a bit outta your price range, but WTH? Worth looking into eh?

PM me in the next week before I start returning it to stock.

*Edit: Where are you located? (didn't see in your OP and didn't bother to read additional posts for that info)

[Down2TheC]

Find another SLE. With all the cosmetic issues, I would assume that the owner didn't take very good care of it. Even without the dealer battle scars I'd pass on that.