should i buy?

[bender]

im planning to buy a 2nd gen solara pretty soon (within a few weeks) but im having second thoughts after reading about the ECM problem. Does the problem affect all models? Im going to get the V6. Should I wait until Toyota fixes the problem?
Please give some input......

[Shoe]

yes you should buy.

is solara your 1st choice?

did you test drive other cars and say no the solara is for me?

every car will have its faults, some greater than others.

Take the car you will be buying and test it vigurosly.

make notes about things you have read in this forum and test them

1 test for left drift
2 test for delay from gas pedal to engin feed back.
3 test for farting sunroofs
4 question the tires performance have them change them if you dont like what you have read about them. ( print off a report) DONT PRINT OFF SOME GUYS OPINION FROM A FORUM you have no idea who we are we could all be a bunch of zombies, or stuck up 90210ers that have to have the best. ( just giving an example for arguments sake that not everyone on the net is a car mechanic ect ect)
5 check for knocks n bangs where you have heard people complain about them ( back pannel between back seat and truck comes to mind)

After testing if you find something not to your satisfaction have them fix it b4 you buy.

Say to the sales man look jim the sunroof sounds like my grandma after she ate fried beans b4 i buy the car id like you guys to straighten that out. It will be alot easier to get the fix done b4 the sale they want to sell you that car. Tthe sales person will respect your knowledge if it is valid
heck they might even be embarased cause you found it b4 they did and give ya a freebee ( usually car mats but they already come with em) get em to put a full size spare in the trunk if your not from canada ( we get em up here yall dont seem to in the states)

Think of this forum as the people tested version of a car guide magazine, you know the 1 that has a paragraph of good the bad and a final thoughts.

Some people will say wait for the 05s guess what they will have their problems too. They may work out some bugs but may oversee something else.

Your best tool in my oppinion is to be an educated consumer and to test test test b4 you buy.

My final thought, I find its alot easier for people to complain here about thier car it can kinda be a big complaints dept at times. Sometimes you have to ballance out the truths and rumours the over exagerations and the people too proud to tell you somethings wrong with their car.


i hope i shed some ballance

shoe ( yes i have alot of time on my hands)

[Jai_Jai_Binks]

If you planning on buying a new car...and wanting to know if solara is a good choice (duh! your at the right forumes ). Comparitively, others might offer better rates, incentives...but toyota offers a better product!

[mattyboyl]

Shoe gave some excellent advice. He pretty much summed up the major problems with the Solaras so far disscussed on this board. With the short test drive, it is more than likely you won't find any of these occurances since some of them occur when the temp is 70 deg. or below like all the rattling sounds in the front driver's side speaker area and the passenger side rear deck area. Then you have some problems when the temperature is pretty hot, like the sunroof farting. Left drift is something you should be conscience of despite the weather. The ECU thing hasn't affected my car personally. My personal fix is to just shift it into sport mode if you believe Auto mode is delayed or sluggish. Good luck to you and despite me bringing my car in 5 times already for sunroof, front and rear rattles, I still think it's a good car. These problems I brought the car in for has nothing to do with the mechanics of the car and therefore the car has been very reliable so far, which IMO is most important. First year cars will have bugs. If you are not in a hurry, I would wait for the 2005 model. They should have corrected some of the nagging issues since there are a few TSBs already. Just a few tips IMO. Hope it helps.