Celica Forums General Discussion General Is certified worth it

I sign my papers to be hired on monday and i should have my new york license converted to ca on this friday so id like to start actually looking at celicas soon. Unfortunately there are no white or blue gts celicas to be found in my area.

My real question is whether or not its worth it to pay the 2000 plus to get a certified one. Its pretty hard to find a low milage 2000/2001. I normally wouldnt get the certified but being new to cali i dont have a mechanic anymore and im a litte paranoid about the celis 6 speed. I can drive stick but it seems that mis-shifts do quite a bit of damage on celis and also im worried about inheriting someone elses synchro problems.

What should I do?

well...let me give you my situation. i have an '00 gts that is a toyota certified used car. i just recently blew my engine a little over 2 weeks ago (blown rod). so i took it to the dealership and said it was under warranty yada yada yada...well it turns out that toyota certified is it's own little division of toyota and to even get them to LOOK at my car to SEE if it's covered..i'd have to pay the dealership $400 to take off my engine head and pull out my oil pan...BUT if there was internal damage (which there is--it's a blown rod) then they'd charge me another $1,100 (for a total of $1,500) to take out the engine and tear it down. all of this is just to LOOK and see if it's covered or not.

all of that, and the dealership says it most likely will NOT be covered (they claim it's the driver's fault much more often than not)...so basically i have a good chance of just wasting $1,500 for nothing. and if they do not cover it (which they say 90% they won't) then they'll charge me an extra $6,000 to fix it (new engine install).

this is just ridiculous and i've been on the phone numerous times with both the dealer and toyota certified..and they offer me no help whatsoever.

but anyway..to makea long story short: NO, it's not worth it.

on the other hand though, the mechanics were saying something like if it was a blown alternator or battery or something then they'd probably cover it without having to take a look at it--which is cool. but really--a blown alternator or a dead battery is pretty cheap to replace to begin with and thats definately not worth the few grand it takes to get the certified warranty.

if i had to do it over--i wouldn't have gotten the warranty and just saved the couple grand...because toyota is determined not to cover anything except for the cheapest parts--and i'm just as good paying for that stuff myself.

certified is betta then not knowing what u're getting urself into..at least when it certified you know it's been checked out..but i dunno how good toyo certified it or watever dealer certified it..

^^ that is a good point. but then again celicas the 7th gens are still so new that not much can be wrong with them...and a simple test drive will let you know what kind of care the person put into it.

test drive as many as you can and get a feel for the car--toyota really doesn't do much of an inspection anyway..they do a 4-point VISUAL inspection (you can do the same by popping the hood and checking out rust underneath your car) as well as check the oil, coolant, etc...all of which you can do as well.

make sure the a/c works and that theres no grinding when you shift gears...and of course a car with lower miles is better.

While looking at what toyota covers I came across this. It describes what on the tranny is covered.

MANUAL TRANSMISSION
ALL internally lubricated components and:
Transmission mounts
Seals and gaskets
Clutch master cylinder
Clutch release cylinder
Shift linkage
Gears and shafts
Intake manifold
Turbo intercooler
Turbocharger
Flexplate
Engine oil reservoir pump Flywheel
Oil pump
Seals and gaskets
Case (but only if damaged as a direct result of a mechanical failure of a covered manual transmission/transfer case component)

Since when does a tranny have a turbo and intercooler?

^^ the description which you are reading is for ALL toyota certified used cars..not just the celica.

there have been toyotas that have had turbos & superchargers before (although currently i do not think toyota offers these--although the scion tc is scheduled to have a supercharger option)

dealers really SUCK!

toyota sucks. period.

and they wonder why j.d. power ranked toyota so low--their customer service is horrid.

you could get a used one from a private seller i suppose and before buying it take it here...



http://www.greenslip.com/

Ultimately it's your call either way and your money. If it were me...i would not go certified. You pay a couple thousand more for a dealer certification. Try to find one that you can visibly tell was taken care of. I bought mine from a 32 year old woman with a young kid and a 2 week old baby. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say she didn't hit lift every gear... I would spend some time to find one that looks 100% clean and ask for maintenance records. Someone who will produce receipts of oil checks, tire rotations, tune-ups etc...to me is at least as good as a dealer certification, and $2000 or more less. Plus then you actually know who you are buying it from. Also a friend of mine bought dealer certified and here the car was in an accident and repainted and they never knew!!! He found this out when the paint on his car started peeling all over the place!!!

and look at it this way...the original warranty IS transferable (60,000 miles) so if you buy a celica with low miles--there is no need for the extended certified warranty.

My Celica that I just got was certified. When I was drivin it home, I found that the tires made a weird whirling sound. I checked the tires n found cups. So I printed a copy of the "check list" for their 160 point inspection n said "My tires have a malfuntion and you said this car was checked and certified *Slaps paper on table*." Well, they took my car and put new rims and tires all around without sayin a WORD!!!!! Its good to know that they have to give you good condition stuff from that list. So if you find a problem a little while later, you can get it fixed.

id rathre either buy new(if have enought money) or buy from someone.toyota dealer suxs

Caleb, that's a bunch of bullshit.

Read over the contract you signed when you bought the car, you don't have to pay money for them to look at it.

Call Toyotoa Corp. on the phone and ring their neck.

toyo dealer are dumbass..i got my car for 2wks and the clutch burn out, they said they inspected and evrything fine, and said while i was test driving it, it seem fine..and they still charge me 500 to get it fix..damn f*cker, but i got them back though..i wrote an email to toyo and the sale manager got in trouble, i had a good laugh, the guy that sold me the car said i shoul go and apologize, i was like. "ok" then after i left, i said "fuck it" they deserve it..oh yah they didn't even have the wheel lock for my car, i had to spend 16bucks for a new one..

this might be a long post, but ull learn a lot if you read.
first of all, wut do you want, manual or auto? if you want auto, then fuck toyota dealership already and buy it from somewhere else. first of all, lets talk about toyota dealerships overall. celicas will be really expensive if they are certified, sticker prices are usually very expensive that you wouldnt believe. i have almost 1 year experience with it. sticker is 19,000$ for 55,000 miles 2000 gts. if you want to buy it from a toyota dealership i tell you to do this, not suggest: be aggressive, be an asshole, and dont go a penny over ur budget, actually try to go down. dont give them numbers, let them throw it at you and you say no, im not paying this much for this old car. if they cant deal with u, dont hesitate to leave man, ull be a bit hurt, but theyll be fucked. this is how they buy their cars. go to kbb.com and see how much the wholesale price is for the exact car they have by putting in the mileage and vehicle condition. if it says 12,000$ wholesale price at kbb, that means toyota dealership bought the car for 8,000-11,000$. dont be fooled by their talk "i paid this much, i paid that much." dont buy any of their shit when theyre selling you the car, like special type of warranty. as of certified vehicle, they basically have the "extended warranty". now is that worth it? depends how you gonna use ur car. r you gonna drive ur car hard or r you gonna be gentle to it? i recommend you buy a certified vehicle if you know someone in the service department, so they can help you out and not give you too much headache of "we dont cover this and that".
remember, when it comes to engine and tranny, theyre sure gonna bother you before changing it if they are. thats why im telling you u need someone at the service department. they will change parts like alternator and starter without bothering u, but how much of a chance is there to have these things break down? and if they do, you can get them fixed with an aftermarket part and it will cost you cheap like 250$ with labor maybe or a 100 more than that.
remember, ur paying about 2000$ more than wut you can pay if you buy the car from anywhere else. is the 2000$ gonna be worth it? if in this 100,000 miles time they only change the alternator and bill you 1200$ then its not worth it cz you could have gotten the same job done outside for 400$ with aftermarket alternator.
as of buying it from anywhere else, if you have a friend or something who can check in the computer auction database and locate and celica, then you would be lucky and save some money if that friend doesnt want to make any profit off of u. if you buy it from dealerships, local, franchise or wutever, make sure you get it inspected before you buy it. my suggestion, actually experience is that independent dealers arent really that good of an idea, cz they have good prices but they dont bargain down too well. when it comes to big dealerships, they want to get rid of their cars so they can open up space in the lot, longer it stays, it will cost them more. theyll just lose money on it if it sits there. so you just tell them "u give me for a good deal and ill get it out of ur lot as soon as the deal is done or else you can take a risk and keep the car there hanging."
as for celicas, overall, it is a fact that they arent as cheap as honda civics, accords, nor rsx. the reason used celicas are expensive is because they are hard to find. there arent too many celicas being sold, you cant find many of them in auctions. ppl didnt buy too many celicas so there arent too many of them to be sold as used. thats why sellers are willing to raise the price bcz the demand is a bit higher than other cars. that doesnt mean that you should jump on any opportunity everytime you see a celica for sale. even at auction the car is sold a bit more expensive than you can think.
come back to the point of if certified is worth it or no. first thing you have to have is patience before money, then you need money. wait and look around for prices, the best deal you can get is from private party, some of them are great condition, some of them even have extended warranty with them. second is to have someone check the auctions for u. at the same time, keep an eye at toyota dealerships, if they are giving a sick deal then try to work it out. as for independent or other dealers, only get the car if the price is right, meaning its at least 2000$ cheaper than wut certified was asking you for the car with the same conditions like mileage and year.
dont be afraid to say no, dont be afraid to talk. i went from one dealer to the other every sunday for 3 months straight and didnt buy any of them. you gotta know wut to say, how to say, how to shut them up, how to prove them wrong so they can drop the price lower. you gotta look smart, or else theyre gonna be smart with u. for every excuse they bring up, give them a good answer so theyll feel that you know wut you talkin about.
overall, no to certified cars unless theyre giving you a killer deal. certified doesnt mean its in perfect condition. good luck man, and lemme know if you need any help or tips.
and damn ths is a long ass post.

too long to read...

i will never buy a toyota again.

my celica and that is it. done with fucking toyota.

customer service SUCKS !!!