Toyota Corolla 2017 Problems

Because you’re looking at a car built before January 1 2019, the vehicle won’t carry Toyota’s current, upgraded five-year factory warranty. Instead, you’ll get what’s left of the three-year/100,000km factory warranty. In the case of a hybrid Toyota, that also includes eight years and 160,000km worth of cover for the batteries, so if the car you buy is just two or three years old, you’ll have anything up to six years of warranty on the battery-pack. That’s a pretty good deal.

The catch is that the car you buy must have a full service record that shows it has not been neglected in any way. If the service record has gaps in it, Toyota has the right to cancel the warranty on that particular vehicle.

Modern hybrids are clever in that when a battery cell fails, only the dud cell (rather than the whole battery-pack) needs to be replaced. Our experience, too, in this department is that Toyota hybrids are hitting wrecking yards (thanks to crashes) faster than they’re wearing out their battery-packs. That means there’s a decent supply of second-hand batteries with lots of life left in them at reasonable prices. One quote for a second-hand Prius battery-pack was between $1500 and $2000 from a wrecking yard.

Use a 5W-30 A3/B4 oil from a quality brand.

Unfortunately you’ve kept the Corolla too long, and have had to spend money to keep it going. Keep that in mind for the next one you buy.

You’re constrained by your $20,000 budget, but I would suggest you look at a Kia Rio, Mazda2, Mitsubishi Lancer, or Suzuki Swift. All should fall within your budget and all will give you a good run. If you were prepared to buy a used car that is one or two years old, you could consider a Toyota Corolla, or a Mazda3.

The Corolla is one of the better small cars, it’s both fuel-efficient and reliable, if serviced well and not abused. Others to consider are the Mazda3 and the Hyundai i30.

Yes, it comes with 4 years free roadside service.

You could consider the Mazda3, Toyota Corolla, or a similar model from a well-respected brand, but your positive experience with the i30 should suggest the new model is the one to go for.

The Corolla is a good choice; they are generally reliable and cheap to run. One word of warning, however, is that they used the Takata airbags, which are the subject of one of the biggest recalls in history. Should you buy a Corolla check to see if the airbag has been replaced. If it hasn't have it replaced, if it has check to see what the replacement airbag was as this might need replacing sometime in the future. I would recommend against buying European, cheap Euros tend to be expensive in the long run.

The Focus is a great driving car, but there are serious issues with its dual-clutch automatic transmission, so serious you should avoid it, or buy a manual. Consider others like the Mazda3, Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Kia Rio, etc.