Buying a Solara, Need Help!

[zman2day]

Ok, I'm looking at purchasing a Solara for my girlfriend. She wants either a 2dr Accord or a Solara. I am biased towards Toyota's because of their build quality. I also own a '96 4Runner tons of mods, including TRD headers and Supercharger. Anyhow you can feel free to ask me more about that. Anyhow my question is this: What do I watch out for? Any recalls or problem areas I should be concerned about? I'm pretty good at picking out body work issues, but are there and TSB's, Recalls or such to be concerned about. I will more than likely Supercharging it soon after buying. I'm leaning towards a 99-01 SLE V6 model, preferably in a 5sp. But I havent had any luck, most are Automatics, which still would be ok.

Anyhow, I'm pretty active on a 4runner forum and though I would give this forum a shot.

Thanks in advance.

Zman2day (newbie)

[NASTY]

go for the solara!
few TSB's, nothing too drastic: http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/jc/99-02solara_a.htm

[cdssolara]

The Solara is a great choice. As NASTY says, there aren't really a lot of problem areas to look for. The only ones that spring to mind are the strut mounts, which can get loose and make a rattling sound over bumps, and an oil sludge problem on some of the older models. I believe both have related TSB's. Another thing; the SLE only comes in automatic. You can find SEV6 with 5 speed that have many of the options in the SLE, but they are not very plentiful.

[Missay]

wow you're buying your g/f a car?? you wanna date me?? lol. j/k

does she know that you're buying one or is this a surprise? if she knows i'd say your best bet is to have her test drive both and see which one she likes better. to be honest, both are great cars, so it's not like you can make a wrong choice.

[Yanks0114]

Depends on your age bracket and what how you feel about honda/toyota. If you are biased towards toyota then go ahead and get the solara. It seems that most die hard honda fans love their accord, while most toyota fans love their solara. They are very similar cars except there are 100x more accords out there than solaras. I also like the color choices of the solara better. The reliability has been great, and you won't have oil sludging problems if you take care of the car. I'd reccomend a toyota

[zman2day]

Thanks for all the input guys (and gals). I went lookin at a 99SLE w/ 53K miles this past weekend. It looked like it had the Stage 1 TRD kit , TRD body kit and wheels. I looked at the bolts on the manafold to see if a S/Cer had been installed and the bolts looked untouched. The kit seemed to be dealer intalled(only becuase I saw the TRD Special Order Sticker with the 17in wheel warning placed inside the drivers door jam), maybe a bad assumption though. I'm usually not a big fan of buying an already modded vehicle, but it looked pretty clean, except for the fact that the wheels were extreemly unbalanced. Price was 13.8K good,bad???
They had the wheels looked at and apparently there is a bent rim that they will be replacing.

Anyhow, one thing I did notice on all the used Solara's is that there was always alot of dust/dirt below the valve cover on the righthand side of the engine block, underneath some electrical connection. Any Ideas?? Normal??

[i20solara02i]

buy my solara hehe it an 2002 solara se i4 i want to get an manual solara

richard

[JMSinMaryland]

The V6s (1MZ-FE) are notorious for sludging. Partially owner maintenance issue and partly engine design. If maintained with 3k oil changes I haven't heard of any cases of sludge developing. Look on ebay under Toyota Solara as well as in the For Sale section of this website to see if anyone's selling. I find the Solara a much more refined vehicle. p.s. the powertrain warranty has been extended to I believe 8?/80,000 miles. Jon.

[DavPak]

p.s. the powertrain warranty has been extended to I believe 8?/80,000 miles. Jon.

where'd you hear that?
original powertrain is 5yr/60K and if you bought a certified used vehicle its 8yr/100K from the date of first use (from the original owner).

[JMSinMaryland]

When I called regarding the letter I received in the mail regarding sludge, number is available online somewhere, when you call and 'register' your car your warranty is extended. Jon.

[DavPak]

When I called regarding the letter I received in the mail regarding sludge, number is available online somewhere, when you call and 'register' your car your warranty is extended. Jon.

ahhh, warranty on sludging. that's unlimited mileage.