New 2004 Solara Arrival!

[Hsakuragi]

seqouia is the biggest, and the tallest SUV that toyota is selling on the market.

[Guest]

Just saw an '04 Sol this afternoon while traveling east bound R175. It was white, V6, SLE. It had the Central Atlantic Toyota license plate holder with "dealer" tags (starts with # 1A...). The annoying low exhuast pipe isn't as low as the gen1, but still noticeable. Don't know why they just make the exhuast pipe flush to the undercarriage and place some heat insulation. The guy was just slowing traveling along...hate the taillights. Oh yeah, it has one BIG @$$!!!!!.

[ICrazyChrisI]

29k? Wow..Toyota really isnt gonna sell that many V6s at that price then. With that low amount of horsepower against todays standards..oh man..

[Jaimster]

29k? Wow..Toyota really isnt gonna sell that many V6s at that price then. With that low amount of horsepower against todays standards..oh man..

Yeah, rather buy me a 2004 Maxima! More car for the money all the way.

[TMC]

29K is the fully loaded model with VSC, Navigation, leather, moonroof and all the airbags. The V6 sport grade lists for about 23K. Thats standard with Alloy 17" wheels, ABS, CD and more. There aren't too many options to get on the Sport grade.

[DavPak]

There aren't too many options to get on the Sport grade.

yeah, like the optional automatic trans......BECAUSE YOU CAN'T GET IT IN A MANUAL!

some sport model.

[DavPak]

all right.
we just got our first solara. its a silver V6 SE Sport. cloth interior, sunroof with a sticker price of $24,300
very nice interior, body kit looks nice. a$$ end looks dumb.
handles very nicely. i was surprised the tires didn't squeel more!
the tiptronic shifter is ok. i've never really driven one, so it was clumsy. but lets face it, a tip will never be a manual.
on the whole, not bad, but i'm not about to trade mine in.

[Solaryellow]

Our local dealer received an Arctic Frost SE V6 Sport today. My suspicions that it would look better in person are absolutely true. I've never seen a car that looks so bad in photos look so good in person.

I know those of you with the first generation Solara love your cars (and I've had two of them myself - 99 SE V6 manual and 00 SLE V6), but the new Solara makes the old one look ancient. In my opinion, it's gorgeous. I even like the view from the rear. Go see one with an open mind. Time marches on.....

[indiglosolara]

I saw one yesterday. I was at the dealer and i saw one.. (longo toyota). I think that its pretty nice. The pictures dont really look like the actual car. I think this car is prett sweet. Look very aggreesive.

But that is my opinion.

Kenny

[cdssolara]

I'll reserve judgement on the looks until I see one. However, with no manual transmission option and still only 225 hp.....Sorry, from a sportiness perspective, that just doesn't cut it.

[Solaryellow]

There's an old saying in the car business that goes something like "people want horsepower, but they buy torque."

It's silly how everybody obsesses over ten horsepower here or there.

[ezshift5]

....Maybe I'll ease in and scope out the '04 Solara this week.....the idea of more cc's with the same V6 fuel efficiency is positive.....but the ongoing high preference(only about 2% would purchase the manual shift) for the automatic is so sad. Toyota can no longer fiscally justify a clutch/5-6 spd.

I guess the LA DIS(Driver Injoyment Syndrome) waits for us all............






'00 Solara DWP SE-V6 5-speed (NoCal)

[SteVTEC]

There's an old saying in the car business that goes something like "people want horsepower, but they buy torque."

It's silly how everybody obsesses over ten horsepower here or there.

The other saying is....

"Horsepower sells cars, Torque wins races."


The "weak" 225HP Solara should be able to beat the almighty 240HP Accord V6 off the line and up through medium speeds thanks to 28 lb-ft of extra torque in spite of extra weight. Probably won't have the legs to take it outright in the 1/4 mile, but how often do you have it at WOT for a 1/4 mile solid anyways? Solara should have better real-world performance, and I bet it'll handle better also. Accord V6's handling is rather clumsy.

[TMC]

As Proud as I am of the New Solara, the Honda is going to smoke it 0-60, and in the the 1/4 mile. I've checked both, but I will tell you that autocross type driving the Solara will out perform the Honda due to better handling and better tires (checked this too).

[Dave D]

I was in for an oil change and figured I would take it for a test drive. It's pretty nice. The interior is awesome. Has anyone looked under the hood? There's not much room. Doesn't look like you could fit a supercharger in there. I did notice that Toyota had moved the cold air intake up to where the hood meets the grill instead of under the right headlight assembly. I never could figure out why Toyota engineers thought that would be a good place for an air intake. It had to be restrictive.
Anyway, the car's responsive and feels good on the road. Seems fast too! I think I scared the sh*t out of the sales person when I kicked in the shift- matic, tip-tronic (or whatever the hell you want to call it) and let that puppy eat! Works pretty good too. It would take a little getting used to, but it definately works and it's fun. I think I would probably use it a lot. I'm a little pissed that you can't get leather and the Nav system on the Sport model. Likewise, you can't get the body kit and tuned suspension on the SLE. I'll probably wait till the 05 comes out to get serious about buying a new one. You never know what Toyota will do about options. My 99 just turned over to 100,000 miles, and I'm thinking about a new ride. It will be a toss up between The Solara and an IS300.