2005 Toyota Corolla XRS

Anybody have any experience with them? I am thinking of suggesting one to somebody who doesn't need or want a sports car, but may enjoy revving the snot out of this engine.

I keep looking for one. They don't come up for sale very often. The 2ZZ in them seems to have less problems than in the Elise. I suspect the Elise's oil cooler to be the main culprit.

I always wanted to see someone give it the 240R treatment for an ultimate sleeper status.

I had a friend that raced one in SSC a few years ago. It was actually decently quick, but had a tough time with the Celicas in the same class. Bad news was that he ended up going through an engine a race, two engines in one weekend at Road Atlanta. SCCA finally allowed an Accusump, but it was too late to salvage his season, and lost one engine even with it. In the end it need both an Accusump and a baffled oil pan to stay alive. The extra body roll over the Celica made it much worse in the oiling department.

If you only wanted to drive it on the street it probably would not be much of an issue. But if you wanted to autocross it or take to a track day, I'm not sure it would survive a weekend without a few mods.

There are a couple out there, they don't seem to last long.

http://madison.craigslist.org/cto/5307528672.html

http://maine.craigslist.org/cto/5361486374.html

Don't you hate it when a car needs $500 of mods you don't want to do even thought it'll end up better than whatever you were going to spend the $500 on anyway? It's just not the same.

Look for a Pontiac Vibe GT same car less Toyota Tax.

The 2zz is a rev happy bugger and they love boost. Pretty damned reliable too. Problem is the whole corolla tax thing. You can go back as far as 1998 and get thr little brother 1zz in the chevy prizm. Nearly the same engine, just as reliable, no toyota tax. Either is good. Id be happy to own one, especially if i got a manual behind it.

I've driven 1zz cars and saying it's 'nearly the same engine' is kind of misleading when it transforms the car from 'legit slow' in the case of a 1998 Georolla to 'actually surprisingly fast' for a 2zz XRS. It's kind of like comparing turbo and non-turbo versions of the same engine.

mndsm wrote: The 2zz is a rev happy bugger and they love boost. Pretty damned reliable too.

I am not sure that a ticking time bomb oil pump is "reliable".

I don't get why people keep suggesting the Vibe. The Vibe is a truck. The Corolla is a car. Yeah you save $5k by getting a Vibe instead of a Corolla, and they are technically the same floorpan. However, truck. It's the automotive equivalent of neuticles. Sure it feels the same, but it just ain't right.

Or maybe this is one of those weird bubbles that happened when I was looking. When I was looking, a ten year old 2ZZ-equipped Corolla was over $10k. Still is or have they come down in price?

One other difference is that the 1zz-fe got vvti in the year 2000 allowing it to not run out of breath until quite a bit higher in the rev range.

In reply to gunner:

I was under the impression the vvti was mostly to give it more bottom end, google says it dropped the peak torque from 4400 to 4000. My 99 comes on the cam around 3600 and pulls well enough I have hit the fuel cut a few times at 6250 or something like that. The 1ZZ doesn't rev as well as the 2ZZ, the 1ZZ being a lot more undersquare, bore/stroke of 79x91.5 vs 82x85.

In reply to Brett_Murphy:

Seemed like a great idea when it came out--although I'm guessing few people actually bought them. 10 years later, they'll be rare birds in decent condition.

Knurled wrote:

mndsm wrote: The 2zz is a rev happy bugger and they love boost. Pretty damned reliable too.

I don't get why people keep suggesting the Vibe. The Vibe is a truck. The Corolla is a car. Yeah you save $5k by getting a Vibe instead of a Corolla, and they are technically the same floorpan. However, truck. It's the automotive equivalent of neuticles. Sure it feels the same, but it just ain't right. Or maybe this is one of those weird bubbles that happened when I was looking. When I was looking, a ten year old 2ZZ-equipped Corolla was over $10k. Still is or have they come down in price?

A Vibe GT is 110 lbs heavier than a Corolla XRS and 4 inches higher. 2 inches of the height difference is extra ground clearance so if you are into lowering stuff, you can probably get most of that back.

You have a funny definition of a truck.

I am just about a full rank Toyota loyalist. However, in this case I say go for the eighth gen civic si. I think it is better in pretty much every way except paint, sun visors and maybe third gear grind. In my opinion the k20 has far more character than the 2zz and is much easier to keep in lift when caning the car. The prices are also finally in the realm of sanity. Depreciation is doing its work. Plus you get a limited slip diff and better shift action

Is the XRS All Wheel Drive?? I'm pretty sure some of the Vibes (GT's) were.

No Vibe GTs were awd. The regular ones and the regular matrixes could be had as awd.

No AWD with a stick either.

I've actually been enjoying my xrs matrix winterbeater, you just have to beat the e36m3 out of it all the time and think of the 2zz as a little bit of a race engine to enjoy it. It doesnt just like revs, it Needs them. The only rael issue is you end up driving like an a-hole all the time to keep it in the powerband.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

I think google has it backwards. I was selling them brand new in 2001 and I remember specifically the torque peak being 4400 for the vvti engines because I thought to myself at the time there was no need to rev higher than that (lol). I don't know what it was for the earlier engines. The vvti did give it more bottom end as well. I remember thinking it was pretty cool that the peak hp and tq numbers were identical at 125 for the vvti engine. I always thought they should have started the XRS in 2001 with the new front end that year.

hotchocolate wrote: I am just about a full rank Toyota loyalist. However, in this case I say go for the eighth gen civic si. I think it is better in pretty much every way except paint, sun visors and maybe third gear grind. In my opinion the k20 has far more character than the 2zz and is much easier to keep in lift when caning the car. The prices are also finally in the realm of sanity. Depreciation is doing its work. Plus you get a limited slip diff and better shift action

If I had to buy a car from this millennia (so far done a good job of avoiding that), I'd go with an 8th-gen as well. Just make it a sedan, the coupes have always looked awkward to me

I agree the 8th gen Si sedan is an overall better car, but it's nowhere near the sleeper-status in the looks department and everyone knows what it is. With an XRS you can surprise 107% of anyone you ever race or take for a drive.

Random thing to look out for but back seat doesn't go down in the XRS..