Do you regret getting your Celi? Options

[1bwilson]

Has there ever been a time where you were ready to pack it all up and get something faster, better looking whatever it may have been that caught your eye? I almost did once with a blue Subru 2.5 rs. The only thing that stopped me was my wallet, the car was 17g's and I still owed about 6 on mine. To this day when someone says nice car I thell the its theirs for 15 thousand. The day someone says yes is the day I sell my car. My bro's GF offered 10.5 but thats as close as I have gotten.

-Bryan-

[IGloo]

I bought my ST as a project car about 2 and a half years ago.
It was pretty beaten and used up all over the body (for example, stones managed to remove the paint job from the hood, and there was even some rust on the fender flares), blue smoke was coming out of the exshaust pipe whenever I came over 5,5 K rpm, and the 7A-FE powerplant was consuming more oil in a month, than 200 fat people would for a 3-day barbecue weekend every week for a year. It also had a small amount of about 155 000 km (or about 100 000 miles) on the odometer.
Suspension was no longer called that (since the shocks were permanently "shocked", and one of the springs cracked in 3 different places...also, the bushings and some other stuff were completely gone.
As far as the interior is concerned, the seats were also in a very bad condition, and almost every plastic part in the interior made its own snap crackle and pop ™ sound while driving around town...
So yeah, you might say that I bought a piece of crap!

But...

Ever since I sold my Audi 80 (which was at the time just about as tuned as it could ever be), and my 1973. VW Beetle (which was also a kind of a show car), I wanted to buy a car for myself that I could really enjoy and tune and re-style as I saw fit...so, after a while, I looked at some European cars (Opel Calibra, BMW 320is (E30), and even FIAT Coupé), and decided not to look any further, so I switched to Japan, and narrowed my choices to Mazda Astina (323F, BA) , and Honda Civic Coupe 1,6 VTEC (EK)...
Mazda fell out of my good graces because even though it looked pretty cool and kinda sporty with its curved bits and pieces, it was in fact pretty dull, very lumpy and slow.
Honda on the other hand also looked very good, its quality is indeed renowned in these parts as much as it is in the rest of the world, and its speed and acceleration were satisfying, but it still had one major flaw...its interior looked like a 15th century toilette, made me want to throw up my fine lunch when I actually sat in and considered driving it, so needless to say that it was just not good enough for me to sit in for a longer period of time!:)

After that experience, it was pretty hard for me to sit in any Honda (including the last two generations of Prelude...the one with te "Star Trek" console, which is stretched all over the car (including the peripheral view), and the one after...which is about just as ugly as the one in the Civic, but a bit more hard to describe!:)).

One day, I was so eager to find myself a car, that I went out to look at Toyota Paseo...needless to say that I abandoned the idea as soon as I entered the first curve on the road!

So, while I was checking out this Toyota, a friend suggested made me to look for some other one...and that was a Celica...

5th generation is one of those "always cool-looking" cars that defy all ages and times, but it was just not quite cool enough (and there were no GT-Fours available for purchase at the time), so I started looking at the 6th generation...
At a glance, it was a bit too big, and it was WAY TOO expensive for me (especially since there are only a few of 6th generation examples driving around in Croatia), GT´s were more rare to find than a golden frog that grants you wishes, but I somehow managed to find one ST that could...the rest is more or less described in the beginning of my post!

So why did I buy it?
Because of 3 things;

1. It was cheap
2. It was love at first sight
3. I obviously was lacking some experience, since I bought a project car which would be tough to work on, since the aftermarket parts are even more rare than my sleep overs at Cindy Crawford´s house!:)

But...(reprise)

I´ve spent a small fortune, and I rebuilt Mako (yup, that´s her name;)) yet again...and now, she´s painted, bodykitted, upholstered, engine is completely repaired and modded with 2-liter bored 7A-FE block (unique mod in these parts, at least to my knowledge) and lots of other goodies. Suspension got its new edge (even if it still may be relatively high off the ground;))...one might say that everything more or less sat in its place perfectly!
I just need some JDM projectors, and it will be all done!

So, as a conclusion to all of this, I must say that everything (so far) has been more than satisfactory for me! I really adore my car!
Of course, the speed of it may not be so thrilling, and the acceleration might to be missing from time to time (especially on 18˝ wheels), but at least I´ve got good gas mileage, and still I´m not driving a Civic, which is pretty much self explanatory.
One day I will sell it eventually, but it will definately be a part of my driving heritage forever...just because it is so giving.

I just wish that Toyota once again turns its corporate mind to making yet another generation of Celica, even though the 6th generation´s flare and driveability will never be quite matched (IMHO).


Sorry if I got carried away with writing...