Toyota Previa (new Shape) Buying Advice

August 20, 2009

Hello

I wonder if anyone could help me.I am thinking about upgrading my 8 seater townace to a new shape Previa..I have read on this forum the problem with the petrol version about the annoying light that keeps coming on, and equally have read that the diesel version has turbo problems...which keep re occurring even though turbos have been replaced.the Previa I was looking at is an 8 seater X reg 2001 and it a vvti petrol version.. he has admitted to having a warning light

come on from 66,000 miles and then it going out again he has had it checked several times and they cant find anything wrong it has passed it MOT`s no problem. He has had 2 sensors and the CAT changed.What I need to ask is do you think its worth it as apart from this it does look really good and it has FSH and has been well looked after it has 95,000 miles on the clock .cheers Amanda

September 9, 2009

Hello
I wonder if anyone could help me.I am thinking about upgrading my 8 seater townace to a new shape Previa..I have read on this forum the problem with the petrol version about the annoying light that keeps coming on, and equally have read that the diesel version has turbo problems...which keep re occurring even though turbos have been replaced.the Previa I was looking at is an 8 seater X reg 2001 and it a vvti petrol version.. he has admitted to having a warning light
come on from 66,000 miles and then it going out again he has had it checked several times and they cant find anything wrong it has passed it MOT`s no problem. He has had 2 sensors and the CAT changed.What I need to ask is do you think its worth it as apart from this it does look really good and it has FSH and has been well looked after it has 95,000 miles on the clock .cheers Amanda

Hi Angela,

My 2002 petrol Previa has just passed it's MOT - second test since having the EML (light-on) issue. I just make sure that the light is off whenever I take the car in for MOT and servicing. The light is easily extinguished by disconnecting the Battery for 10 minutes. The light comes back on after driving anything between 2 and 30 miles.

I have given up worrying about this light being on, just keep it covered with a black piece of card. I have had the car since new, have just reached 100,000 miles with no problems, apart from the lamp coming on, caused according to my Toyota main dealer by a faulty cat - they wanted £1100 to replace the cat a couple of years ago, but would still could not guarantee that the light would stay off! There has been no deterioration in mpg and performance since the light came on.

You have probably read the threads on the forum – I contributed to this one from page 6:

http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=36815

and also this one:

http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72782

Hope all this helps in making your decision.

Cheers,

Rob