Buying A Used Avensis. What To Look For?

[Aorak]

Hi everyone im new to the forum.

im currently the owner of a 1998 VW Passat. however after alot of silly problems with locks and electrics items and sky high part prices and bad service from dealer ships i will not be going down that road again. and now im really thinking about getting a second hand Avensis around 2001-2004 or so.

I am not a big car fixer. i can do simple stuff like oil change and breaks and so on. but not much more..

what should i look at in a second hand Avensis? any problems that should be fixed? a check list when looking at one?

iv been looking at a few cars in my price range and found one i think could be a good car

http://www.finn.no/finn/car/used/object?finnkode=32098397 (its in Norwegian but im sure u can tell the numbers, 102k miles)

its just made its MoT and got a full service history. anything i should be aware of on this car? stuff that i can exspect to change?

car prices in Norway are crazy so this is a 6000£ car hehe. thanks for your time!

[Mistermena]

You could be opening a can of worms with this question! Toyota isn't the marque of car it use to be if I'm honest as they do suffer with some major problems, especially the oil burner and head gasket and EGR valve issues... The Petrol (In my view) is a far safer bet. The cars where you are just look like mad money!!! Take a holiday over here, buy the same car for £1600 and drive it home. Then run it for a few years and sell it for more than you bought it for!

The only problem would be the right hand drive car! Unless it would cost so much on fuel to drive it home or to have it shipped...

Ps... I'd stick to VW! Buy a 2001-2004 1.9TDi Passet Sport estate. Fantastic engines and I had no problems at all with mine

[Aorak]

You could be opening a can of worms with this question! Toyota isn't the marque of car it use to be if I'm honest as they do suffer with some major problems, especially the oil burner and head gasket and EGR valve issues... The Petrol (In my view) is a far safer bet. The cars where you are just look like mad money!!! Take a holiday over here, buy the same car for £1600 and drive it home. Then run it for a few years and sell it for more than you bought it for!

The only problem would be the right hand drive car! Unless it would cost so much on fuel to drive it home or to have it shipped...

Ps... I'd stick to VW! Buy a 2001-2004 1.9TDi Passet Sport estate. Fantastic engines and I had no problems at all with mine

UHuh Can of Wurms!

I would buy a car elsewhere but the import fees don't make it worth the exstra work to get it over. In

the end of the day i would maybe save my self 1000£ but spend alot of exstra time hehe.

The car at question is a 1.6 Petrol Toyota.

i need a car that will do me for 3-4 years with normal maintance. i will not have another VW even tho i love the car it*s to much of a money drain and everyone else i know with a VW have the same problem. its just small things all the time with locks and sensors and bearings and so on. everytime i fix one thing something else come up within a few months.. this is not mechanical problems. the engine is fantastic. but i cant handle all the little things that keep costing me 200-500£ + labour (at 1000£-1200£ an hour )

[Aorak]

I dont want to start a VW vs Toyota thing btw! all i need to know is stuff i should be aware of while test driving and looking at a preowned 2002 Toyota Avansis. :)