Recently my mum was unable to drive, so she gave me use of her car for 8 weeks, and I enjoyed it so much I had to review it on here.
My mum owns an R reg Toyota Starlet 1.3, which is the brightest salmon pink I have ever seen. I was not looking forward to driving around in this little Barbie mobile, because I thought it would be very basic and heavy to drive, but I have to admit I was proven wrong.
In my area this car is becoming more and more popular, and I believe this is down to the performance and reliability. My mum got a 3 year warranty with the car when new and so far has not needed to use it. She is very pleased too as the parts can work out expensive and the warranty does not cover everything.
The model my mum has is a 3 door, which is fine for my mum as only she uses it, but when I tried to pack the baby, her seat, buggy and the rest of her stuff I remembered why we had changed to a bigger car when she was born. It was a very tight squeeze, the boot accomodated her buggy, but absolutely nothing else. The rear seats did not have much legroom either, and it was quite awkward getting the baby in and out of the car.
The 1300 engine ensures that the car is not sluggish, it accelerated well, and I could overtake other cars on a dual carriageway with no problems, unlike some other small cars, and I was averaging about 40 miles per gallon, which I think is reasonable.
The car did not have power steering, and when parking and turning I found the steering pretty heavy.
In Group 6 the car is reasonable to insure.
I enjoyed using this car, and the pros far outweigh the cons