I sold my wife's Accord earlier this spring because it was just me working and I drove the Pilot all the time. We just didn't see the purpose of a car sitting in the garage losing value. Anyway, my wife went back to work a couple months ago and a second car is needed again. I will only be able to take the Reflex back and forth to work for so long before the weather is going to require a roof, so I figure I should be prepared and get the car now so that when the rainy and snowy season hits I won't be in a hard place. Not having the scent of deperation on me really let me work a sweet deal on this car.
I bought a 2005 Corolla XRS. I actually like this body style of Corolla and my brother in law has had his '97 Corolla since it was new without a single problem. So I figured the combination of looks and durabilty paired together were a win for sure. The Corolla hasn't sold more models than any other car made without having something good about it. The XRS took that one step further and put in the 2ZZ-GE motor from the Celica GT-S. The only thing that would differentiate this car from any other Corolla S from the outside is the 16" wheels, badging, color matched grille, and it's about half an inch lower. Everything else is very normal looking. I love sleepers. The motor out-horses the standard Corolla by about 40 and the six speed transmission is definitely an XRS exclusive for the Corolla family. The interior is graced with a little different look too, but that isn't anything someone seeing it in a parking lot is going to notice.
Fortunately it was well taken care of by the previous owner. He drove back and forth from Casper, WY to Phoenix all the time, so that is where almost all of the miles came from. It has the type of damage on the front that you would expect from a car that has been driven, but nothing serious. There are two rock chips on the hood and one chip on a door. There are only two door dings on the whole car too, so it passes as 'excellent' in my book. The interior is in really good condition aside from this center console piece that the dealership is FedExing to me tomorrow and the normal wear on the driver carpet mat. There weren't any stains anywhere else that I couldn't take out. No scratches on the plastics or any other surface. No dog hair or smoke smell or anything funky anywhere. Always a bonus.
The engine still needs some work, so I'll post pictures of that later. Whoever detailed it before used something really nasty on the rubber and plastic that left a nasty brown film all over the place. My guess on first glance was an el cheapo tire dressing. When I said that the salesman looked at me and said that they actually did use some kind of tire dressing on engines. I think he was suprised I would guess that, but anyone who details engines can see the signs a mile away.
The rest of the car got washed, clayed, polished with XMT2, and then I used the NST7 LSP. I wasn't happy with that, so I used the Wolfgang pre-wax polish and took all that off. Then I put on a layer of WG and today I put another layer on. I've got some great trees that start to shade my driveway fairly early in the afternoon, but I got these pictures today.
I was going to get the XRS but with the wife
Gotta love those $7 fillups. I remember back when $5 would get me to and from work for a week in my old '78 Subaru. Now it does that for a month, but I had to get a scooter to accomplish it. lol
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