05 Corolla XRS

[OCDetails]

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.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/d2802d90.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/70abde70.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/2071c452.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/ee0df7fa.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/063deacd.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/7d50027d.jpg

[Ong~Bak]

Very nice find, looks really good. :) I was going to get the XRS but with the wife
not used to shifting with her right hand and driving on the right hand side of the road,
I thought better get an automatic no need for her to keep looking at the shifter
Then she takes over my Jimmy and now we bought her a Ford Escape limited
She has wanted one since the first commercial on TV so the Corolla is now
my car, but I love it fun to drive like a go cart :D
Mine is an 03 though but same body style, like anything if you take care
of it, will last as long as you need it too!

:cheers:

[supercharged]

Considering Toyotas dependability/reliability I trully find Corolla to be even better then Camry. Camry needs better handling...
you should be getting 40 MPH average considering that it is manual, but it depends on your driving style. It's a great daily driver, and is much safer then Prius/Echo/Yaris...

[OCDetails]

I don't know that I'll see 40 mpg with this engine, but I should average about 30. I think it is rated for 25/32 or something like that. I'll be doing mostly in town driving with it. I'm not willing to give up the 60 mpg I'm getting on the Reflex for now though. ;) 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

[dannythekid]

Never even heeard of the Corolla XRS?? Just the S model, but looks like a nice ride. Good luck with it!

[OCDetails]

I hadn't ever heard of it either until I saw one earlier this year. Toyota limited production to around 7000 units and it was only sold as an '05 and '06. I saw one in the parking lot at work and I was intriqued by the badging. I thought that it might be an AWD version of the Corolla, so I started doing research. It looked the same as the S as far as I could tell, so I really didn't know any better. What I found was that it has the same performance specs as my '99 Integra GSR sedan had with the added benefit of upgraded suspension. I went looking for a GSR when I was car shopping, but they stopped making them in '01 and they are really hard to find. So I just consider this an '05 GSR of sorts. ;) It isn't the fastest car on the road, and I'm sure there are a lot of other options if I was looking for better handling or more speed, but it is a Toyota to the core and having a trouble free car in the garage is more important than anything else at this stage in my life. I'm not into modifying cars anymore and I just wanted something that wasn't boring. This car is definitely not boring when you are driving it. ;)

I'm putting on the third coat of WG tonight when I get home. After that it will just be a matter of keeping it clean till I strip it all off and start with my winter prep routine in October. It's a great color for hiding dust and swirls. I would highly recommend it to anyone trying to get some time back from obsessing too much over their car. lol

[pirex]

Looks good! Don`t like corolla so mutch. But that one was sweet :D

[ryandamartini]

looks good man. nice lil car there :) Try some oxi clean spotting on those front floor mats.

[Meghan]

I love the color of that car....

[OCDetails]

Alrighty.... the third coat of Wolfgang is on and I can call it a day for the exterior. :) I got these pictures in much better light so you can see the gloss that WG creates on this color. Sometimes we are too close to the forest to see the trees when it comes to polishing and telling the difference, but I can definitely tell the difference between one coat and three. Seeing it in the same light with each coat really helps.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/7dfe52cb.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/418c134b.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/d9b5a33d.jpg

Ok, I'm done whoring out pictures of my blah Corolla now. :D Time to focus on the engine. :)

[alban61]

Car looks great! That color is perfect for showing off the nice reflections and shine.

[OCDetails]

Yup. It hides dust and swirls really well too. That is why I bought this color. I had an opportunity to get one in that beautiful regal blue that Toyota has, but I've been there with that color before and I was waaaaaaay too obsessive about it. So I passed on buying one locally and bought this one from a dealership 300 miles away. I needed a color that didn't look as insanely good as that dark blue does. This color is called Phantom Grey Pearl I believe. It is a nice color that reflects well and gives me some reward for the effort I put into polishing it, but it doesn't require constant maintanence to look great like black or dark blue does. I think it will make me happiest in the long run.

[wolfpacker92]

Great work on a really cool car ~ first one I have seen. And man do I love that color!

[07ImpalaSS]

Nice work.