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When it came to choosing a car that was going to replace a bike as daily transport, I was initially looking for something from the Volkswagen Group. I viewed a couple of Seat Ibiza GTI 16Vs - a car somewhere between VW’s Polo and Golf in size, with the same 2.0 16V “ABF” engine as in my old mk3 Golf. I also looked at an Audi Coupe quattro, VW Corrados, and VW Passats and Audi A4s with the 1.8T engine.
In the end I decided that my budget would buy me more if I looked further than Wolfsburg or Ingolstadt. I searched Autotrader for cars with a sunroof, as this is a high priority for me. I’ve only owned two cars without them - one only stayed a month, and I cut a hole in the roof of the other one!
The search turned up this ‘95 Toyota Celica GT very close to home; it was being sold by a trader who had been using it for a couple of years. I knocked him down a few hundred quid and drove away in my first Japanese car.
The GT is similar to the Golf GTI in that it has a front mounted, 4-cylinder, 2.0-litre, 16V engine; I was surprised to find that it produces 173bhp (23bhp more than the Golf). It is essentially a normally aspirated version of the turbo motor found in the GT-Four (in which it is mated to all wheel drive).
This is a 6th generation Celica with an official model designation of ST202; to decipher this and for more information I have found this page by the Celica Club UK very useful.
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