Corolla "LE" versus "CE"

The CE and LE are made on the same assembly line. Reliability and quality of the CE will be the same or better (fewer components to break).

That's true. The less you own, the less you'll pay for maintaining it. :-)

As to cars. Consumers Reports advises buying the less loaded models if it's reliability you're after.

OTOH, on my '94 Continental the power windows always worked but the engine had to be replaced at 50K miles and again at 111K. I traded up to an Avalon.

Brent

Yeah, you get the 3.8 litre engine with the congenital head gasket problem that Ford is only just now fixing. Bet ya blew the head gasket on the rear bank of cylinders, right?

Make sure you check all the standard equipment you need - I bought the CE to save 1500 but then realized I had to install a cruise control over 500 - plus you get bigger tires and mags with LE- also the adjustable seat might be very handy on those long drives as the seats in the base Corolla are not the most comfortable to start out with. Mechanically it's bulletproof. Bob

My brother has a 2005 Corolla CE and it has height-adjustable seats.

You know too much. :-)

I bought the 3.8 because it was in the Taurus and Sable, and I figured hey, they wouldn't risk the reputation of the mainstays. Ha!

Actually, at 50K they had to rebuild the engine (short block). It literally sat on the dealer's lift for 6 weeks while Ford decided which of its divisions would pay for the warranty work! When the symptoms reappeard 60K later, I didn't wait around for a diagnosis.

It was the mix of aluminum heads on an iron block, wasn't it?

And when I bought the car I thought the salesman said the car had an air suspension. I guess he said "err" suspension, because it never passed 10K miles between repairs (seriously). They replaced the computer (twice), and the springs/strut/airbags (all, some more than once) before they found that the problem was a chafed wire. I remember back to when mechanics inspected the system and used their heads before picking up the company's now-do-this manual. When the regional whiz finally came in on the job at my demand, he found the problem and remarked, "That (the chafing) happens a lot on the '95 but hardly ever on the '94. I bet the "hardly ever" cost Ford thousands. I hope so.

I love my Toyotas.

Brent

But Toyota used Iron block/Aluminum heads for YEARS!!!

It has more to do with design nad the head gasket material than the block and head. If you find someone who KNOWS what he's doing, the repair will last for years. This also includes planing.

Yeah, the infamous air suspension...WHen it worked it was great! Guy at work had a '92 Townie, paid $250 for the bags (that was at COST!) and then 3 attempts to get them to work!

One cold late Feb/early March morning, we were bored at work, just staring out the window. '91-94 Continental across the street with the engine running (course, I didn't know it at the time...)

All of a sudden, a puff comes out the tailpipe...then an other, and another. By the time the owner came out of the store, there was a nice stream of white smoke. He stopped a guy walking by, poited to the tailpipe and waved his hands a little. The guy shrugged his shoulders and walked on. He gets in the car and drives off....hopefully to the Ford dealer!

But, 50K?!?! Usually they get over 80K on them before they let go!

My Corolla 2003 CE edition didn't have adjustable seats so glad to hear this has been added as standard - still like to have the cruise for those long trips though or is that also included in the 2005 model? Bob

What I am saying here applies to Canadian models, so I don't know if American models are similar or not.

As I understand it, cruise control and power windows were made available for the CE for 2004 as a group option package, and height-adjustable seats were added as a standard feature for 2005. My folks' '04 CE has cruise control, but not height-adjustable seats. My brother's '05 CE has both.