Noobie Needs your help.....

[GatorCelli]

Hey I have been on as an onlooker for a couple of weeks now and finally decided to sign up. I might be getting a 2000 Carbon Blue GTS- Auto though. Whenever I come on here all I hear about is how much autos suck, I really want the manual but there isn't one in my area. I would be getting it for under 13,000 dollars, which is an awesome price with under 30,000 miles no accidents or anything (Gotta love broke college students who went and splurged on a new car and now have to pay bills :). Well anyway try to get me excited about an auto, lie to me if you have to. Just say some things that will make me more excited about the Auto. One of my friends just got a 98 Prelude auto, I know I will loose but by how much? Anyway give me some mods that could at least give me a respectable 1/4 time, I don't race just like getting thrown back and stuff. If anyone finds a manual GTS in their area for under $15,000 give me an e-mail. Thanks again.

[chameleon]

Well...

One really good thing I can say about the Celica Auto is that it is one of the best factory automatics that I've ever driven. It shifts really quick and snappy. The shifts you get out of it feel like a normal automatic with a shift kit in it. The sport shift feature is really cool, and a lot of fun to drive in. The car lets you take the engine all the way up to redline and hold it there, so you really do have complete controle over the shifts in sportshift mode. The instument panel has an indicator that shows you what gear you are in, which I always thought was really neat looking. So I was actually really impressed with the auto when I first test drove it. In fact, I was so impressed with it that I bought one. But thats when I thought I was going to drive my celica as my primary car and have a fast performance summer car to drive too. When I fell in love with my Celica, I decided to sell my fast summer car and turn my Celica into my performance fun summer only ride. So I went the the dealership and lost thousands of dollars to trade my automatic GTS for a 6-speed GTS. Honestly, the auto is awsome, but if you are interested in performance there is no way you should get an automatic. I know that you really want a Celica and this one is conveneintly available to you(at an EXCELLENT price, might I add) but if you are interested in cars for their performance you will be fooling yourself if you think that you will be satisfied with the auto, you will probably grow to resent it and end up selling it a few years down the road.

If I'm not mistaken, I beleive that an auto prelude like your friend has is capable of running a 1/4 mile time of around 16 seconds flat. I think that the auto Celica runs around a 17 second 1/4 mile time. Losing by a full second is losing by quite a lot.

The only thing that will give you a respectable 1/4 mile time is a NOS system. Or a forced induction setup. Blitz is releasing a supercharger for the Celica this spring that will put it at around 270 to 280 hp, but there is no confirmation that it will fit an auto Celica. If it does, you could always buy the auto for 13,000 and buy the supercharger(expect to pay around $5000 for it), then you would have a pretty fast auto GTS for a total investment of around $18,000.

[FriedRice]

dayum........ur making me feel good about getting an auto gt-s... and i dont even have one!! i wanna go out and buy one today!!

dammit u should really go into advertisement. after toyota read this, they'd hire u fer sure.

[oodolbyoo]

With an auto GTS you can drink a slurpee while you drive...plus youll have a free hand to wave at the GT manuals that fly by :)

[cam_n_scott]

Have you asked the dealer if they could check around other dealerships in the area for you? My car didnt come from the dealership I bought it at, it was a trade between dealerships to get exactly the car I wanted.

Or, you could check www.autobytel.com or any of those used car finder websites...

I agree with whats been said above... if you go auto and are looking for performance (straight line performance especially) you will probably be dissapointed. The celica doesnt have much going for it to start with in the power category...

[GatorCelli]

Thanks alot all of you that replied. I am not sure about the Auto gts, the guy and I had settled on a price but haven't talked to him in a while. I am not getting it through a dealer, and yes I look on autotrader.com and all of those sites every day.

[XYRCNCP]

I'll be damned! finally someone said something good about the auto if you are not going for all out speed......
I can sell you mine if you wanna wait until August......

[oodolbyoo]

I can sell you mine if you wanna wait until August......

Let me get some parts before you sell it.

[XYRCNCP]

keep in mind some parts I may keep in the car....the RMM kit, MAYBE the wheels, the exhaust, although I may sell the parts separately....

I have my eye on the 350Z (Touring or Performance), and this time with the 6 speed. But then again, the EVO may make its appearance here.

[HilfigerCelica]

Hey dude, if you decide to sell the RMM strut tower let me know.

[kkrkeith7]

i just got my gt-s 6 speed in tampa, i go to school at ucf and i just had to keep looking till i found one. if i find one for under 15k i'll let you know

[Willis5050]

If you know that you don't want the auto, then if I were you I wouldn't buy it. $13,000 is still a lot of money, and if I were spending that much I certainly wouldn't want to settle. But if the auto suits you, then by all means jump on it. I have never owned an automatic car, but the sportshift does seem to have a high "wow" factor. I get people asking me if I have the paddle shifters all the time. But the right car at the right price will come by eventually, just be ready.