I don’t know much about the new Celicas, but I’ve driven a few cars that make horsepower the way the Celica does (small engine, very high RPM), and I find them a bit tedious. The power is unusable around town, because unless you’re revving it to 6000 rpm, it feels very sluggish. Good for downshifting and passing on the highway, but stop-and-go daily driving can be a bit tiresome.
But you haven’t really mentioned what you’re looking for in a car. May I suggest that you take a step back from looking at individual models, and write down what you’re looking for.
For example, I just bought a new vehicle. I was torn between lots of cars I wanted or liked. So I made this list:
Must-Haves
Price under $35K (Canadian)
Enough cargo room for family vacations (skiing, lake in summer, etc)
Four doors (family again)
Reasonably car-like ride
Like to haves
Good performance
Sports-sedan handling
All Wheel Drive (I live in Canada)
Stylish
Based on that, I narrowed my search down to:
PT Cruiser GT
Ford Escape/Mazda Tribute
Subaru WRX Wagon
Hyundai Santa Fe
Jeep Liberty
Plus used Jeep Cherokees.
In the end, I wound up buying an Escape. The Subaru was my first choice, but in Canada they are $35,000, there are no dealer incentives, and the best interest rate I could get was 6.8% for five years. And, the dealers won’t move a nickel in price since they sell all they get in in short order.
The Escape, on the other hand, listed at $33,495. But the dealer was willing to bargain down to $29,500. And, I got 1.9% financing. In the end, the Escape wound up over $10,000 cheaper than the WRX, and that made the difference.