Viewing a 190 Celica tonight some quick advice welcomed!

[McGtfour]

Hello all,

Am going to view a 190 Celica TSport tonight its on a 51 plate with 100,000 miles.

I have done my research and know what to look out for specifically (and of course all the common issues you would look for in a car)

My dilemma is these cars have that 'lift' vtec style feature at 6,000rpm through to 8000rpm and although this car is meant to be a cheap round-around it would be nice to know that it at least works.

However in order to bring this in I need to rev it to atleast 6,200 and probably do it in 2nd gear which will start to approach the uk speed limit i would have thought.

The current owner says he doesn't use the feature (which i can believe as not everyone wants to rev a car to 8000rpm) but assures me it works and i have no reason to doubt this he seems like a genuine bloke.

Basically what i am asking is, has anyone test driven one of these and did they carry out the test? IS it acceptable to give a car a hard time on a test drive?

Thanks

[Rogue86]

Of course it's acceptable - you dont want to hand over the money and then find it doesnt work just for the sake of being polite.

[wilbo83]

Owned one of these for a couple of years and the engine loves to be revved so perfectly acceptable to get it above 6200 and it will be pretty obvious if the 'lift' is working, very similar to VTEC. Can't quite remember all the areas to check for other than the boot struts often fail as the boot is pretty heavy. Cracking cars though, so much so, that I am considering getting another one as a stop gap.

[p1tse]

FYI
I believe lift won't kick in if engine is cold

I had one for several years and was a lovely car

Vtec is stronger though

It's quite noticeable with lift change over as power actually dips before lift

If buying I would recommend get lift bolts changed, parts are only a few pounds

[wilbo83]

How did you get on OP?

[McGtfour]

Thanks for everyone's replies :-) I purchased the car, the seller was a charming fellow and the car has tonnes of history so all in all can't complain.

It was very difficult to try the 'lift' as he was in central london so i took his word which sometimes in life you just need to do and rely on a bit of human decency!

and its all good, car has ample lower down power to get around but does come alive up the rev range which is nice!

The engine is quite noisey and the gearing is atrocious (the box is lovely) but 80mph is just over 4k?! so motorway driving is crappy...

but it looks the part, is comfortable and will get me around for little money whilst still offering a bit of fun when the road calls for it!