General info on caldina gt-t

[RevolutionStarlet89]

Well now im working full time i had the idea of moving up in th car scheme of things, i have an ae101 trueno atm but am getting sick of only having 2 doors lol, and people whinging about the room in the back hahah, but aside from that i was looking at getting something turbo and relised toyota have a rather limited amount of stock turbo cars, as apposed to subaru with all their wrx etc etc.. So i stumbled across the idea of getting a 1997-1998 Caldina gt-t. seeing how its a car that will be suitable for passengers etc and still hav the power to beat homos on the road lol, so i was just wondering what peoples general impression are of them?? Reliablility wise of course, (i dont care if you dont like them lol). So let me know guys!

Oh and also how much do you reckon id be able to fetch for a 1992 ae101 trueno silver lowerd springs mags(abit $&#$%), full exhaust system, race steerin wheel momo pedals, 145ks and looked after by a toyota mechanic???? Just out of interest :)

cheers

[Emperor]

3-4 grand MAX for yours.. if your lucky.

Caldinas are nice.. If the manuals wernt so rare around Hamilton I was looking at them before the Forester

[flygt4]

ae101 would be worth ~3000 , 4k at a stretch if its immaculate.

plenty of info on caldina on here if you look for it.

not really mindboggling speed , 190kw standard, which is plenty for the purpose but not earth shattering .probly equivalant to legacy GTB and legnum VR4 in terms of grunt but easier on the fuel.
the manual versions have a nice gearbox and drivetrain setup derived from the celica GT-4 which is pretty sturdy. clutchs are expensive to change though as its quite an involved process.
there is an auto tiptronic version which has electronic stability control instead of LSD diffs.
the turbo and exhaust manifold are a combined unit, and they have a habit of warping the exhaust manifold requiring a fairly costly replacement.

97/98 models are getting old now so getting harder to find tidy examples of early models.

they are typically fairly reliable, as its basically a celica gt4 engine+drivetrain in a station wagon with a few improvements/alteration.

[RevolutionStarlet89]

oh yeh so prett much a flasher station wagon celica?? theres little inbetween a lower end turbo toyota like gt starlet to a supra so it doesnt give young toyota fans much to pick from.

hahah should have thourght about doing any mods on it when i brought it ae!! hahaha

Do caldinas have fairly sturdy gearboxs and turbos?? no of a guy who had a twin turbo wrx wagon and chipped multiple teeth on in his gearbox doing about 5000rpm.

Looking around on tard me the average price is looking around $10k, this sound about right??

cheers

[bbq1988]

i got mine about 6 months ago, dont regret it. Plenty of room for a jap car, more reliable then a legnum/suby and use less gas!

[Warren]

I've had my 2000 GT-T for around 9 months now. Good as gold. Got about 460kms on my last tank of gas (98 octane) That was just Auckland city driving aswell, no open road stuff. Mind you I did nana it quite a bit lol

But yeah, hell of a lot more reliable/economical than a Subbie/Mitsi. (talking from past experiances aswell)

[barryogen]

I'm looking at them at the moment, the only bad thing I have heard is gas consumption, although for a 190kw wagon, it seems pretty good.

They are fast enough, do a high 13 low 14 second quarter mile, although to do that you apparantly have to ride it verry verry hard.

From reading they appear to have minor problems with left rear wheel bearings, and the aforementioned manifold issue, but nothing too serious.

The engine/drivetrain appears to be generally bullet proof on all accounts.

Clutch is no more expensive than getting any other 4wd one done, so no matter which one you bought you'd be paying for it, so can generally be ignored.

They are fairly boring inside until you get to the ST246(the newer rounder ones, 2002{?} onwards), but they only came in auto, so I havent looked at them much.

$10k will get you an average one, $12k a better one, $18k seems to buy you a low kms 2000/2001(only I think production stopped in 2000 so can't explain that one).

I'm looking at either a 98 with 150kms on it for cheap(under $10k), or one around the $14k mark(low ish kms, 01)... havent decided yet.

[Warren]

I'm looking at them at the moment, the only bad thing I have heard is gas consumption, although for a 190kw wagon, it seems pretty good.

They are fast enough, do a high 13 low 14 second quarter mile, although to do that you apparantly have to ride it verry verry hard.

From reading they appear to have minor problems with left rear wheel bearings, and the aforementioned manifold issue, but nothing too serious.

The engine/drivetrain appears to be generally bullet proof on all accounts.

Clutch is no more expensive than getting any other 4wd one done, so no matter which one you bought you'd be paying for it, so can generally be ignored.

They are fairly boring inside until you get to the ST246(the newer rounder ones, 2002{?} onwards), but they only came in auto, so I havent looked at them much.

$10k will get you an average one, $12k a better one, $18k seems to buy you a low kms 2000/2001(only I think production stopped in 2000 so can't explain that one).

I'm looking at either a 98 with 150kms on it for cheap(under $10k), or one around the $14k mark(low ish kms, 01)... havent decided yet.

I don't think they are too bad inside.
The back seats are really comfy though IMO.

I picked up my 2000 GT-T (manual) for $11,900 with 135,000kms on it. Immaculate interior, straight body work/good paint, bar a scuff on the front bumber on the left side. An alright sound system etc
Sure, kms a little high for a 2000 but it was mainly open road driving between Auckland and Tauranga by a middle aged buisness owner. At least I know it's been driven without any problems and not sitting idling in Japanese/Auckland traffic.

[bbq1988]

back seats are great! also the cupholder in the back works wonders when your half cut.

I got my wagon for $9000, spent another grand or so tidying it up. High km's but manual with a well looked after engine

[WCKWGN]

indy cars in chch have a 97 manual with a full body kit and sitting on some new 18's thinks it is about 13k very tidy looking though. seen it on the net last night when trying to find mum a new ride and got distracted

[Dell'Orto]

The engine/drivetrain appears to be generally bullet proof on all accounts.

They're alot more fragile than previous incarnations of 3SGTE, there have been alot of instances of bad fuel making them go bang.

[flygt4]

yep not a good base for modifcation on the cheap.

[MasCam]

[quote="barryogen"]They are fairly boring inside until you get to the ST246(the newer rounder ones, 2002{?} onwards), but they only came in auto, so I havent looked at them much.

$10k will get you an average one, $12k a better one, $18k seems to buy you a low kms 2000/2001(only I think production stopped in 2000 so can't explain that one).

]

The st215 went through a facelift in 2000 sometime and then ceased production in in september 2002 when the ST246 took over, the ST246 was facelifted in janurary 05 and lasted until the middle of last year when they stopped making caldina's altogether

The facelifted ST215's had better interior, Nicer gauges, I think better headlights (may have been an option) and a couple of other little things which I can't remember cos it was a couple of years ago that I did the research, Ooohh I think they sorted the manifold problem on the facelift ones but don't quote me, confirmation anyone??

Chris

[barryogen]

The engine/drivetrain appears to be generally bullet proof on all accounts.

They're alot more fragile than previous incarnations of 3SGTE, there have been alot of instances of bad fuel making them go bang.

Wouldn't that be a tuning issue(less tolerance for bad gas) rather than a problem with the engine?

I know I'm arguing a minor point, but if modding them then aftermarket management should sort any issues with bad gas assuming you have a decent tuner.

[flygt4]

they do run reasonably high 9:1 compression for a turbo engine running 1bar boost standard, but the EVO 3 engine was also 9:1.
the issue is more the lack of decent engine management to allow for increased fuelling.

[Dell'Orto]

The engine/drivetrain appears to be generally bullet proof on all accounts.

They're alot more fragile than previous incarnations of 3SGTE, there have been alot of instances of bad fuel making them go bang.

Wouldn't that be a tuning issue(less tolerance for bad gas) rather than a problem with the engine?

I know I'm arguing a minor point, but if modding them then aftermarket management should sort any issues with bad gas assuming you have a decent tuner.

Yeah no doubt a decent ECU will sort out that issue, but I dont know of many big power GT-T's yet.

[RevolutionStarlet89]

please some one tell me im an idiot for even thinking this could be remotely true, but, a friend of mine try'd to tell me that a turbo caldina doesnt have a shot in hell at beating a gt starlet.... this is a blatent lie isnt it???!!!! sure it may have the jump off the mark with the weight of the starlet but this wont change the end result....Will it?

[flygt4]

hahaha stock for stock the GTT would slaughter the starlet. they arent that slow.
the starlets can be pretty lethal when done properly as they only weigh 900kg odd , they need a lot of work to get there though. standard they are more in the realm of levins/civics/mirages etc.

[RevolutionStarlet89]

hahaha didnt even try racing 1 while ago, figured the race would have already been won by the starlet?? Or is it the same sorta story as to when i had my 1st wee car hahah, ep82 starlet i think, beat my m8 in his facelift trueno in a short sprint sort of race.. So is the gt starlet still a small powerful at the lower end or has putting a turbo pushed the power to the middle rev range abit??

On the bright side:) raced a vtec intergra tonight, sat at the lights sitting on about 4000rpm light went green dropped the clutch instant traction blasted that fool:) haha sounds gay on here but was good at the time hahahah

[cogent]

Try not to buy a car based on 'what it can beat'.