I think it was Marty McFly from Back to the Future 3 that put it best when he said "But Doc, all the best stuff is made in Japan!" No truer words were spoken! That is especially true when it comes to things like TVs, VCRs, CD Players, Motorcycles, and of course, Cars! Check out mine: a totally bitchin' year 2000 Toyota Celica GT!
This seventh Generation of Toyota's longest running Sports Car is by far the finest of the bunch according to most of the major Automotive Publications. Whereas the earlier generations of Celicas only looked fast and powerful, this new version actually has the power and torque to back up it's sleek, new look!
I have always been very loyal to Toyota. In fact, all the cars Iv'e ever owned has been Toyotas. My first car was a battered old 1979 Toyota Corona. It overheated a lot and a large chunk of the steering wheel was missing, but there was just something special to me about that car. I guess there's always something about the first car you ever own.
My second car was a 1989 Toyota Corolla. I Loved that car. It serviced me flawlessly for almost ten solid Toyota years. My Corolla and I had been through everything from driving rainstorms to blinding snowstorms and I was sad to see it go. But sometime last year I decided to sell my trusty Corolla for something that was radically different, style and performance-wise. I definitely did not want a big, lumbering SUV which seems like what everybody and their brother drives nowadays. And I definitely did not want an unreliable, break-down prone car made by an American car company (i.e. Camaros, Mustangs, firebirds; or as a good friend of mine calls them, Sports cars for rednecks). I wanted a sleek, reliable Japanese sports coupe that goes reasonably fast with effortless performance and has ergos to match. So I looked at many models including the newly re-designed 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse, the re-introduced Acura Integra type R, the new Honda S2000, and the upcoming Toyota MR2 Spyder. I even considered pre-owned models like old Mazda Miatas, Mazda MX6s, Eclipses, and even older model Celicas.
But when I first saw the 2000 Celica on the Internet, then later in major automobile magazines like Road & Track, and Car & Driver, I knew right away this was the car for me!
So one day, I visited my local Toyota dealership, looked at the different Celica trims they had available, finally found a silver one with at least some of the bare minimum features I wanted (rear spoiler, fog lamps, power windows and door locks, CD Player)except for the sun roof, which I figured I could have put on there later; haggled pretty much all morning with one of their salesmen, careful not to get duped by any of his greasy, sneaky sales tactics, then finally struck a deal, and off I went driving my new kick-butt Japanese pocket Rocket!...And I Love it!...
By now you must be wondering about specs for my hot, new car. You want Specs? Here's Specs!:
The 2000 Celicas come in six colors, namely Black, Super White, Absolutely Red, Carbon Blue, Spectra Blue, and the color that mine is, Liquid Silver. Silver has always been my first choice in Car color. If I had to pick a color other than Silver, I would probably pick Black, but that's just me. The upholstery is a Black/Silver, nylon mesh/fabric combination. I picked a manual transmission for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the discount in price from the automatic transmission. But mainly, I wanted to feel the true experience of driving a super sleek, high-performance sports car, and the only way to do that was to be able to shift through the gears myself, feel the gears change, and the engine's rpm decrease and increase according to my desire. Driving an automatic would have been too much like driving a lifeless toy.
