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[Xander_X]

Hello,

I just bought my first 6th Gen Celica last week, though I am not new to Celicas. My first car (about 12 years ago) was a '91 Celica GT-S. I just purchased a '99 GT from an single owner, older lady who took SUPER great care of it and purchased EVERY option from the factory. It's a southern driven, '99 GT with, like I said, EVERY option available (even auto transmission unfortunately). I couldn't turn it down as it only has around 70,000 miles, is in immaculate condition, and was only $5000. I'm really loving this car. I'm just about to graduate college for the 2nd time and have been living on campus without a vehicle the last 2 years. I have a 91 Subaru Legacy with 65,000 miles on it sitting in my driveway, but I blew the tranny in it soon after I moved to school. I didn't need a car so I just let it sit. Now that I needed a car, I decided I'd rather buy something more dependable than take a chance and put a new tranny in a 21 year old car. I really only bought this Celica because it was the best deal I found. It met all my stipulations (had to be, Honda, Toyota, Acura, Lexus, Subaru or Scion, under 80k miles, no rust and under $8,000). So, enter the 99 GT. Pretty much the end of story so far. Definitely one of the best handling cars I've ever owned, right up with my old Integra Type-R. Probably the most comfortable car I've owned, even more than my moms Acura RDX and Grandmothers Lexus RX350. Though it's one of the slowest, besides my old 93 Civic DX coupe.

I plan on swaping in a BEAMS redtop with manual transmission, JDM twin piston "Celica" calipers, SS-III front and rear splitters, SS-III grill, GT-Four hood. JDM projector headlights, TRD front strut tower brace, and probably reupholster the front seat as the leather has a few cracks. That's probably it. Hopefully, I can get some good pics of it whenever the sun decides to come out one of these days and post them.

It's good to be here!

[Xander_X]

Actually, its a mixture of both bad luck and poor driving. Blown engines were basically bad luck and part of the tuning learning process. I actually used to be a mechanic. I went to school through toyota's T-TEN program. It's two years, and you come out with an Associates degree and, if you applied yourself, a butt-load of certificates. The classes are long, usually 4 hour lectures and 4 hour labs, then you have your regular classes like english, math, etc. But to be honest, I just wasn't happy taking my hobby and making it my profession. Maybe if I could have gotten into a field more specific to my liking, like rebuilding engines. But you have to find a specialty shop for that. Now-a-days, most shops won't rebuild engines, because they lose money. In the time they can rebuild an engine, they can do 8 brake jobs and 15 oil changes and make more money. Plus, unless you own your own shop, you pretty much have a pay cap of around $20 an hour. That wasn't enough for me. So here I am, about to finish my bacholars degree.

Back to the cars, so most of the accidents where actually at intersections. Admittedly, usually from me not paying attention enough. But a couple because of the other driver being stupid. I have a tendency to let my mind wonder. But to be honest, buying my first motorcycle and learning to ride was the best thing I ever did. You really learn to pay attention. Cause no one sees you, so you have to watch them and you. Now, I don't even come close to getting into accidents. I did wreck the first bike slamming on the brakes too hard as a noob rider, and the second bike (500) my friend wrecked doing a wheely, before I even got the title for it from Kawasaki. But it's cool cause I bought the ZX-6r with the insurance money.