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Hello Guys,

We've sold our two cars and ended up downsizing to a Swift which has been a great car. The reason we both downsized is that both of us had $10k cars and we were only using one car the majority of the time since we both started working closer to home. On top of that each car was almost $1k in full insurance payments per year! So we cashed up, downsized and put the remaining money into the mortgage

3 months have gone by and now we're looking at getting a second car just for the weekends to make getting to and from kids sport easier. Our budget is $3-$4k but prefer if it was under $3k :)

We're looking at manuals to minimize the risk and come across the 1996-98 Corona Premio 1.8. It doesn't seem to be a popular car but is much cheaper than the Caldina. Does it have the same running gear? And at that stage were they running D4 engines? Basically I'm looking for anything manual with a 1.8 engine and above

This model had a good reputation for reliability and is not a D4. Basically, similar running gear to the Caldina. Toyota engines from this era were belt driven, so check that the cambelt is within servicable limits, but otherwise, a fairly good model with a sound reputation.