I bought my little old Toyota starlet about 9 years ago as I needed a cheap run around.
It had not been driven for about 10 months but I was lucky in that it had been kept in a garage and that the tax and MOT were still in date.
I paid £375.00 for my car and to be honest it probably one of the best purchases that I have ever made as it turned out to be very economic, extremely reliable (the only thing that I ever bought for it was a new battery and tyres). Whilst in my ownership it passed 3 MOT's and just needed body work on each of them - that was ultimately what let my little car down.
I sold my car to my step father after owning it for 3 years for £250.00 as that was the value of the registration plate on it, he used it as a works run around for 2 years but by it 6th MOT the body work could no longer be fixed and although the engine was still going strong nothing could be done.
I do have to say that this car was ace, it's little 1ltr engine could happily cruise at 70mph on the motorway and it was nippy for town driving, okay it wasn't very glam and it did smell a bit, but I thought it was the bees knees!

I had an old X-reg automatic 85 1.3 litre Toyota starlet City Car a few years back. It could easily beat anything at the lights and made lots of boy racers swear because it did that while looking like it had just been dragged out of the scrap yard :). I had great fun with it and it was fairly reliable - the only things to go were the head gasket and brakes. Unfortunately it started to lose oil at the rate of gallons per day and I couldn't bring myself to spend the money to get the engine stripped and rebuilt because of the ever encroaching rust and battered appearance. I would however recommend these to anyone, if they can find one in good condition, though they are few and far between these days. I now have a 1991 205 Diesel which I love to bits.

I bought the car on 15/08/2002. It was off the road for a long time. The motor, suspension, brakes, exaust, tyres, wheels, batery, radiator were "dead". So bought it all new. motor: I find a good motor of a broken car 999cc 12v 54cv suspension: tokico gas brakes: ferodo rear and front and new dot3 oil exaust: standard full exaust tyres: yokohama s-306 165/70 r13 wheels: I bought a used alluminium special wheels r13 at the moment I am very happy with the car, it is in good shape, the motor is powerfull and all systems are working after 14 years in use. Max speed in GPS was until now, 170km/h "not on a descend", if you want to be little bit racer find one...

The Toyota Starlet (1985) is a tiny car that really hits the road like a plane on the runway.
The little 1 litre engine, when beaten to extreme measures, actually performs quite well, with an acceleration 1-60 in 13 secs, with a topspeed of 175km/h (downhill and with sun in the rearmirror) and let me repeat the engine size; 1 Litre

If the tyres are of the cheaper kind, it really sounds like a Hollywood parking lot at every corner..

I've had this trustworthy little vehicle for more than a year and driven approx. 30000 km, the only expenses I've had were some new tyres and a new exhaust.. and it is quite happy for engine oil, 1 liter pr. 1000 km.

My only point of critisism is the babe-rating, most chicks don't dig this type of car, unsafe, uncool etc... :-)

What you lack in horsepower, you can gain by driving insane!