I have owned the car 1 and a half years now, moving on from a VTEC civic. The instant low down power and the grip from the AWD impressed me first. My civic had Volk TE-37 wheels and sat very low, it was a head turner and I was wondering how people would react to the 4...wow! It had corroded cheap alloy wheels (since been replaced) and was more or less standard and heads turned wherever it went! The roar and whoosh of the turbo sounds mean and coupled with a HKS blow off valve is music to my ears! Then when you get it out of town and onto the twisties boy does it come into its own, if you throw it into a corner the first time you will back off before the car gives up! You really have to go some to reach the grip limit in the dry. As long as you have good tires this thing sticks like glue! The only bad thing is the suspension, a lot of parts make it up and will need replaced! Prices aren't exactly cheap i.e a new lower arm cost me £225 just for the part, but it doesn't matter because I guarantee it will put a smile on your face every time you drive it! It has the nickname 'faff' because once you start tinkering with it you can't stop! I have put an exhaust, alloys, boost controller and racing clutch and lightweight flywheel in and more is planned. I can honestly say it would have to be a Supra or Skyline to make me part with this car! If you are thinking about buying one, just do it! Evos and Subarus are 10 a penny, the GT4 is a lot rarer so turns heads, I've had people shout nice car and take pictures of it when its parked! Lol

I have owned my TOYOTA CELICA GT4 UK MODEL for over one year now and the car has been fantastic since day one. I bought it of a elderly lady who had the car from brand new and paid £30,000 when new. The car has covered 70,000 miles which is very low. Even tho it is 17 years old it still drives and feels like new even today. The 240 bhp is fantastic with permanent four wheel drive, it holds the road superbly in dry and wet weather. If you drive the car like a mature man like me you will get 22-24 mpg but when you put your foot down the fuel level does change. I cannot believe when people keep looking at the car when it is parked, in traffic or any where else, makes you feel very proud to own a GT4. I had the car serviced from Ian at TRD Nottingham who is a renowned GT4 specialist as I don't trust my local Toyota dealer or any local garage in Wolverhampton/Birmingham. He is also regarded very high by the Toyota Celica GT4 various forums and GT4 parts suppliers. TRUST ME it is a fabulous car to own and to be different. Forget the Subaru's and Civic type R's.

Great car under pressure. Do look after a drive to see if dipstick blown up an inch sure sign of a worn engine needing rebuild. Heading that direction myself but to be honest its a car for life so ranks up there along side the mrs depending on which is sounding sweeter...

I have a St185 gt4 it's a good looking car, better looking than the st205 gt4. The car suits my needs, fast and very reliable! Lovely car to drive, very addictive! My car will be having a modification doing to the front, headlights, replaced with FTO and bumper.
Great classic car!

Fantastic car. Handling, performance, reliability, the engine is very strong which can handle a good thrashing. The turbo is very responsive from standard. If you have never had one its a must buy. Great value for money and great fun.

Buy one, make sure it has full service history and not abused and you will love every second of it. You never get bored of driving it, and still comfortable on long journey's.

Great all round car, handles and performs brilliantly, ultra reliable in the 2 years I have owned the Toyota Celica GT4, I have had to replace the following parts:
Clutch £285
Rear diff mount £90
Exhaust £200

Apart from that it has had very little money spent on it. Front tyres wear quickly but you would expect that with the amount of grip you get.

Having owned and driven many high performance cars and have always been an anti Japanese car man... until now! The Toyota Celica GT4 is one heck of car. It's made me take my hat off to the Japanese. Well done Toyota.

Bought my Toyota Celica GT4 6 months ago, and it's a great car. If not just a little heavy but the power to weight ratio can soon be broken with a couple of simple relatively cheap modifications, seeing 300 BHP withhout fear of blowing the engine.

Watch out for clutch wear at 70,000 miles + mine was shot to bits luckily it was replaced during warranty avoiding large labour costs...ENGINE OUT TO REPLACE CLUTCH

And the super strut suspension bushes are liable to wear around 80,000 + although they might be great for way past this! (It's just not a cheap repair)
Check car with front wheels of ground, check for any play not just wheel bearings! and listen out for loud mechanical knocks over potholes and bumps

If you find one in good nick and with no signs of wear then what a great buy.

Highly recomended and you wont see many about making it a more touch more interesting than the Subaru and Evo's that are going to be a far more regular sight on your journeys.
Still looks great alongside any more modern 4wd turbo and can certainly hold it's own!!!

The Toyota Celica GT-Four is a rally bred monster that is quite capable of blasting down the road at 150mph but is also easy to drive to and from the shops (my girlfriend has even had a go).

The car is quite understated (even with the high wing) but still looks very different to the boring, boxy scooby's and evo's. Although access to the rear seats is not the easiest, room in the cabin is still quite good. Forget about the boot though. Due to the rear diff and a rear strut brace, you'll be lucky to get a box of golf balls in, let alone a set of clubs!!

The thing with this car is, it was never built to be a family car, it was meant to be the fastest car down a gravel track with some of the greatest drivers behind the wheel. Fortuantely, even with 255bhp (on the Jap spec WRC) on tap, the car is quite easy to control. Don't try to get too silly in the wet and you'll be ok!!

The GT-Four is a fantastic car. It's not as technological as an evo or even a scooby but it's just as quick and fun and the insurance is likely to be less. But the best thing about being a GT-Four owner is very rarely seeing another on the road with you! I own a Jap spec WRC version and only 2500 were ever built worldwide and Toyota only ever built 10,000 of the standard GT-Four. To put that into perspective, Ford sell more than 10,000 Focus's every month!

My friend bought the Toyota Celica GT4 practically new and screamed around in it for a while, then I purchased it from him. I have been driving it for around 10 years, and the car has done 135,000 miles. Around 80,000 I have covered. I have owned 2 Toyota MR2's prior to this car, and I believe this one has been more reliable.

It has always been Dealership serviced in Cheltenham, and the only expensive things I remember are the clutch at 61000 miles, and discs all round at about 80/90000 miles. I did race it to the South of France at over 120mph most of the way there and back one year, and the service was lots of little bits for £800.00, but what fun. I only managed to get to about 145mph tops though, but I held it there for about 20 minutes... amazing!

Even at this high mileage the car hasn't changed in performance. I regularly bomb around the motorways at 120+. It will still out perform a Porsche on the country lanes. I have noticed from around 120000 miles that the suspension is getting a bit soft, so even though you can still go around corners sideways in full control (rally style), it does fidget more under heavy braking into corners. The lovely thing with this car is that if you make a high speed corner mistake, just let off and it will forgive you.

The brakes are awesome by the way!

The only bad points I have encountered are silly little things, that if rectified could be expensive. The electronic antenna broke, and I was told you can only fit a Toyota replacement or go to a scrap yard? New price £250. The oil warning light is faulty at £350. The suspension over the years has always been clunky, and often a bush is said to be going. They never know which one, but always charge around £250 to have a go at replacing one.

If you want to cart stuff around it is OK, but the stabiliser bar goes across the back in the middle of the boot space, which definitely restricts what you can fit in. If you want to move stuff get a van!

One thing I am surprised at, is this car has never asked for a new exhaust, I am still on the original. My MR2's were always having new ones.

Pirelli tyres last well, probably around 30000.

The turbo coolant light always used to come on in the damp weather, yet if you put a tea-spoon amount to fill it back up, it would cure it!

In the last two years nothing has gone wrong apart from the good old bush problem, and an oil leak actually caused by Toyota servicing. That's in about 30000 miles!! The clutch is getting close to replacement after 75000 more miles. Toyota are quoting £700-£1000 with £240 being for the parts.

I rarely ramp the car to the red line... no need, but I don't drive it slow, therefore fuel is the expense. If you drive it hard on the turbo all the time it devours fuel. Normally I get 300 miles (ish) on a £50 (ish) tank of fuel. Drive it hard and this can go down to around 250 miles.

All in all it is a fantastic reliable vehicle. My next car would have to be a Porsche, 50k Mercedes, or a Ferrari to upgrade from this.

I bought this Toyota Celica GT4 sports car a month ago and have had to look into a clutch replacement and the bushes are knocking up front, though I do believe it is due to being left to sit for extended periods of time. Its a 98' import and has done only 28k! documented! and its on an 94'L reg. I love this car, I have had an MR2 and enjoyed every mile, and the quality is just the same in the celica, it is amazingly well put together with a braced chassis front and rear and controls exactly where I would put them. It takes minimal time for the turbo to spin up and when it does you can't help smiling, the power keeps coming at you to the red line, I have driven other similar turbo's and with the power and traction of the celica would be confident in blowing them all into the weeds in a straight line and on the twisties. No matter how hard you drive this car it just seems to take it, I have p-zeros all round which probably helps but I have read elsewhere that it will dance even on budget tyres! If you can then buy this car, if you are reading up and being cautious then don't, if you want the best then you have found it. But be prepared to replace highly stressed parts if the service history is missing.

Want an alternative to the mainstream 4wd turbo cars, try the Toyota Calica GT4 (ST205 model), quiet understated looks even with a bloody great wing, nobody knows what you are in until that right foot drops, and then the turbo cuts in and bye bye BMW, or other equally annoying car owner.

239 bhp, loads of toys and remember Subaru only won the rally championship when Toyota pulled out!!