Hi Scotty, big fan of your channel. I am looking to buy a 7-seater/MPV with a small budget. I need the extra seats to take my family on a road trip here in New Zealand. Would you recommend buying a used 2009 Toyota Wish? I have never owned a Toyota Wish but I am very happy with my Toyota Corolla. Reliability and fuel efficiency are my priority. Thank you very much!
Year-Make-Model: 2009 Toyota Wish
Mileage: 78,107km
Automatic
Price: NZD$7970
1st or 2nd generation?
CVT or 4 speed automatic?
Petrol? What displacement?
2nd generation 1.8L CVT Petrol
Hi,
The engine on these is one of the first modifications of the Toyota ZR.
Although this engine has a good reputation nowadays - and I consider late production units to be some of the best engines out there - back in 2009, this engine had MASSIVE oil burning issues. It's pretty much identical to the engine that was installed on the Corolla and made it become considered a "clunker" and required many owners to replace their engines right about 100k miles (160k km).
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Toyota/Corolla/2009/
As far as the transmission, it's one of the first years of the K31X - a transmission that's still in use and began being phased out by the K120 only this year.
It's not the best transmission out there by any stretch of the imagination, they are alright - if you treat it like a CVT. Not changing the fluid frequently enough, driving as if it's a manual or an auto will definitely wreak it and cost many thousands to repair.
Here's a recent post showing what a K31X CVT looks like after rocking back-and-forth to get try and get out of the snow.
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/postid/204823/
So yeah, the car is better than it's European competitors but it's still not great.
If that's your only option and you can verify that the engine does not consume oil and that the CVT does not whine and been serviced - yeah, it's not great but it is generally decent.
But, you're from New Zealand and they have some really special 7 seaters the rest of the world wishes we'd get. Things like the recent Toyota Innova and the ISUZU MU-X are to die for (IF you like trucky feeling MPVs)
Thank you very much Dan! This is very helpful. I am having a second thought now because of this oil burning issue you mentioned. No, I am not a fan of the CVT either but it looks like all the toyota has a CVT nowadays. Appreciate your help.