Thanks, very nice tribute to your beloved Eleanore. My 4AFE engine is based on your 4LC, both seem to be one of Toyota’s best designs. Excepting the starter problems … lol … you’d think that is something they’d definitely get right, but apparently it slipped through the cracks somehow. I’m not so keen on the newer Corolla designs either. I particularly don’t like the low to the ground front leading edge, & worse, made out of plastic. Toyota also eliminated the manual trans option , a show-stopper for me. Should I ever look for a new car, the Fit will be one at the top of the list for consideration, as long as Honda provides a manual trans option.
Oh, do you ever have it right, I did not have my 2019 Toyota Corolla SE a week when I pulled in to a parking spot that I had used many time previously and the front end scrapped on the curb. Also the back hatch area is about as useful as an extra glove box. I have a cover for it and there is only 9" of clearance to place a bag or box in the hatch area… The Honda Fit has about 20" of clearance… But the Toyota is a lot more fun to drive, it’s zipper, quieter, more comfortable and the environmental control are great, set by temperature, the Honda fit has a dial that you just turn higher of lower… The Toyota has a 2000 cc engine, the Fit a 1600, but the Toyota get better mileage all the way around, highway and city.
Alas there is only Bad News about the Fit… 2020 was the last year it was imported into the US and only used ones are available now. Honda still makes the Fit as a hybrid, but it does not have US Specs, so it cannot be imported. I read somewhere that the Fit may come back in 2025 or 26, but I cannot find anything about it…
In the meantime, “Eleanor” is probably “laughing” at the '19 Toyota and the '20 Fit because she gets a nice garage with the Ram truck, while the new Toyota and the Fit (BTW, his name is “Eugene”) sit in the driveway…
Is it possible that it was the Igniter? Back in those days, Toyota had a run of bad Igniters. In fact, I knew two Toyota owners from that era whose engine died and could not be restarted, and in both cases it was a bad Igniter. The Igniters were replaced–gratis–at dealerships, even if the car was out-of-warranty. IIRC, that part lay between the ECM and the ignition coil.
No, I cannot say it was the igniter, in fact when I think of “Igniter” I think of my old gas furnace… As I wrote, it was about 30-years ago and at this stage of my life, I look twice to make sure I pulled up my zipper after use…
In church one day my former neighbor sat in front of us. I snickered that he had his sweater on inside out and was pretty obvious. I asked my wife if his wife should have noticed and said something. She didn’t think it was up to the wife to do that but I’m sure I would never pass morning inspection that way or if my zipper was down.
One thing I’ve always wondered, how could I possibly have gotten dressed every day for 60 + years, and never even one time forgot to put my pants on? That’s over 20,000 times I did a task perfectly, never made a single mistake. Seems impossible.
L . . .