I test drove one of these when I was shopping back in 2000 and ended up buying my BMW Z3 instead. My main gripe with the Celica GT-S, at the time, was that the low red-line didn't give you enough room to really make use of the VTEC^H^H^H^HVVTi boost. The boost kicks in at 6000rpm and the redline is 7500rpm. Step on the gas and you're shifting before you've gotten much acceleration and then then you're far outside of the peak powerband.

I haven't looked at the recently refreshed Celicas, but I assume the redline is the same. The main change seems to be a bigger, uglier spoiler. If I had known then what a pain my Z3 would have become and had known that the Subaru WRX was just around the corner, I would have waited and gotten one of those.