I used to own a 7th Gen Celica. It was an auto GT-S. It was my first car and I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, until I found out there wasn't much in the way of mods for it(at the time). Unfortunatly I put it in a ditch which resulted in it being written off, which allowed me to buy the next logical car, a Supra.
All that aside, my GT-S never had any issues even though I beat (badly) on it constantly over the 1.7 years I owned it. I bought it with 150k on it and when I wrecked it it had 230k on it. The only things I ever replaced were the battery and the alternator. I'd heard of the GT's 5-speed blowing up, and the 2ZZ engine developing serious sludge on the inside. I never heard of the GT-S's 6-speed blowing up. Overall, my Celica was an excellent car which would've gotten decent gas mileage had I not put my foot in it all the time.