everyone starts with being a newbie to automobile maintenance. so what if you are already comfortable with the car that you bought, and unfortunately it is the lower end variant, you would now begin to look for the amenities that are not OEM to yours and that's where the spending starts. hehehe. my point is, maintaining a 1.6L EFI engine is no different from maintaining an XE. almost every shop din naman knows how to tune and fix a corolla, whether it may be an EFI or carbed. besides, everyone starts from somewhere, whatever car you may choose, you'll have some time to master it (parang aso din yan, inaamo mo).

and as to the point given by the_noise... yup that's very true. choose the one which appears to be in better conditioned even if it is a bit more expensive. that will save you headaches later on.

nga pala... 1.3L is more advantagous pag traffic. pero the advantage shifts to the 1.6L when it comes to long drives. my opinion only. :D