First post!

Hey guys, I'm Mike.

Bit of a lurker, been looking into supras on and off for years but have always been put off by the sensible side of my brain...

But now i'm a bit older (25 this year) and career progression is moving in the right direction, the dream of a supra is looking ever more achievable; and i'm thinking if I don't bite the bullet and get one in the next year or so, the sensible side of my brain might convince me to start saving for a house deposit instead...

I've been looking for a while and its looking like the hope of finding a uk TT manual, in decent condition without a dodgy bodykit, huge mileage and high price is looking pretty bleak.

So i've started looking into imports - Problem there is, I want leather and the larger brakes, so straight away options are reduced a lot from what I can see.

The other issue is insurance on imports, I got quoted £850 on a UK TT Manual vs £2500 on the same car but JDM import Granted this is only confused.com so i've not looked at any specialist insurers yet, but in my experience with my current car even specialist insurers like Flux don't offer massively discounted rates over mainstream insurers. If I can't get insured on an import for around the £1k mark, I feel like with the high tax band and running cost of a supra it begins to look like a bit of a daft idea again.

I have loads of questions but I won't go into those here, as if I stumble at the first hurdle of insuring an import then I may aswell not look too much into supras

So I suppose my first question is, do people around my age get reasonable insurance on twin turbo imports? Or is reasonable insurance on an import an idea I should quickly forget?

Welcome to the club Mike.

Some imports came with leather seats and the bigger brakes so no issues there. They have loads of things also which never came with the UK Specs.

Insurance wise I was paying £750 odd at 25, living in London. That was an import TT Auto. At 30 the difference is minimal.

The tax is only £230 a year, cheaper than a lot of small petrol cars

Have a read up on the forum, loads of information available.

Welcome

Obviously there's lots of variation with insurance quotes dependent upon location etc. but yes you should be able to get insured on a JDM TT for around £1K without much hassle.

Thanks!

Ahh right so actually its no more expensive to tax than my current Clio 197!

Hopefully with some shopping around i'll be able to find some more realistic insurance price. I thought now i'm nearly 25 my days of paying over £1k for insurance were over!

I've looked at the model differences chart and the bits that sold the UK spec to me were stronger turbos, high capacity fuel pump + injectors, big brakes and heated leather... But all the UK cars i've seen are looking pretty tired now and the last thing I want is bad paint and rust! (had enough of that with my first big project car - Classic mini )

Thanks!

 

Ahh right so actually its no more expensive to tax than my current Clio 197!

 

Hopefully with some shopping around i'll be able to find some more realistic insurance price. I thought now i'm nearly 25 my days of paying over £1k for insurance were over!

 

I've looked at the model differences chart and the bits that sold the UK spec to me were stronger turbos, high capacity fuel pump + injectors, big brakes and heated leather... But all the UK cars i've seen are looking pretty tired now and the last thing I want is bad paint and rust! (had enough of that with my first big project car - Classic mini )

Stronger in the terms of steel blades so you can run more boost through them. Fuel pump & injectors can be replaced easily, big brakes on both options. Imports weren't heated unless you get the super rare one which is. Rust is an issue on UK Spec's but some are really cared for so need to find out that is stored away. If you are interested then put a wanted up and see what folks have to offer.

Welcome

Give sky insurance a try as they give great prices to most of us on here, also a lot of imports have had bigger brakes as a modification over there lifetime so just the leather seats but is always an option to get them retrimmed. All the info and contacts that you need are on here you'll find it very useful. Good luck in your search

Welcome buddy make sure to pay your membership, always beuts of supras forsale on here

Looks like I won't struggle finding the sort of spec I want on a JDM then. Heated seats I can live without, one less thing to go wrong probably!

I can view the classifieds with my current membership, unless theres a section I can't see unless I'm a paid member? I will join up once i'm closer to getting one, it'll be around the summer time really as i'm not 25 until then and it'll give me time to do my research and save some pennies!

Welcome Mike there is a wealth of knowlage on this site, you wont have a problem getting a Jspec the UKs are getting rare nowadays ( Toyota stopped importing them in 1996 ) Have a look at the Northwest section we have a monthly meeting most months a bit quiet this time of the year but your welcome to join us and ask questions

Cheers

-Ian-

UK's were pretty rare to start with, there were around 400 auto's and 200 six speeds

What kind of budget will you have ?

Get an import tt with the smaller brakes for less money and fit a new UK set up to it, £1200 approx

buys you all the parts you need

Welcome, where about are you based? I was around 25 when I got my first Supra, was paying about £1k through Adrian Flux. Don't bother with Sky insurance, they wont insure you because of your postcode (Manchester). Most of the bits you want spec wise can easily be bought and added to your car so maybe look for a lesser spec good condition car that can be added to...

Thanks for all the welcomes!

UK's were pretty rare to start with, there were around 400 auto's and 200 six speeds

 

What kind of budget will you have ?

 

Get an import tt with the smaller brakes for less money and fit a new UK set up to it, £1200 approx

buys you all the parts you need

Didn't realize so few manuals were sold here - No wonder I can't find many! Budget I guess will need to be around £10-£12k mark, but obviously the less I spend, the more i'll have for insruance & mods

Welcome, where about are you based? I was around 25 when I got my first Supra, was paying about £1k through Adrian Flux. Don't bother with Sky insurance, they wont insure you because of your postcode (Manchester). Most of the bits you want spec wise can easily be bought and added to your car so maybe look for a lesser spec good condition car that can be added to...

I'm in Sale, seems to be quite a few North West members here! I'm sure i've been to Sky insurance before when getting quotes for my Clio 197 and got told they wouldn't touch me because of the Manc postcode...

Spec wise, I just wanted to get the highest spec I can to save pouring loads of money into the car as soon as I get it, as I know i'll be pretty likely to be going BPU and changing wheels plus overhauling any worn suspension bits fairly soon after getting one so there's a few grand there no doubt. Add in a leather retrim and UK spec brakes, theres another £2k... Before I know it i'll of sunk £20k into getting it how I want haha!

But yeah your absolutely right, the spec items are just luxuries that I'd do without if I found a really nicely looked after example!

Buy carefully as it'll save you a fortune in the future, also remember quite a few OE parts are no longer

available and the list will only grow as the parts supply dries up.

Suspension parts are very costly, you can replace the bushes with poly bush etc

but you can't change the ball joints which only come on a new arm, or you buy

custom arms such as Ikeya which are also very costly

Buy carefully as it'll save you a fortune in the future, also remember quite a few OE parts are no longer

available and the list will only grow as the parts supply dries up.

 

Suspension parts are very costly, you can replace the bushes with poly bush etc

but you can't change the ball joints which only come on a new arm, or you buy

custom arms such as Ikeya which are also very costly

Yeah i've seen those Ikeya arms ££££!

I was more thinking bushes really. I'm used to much lighter/nimbler cars than Supras so i'm kind of expecting it to drive like a bit of a boat in standard form if i'm honest. So my initial thoughts were changing bushes for poly (i've read that OEM bushes are really expensive) then maybe some coilovers & better anti roll bars too if I wanted to improve it further.

Anything else I should know suspension wise? Are ball joints a common problem?

The defining factor on your direction will be the condition of the Ball joints on the upper and lower arms. No point spending £££ on a poly bush refresh if your have play in the balljoint.

If you do have play then you have a few options - replacement second hand wishbones with fresher ball joint. New OEM wishbones or the ikeya Options.

Personally I would do it in stages as well if budget allows so you can learn from the changes you make to the car and how its handles. Only issue with that is it will be lots of trips to get the wheels aligned or at least checked when you change suspension components, wishbones etc

Hope that helps.

Yeah that was my thinking - That I would have the car thoroughly inspected for worn suspension items and replace as necessary.

These are items that I supposed I can't really check when buying a car, especially if its a car being imported for me - Your putting a lot of faith in the company importing the car, that its condition is as described.

Another question I had was regarding rust on these cars. I'm guessing import will be better off rust wise as weather conditions aren't as bad as in the UK?

Do these cars suffer from rust much? I've searched but can't see a huge amount reoccurring posts regarding specific rust issues.

The only rot on my UK car was the front cross member that the rad sits on, mine wasn't a daily though

and didn't go out on gritted/salted roads in the winter.

Rotted brake and fuel lines is now common around the real axle area.

The biggest problem on the suspension arms is possibly the eccentric adjusters seizing

inside the steel insert in the bushes. Some are nigh on impossible to get out and you

end up needing a new arm as you have to cut them off, my osf lower arm was like

this.

This doesn't show up till you come to adjust either the camber or toe, for your info the

rears are also toe adjustable as well as camber.

Welcome mate. As Ian said there lots of meetings in the north west section. If you want to have a look at the difference between a uk model and an import then you could come to a meeting. We have both in our family and they both have plus and negs both they are both superb machines. Mine is 20 old uk model next month and it is rustier underneath than my son in laws jap but nothing for its age. Toyota mot it every year and if it needs anything doing that's fine. It passes every year and the mechanics love it. It did 998 miles in 2013 and about 1200 in 2014. If you wanted to see it you can. I'm only about 10 mile from you. We have a meeting last night but both supras were asleep in the dry and covered so they don't get dusty.

Welcome Mike..!!

The only rot on my UK car was the front cross member that the rad sits on, mine wasn't a daily though

and didn't go out on gritted/salted roads in the winter.

 

Rotted brake and fuel lines is now common around the real axle area.

 

The biggest problem on the suspension arms is possibly the eccentric adjusters seizing

inside the steel insert in the bushes. Some are nigh on impossible to get out and you

end up needing a new arm as you have to cut them off, my osf lower arm was like

this.

 

This doesn't show up till you come to adjust either the camber or toe, for your info the

rears are also toe adjustable as well as camber.

I see!

May sound daft but structural rust doesn't worry me too much as its easily spotted, removed and repaired. Being under the car it doesnt need to be a nice finish as long as its strong!

Its when you get some cars that have 2 or 3 panels sandwiched together say along the wheel arch and the whole lot rusts through, but you don't spot it until it bubbles through the paint at which point you're looking at major welding and half a respray... Thats what I want to avoid. But seems these cars dont suffer too badly.

I'm happy to look after the car and do an annual underseal/waxoyl as i've had classic cars before that needed plenty of TLC like that.

Im 23 and been quoted around 800-900 by admiral on a rz TT manual import with alloys added. just using this as a estimate for the supra i want so i still dont know what the end cost will be but i feel this is resonable maybe thats becuase i just really want one. then again petrol is in my blood

Try Need2insure, i paid £620 aged 25 with about 20 mods declared including a full engine swap. Had unlimited parts to add on without any increases unless the HP went above 400. My car was probably very close to 400bhp as it was BPU.

Saying that, the car was stored in my garage and had a stupidly good (but outright annoying) alarm system. Maybe that's why it was lower to insure, who knows. Anyway GL

(this was only the year just gone too, just turned 26 so it's not like it was a while ago I had it insured)

You can never compare insurance prices from around the country, it just depresses us who live up North ha ha. Manchester is the worst postcode in the country for motor insurance.

Garaging my supra made no difference on my premium when i insured through LWIB, its also cheaper

to leave it on the rd than it was on the drive at an address 11 miles away, all down to a postcode

Do your own checks on the compare sights with your own details