Scooter

So visited the car yesterday (it's stored either at work or on my parents as it won't make it up mine - another hassle of ownership!) helped dad with his lexus brake caliper, and degreased the engine bay with brushes and rinsed with hose, nothing too intense, but it's made a good difference, going to give it a good going over in general, polish and wax etc and see how I feel. It's definitely looking better already and I figure I'll either bond more or at least it'll be as presentable as possible for a sale. I see some on facebook, £18K one under off and with a rusty arch and missing side pod etc 1998 5 speed NA looks lovely but £28K but rusty sills etc on Mot history. Should make mine pretty sellable if I push the positives, low mileage/no rust vs the indifferent paint in places.

That's the thing I'm not sure I could justify spending any of the current asking prices if i was a buyer now! Mine is a known quantity, a history of two other forum members from import, I know it'll likely do years and 10's of thousands of miles with few issues, it just needs thousands spending to look great, I can make it look good enough when moving (ie someone seeing it coming towards them!) but it's cosmetically challenged in a number of areas if viewed parked up. I could spend £10K and nothing would change from my driving position which I'd struggle with doing! 18 year old son needs a first car and rather spend some of the £10K on that. Think I'm just going through a malaise, and been enjoying the manual 6 series I have enough to think i could live without a Supra now. The post was partly due to me going to see another 6 series, a local manual 630i, but I got gazumped on that (annoyingly so!). At sub £4K it was a steal, but maybe it was the Supra God's sending me a sign!!

been searching a bit but can only find 'talk' of fixes so far

I would add that while the paint is an issue it has no rust issues, the rear hatch/window being perfect etc.

SPG, thanks for the photo flip correction!

Yes original Axis's I think, picked them up only last summer from JodyT and old member who is not so present on the forum these days. They really suit the Supra I think and the Advans were looking so tired and desperately need a refurb. Rider appreciate your thoughts, I agree with the chance for someone to redo as they wish, if someone was a body work person the car would be a great base and as you say a car with known history of at least proveable UK miles is rare. We know they can take high miles (there was definitely a time when the KM's to Miles conversion happened more than once on cars!) so I'm sure with regular servicing mine will just be very dependable for a new owner. At present I don't feel anxiety driving it, mainly because it is a little tatty, if I had it all redone at great expense I'm pretty sure I would though! I admire those that have and that look to keep it forever, I spose I'm at that crossing/decision point, like before you undertook your underside resto.

I am still considering investing the necessary and sorting the paint, the small bumper issue has made me weary, I shrugged it off when it happened (appreciated the guy owning up to it tbh) and popped on the 'war wound' plaster sticker to just stop the paint flaking off, it was faded and chipped and so needed a repaint anyway and so I didn't feel the need to go further. I have multiple stock turbo pipework to refresh that, so engine bay could be sorted pretty easily. It's a great car and I love driving it still, I just sort of feel a pressure of ownership now, spares through the roof and/or unobtainable, it's a difficult front bumper for unplammed trips (again not so much an issue pre a £5K+ respray (some say closer to £10K and some have bad repaint experiences) it doesn't feel so carefree anymore? I reeled in a Golf R the other day (just) but it's not quite like the old days around 2002 and my stock UK spec obliterating a R32 nearly new Golf, and the monetary lure is obviously there. Nearly 25 years of driving them feels enough, the last few years of Mot certificates suggest I'm not that bothered not driving it, it feels like it should be time.... I spose Mot it and spruce up as much and possible and then decide one way or another.

some potential info here? Clutch down at 80mph does it go away? https://www.clublexus.com/forums/performance-and-maintenance/441880-w58-whirring-noise-all-gears-but-4th.html

How it looks now (I have the original Gold wheels still), I have tried everything I know to invert the pic, even rotated my original so that was upside down and then posted it and it's upside down regardless!?

OK, I "think" it's time for me to hand in my Supra card I have a car that is genuine low mileage but it now cosmetically challenged, old fitted body kit, it's a bit 50 shades of red, a Maclaren employee cracked the front bumper (barely touched it but its fibre glass so..) I got some front 'leather' seats that turns out were leatherette and have flaked, the alarm key fobs look shocking. Engine bay was chromed which is now irrecoverable and so worst than the stock pipes. On the plus side it's this car so it has great provenance/proof of mileage. I have kept it Mot'd and taxed all the years I've had it and used Opie Fuchs fully synthetic oils, my first bpu so run on 97+ all the time. Everything works bar the old radio, so the dodgy looking key fobs all work fine, Aircon is operational, heater perfect, seat motor fine, turbo's just run off a restrictor ring the boost warning set to 1.15 which is can just hit on a cold autumnal morning (no need for me to go higher) Dash and door cards very very good (dash does have a gauge pod screwed in) Zero valve stem issues, the cylinder head is very clean inside the oil filler cap. It drives great, there are just loads of small/medium cosmetic jobs to do and I never get the time or inclination. Running J specs with uprated front pads/disks, I have a set of UK's that could go with it. I need to renew the Mot soon, and clean it up as much as possible but do we think £25K is achievable? (£20K+ easily £30K never in it's present state?) Not sure how much people value body condition versus mileage and honestly it needs a total external going over for most people to own/use/drive it, that's what I'd do if keeping it long term, but I appreciate that's big bucks on top, so you can't ask too much? I see loads priced higher sure but few are selling, so trying to get a feel for what's achievable in a realistic time frame.

The Scottish versions of this are seemingly very draconian, and offer little option for partial usage. The London one at least has a relatively modest and fixed charge so that you could keep a non compliant car and use it infrequently at not such a huge cost.

No it's the V8 too, as long as it's past a certain registration date, 2017 some 2018 cars all come in in the new low tax bracket. from 2018 to 2023 it will have had higher tax due to the greater than £40K price but now at five years old they and all gas guzzling formerly high tax cars drop to the £185 pa level.

2018 Ford Mustang? sub £200 tax

There does seem to be a bit of a mexican standoff in the UK, with quite a few cars now up for sale but very few seemingly actually selling? Some drifting off stateside but the uk buyers seem few and far between?

Jack1998 where are you based? I have a test ECU (it works perfectly apart from not allowing 4th gear on an Auto) You could also get a Chris Wilson FCD as they are I think more reliable/non adjustable.

This bit is a wierd? "This is almost always followed by no power and it stumbles up the rev range, if I baby the throttle and get it over 3,000 rpm it will clear and it will run absolutely perfect for the remainder of my journey." Are you saying it runs totally fine in all conditions after this or just when kept over 3000rpm?

could be this

Ok this could be nothing but water in the exhaust? Is there a way (park outside on a slope etc etc) that some rain has got down the tailpipe? Only say this as oil burns blue normally and if it's coolant you'll notice that in the expansion tnak/rad very quickly (presuming those levels are all fine)

The connectors often get very brittle and crack/disintegrate when changing the bits you have. HKS FCD's get bad press so perhaps its fuel cut still? Didi you fit a restrictor ring in the exhaust? Isn't it the case that the boost controllers can only increase boost from a fixed level and not cap/reduce it? So when you say "turn the boost over" do you have a fixed boost with the controller off? Does it run up the rev range on a low throttle ok ie when you keep the boost in check/at stock'ish levels?

I do have and electrics book somewhere i could try and dig it out. will search for a thread on here too that might help

Just from a logic point of view, but as you've got the rear brakes and turn signals then it might be the stalk/switch, ie turn to lights and no feed to either front or back? I'm not great with electrics but years ago i did have one with a turn signal problem and so replaced the whole stalks piece, and there is a connector on the column somewhere. if you found the right pins outs on that you could try feeding 12v and see if the lights worked, prove/eliminate the switch being the problem?

are you Alex? doesn't look like great news............

I don't think so because the TT (even bpu) is not exceptional in performance now. In the 09 days a bpu Supra was properly quick still. A ridiculous bargain in hindsight. Very very little is cheap now, I got a 6 Series manual V8 for sub £7K a few years back and I consider that a bargain but it's not as quick, it has no real kudos and has a questionable reliability in comparison. A few Maserati's look cheap, but again huge bork factor potential, some early 2000 Porsches? But these are all slower and nothing comparable to a Supra in 09. R35 GTR at £15K would perhaps be a comparable car today to the £5K TT, but that doesn't look like happening!?

It's interesting because if you get to the point of using it so little, then how would you really miss it! but I get the "one day I'll sort it out fully" and devote time to it and there is a sentimental aspect as to keep any old car there has to be a connection to the time/era. Sometimes it's just a nostalgia feeling, I mean I get certain happy flashbacks now just writing this, and it must be worse if you've had the same Supra for such a long time, rather than being a serial swapper like me! Just have to go with your gut..........and at least now you know if you ever needed to you could sell it quickly!

Congratulations on the purchase. The following link has some great JDM info http://mkiv.supras.org.nz/specs.htm