Supralove

yeah this is a concern for me but other than the turbo's going, what else can go wrong that couldn't on an n/a? as for money, well I have a £500 limit credit card for emergancies. I work full time in a supermarket so don't earn loads but I normally have about £5-600 after bills and essentials each month.

ah my mistake. ok but I know the uk specs are alot cheaper to insure

do you have any na's in stock that i could test drive alongside to compare?

yup. both uk n/a and tt cost the same for me and both imp n/a and tt cost the same too. about £200 more for the import

just to see one or to buy it?

does 5k include shipping and everything involved in getting it uk ready or it is 5k plus shipping etc? If its the first I could be very intrested

thanks, oh and when I do buy one I hope its miles away just so I can have a long trip back in the car. I won't be buying the first I see which is why I'm hesitant to travel 80 miles to see a car I know I will not buy.

cheers

Hi again people, Just wanted to continue from my first thread "Hi, is a supra for me" So I have decided that a supra WILL be my next car, and I currently am really stressing myself over getting a n/a supe or the TT. The reason I ask is my budget is currently £5k, now with that Im fairly confident I could pick up a nice n/a for around £4.5k and then straight away spend £500ish on getting a big service done, all fluids changed and maybe 4 new tyres to really make the car mint etc. On the other hand I could do what I have been doing the last month and check autotrader/pistonhead/ebay an hope a tt comes up in my budget that hasn't had 23 owners or manky modifications. Another plus for the n/a is I think that it should just about meet my need for speed, over the last couple of weeks I have driven a clio 182, celica t sport and a rx8(231bhp) and the clio and mazda felt very quick indeed. the celica just didn't do it for me the power band is so small. Now all these cars take over 6.5 seconds to hit 60mph, the n/a hits it in 5.9 apparently (is this true??) so if thats the case then I'm sure this would be fine. The fastest car I have every been in is a merc sl500, now that thing shifted like nothing I have ever been in but a google search to my suprise shows me a 0-60 time of 5.9, exactly the same as the n/a. The things that I think would annoy me about having an n/a is the fact that the insurance would not of cost me any more should I of bought the tt. Also the fact that the MPG figures really are not much better considering its 100bhp down compared to the tt. Now the main reason I'm really stuck is I have just been reading that the tt only really comes into its own above 70mph where you can get to license losing speeds very very quickly, now without sounding boring I have never been the type that drives at high speed, I rarely go above 80, to me a car being considered fast is all about acceleration. With this in mind do you guys think that I would not really reap the benefits of the tt and it would be almost pointless me getting one or is it still in a different league when in and around town? Maybe there is someone on here that has owned both and could advise me if the differences are big enough to warrent me holding out for a tt considering my lack of need for power past 80mph? Or maybe there is someone on here in cambridgeshire with an n/a who could take me for a spin and I would of course contribute some funds to. The only reason I have not yet driven one is the nearest n/a on autotrader is 80 miles away. Sorry if its a big of an essay but I'm tearing my hair out every day trying to decide weather getting a pucker n/a or waiting and hoping I can get a good tt for my budget. Eddy

yeah everyone keeps telling me how an auto would be, I will probably end up with an auto unless a very good manual comes up in my budget, as the auto has only 4 gears, what revs does the car sit at doing 70 and 80 mph?

yeah one thing I genuinely is cannot afford is a shed of a turbo, My roadster suddenly got loads of problems at once and I could not afford to get it all fixed, I have my good friends at a garage selling it on my behalf and they're gonna do the work then take it out of what I get back when it sells, I bought it for 5.7k and its up for 6k so I imagine I'll end up with about 5k for it at the worst. so if the n/a is only roughly a second slower than the turbo then thats plenty quick enough for me, I was thinking maybe 7-8 seconds for some reason. so I'm going to go have some test drives to make sure that I love these as much as I think I do then the search will proplerly begin. I'm assuming the toys etc of the n/a's are the same as the turbos? can I still get things like climate control, cruise etc? as this credit crunch is obviously affecting big engined cars should I be waiting for nearer end of january or feb for values to fall even more or do we think they are as low as they are going to get? I'm not in a massive rush as I can use my dads 1996 1.2 clio till I buy a car so if I can save some wedge by waiting then I shall do that. what happened with your single supraspeed has it done a runner with the contents of your wallet?

Ok thanks for all the replies so far, ok so I understand that blowing all my cash on a 15 or so year old car is a bit of a risk, I imagine if say something like the turbo's went it would cost quite a bit. So the n/a route is a possilbility as I can supposededly get one with a wad of cash to spare. I can't seem to find a good source with all the facts and figures I really want. So given that its around 100bhp less I imagine the 0-60 takes a pounding, I also expect the MPG improves somewhat, I realise its still a 3ltr but with no turbos constantly spooling this should help. and would simple things mod wise improve performance much? induction/cold air feed/exhaust etc so that I could gain a little more performance? and would I be able to buy a good manual or is auto the way forward with the n/a's? cheers again guys.

well my last car was turbo-charged and RWD, fair enough it wasn't over 300bhp but I've had enough scares now in that to of learnt the basics of how they react in certain situations.

lol ok fair enough. how much did you pay for your car?

I would definately be taking my time learning the car before trying anything remotely stupid e.g. giving it some beans coming out of a roundabout or whatever. about the whole looked-after thing how would I know, its seems there are almost none with full service history on autotrader anywhere near my budget, also if its been imported how would I find out its history when it was back in japan, this is what concerns me slightly. what sort of mileage should I be looking at by the way, I was looking at under 80k but if these cars are a bulletproof as some say then can I be looking at maybe under 100k so widen my searches?

can I be really rude and ask how much you paid for the car? OK as for modifying I won't be doing anything much straight away, the first few months I'd make sure I get good tires all round, big service and get the car as mint as possible. how much is tax by the way? is it the £400 which is going up to £950 a year next year which would be annoying? again I do low milage so I shouldn't get through tires all to often. I'm not the whelspin off at every traffic lights type so this should help also. I would be looking at keeping the car a while too so I will take as good care as possible with the car. Maybe in time if I see a really good one in my budget I could put an appeal on here and try get a mechanically minded member to come view the car with me and I would obviously sort out some funds for the help but it would give me piece of mind to have someone who knows whats what give it the once over.

This is what alot of people keep telling me, ok well after all bills are paid etc I have about £600 a month to do with what I like but this is for everything so I wouldn't have a set amount each month to spend on the car but I reckon £100 a month on fuel then its just a case of if I want to buy something for the car or if something needs doing I'll get it done. hope that makes sense. when you say they're not cheap cars what do consider biggest expense excluding petrol?

yup would be looking for standard preferably. just and exhaust and air filter add £200 to my insurance and it isn't even replaced if I crash, thats just to keep me legal

If I'm honest the power is probably the most appealing thing to me about the supra so I would love love love a TT but if everyone advises against it I'm not gonna push my luck. how much are services roughly and what are the intervals?

Hi thanks for that. My plan is if I find one that I'm serious about I would get one of those AA hundred-and-something point checks which cost about a £100 but I think it would be worth knowing whats on its way out etc. so you think maybe a turbo is possible or do you think an N/A too?

just got an N/A quote. £1023.70. exactly the same as the turbo? hmm seems odd

nope the admiral quote I have is for a 93-97 supra (auto) import turbo, I even rang to question this and they told me it counts as a classic car and I even got them to repeat to me the car I got a quote for just for my own piece of mind. a UK one is only £800 to insure but I realise I won't get UK'er on my budget

wow thanks for the quick reply. OK I know nothing about the N/A spec wise so I'll go do some research now. so would 3k get a decent one or is that a lower budget one?

Hi guys and girls. Ok an intro, I'm Eddy and I'm 20 years old, I am selling my current car which is a smart roadster so I'm in the market for a car for around 5k. Now I was set on a celica T-Sport and until just for a laugh I got an insurance quote this car I had considered to be just way out of my league. My roadster was £1400 when I bought it for a years comprehensive cover and the celica was going to be around the same, when for a bet I said I bet I can't get a quote under 3k and £1100 came up I was somewhat suprised. then when I got home and found these supercars can be bought for as little as £2k I was actually considering owning probably my dreamcar. Now what I really wanted to ask you guys is your opinion as to weather I'm crazy to consider one of these on my budget and age etc. I would be spending 4-5k on the car (twin turbo) so can I get a decent one for this sort of money or generally am I just asking for trouble. Also I'm on a low income (full-time at a supermarket so I'm sure you can guess accurately) so I've not got thousands sitting in the bank in case it goes wrong. I only do about 4k miles a year so the MPG is not a massive concern but things like servicing and other running costs I don't know about considering I will probably be buying a jap version so does this affect everyday things like servicing, M.O.Ting etc? I have a colleague at work who has had three supra's and said apart form fuel they were amazingly reliable and didn't cost alot to run. I also have a friend who had one for 2 years and said it cost him 20k over those two years as he had alot of problems. This again is a worry for me as I need something thats going to be fairly reliable so generally are these 15ish year old cars still going strong. Umm so thats about it for now I'm sorry its a bit of an essay and I hope I hav'nt broken any rules putting all this is one post. So am I crazy for considering one of these at my age with this budget? any help at all will be appreciated greatly.