Your Attainable Dream Car?

This thread has gone a bit depressing, everyone come and vote on the girls in the picture in general :)
 
DiamondMark said:
This thread has gone a bit depressing, everyone come and vote on the girls in the picture in general :)
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That thread is totally weird, I'll get flamed by the GD possee if I say anything in there but there is definately something odd going on, 5 women don't ask you to post a group photo of them on the internet so geeks can see which one is the hottest.
 
It was a Jap spec but it was a GZ with UK spec brakes and alloys. It was basically a UK spec without the heated leather seats and bonnet vent.
 
[TW]Fox;18483513 said:
That thread is totally weird, I'll get flamed by the GD possee if I say anything in there but there is definately something odd going on, 5 women don't ask you to post a group photo of them on the internet so geeks can see which one is the hottest.
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Resist the natural urge to tell them off and get voting then :D
 
Let's take the E46 M3, a good example of an epic car that today can be had for £10k-£15K for a minter. Loved mine, had 2 and would recommend them to anyone seeking a very rapid saloon car. I have no idea how much I spent on mine when I had it, really, not a clue, but I can share with you how much things cost because these have remained consistent in the main I'd imagine.

Tyres: PS2's are what it needed, when I had them there were 2 standard options, Conti and PS2's and you only chose Conti's due to being a gimp. Today you can get more options I believe and can of course run different sizes but if you still plan to run PS2's you are looking around £250 for a rear and £200 for a front, so a little cheaper than £230 and £290 at it's peak but still not cheap. Run it hard and these will need replacing in 10K on the rears.

Oil: Still around £12-£15 per litre and you need to run high quality oils in such a car unless you are a ****. Sure you can buy bulk, buy different oils and save a few quid but it's still expensive oil.

Servicing: About the same at dealers, about the same at an indi. You can of course do it yourself or take it to 'your mate, init' but reality is few do this, even us petrolheads prefer a man in the main.

Insurance: Errrr

Tax: Errrrrrr

Petrol: Errrrrrr

I can go on, but they are 10K to buy but still a 45K (or 55K pro rata today) to run and though this comes down a bit the fact is they are not cheap like a 1.4 uber mingi.
 
Housey said:
It always makes me smile when people try to suggest expensive cars are cheap to run for in the main the reverse is true. Lots of fuel, big tyres, big service bills, expensive parts, expensive repairs should they beed needed. Costs can be reduced and corners cut but if you use it daily, use it for a couple of years a car with list price of 50K (as an example) will have the running costs of a 50K car even if it cost you 10K usually.
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The issue is that I don't believe that I am 'cutting corners' anywhere nearly as badly some people are implying.

* If my car needs something doing, I'll do it (albeit eventually :D).

* I don't run the likes of PS2s and CS2 tyres because they'd be 'wasted' on me. I'd rather spend less to get tyres that are more suitable for what I want (The Federals).

* Doing my own spanner work isn't something that I consider an issue.

* While I have no issues with using pattern/non genuine parts, but if it is beneficial for whatever reason to spend the extra and go genuine, I will go genuine.
 
Housey said:
Let's take the E46 M3,
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Please don't go there. A work mate is willing to let his (recently stolen/recovered) E46 M3 go for a very reasonable sum of money. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't seriously consider it for a little while (and no, I haven't looked properly in running costs) :p.
 
Joshy said:
The issue is that I don't believe that I am 'cutting corners' anywhere nearly as badly some people are implying.

* If my car needs something doing, I'll do it (albeit eventually :D).

* I don't run the likes of PS2s and CS2 tyres because they'd be 'wasted' on me. I'd rather spend less to get tyres that are more suitable for what I want (The Federals).

* Doing my own spanner work isn't something that I consider an issue.

* While I have no issues with using pattern/non genuine parts, but if it is beneficial for whatever reason to spend the extra and go genuine, I will go genuine.
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Come on son, come with me and vote on the photo, this isnt going well here :D
 
Joshy said:
Please don't go there. A work mate is willing to let his (recently stolen/recovered) E46 M3 go for a very reasonable sum of money. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't seriously consider it for a little while (and no, I haven't looked properly in running costs) :p.
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Err wouldnt they £10k+ to buy it not be a stumbling point :p
 
[TW]Fox;18483662 said:
Err wouldnt they £10k+ to buy it not be a stumbling point :p
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'Recently Stolen/Recovered' as in it was low loaded from the police compound to work yesterday.

It needs work, but it is cheap enough to have me thinking naughty thoughts.
 
[TW]Fox;18479133 said:
Because of course the purchase price of a car is all that matters when judging affordability, right :)
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I missed this because of Joshy's relapse...

Do you think Eliot is aware of the 12k bill you get if you nudge something in front with your bumper in the new GT-R? I don't think he does.
 
Worthy said:
It was a Jap spec but it was a GZ with UK spec brakes and alloys. It was basically a UK spec without the heated leather seats and bonnet vent.
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There are few more differences between UK and Jap Spec than brakes/wheels/heated leather/bonnet vent...
 
Right now my dream car is something like an Octavia VRS or a Leon Cupra R. This is the kind of car I wish to buy in the near future, providing all goes well with graduate work.

I know it isn't anything super flashy, but I am just being realistic as I want to save up some towards a house :).
 
DiamondMark said:
Come on son, come with me and vote on the photo, this isnt going well here :D
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I bailed and went to have a look...but then couldn't stop myself coming back to see if there were any further clangers being posted in this thread :o

I quite fancy a bently actually, i hear they are dirt cheap to run. Well, when I say dirt cheap, I mean it'll only cost me a few grand every few months, but I can save some money if I put on linglo...
 
Joshy said:
Care you throw your hat into the "'For the performance, Supra running costs are pretty cheap" ring? :).
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Sure :)

I owned my Supra (6-Speed TT Manual UK Spec BPU+) for around a year. Disclaimer: Some of the parts you might commonly look at when considering general running costs were, on my car, slightly skewed due to some being aftermarket etc. Bear in mind, I did not do many miles when I owned this car.

I bought the car in mint condition, there was literally nothing that needed doing immediately. Over the course of the year, due to age and mileage (circa 130k iirc) obviously work needed doing.

Service/Maintenence Items:
Gaskets and seals (front crank, rocker cover)
Brake pipes (hard) replaced for corrosion
Service A (oil, additional gearbox oil change, filters, brakes strip down and rebuild)
Water Pump replaced
Cam and Aux belt
Boost Diagnostic (had a boosting issue which was resolved, turned out to be a perished air hose in possibly the most awkward place ever!)

That, at a a combination of main dealer and specialist gave little change from £1.5k. Which to be fair, for the work done isn't that bad. I'm not sure how the service schedule compares to the Soarer, but being the same engine essentially, I'd imagine they are similar. Service A is the big one, Service B is the small one.

Common Consumables (stock parts):
UK Spec run 17" wheels and have 4 pot front and 2 pot rear brakes so compared to a J-Spec, they are more expensive to get hold of decent tyres for and replacement brake pads are a bit more as well. If I remember rightly, J-Spec run 16" and have 2 pot front brakes but some had the option to upgrade to UK Spec equivalents.

I never had to change brake components so couldn't give an exact figure but those quoted previously appear about right.

The engine is a non-inteference engine so cambelt etc are much cheaper to do than other cars and not as critical.

Oil isn't anything special and the service schedule isn't what you'd expect for a performance car (Ie. nothing like an Evo with 4.5k mile oil changes or anything)

So What's so expensive?!:
So what's the bad news? Well these cars are epically reliable from an engine point of view, so not much does go wrong. But when they do, I'd say be prepared. Common things:

Valve stem seals: To do properly is around £1k parts and labour. It can be done without taking the head off and if you opt for this route its around the £500-600 mark.

Turbos: Failure is very common on the J-Spec models (ceramic as opposed to steel), especially as they are getting up to the age/mileage they are at now and having had several owners (each potentially with a different mindset depending on what they paid for the car).

I made enquiries into this to account for a worst case scenario when I had my boosting issue. To get the turbos out for inspection and replace would have not left much change from £1k and would have then been new turbos on top of that as required (so easily well into 4 figures!!). The expense of a turbo or hard to trace boost problem meant that a lot of people in that boat just thought **** it, and went single turbo (to do properly costs a few K)

Fuel. Running stock and keeping off the boost, you manage in the region of 25-30mpg. Boost a lot and this will easily drop to sub 20mpg and BPU/BPU+, 15-20mpg is around normal, I used to just about hit 27/28mpg on a run. Fairly thirsty but considering the performance, not bad.


Misc:
Specific gearbox oil for V160/161 boxes isn't cheap
Various sensors (O2, MAF/MAP etc) and bushes are starting to go if they haven't already. They're not uber expensive but as with most Toyota parts they are a bit higher than average and then a bit more because of the car they are going on.

Overall:
It is not a cheap car to run but given the performance, reliability and proven nature of them, you can do a LOT worse! The majority of cars in a similar performance bracket (especially BPU/BPU+ levels of performance) are vastly more expensive to maintain. The danger is going in relying on those positives the Supra has going for itself and not having a contingency for the worst happening. Hopefully for the cherished and rarer specced examples, the market for them will stay strong and they won't fall into the hands of those who don't care.

Sure, mundane consumables and things are cheap-ish and if you can do some of the work yourself, all is good. However, pop a turbo and things will only go sour if you haven't prepared!

Worthy said:
Steel turbos / injectors / cruise are the only ones I can think of?
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Yeah, thats a few more!

Of the top of my head, UK Spec have:

Steel turbo chargers
Bigger Alloys (17" as to 16")
Bigger Brakes (4 pot front, 2 pot rear)
Heated Leather Seats
Glass Headlights and Washers
Different Rear lights (integrated fog lamps)
Bigger injectors (can't remember the cc off hand)
Higher flow fuel pump
Bigger capacity fuel tank
Different manifolds
Different cams
Different exhaust
MAF sensor (J-Spec uses MAP)
Cruise control
Traction control
Heated wing mirrors
Climate control
Airbags (driver and passenger)
EGR
Active Spoiler

(edit) UK Specs are generally considered to be higher power than the J-Spec ones, all things stock. (326bhp to 286bhp iirc) However, a lot of the J-Specs make more power than their book figure. BPU on a J-Spec could see you around 370-380bhp before things started to get awkward, UK's tended to top out more around the 400-410 mark @ 1.2bar boost.

I'm sure there's more :)
 
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