Time to replace mr2 with a 4 four seater dail drive. what Japanese car to replace it?

robinbanks

robinbanks

robinbanks

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just to start off i am a Japanese car fan boy so only looking for jap car


Its almost been a year with my little mr2 mk2 3gse na and i have really enjoyed owing it. But sadly common sense he set in. I need a four seater for sort trip with friends . I will be using the car as a daily so dont want soming much more expensive to run and maintain than the mr2. I ideally would like a import as i am a BIG 90s car fan! but not a fan of the rust that comes with uk spec cars :D

sadly i don't have a massive price range (£4k-£5k maybe £5.5) and im not really looking for anything more powerful than my mr2, but dont want anything less powerful :)


after hours of looking i have come across a few cars that seem to be in my price range:

celica ss2-ss3 (told to say away from SS3 due to the superstrut)

fto mitsubishi seems to look a little small but told they are good fun :)

r32-r33 GTST (might be close to budget and could be expensive to run?)

old wrx scooby (again expensive to run?)

prelude again may be expensive to run?

has anyone owned any of them? whats there experience with them? has anyone got any suggestions on what else i could look for?
 
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For not a lot of cash the likes of the fto is actually quite a good car - back seats aren't up to much and the auto is slow as a slow thing but I like them on manual form. Insurance tends to be bonkers on them but then the car will only be a grand or so.

Wrx will be much of a muchness overall in terms of how quickly it'll get down the road vs your current car if you aren't dumping the clutch in it off the line every 5 minutes and you'll also have a usable amount of room. Easy tuning potential should you want it plus itll be significantly newer than most you're looking at here too.

Gen 6 celica I wouldn't bother unless its a gt4 which it sounds like you don't want, or if you were only looking to spend a few hundred quid.

Forget about skylines, preludes are fugly but a great all rounder particularly if you can find / insure a type s.

Could consider an s14a but they come with fairly hefty scene tax.
 
I had an ss3 celica with the beams engine, theres no real reason to avoid these because of superstrut, its not as hard on the suspension as the gt4 as its far less weight up front, so its less likely to wear out fast, and if you get one thats been done, its unlikely to need changed. Also refurb parts have brought the cost of replacement parts for superstrut way down on what they used to be. The superstrut works well on the fwd car also, and they come with an lsd.

What about considering an altezza rs200 aswell?
 
Prelude is pretty cheap to run. No different from having an accord or civic really. They're very undervalued so you should be able to get a really nice Type S in budget. Tricky bit is finding good ones. Rear seats are very short on leg room if anyone tall is in the front.
 
A Subaru Impreza, can get a nice newage STi for 5k, could get an extremely nice example of a WRX but who wants aldi own brand crisps when you can have walkers..

You might scrape the ropiest DC5 on the market or an only slightly ruined DC2.

Seriously though asides from fuel an Impreza is very cheap car to run in my experience.
 
Zuban said:
I had an ss3 celica with the beams engine, theres no real reason to avoid these because of superstrut, its not as hard on the suspension as the gt4 as its far less weight up front, so its less likely to wear out fast, and if you get one thats been done, its unlikely to need changed. Also refurb parts have brought the cost of replacement parts for superstrut way down on what they used to be. The superstrut works well on the fwd car also, and they come with an lsd.

What about considering an altezza rs200 aswell?
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I Was talking a gt4 owner about one, he said he had seen your name on the gt4/celica owners club, and he was saying you at one point was using one as a track day toy? what are they like for daily? how long would you expect the supper strut to last?

King4aDay said:
Prelude is pretty cheap to run. No different from having an accord or civic really. They're very undervalued so you should be able to get a really nice Type S in budget. Tricky bit is finding good ones. Rear seats are very short on leg room if anyone tall is in the front.
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not to worried about leg room. i take it the parts are the normal honda pricing?

james1985 said:
Toyota Soarer? I was looking the other day, they seem very cheap at the moment, I know someone that has spent an absolute fortune on one, cant remember what room they have in the back though.
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i thought they came in v8,2jz,2jz twin? wont that be a bit steep to run? plus anyone i have seen manual seems to fetch £8k in japan :(

bJN said:
Integra DC2? You said four seats, not four doors :p
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tempting..... but i keep thinking i may as well get the celica as i can import a ss3 celica for £3.8k but a dc2 is more around the 6-7k imported. and i woudnt trust buying one in the uk.

sovietspybob said:
A Subaru Impreza, can get a nice newage STi for 5k, could get an extremely nice example of a WRX but who wants aldi own brand crisps when you can have walkers..

You might scrape the ropiest DC5 on the market or an only slightly ruined DC2.

Seriously though asides from fuel an Impreza is very cheap car to run in my experience.
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has to be the old school shape for me :) i talked too a old scooby tech before about them, last time i talked to him he advised me to say clear, saying they are cracking cars but expensive to run.

i going to have to have a word with torque-gt and see what prices are going for the above
 
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You need to decide what you want, you won't get proper 4 seats in most coupes and your mates would have to bits of their legs missing to fit comfortably in. Secondly if you want an old 90's tasty Jap imports then you need to expect bigger running costs, otherwise settle on a 5 seat 4 door hatchback as a daily runner with space.
 
robinbanks said:
I Was talking a gt4 owner about one, he said he had seen your name on the gt4/celica owners club, and he was saying you at one point was using one as a track day toy? what are they like for daily? how long would you expect the supper strut to last?
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I ran it for a couple of years as a road car before i tracked it, fine daily car, i found the stock suspensions a little soft out of the box, but you dont need superstrut specific lowering springs to sort that, any for the st202 will do, but depends what your looking for, its a comfertable car as standard. The lsd and superstrut pretty much do away with any wheelspin or wheelhop under hard acceleration. Mine had the recaro interior which was nice, aswell as automatic aircon.

Lifetime of the superstrut will vary with use and road conditions, but even after a several years of road driving and track beatings, I never had to touch it. I would expect somewhere between 60-100k and when you do have to replace, you rarely have to replace all parts. Check out TCB parts, they have decent prices, and refurb banana arms are now around £115. The camber control arms are still a bit pricy but not as bad as they used to be, and would likely be a once in your ownership job if you had to. I had a gt4 for the last few years and that is much harder on the suspension, and i did have to change it, although it had done around 60k since having the figures of 8 changed at around 50k, so I bought a complete low mileage set of superstrut suspension from a breaking gt4 for £250, saved me a lot when it came to needing to replace a worn set of camber arms, thats another way to do it.

They are generally trouble free, the beams sevice parts arent any more expensive than the uk 3s-ge, the timing belts different but only costs around £30 from toyota. Fuel economy should be better than the uk car. Steering is quick at 2.5 turns lock to lock, so its nice to throw about.
 
lemonade said:
You need to decide what you want, you won't get proper 4 seats in most coupes and your mates would have to bits of their legs missing to fit comfortably in. Secondly if you want an old 90's tasty Jap imports then you need to expect bigger running costs, otherwise settle on a 5 seat 4 door hatchback as a daily runner with space.
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that is true, i was really looking for somthing about the mr2 running cost. maybe a bit more. not really worried about leg room too much. just wanted something i can give my friends lifts in. most of them will only be from one side of town to the other.
 
lol yeah having spoken to tcb many times they are a bit confused when it comes to the ss3! I'd also say 4k is too much seen plenty nice and well looked after examples go for around 2k which is much more realistic.
 
james1985 said:
Toyota Soarer? I was looking the other day, they seem very cheap at the moment, I know someone that has spent an absolute fortune on one, cant remember what room they have in the back though.

Total wildcard for your max budget, not seen one for sakle before!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1972-TOYO...9841684?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item19f719bd94
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That's not a soarer.

This is though. You've got a v8, 2.5 twin turbo and non turbo 3 litre to chose from.

edit: the one I've posted is also black on black which is quite a rarity, most have grey or creme interiors
 
robinbanks said:
not to worried about leg room. i take it the parts are the normal honda pricing?
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Yup. I've only needed a rear bearing, cam belt change and some brake bits and weather strips for mine and pricing was in line with an Accord for the stuff I got from Honda. Otherwise there's plenty of third party stuff about still and always a few breakers available on ludegeneration forums.

Watch out for rear arch rust (very common on 4th gens and starting to get common on 5ths, quite a lot of work to put right), sticky rear calipers (easily fixed), gear crunch at high revs and make sure that the 4WS/ATTS is working properly.
 
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King4aDay said:
Yup. I've only needed a rear bearing, cam belt change and some brake bits and weather strips for mine and pricing was in line with an Accord for the stuff I got from Honda. Otherwise there's plenty of third party stuff about still and always a few breakers available on ludegeneration forums.

Watch out for rear arch rust (very common on 4th gens and starting to get common on 5ths, quite a lot of work to put right), sticky rear calipers (easily fixed), gear crunch at high revs and make sure that the 4WS/ATTS is working properly.
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will be looking to import so would hope no rust, gear crunch is a worry as they wont be able to check i would have thought
 
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