Toyota Starlet GLANZA, what do you think?

steinooo

steinooo

steinooo

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Hi all,

I am tempted to buy a Toyota Starlet Glanza V Turbo, I love Toyotas as my parents have always had them and swear by the reliability and build quality.

What I'm really after is opinions, what does everyone think of these for a young hot hatch? I only consider japanese and german cars but have sort of fallen in love with the Glanza in the last few months.

Opinions please! :)

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normal_toyotaglanza.jpg
 
Not a Super uber turbo one but a regular Starlet - inside, it feels like a cheap and nasty supermini. Very reliable, but hardly well built. Close the doors, it feels cheap, touch the dash, it feels cheap, etc etc.

This is the thing with virtually all pre 2002ish Jap cars. Fantastically reliable, brilliant value, awesome performance from the hot variants but the build quality isnt there, they are filled with acres of nasty plastic and cheap feeling switchgears and doors etc.

Japs seem to prefer ACTUAL quality - ie, reliability and dependability - to PERCEIVED quality - ie, nice dashboards, properly built doors, and suchlike.
 
test drive one.

i did and found it disappointing. i was kinda hoping to feel the turbo kick in, yea its quick. but i was expecting more.

for the price i would say shop around for something else. my guess would you you are looking at spending £4000 on that?? am i close ?
 
Mechanically amazing, asthetically disgusting.

Reminds me of the Mitsubishi Colt Turbo. Rocket and unbreakable, but god damn it was nasty inside.
 
Japs seem to prefer ACTUAL quality - ie, reliability and dependability - to PERCEIVED quality - ie, nice dashboards, properly built doors, and suchlike.
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If thats what Japs seem to prefer, so do I. That is what i'm after.

my guess would you you are looking at spending £4000 on that?? am i close ?
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I've seen a 60K mile example with all mod cons for £3200

Mechanically amazing, asthetically disgusting.
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Disagree, I love the way it looks.

Hate said:
am I missing something here ?!
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Have you got a point?
 
I love them!

A friend had one. Was bloody quick, and loads of tuning parts available.

Shame it got nicked and stripped from outside his girlfriend's house. :(
 
Is it that much better than a standard Starlet?

The standard Starlet is very uninspiring - bland, nasty interior, dull, not that nice to drive, etc. If they've replaced the suspension as well as the engine then maybe but I just see a bland hatch - sorry!
 
I'm with you stokefan, i love the way it looks and have been considering one for the next motor.

I'd like to test drive one of those and a celica gt.
 
stokefan said:
I've seen a 60K mile example with all mod cons for £3200
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Errr all mod cons? Don't be daft, you'll get power steering, central locking, electric windows and aircon if you are lucky. The bare minimum :p
 
[TW]Fox said:
Errr all mod cons? Don't be daft, you'll get power steering, central locking, electric windows and aircon if you are lucky. The bare minimum :p
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:o those are all pretty damn "mod cons" to me in my 96 Nissan Micra, no PAS, no Air Con, no electric windows etc etc

Is it that much better than a standard Starlet?
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yes, standard 1.3 is 74bhp, Glanza is 135bhp along with the extra "kit" (as mentioned above) as standard, and the bodykit etc.
 
stokefan said:
yes, standard 1.3 is 74bhp, Glanza is 135bhp along with the extra "kit" (as mentioned above) as standard, and the bodykit etc.
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I thought it would have more power

I meant the important stuff like suspension, shocks, etc. It's just that the standard Starlet doesn't handle that well so I'd hope that this would be quite different under the skin

It'd be quick with 135bhp in such a small car though!
 
Have you had a look at a Mitsubishi Colt Cyborg? 180bhp on the later ones, very similar size and concept to the Glanza. ie. big power, lightly tweaked chassis, no brake upgrades = huge overtaking potential but lairy in bends and you're always going too fast when you get there :eek: .

The Glanza was extremely popular in Japan and there is a massive selection of 'upgrades' available. Very few have been thrashed in the way that you and I understand it, it's more usual for the engine internals are all gunked up from 20mph crawls in urban traffic.

I wouldn't be put off by comments about how it's got real rather than perceived quality, or that it's 'nasty' inside. They were built to a price. Toyota wouldn't sacrifice engineering so you got slightly less whoop-de-do plastics inside.

There are lots about, so be very picky about getting a good one if you decide to go that way.
 
They are pretty impressive little pocket rockets. Cheep to insure too.

Tuning potential is immense, and you'll find the majority of the jap imports have had some tuning work done to them, most would have exhaust, air filter, suspension (coilovers normally).

I've seen a couple at Jap car shows this year, spoken to one owner who bought the car for £2,900, spent a further £2,000 on it. It's now putting out 270bhp and was running rings around Skylines, RX7s, Supras etc around Donnington.
 
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