Is Supra right for me?

[chris330]

Okay so I have honestly loved how Supras looked. I have never driven one so I can't say I like the performance.

Most my friends are into drifting with their RX7's and 240's. I am not looking to drift. I'm just into building a good looking and fast performance car. I love Supras and like what I see from what people can make them look like. I will probably be looking to spend 2-4k. I can see Supras are somewhat rare and expensive.

So is this the right car for me?

 

[supraguy@aol]

Supras require that you not cut corners on maintainence. Aside from that, they are very stable, comfortable and stylish cars.
And with very little effort, can be made to perform as well or better than most comparable vehicles made today.
Plus, you get the right to say you drive a Supra.
: )

 

[figgie]

18 year old car
No money.
asking for trouble. Any car that is 18 years old will require that you sink lots of money just for routine maintanance.

 

[HIDPLANET]

I think in most cases, if you have to ask, then chances are the answer is no. But its not always going to be the case. With such a small budget, you do have to understand, as stated above, that there will be a lot of maintenance involved and things will break. Its probably a good suggestion to do a lot of reading on the engine and other components that are notorious for breaking over time and decide if you have the means or desire to continue.

 

[RazoE]

If you love working on your car, and don't mind having it down because of a small issue, then I'd say go for it..

just don't cut corners, keep her lubed up, and the car will practically last forever..

http://www.supramania.com/forums/showthread.php?119744-402-000-mile-supra

 

[Poodles]

$4K? Not a chance.

 

[cartel1_950]

on board with the rest of the guys here. 4K is a low budget for a supra. you'll be shocked at the price of each part that needs to be replaced and how much time you'll spend fixing stuff. that said i don't think there is any other mid 90's car i'd rather have.

 

[nick88]

The bill not including the rebuilt head for my first supra to get running perfect mechanically and the car was solid, except cosmetically, alot of rust , was a little under $900 including purchase of the car, and I had the head rebuilt when bhg job was done for good mindset.

 

[xzeror]

you are buying a money pit so be prepared...

 

[lewis15498]

4 K will get you going. If you are wise you will spend it on making it run right, instead of making it go fast, that comes later. Plan on spending more down the road and be prepared to have alot of down time if something goes wrong. With the supra, when you have an issue, it needs to be addressed immediately and not driven until you do so, any effort otherwise will lead to catastrophic failure. If you are ok with all of this go for it, otherwise no.

 

[Athena]

It's a great car to have and to drive, but it's a black hole for money. 2-4k? I"m not trying to be rude but I spent 7k last year for my swap, and I"ll prob put another 5k in this year for mods.
Mine is the closest thing I have to a significant other, so its worth it to me. I love it. It comes down to what you really want and if its going to be worth it for you.
Good luck either way.

 

[lewis15498]

you are buying a money pit so be prepared...

This.

 

[Dirgle]

It's a wonderful car to own and even better to drive. 4K will get you into a decent MKIII (our generation Supra if you didn't know) however it will place you behind the curve. More of your time and money will be spent chasing maintenance than enjoying the drive. This usually burns newcomers out on the Supra world pretty fast. You need to enter with a little more money so you can have a good starting point and actually enjoy the car. The MKIII can be between 17-23 years old. So you need to look for cars that have all the necessary maintenance preformed before hand, and these vehicles can get pricey, or have the money to preform the necessary maintenance yourself when you get the car. And cars this old are going to require a fair amount. Not trying to discourage you, because these are wonderful cars, but I want you to be able to enjoy owning a Supra.

 

[chris330]

Wow I didnt know so much maintance was required.. So a car can be 4k and parts etc are much more. This sounds like a long process and alot of money for a college student. Is there any maintance specificly i should look for thats done?? I was hoping I could find one not too expensive and little mandatory maintance. Is this the kind of car you need to baby?

 

[ms07s]

It's a great car all around. It drives well on twistys, and on the highway. As stated before it is a high maintenance car, so it can bite you for little things. It is highly recomended that you purchase one as a second car especially if you intend to do any modifications. You will note most supra owners have a DD as supra downtime varies between a few hours and a few months. 2-4K may get you in one, but it won't get you much else. I estimate I have ~8k in my current one.

 

[Dirgle]

Wow I didnt know so much maintance was required.. So a car can be 4k and parts etc are much more. This sounds like a long process and alot of money for a college student. Is there any maintance specificly i should look for thats done?? I was hoping I could find one not too expensive and little mandatory maintance. Is this the kind of car you need to baby?

The maintenance isn't anything out of the ordinary really. These are old cars and they are cars that were designed to be driven, as such most of the examples have a good deal of miles on them and in most cases those were not easy miles. Almost any car this old with this many miles will need just as much maintenance. They're not fragile cars, they are very sturdy when they've been properly taken care of. Any cars reliability is a direct product of regular maintenance. Also most people are pushing around two to three times the power this car was designed for, this wears things out quicker. It's not like a Honda that only develops around a hundred HP and doesn't stress any of the components. Also, due to the cost of OEM components from Toyota many people opt to upgrade to aftermarket components right off the bat. Making a little more power puts more stress on other components may have been worn and makes their need of replacement come earlier. So those are replaced with aftermarket components that again make more power and moves the stress on down to more worn components. This becomes a real snowball effect. You take the car off the road to replace one part and 5 months later you've replaced 17 and still waiting to really drive your car. It's a song a dance almost all of us Supra owners know very well. One highlight of this is the community here of people who have been through what you've been through, they are knowledgeable and usually very helpful. The community that comes with this car is truly excellent.

That said the only real thing to watch out for, outside of normal maintenance items is the head gasket. Ask the seller if it's been replaced and if it has ask him what it was torqued down to. These cars came with head gasket bolt torque figures that were to low from the factory, and if not torqued to the updated values it's likely that a repeat failure will occur.

This is a good read if your going to go looking for a MKIII:
http://www.supras.com/06/techcenter/display.php?QID=76

 

[Poodles]

At best it's an 18 year old "sports" car, as such it's going to act like it. $4K is very little to spend on a sports car of any kind. The cheaper the buying price of the car is usually the more money that's going to need to be dumped into it to make it reliable. Even if it's a low milage $10K pristine car, age still takes it toll on items.

 

[cartel1_950]

paid a little under 10K for my 92 and still ended up spending 5K in the first month i had the car on basic maintainence. unless your willing to do the work yourself it's pretty tough to justify the price of the car.

 

[eraezer]

Just a note.
Whats been said in this thread goes for all cars with some miles and years on them.
You can't expect to take a 20 year old and double its power and think it will hold up like it did when it was new.

For example: I have an mazda 626 hatchback -90 which I have installed my own turbo setup into with Megasquirt 2 and so on. I started with that car in 2006 with doing a restoration of the body and suspension plus upgrading parts but there are always another part that will give me trouble. I'm not done with it yet.

If you can make stuff by yourself you will save money and I think 4k$ will get you started and have a slightly upgraded supra.

The supra has some problems of it's own (HG) but so does many other cars.

I say go for it and plan your spendings.

 

[SideWinderGX]

$4k will get you a decent car, with a bit of money left over to fix the problems that you inherited when you bought the car

Shit, even with $1k after the car, you could replace all the coolant hoses, vacuum lines, valve cover bolts/gaskets which'll remove most of the troubles you have assuming the HG isn't blown...and from there it's chasing down the few stupid random problems you'll have like tie rods or a water pump cutting out on you, etc.

But as for performance mods? Doubt it's enough...