Car suggestions - missed any?

[dern]

Morning,

I'm just putting the finishing touches to my old 944 to sell and I'm putting together a list of cars to go and look at to replace it and wondered if anyone had any suggestions.

I need something to commute in which is fast basically. Practicality is not an issue (we have a family car and I have an old mk2 golf gti) but reliability is, hence choosing something japanese. I'm not too concerned about fuel economy as I only tend to use the car for half the year and commute on my bike the rest. I get 35 out of the bike and about 25 out of my porsche so anything around 25 ish is ok.

I do all my own work on my cars and don't want to use garages unless it is absolutely essential. Therefore cars that need 15 grands worth of diagnostics equipment to service are out.

I have a budget of 5k.

So far I've thought of the following...

MR2T - I looked at these ages ago and liked them but in the end went bananas and spent the money on a westy. Now I've sold that to fund an R1 locost build which is in progress. I'm looking at rev3 cars and currently this is my favourite.

300zx tt - my mate has one and it's very nice but I don't like auto boxes as all and most seem to be autos. It seems like a massive shag if anything goes wrong as there's no room in the engine bay.

That's about it really although I've thought and more or less discounted the following...

Mits GTO - looks to die for but I drove a standard one and it was very uninvolving. The mr2 and 300 were no porsche/tvr but I'm after a daily driver so can accept that but this was a bit insipid... can anything be done?

200sx - don't like them, don't want one. had an s13 and it was gutless and bland until I put a bigger turbo and a bigger exhaust on it and then the driveability suffered and it used *loads* of fuel. granted it could have done with a remap but it didn't do anything for me at all

Integ type-r - quite like them but they're fwd and I don't reall want a fwd car.

Any other suggestions that I can spend hours at lunchtime researching ()?

Thanks,

Mark

>> Edited by dern on Tuesday 5th July 09:34

[dern]

nuclearsquash said:

how a bout a N/A Supra they go for about 5k.

How quick are they compared to an mr2 turbo?

The only problem I have with them is the same one as I have with my 944... nice cars but it's the slow one, know what I mean?

Regards,

Mark

[dern]

iaint said:

I was, of course, going to suggest an RX-7 but these two factors preclude this. You'd get 18-21 mpg and would need to spend ~8-9k to get one that would be trouble-free (as much as you can guarantee with any truly fast car).

I'd love one but all the cars at 5k seem to have done 59k miles and I hear so many tales of engines needing rebuilds at 60k that it would just be too much of a risk.

I don't mind doing the work but I'm looking for something that doesn't need major work so I can get on with the locost build... oh, and spend some time with the kids

Cheers,

Mark

[dern]

dnb said:

An old Scoob? Easy to tune to the 300 bhp mark and easy to work on. Just a slight image problem...

I currently have a gold porsche and a brown mondeo estate... I'm not worried about image

Never really liked scoobs I'm afraid.

Mark

[dern]

Gazboy said:

Drive a 5k MRT, then a 5k TVR, then come back to us with that comment... On a 'friendlier' note-

Hmm, well it wasn't supposed to be confrontational at all or indeed a slight on japanese cars so there's no need to be 'unfriendly' imo. I have driven a 5k mr2t, gto & 300zx, owned a prelude vtec and an s13 200sx and owned a 6k tvr s3 and a 3k 944. The 944 and the tvr were both more communicative than any of the japanese cars and more involving but neither of them were better cars. The tvr wasn't up to day to day use (unless you didn't mind giving up your weekends fixing it), it didn't handle very well and while it would be fun for the weekends in the same way as an mgb would be I wouldn't want another old one. While the 944 was (and is) suitable for everyday it isn't very quick. Therefore I'm looking for a japanese car again for every day use.

Gazboy said:

could you really work on a Big three Zeddy in your garage????

Of course, why not? I look after all my own cars, have taken engines out, am building a car from scratch with an R1 engine in and service my fireblade myself... what's so different about a 300?

Gazboy said:

Look out for a red MR2 reg J31 HGJ- when that comes up for sale, drive that, then get out the chequebook- really REALLY wish I never sold it, considerably better drivers car than the Supra & the Chimaera 4.0 I drove.

Thanks.

Mark

[dern]

Gazboy said:

Mark- i wasn't being unfriendly btw.

Sorry I took it that way.

Gazboy said:

Regarding the 300ZX- a chap who works on my Supra, is not keen to work on 3zeddy's cos nothing is easy, simple or cheap.

It is doable but I've worked on a mate's 300 and it is a complete pain in the arse and we've only done the simplest things on it. I think he lives in dread of the day the turbos finally let go given the cost and the access problems.

The Mr2t is the firm favourite but just wondered if there was anything else that hadn't occured to me to look at.

Regards,

Mark

[dern]

Gazboy said:

Celica GT4 ST205?

I did go and look at one but didn't like it as much as the mr2 so didn't drive it.

[dern]

Gazboy said:

Fair enough!

Perhaps I should have done, that wasn't very open minded of me was it

It just didn't *look* very special to me... no sense of occasion if you know what I mean.

[dern]

Mr E said:

Thanks bud. I rather like it.

It's very nice (much nicer than the one I went to see) but just not my cup of tea.

Regards,

Mark

[dern]

tuttle said:

No one mentioned a skyline yet? Your budget would get you an R32 or 33 GTST,large but great fun,tuneable.Bomproof build,engine is very accessable & pretty straightforward to work on.

I know this sounds stupid but if I got one the first thing people would say if they saw it would be "is it a gtr?"

On reflection and having looked at your profile your car looks really nice. I don't know what it is about white cars but I think they look gorgeous. Is that the kind of thing available for 5k and what are they like near standard?

Mark

>> Edited by dern on Wednesday 6th July 11:04

[dern]

Of all these cars the insurance quotes I got for the mr2 and the celica are by far the cheapest from elephant on a quick surf.

I guess as I tend to drive mainly in the winter maybe I should take a look at the celica again and look for a rather better example than the one I saw at a local importers and then compare that with the mr2.

Cheers,

Mark

[dern]

tuttle said:

Cool Locust project,if I ever saw one-due respects

Thanks, keeps me busy. Be good when it's done

[dern]

havoc said:

Being honest, though, if your budget is £5k, any of these three run the risk of adding 50% to that in bills if you buy a wrong-un, and from what I'm told the ZX can add 100% in short-order.

That's true of any car though isn't it and I'm reducing the potential for big bills by doing all work myself. I've been running cars with the same potential for big bills and the running costs don't worry me that much (well, not all the time ). The costs of bits for the mr2 seem very reasonable compared to my old 944 for example.

I really don't want a fwd car no matter how good it is. I've had a prelude vtec and while I appreciate the teg would be a bit (maybe a lot) better the prelude was an excellent fwd car and I got bored of it pretty quickly and I'm not a massive fan of the vtec engine. Honda stuff is top notch though but the only car I'd have is the nsx and I can't afford one so I'll just stick with my blade.

I'm going to take a look at a rev3 mr2 locally this w/e so will let you all know how I get on.

Thanks everyone for all the input.

Regards,

Mark

[dern]

It wasn't quite as nice as described (predictably).

Do all mr2t's smoke a little on start-up? It wasn't white or blue but just dirty if you know what I mean.

Mark

[dern]

speedtwelve said:

Mark Just bought a Rev2 MR2T. Looked at 4 (private) cars, and 3 of them had some sort of hesitation on boost at full-throttle. Pretty common, as HT leads/rotor arm/dizzy cap/spark plugs break down and cause the HT to track, causing ignition problems on-boost. 'Dirty smoke' is usually caused by running rich. It's usually not a problem on-boost, especially if boost/fuelling has been cranked-up (although mine doesn't do it). MR2Ts overfuel on the standard map anyway to protect the engine. If it's running properly it should feel properly quick, and should still be accelerating significantly as you go past 100 mph (on your private test track). The needle on the dash boost gauge should go all the way to the '+' mark at full throttle in the higher gears. What I like about the MR2T is that you have to DRIVE it properly all the time. It's not a car to be chucked through the corners. Loads of traction with RWD and the engine over the rear-wheels. It's one car that you really need to brake in a straight-line, however, as using the (very good) twin-piston brakes in a corner encourages the engine to try to overtake the front of the car quite quickly. Being smooth and deliberate is fastest I find. I've only had it a couple of weeks, and I am still surprised at it's depth of ability (and I've driven Elises, VX220Ts, Skylines, M3s, Porsche 996s...). For £5K it's hard to beat. Find a good one. You know it makes sense. ST

Thanks for the info ST. Is there any particular reason you went for a rev 2 over a rev3?

Regards,

Mark