Red 2012 Toyota GT86 - Daily Driver
Discussion
Hi All,
I did start a thread over a year ago on this car but didn't have much to post about and quickly lost momentum, now I have owned the car for nearly 2 years so have much more to talk about.
The prices of these cars are becoming very reasonable now and I don't see much talk of them around the forums so thought it would be good to give a fresh insight.
I bought the car from a main stealer, 12' plate with 16,000 miles on it.
It had a lot of condensation in one of the rear lights (common problem), scuffed wheels and a scuff on the front bumper - Toyota kindly fixed all of the above and when refurbishing the wheels they did so in gloss black, as I hate the two tone/fake diamond cut of the standard wheels.
The car took some getting used to as my previous car was a 2010 1.4 Vauxhall Corsa. I had started an apprenticeship in accountancy the year before and as I was still living at home I wanted to be silly with my investments before moving out in the near future.
I actually ended up buying this car by pure chance, I had been looking at an E92 320D just beforehand and was quite set up to buy it from one of these huge car supermarkets, I had test driven, inspected and researched the car as much as possible and the week I was going to go in and do the deal they rang to inform me they had moved the car up north because someone up there was looking to buy it too. I had a test drive in a GT86 booked as I am a big Japanese car fan but didn't really think this would be suitable for 20k miles/year, I came very close to cancelling the test drive on the 86 but decided not for some reason. I ended up buying the car the day of the test drive and funnily enough ended up revisiting the car supermarket the BMW was at with my partners dad looking for a car for him and saw the exact same BMW back in it's original space on the forecourt still up for sale.
I did start a thread over a year ago on this car but didn't have much to post about and quickly lost momentum, now I have owned the car for nearly 2 years so have much more to talk about.
The prices of these cars are becoming very reasonable now and I don't see much talk of them around the forums so thought it would be good to give a fresh insight.
I bought the car from a main stealer, 12' plate with 16,000 miles on it.
It had a lot of condensation in one of the rear lights (common problem), scuffed wheels and a scuff on the front bumper - Toyota kindly fixed all of the above and when refurbishing the wheels they did so in gloss black, as I hate the two tone/fake diamond cut of the standard wheels.
The car took some getting used to as my previous car was a 2010 1.4 Vauxhall Corsa. I had started an apprenticeship in accountancy the year before and as I was still living at home I wanted to be silly with my investments before moving out in the near future.
I actually ended up buying this car by pure chance, I had been looking at an E92 320D just beforehand and was quite set up to buy it from one of these huge car supermarkets, I had test driven, inspected and researched the car as much as possible and the week I was going to go in and do the deal they rang to inform me they had moved the car up north because someone up there was looking to buy it too. I had a test drive in a GT86 booked as I am a big Japanese car fan but didn't really think this would be suitable for 20k miles/year, I came very close to cancelling the test drive on the 86 but decided not for some reason. I ended up buying the car the day of the test drive and funnily enough ended up revisiting the car supermarket the BMW was at with my partners dad looking for a car for him and saw the exact same BMW back in it's original space on the forecourt still up for sale.
One of the first things I did with the car was give it a good wash;
Nice and shiny.
My other half also got me a little addition from the Toyota garage;
I then just used the car as a daily as it was for quite a while, thoroughly enjoying it. MPGwise I was achieving a comfortable 35mpg with a mixture of B roads and A roads. The lowest I've had it average is 30mpg and the highest was a 500 mile round trip to Torquay @ 45mpg sticking to the speed limits.
One thing I did notice was that in the wet it can be quite a handful in the wet, the journo's weren't joking about how easy it is to slide this thing, but when you're travelling home after a hard day at work, very tired and it's raining it can make you feel a bit uneasy just driving at normal speeds.
In steps the Michelin PS4's;
|https://thumbsnap.com/vRUaMiyV[/url]
That was that problem sorted, it now felt like a completely different car, some for better and some for worse but definitely put me at ease that I wasn't going to force my insurance premium up any time soon... not by fault of mine anyway...
Nice and shiny.
My other half also got me a little addition from the Toyota garage;
I then just used the car as a daily as it was for quite a while, thoroughly enjoying it. MPGwise I was achieving a comfortable 35mpg with a mixture of B roads and A roads. The lowest I've had it average is 30mpg and the highest was a 500 mile round trip to Torquay @ 45mpg sticking to the speed limits.
One thing I did notice was that in the wet it can be quite a handful in the wet, the journo's weren't joking about how easy it is to slide this thing, but when you're travelling home after a hard day at work, very tired and it's raining it can make you feel a bit uneasy just driving at normal speeds.
In steps the Michelin PS4's;
|https://thumbsnap.com/vRUaMiyV[/url]That was that problem sorted, it now felt like a completely different car, some for better and some for worse but definitely put me at ease that I wasn't going to force my insurance premium up any time soon... not by fault of mine anyway...
The car is great as it is for performance, plenty of clearance and feels spot on - so I thought, why not ruin it?
Very luckily I ended up winning a Facebook competition with Eibach for a set of lowering springs and spacers, I'm based close enough to their HQ that I went to pick them up personally and got a tour of their warehouse and testing facilities which was great to see.
I, stupidly, decided to get someone I knew that was a mechanic to fit them with me on the side - more on that later.
The car was now sitting much better than the huge standard arch gap and tucked in wheels.
The Eibach springs and spacers were great quality and felt superb, the problem came from the installation - to cut a long explanation short, despite me asking them not to, the person I fitted them with used an impact gun on the struts which spins the shaft (I'm not that technically minded so can't explain much more than that).
Anyway the next day I moved the car and there was a big wet patch on the drive under the offside front wheel, after quick inspection it was clear that it was coming from the shock absorber - great, MOT due in less than two weeks too.
Man maths kicked in and this was obviously the worlds way of telling me I needed coilovers. Hopped online and ordered some Tein Flex Z coilovers which arrived the next week.
Dog approves;
The car went straight to a new local garage I found online (which is now my go-to garage even though I live about an hour away now) and left the installation to people who knew what they were doing as well as a much needed alignment.
I still have these coilovers on now and they are great, I've had no problems with them whatsoever and damping/comfort is great now that I've settled on my ideal settings.
I was cutting it close on how low the car was now though - picture of the car getting over the very slight incline onto the drive;
Very luckily I ended up winning a Facebook competition with Eibach for a set of lowering springs and spacers, I'm based close enough to their HQ that I went to pick them up personally and got a tour of their warehouse and testing facilities which was great to see.
I, stupidly, decided to get someone I knew that was a mechanic to fit them with me on the side - more on that later.
The car was now sitting much better than the huge standard arch gap and tucked in wheels.
The Eibach springs and spacers were great quality and felt superb, the problem came from the installation - to cut a long explanation short, despite me asking them not to, the person I fitted them with used an impact gun on the struts which spins the shaft (I'm not that technically minded so can't explain much more than that).
Anyway the next day I moved the car and there was a big wet patch on the drive under the offside front wheel, after quick inspection it was clear that it was coming from the shock absorber - great, MOT due in less than two weeks too.
Man maths kicked in and this was obviously the worlds way of telling me I needed coilovers. Hopped online and ordered some Tein Flex Z coilovers which arrived the next week.
Dog approves;
The car went straight to a new local garage I found online (which is now my go-to garage even though I live about an hour away now) and left the installation to people who knew what they were doing as well as a much needed alignment.
I still have these coilovers on now and they are great, I've had no problems with them whatsoever and damping/comfort is great now that I've settled on my ideal settings.
I was cutting it close on how low the car was now though - picture of the car getting over the very slight incline onto the drive;
A few other parts I've forgotten to include so far:
I fitted a K&N filter early on to satisfy my want to do something to the car
I also fitted some LED rear number plate lights to match the front lights as I wasn't a fan of the mix and match.
I also took the car down to Goodwood for my first FOS with my partner, we loved this so went again but for two days this year.
and the car somehow got accepted to be on display at the 'Luxury Motor Show' (got free breakfast and lunch so who am I to complain).
I fitted a K&N filter early on to satisfy my want to do something to the car
I also fitted some LED rear number plate lights to match the front lights as I wasn't a fan of the mix and match.
I also took the car down to Goodwood for my first FOS with my partner, we loved this so went again but for two days this year.
and the car somehow got accepted to be on display at the 'Luxury Motor Show' (got free breakfast and lunch so who am I to complain).
LordGrover said:
I found Yokohama Advan Sport V105 225/45 R17 91W very good on GT86, though I had 17x8" OZ Racing Ultraleggera wheels.
Looking forward to your updates.
Thanks LG - your owners car thread was actually one of the first threads I read on PH and that was long before I thought I would actually own one!Looking forward to your updates.
I've actually got some different wheels now in 17x9 and went for Conti S5's in 235/45/R17 but I will include that in a later update
I then had quite a common change for these cars which was rear lights, a lot of people (including me) don't like the stock ones as they are a bit lexus and full of chrome.
Managed to pick these up second hand for less than half of their retail.
Couldn't wait to get them on so decided to be very smart and do a late night installation
Quick late night picture of them on following a *thankfully* problem free install
And then a quick wash to show them in the light on the next available weekend
I liked the look of them a lot and especially with the sequential indicators (like the new Audi models) which unfortunately I don't really get to see.
Managed to pick these up second hand for less than half of their retail.
Couldn't wait to get them on so decided to be very smart and do a late night installation
Quick late night picture of them on following a *thankfully* problem free install
And then a quick wash to show them in the light on the next available weekend
I liked the look of them a lot and especially with the sequential indicators (like the new Audi models) which unfortunately I don't really get to see.
After this the car remained as it was for a while longer - continuing being a work horse and racking up the miles with 0 problems.
I then found some aftermarket wheels up for sale just 30 mins down the road and decided to buy these wheels for £300 wheels and tyres.
The wheels were heavier than the stock ones but were quite a lot bigger, 18x8 on the fronts with 225 tyres and 18x9 on the rear with 255 tyres which would usually be far too wide for these cars, but luckily the tyres were also Nexen's so they actually made the car more unstable which was fun for a while.
I used them until the rear tyres were getting to the wear indicators and sold them on to a friend with the same car for £200 - happy all round.
I then found some aftermarket wheels up for sale just 30 mins down the road and decided to buy these wheels for £300 wheels and tyres.
The wheels were heavier than the stock ones but were quite a lot bigger, 18x8 on the fronts with 225 tyres and 18x9 on the rear with 255 tyres which would usually be far too wide for these cars, but luckily the tyres were also Nexen's so they actually made the car more unstable which was fun for a while.
I used them until the rear tyres were getting to the wear indicators and sold them on to a friend with the same car for £200 - happy all round.
Just thought I'd include a quick post about the running of this car as a daily driver. In my ownership the car has done about 35k miles in just under 2 years, I probably get 300 miles to a £50 tank of V-power, insurance hasn't been bad at all and tax comes in at £250. Servicing isn't too costly apart from when you need spark plugs but I'm not going to take it to Toyota after the Warranty is out this September. Standard size tyres are cheap being 215's. In terms of problems, I've had an issue with the motor that changes the direction of the blowers in the cabin which was fixed under warranty and also the rear LED brake cluster went which they also replaced under warranty. All in all I've had a really good run with this car.
With the warranty ending in September and a couple of fellow owners cars deciding to punch a hole in their engine block I'm a bit stuck with where to go next (considering one is up for sale on autotrader with 170k miles on it). I cannot for the life of me find a worthy replacement with the same character of this car for similar money.
More updates to follow, just need to sort my picture library out.
With the warranty ending in September and a couple of fellow owners cars deciding to punch a hole in their engine block I'm a bit stuck with where to go next (considering one is up for sale on autotrader with 170k miles on it). I cannot for the life of me find a worthy replacement with the same character of this car for similar money.
More updates to follow, just need to sort my picture library out.
x9wfm said:
Just thought I'd include a quick post about the running of this car as a daily driver. In my ownership the car has done about 35k miles in just under 2 years, I probably get 300 miles to a £50 tank of V-power, insurance hasn't been bad at all and tax comes in at £250. Servicing isn't too costly apart from when you need spark plugs but I'm not going to take it to Toyota after the Warranty is out this September. Standard size tyres are cheap being 215's. In terms of problems, I've had an issue with the motor that changes the direction of the blowers in the cabin which was fixed under warranty and also the rear LED brake cluster went which they also replaced under warranty. All in all I've had a really good run with this car.
With the warranty ending in September and a couple of fellow owners cars deciding to punch a hole in their engine block I'm a bit stuck with where to go next (considering one is up for sale on autotrader with 170k miles on it). I cannot for the life of me find a worthy replacement with the same character of this car for similar money.
More updates to follow, just need to sort my picture library out.
I love these, and would like to own one at some point, yours looks great. How are engine failures occurring though? Are these modified FI owners having the issues mainly?With the warranty ending in September and a couple of fellow owners cars deciding to punch a hole in their engine block I'm a bit stuck with where to go next (considering one is up for sale on autotrader with 170k miles on it). I cannot for the life of me find a worthy replacement with the same character of this car for similar money.
More updates to follow, just need to sort my picture library out.
Both engine failures in our little group* appear to be oil starvation, one undetermined as of now and the other found to be from an oil pump failure - not sure if these are anomalies and by pure coincidence happened to two of us as it's not a known common issue looking online. Toyota have tried to back out of fixing either of them due to past service history's - one is now with the ombudsman and the other is likely to be overturned as a main dealer made up a service history and gave a false logbook with the car.
As a note neither cars were tuned, one had an aftermarket catback exhaust but that's it.
Pic from when we went to Crafty Burger in Leicester;
As a note neither cars were tuned, one had an aftermarket catback exhaust but that's it.
- funny side note, our "little group" is a group chat of owners in the midlands and we've called it "Meaty86" as the first time we met we went to Hickory's Smokehouse and it rhymes...
Pic from when we went to Crafty Burger in Leicester;
Great write-up OP. 
I had read about these for 2 or 3 years before they actually became a reality!
Then in 2012 Toyota ran a competition with 86 places for the winners to drive them up the hill at Goodwood on the Thursday Moving Motor Show as part of the UK launch - and I got to be one of the 86!
But on the day I got allocated an Auto.
Still despite that I liked the car!
Moving on to 2014 I had a the opportunity to take a work-place pension early (with a lump sum), so I booked a test drive for my birthday!
I loved how the car drove, but by the time I had selected an extra or two it was heading towards £27/28K and at the time I just couldn't justify that.
A couple of months later I went to look at something older that I had always fancied and knew I had to have one of those - and I've still got one!
But a GT86 is still on my radar for one day - they are great cars.
Sad to hear about the failures, but I'm just wondering if the cars affected had been used on track - a mate of mine bought a lovely Impreza with track-days in mind, but went off the idea when his mate took his Impreza on track and had the rod through the block issue due to oil starvation!
Anyway to get back on topic I'm looking forward to seeing where you go next with yours!
I had read about these for 2 or 3 years before they actually became a reality!
Then in 2012 Toyota ran a competition with 86 places for the winners to drive them up the hill at Goodwood on the Thursday Moving Motor Show as part of the UK launch - and I got to be one of the 86!
But on the day I got allocated an Auto.
Still despite that I liked the car!
Moving on to 2014 I had a the opportunity to take a work-place pension early (with a lump sum), so I booked a test drive for my birthday!
I loved how the car drove, but by the time I had selected an extra or two it was heading towards £27/28K and at the time I just couldn't justify that.
A couple of months later I went to look at something older that I had always fancied and knew I had to have one of those - and I've still got one!
But a GT86 is still on my radar for one day - they are great cars.
Sad to hear about the failures, but I'm just wondering if the cars affected had been used on track - a mate of mine bought a lovely Impreza with track-days in mind, but went off the idea when his mate took his Impreza on track and had the rod through the block issue due to oil starvation!
Anyway to get back on topic I'm looking forward to seeing where you go next with yours!
So, strangely enough, exactly a year after my first post on this thread, my mind is drawn back to it and I feel there is need for an update.
The current mods list is;
- Tein Flex Z Coilovers
- SPC lower control arms
- EBC grooved discs and yellow stuff pads all round
- Rays 57DR alloy wheels, 17x9 wrapped in 235/45 Michelin PS4's (got through a set of Continental SC5's, prefer the conti's)
- SARD rear wing
- Greddy GRacer front lip
- Re-trimmed steering wheel in Alcantara and red stitching
- Custom machined aluminium gear knob, and
- Miltek non-resonated cat back exhaust.
The car has now done c.54k miles, always averaged above 30mpg (has done over 40 on long runs).
The only things it has needed are;
- Third brake light LED cluster (Toyota gave me the part FOC and let me fit it myself)
- A motor in the heating system that controls which way the air is blowing (fixed under warranty from Toyota)
- Valve spring recall, engine was taken apart and the valve springs were replaced, Toyota fitted a stage 1 organic Exedy clutch and a new set of spark plugs at the same time FOC, as they already had the engine out. They then had the car back after 1,000 miles for a full check up (some dealers have been c*cking up the work) and supplied a GT86 courtesy car for the whole time.
So as you can see, really good experience with Toyota and the car itself. Now that these are getting really cheap I envy anyone that can start this "GT86 journey" fresh and have all the enjoyment I've had with mine again - lightweight, RWD, manual, cheap to run, easy to live with sports car for under £10k... damnnnnnn. Not to mention I've met several friends for life purely through owning this car.
Now that it's coming up to 3 years of ownership, I feel the time to move on is on the horizon, f
k knows what I'll get, though.
Pictures to follow.
The current mods list is;
- Tein Flex Z Coilovers
- SPC lower control arms
- EBC grooved discs and yellow stuff pads all round
- Rays 57DR alloy wheels, 17x9 wrapped in 235/45 Michelin PS4's (got through a set of Continental SC5's, prefer the conti's)
- SARD rear wing
- Greddy GRacer front lip
- Re-trimmed steering wheel in Alcantara and red stitching
- Custom machined aluminium gear knob, and
- Miltek non-resonated cat back exhaust.
The car has now done c.54k miles, always averaged above 30mpg (has done over 40 on long runs).
The only things it has needed are;
- Third brake light LED cluster (Toyota gave me the part FOC and let me fit it myself)
- A motor in the heating system that controls which way the air is blowing (fixed under warranty from Toyota)
- Valve spring recall, engine was taken apart and the valve springs were replaced, Toyota fitted a stage 1 organic Exedy clutch and a new set of spark plugs at the same time FOC, as they already had the engine out. They then had the car back after 1,000 miles for a full check up (some dealers have been c*cking up the work) and supplied a GT86 courtesy car for the whole time.
So as you can see, really good experience with Toyota and the car itself. Now that these are getting really cheap I envy anyone that can start this "GT86 journey" fresh and have all the enjoyment I've had with mine again - lightweight, RWD, manual, cheap to run, easy to live with sports car for under £10k... damnnnnnn. Not to mention I've met several friends for life purely through owning this car.
Now that it's coming up to 3 years of ownership, I feel the time to move on is on the horizon, f
k knows what I'll get, though.Pictures to follow.
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