Toyota Blade Master G, your Gran's Auris on steroids
Discussion
A more innocuous looking car would be hard to find, a frumpy, no frills, Toyota hatchback sitting on modest alloys and not an exhaust pipe in sight. But this pensioners shopping trolley hides a bad boy secret, namely the 276bhp V6 lifted from Lexus's IS350.
I'm too old and creaky for any more back breaking hot hatches and appreciate my anonymity too much to opt for anything like the outrageous Type R Civic so this invisible thing seemed to fit the bill of comfort and refinement with the odd bit tomfoolery thrown in.
Only picked it up today but it's already exceeded expectations, I wafted 50 miles home on empty rural roads and the trip computer showed an average of 36mpg then I went for a brief hoon and was shocked at how fast it is, it honestly feels like way more than the quoted power and it banged into its 190kph (indicated) Japanese speed limiter incredibly quickly. The engine isn't musical but it's not harsh either, it pulls hard low down, then harder again at around 4000rpm and I t keeps pulling all the way to the redline.
It's no handling master, more of a 6 or 7 tenths car, slow in and squeeze it out of corners, great comfort is the payoff.
The interior has been covered in fine materials and there's niceties like radar cruise, electric seats, quality audio and lots of unknown buttons with Japanese script (an English language manual is on order).
It's early days (day!) but I love it, a perfect gentlemans express for shy types with spinal issues.
Couple of pics:
I'm too old and creaky for any more back breaking hot hatches and appreciate my anonymity too much to opt for anything like the outrageous Type R Civic so this invisible thing seemed to fit the bill of comfort and refinement with the odd bit tomfoolery thrown in.
Only picked it up today but it's already exceeded expectations, I wafted 50 miles home on empty rural roads and the trip computer showed an average of 36mpg then I went for a brief hoon and was shocked at how fast it is, it honestly feels like way more than the quoted power and it banged into its 190kph (indicated) Japanese speed limiter incredibly quickly. The engine isn't musical but it's not harsh either, it pulls hard low down, then harder again at around 4000rpm and I t keeps pulling all the way to the redline.
It's no handling master, more of a 6 or 7 tenths car, slow in and squeeze it out of corners, great comfort is the payoff.
The interior has been covered in fine materials and there's niceties like radar cruise, electric seats, quality audio and lots of unknown buttons with Japanese script (an English language manual is on order).
It's early days (day!) but I love it, a perfect gentlemans express for shy types with spinal issues.
Couple of pics:
TotalControl said:
That is bloody awesome! More details and pics please.
More pics tomorrow, Bathurst qualifying on now but here's a few more details:3500V6, 276bhp, 254lbft torque, 6 speed auto with paddle shift, suspension is upgraded to double wishbones and larger brakes fitted, weighs around 1500kg so no lightweight but 0-100 in 13/14 seconds is still pretty quick, for an Auris....
This one is a 2008, they were produced from 2007 - 2012 with a facelift in late 2010 (still no looker).
Price? Since the UK pound devalued post brexit vote it sounds expensive, I paid the equivalent of just over £5000, although it's an immaculate 65000 mile car with fresh service, 4 new new tyres and 3 month no quibble warranty, at pre brexit exchange rates it would have cost less than £4k in the UK.
Edited for poor maths :-)
Edited by cheddar on Friday 6th October 07:29
Horsetan said:
HIghly interesting. I wonder if the speed limiter can be removed......?
Yes ofcourse - bread and butter in the world of japanese imports.I'm an avid follower of jap import cars and have owned far, far too many... and somehow i've never heard of this. Absolutely love it. Must not be many over here. I'm the proud owner of some rare imports, one being a Nissan X-Trail GT (boxy old 2002 x-trail... with a 280bhp SR20VET engine slotted in from the factory), so i'm very familiar with the whole jdm q-car thing
Defo get some more photos up, awesome little sleeper that.
I'll see what I can do. Defo not many over here (it's one of two that I know of) but i've never seen any others or even heard of any. I was thinking of doing a thread relating to my mx5 obsession also - have owned 42 and currently own.... 4 of them. I think. I lose count.
Anyway, looking forward to more info on this
Anyway, looking forward to more info on this
More photos when I get out of bed, here's a few answers in the meantime
Yes the speed limiter can be removed and it must easily be a 150mph+ car
The 'Lexusy' rear lights with added 'Lexusnessness' are the only giveaway that it isn't a boggo Auris, red film will easily sort this
No need to debadge, they don't really show up and no one knows what it is anyway, a friend came to see it while I was in a car park and walked straight past it, there were only 3 cars in the whole place too
I could google translate the interior switches as suggested but I've purchased a fully translated user manual which should arrive on Monday, 90% of the switches are already in English, is there a motor industry expectation that most Japanese people are at least partially bilingual?
One ventilation switch says 'ion' so I assume it has a built in negative air ioniser to aid purity, which is nice......
This little youtube clip gives an idea of how these get along
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=INlDKnqlQ-k
Yes the speed limiter can be removed and it must easily be a 150mph+ car
The 'Lexusy' rear lights with added 'Lexusnessness' are the only giveaway that it isn't a boggo Auris, red film will easily sort this
No need to debadge, they don't really show up and no one knows what it is anyway, a friend came to see it while I was in a car park and walked straight past it, there were only 3 cars in the whole place too
I could google translate the interior switches as suggested but I've purchased a fully translated user manual which should arrive on Monday, 90% of the switches are already in English, is there a motor industry expectation that most Japanese people are at least partially bilingual?
One ventilation switch says 'ion' so I assume it has a built in negative air ioniser to aid purity, which is nice......
This little youtube clip gives an idea of how these get along
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=INlDKnqlQ-k
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff