Lauren 2259 Report post Posted July 28, 2014 I thought this one was really worthy of a thread of it's own. Picked up the hire car from Toyota rentacar in Yokohama this afternoon and spent 2.5 hours clearing the traffic of the city. Bit of a nightmare tbh. It really is poverty spec. 16" wheels with 205's, no spoiler, manual aircon, no cruise, no USB (or probably bluetooth), no fog lights, has a key to start with buttons to lock and open the boot. No boot button on the boot, but has a release inside and a button on the key. It has basic fabric seats, no leather whatsoever on the interior. Dash has no digital speedo and is black a bit like the Subaru. Has the Subaru rear view mirror. Not even sure if it has an LSD yet, too tired to find out tonight. Mark said the boot lid had no lining on the boot itself. I'm going to call it a lightweight version. Driving in Japan, well the first two and a half hours were bumper to bumper pretty much. It was only when we got on the express way and out of town that it freed up. Speed limits are low at 100km/h on the expressway for divided roads. But it's 60km/h on any single lane out of town roads. Limits in town vary from 30-50 km/h and get to a heady 60km/h on the bits inbetween. The last part of the journey saw us head up into the mountains, it was very steep and quite twisty. Road surfaces are generally excellent, very smooth for the most part. People are polite. I had to push my way in due to a sat nav error approaching a split, so did so, which was no problem. People middle lane on the expressway like you wouldn't believe, trucks are just as bad too. I showed the guys at the car rental place pics of my two Hachi Roku's, they were suitably impressed! More driving tomorrow as we are off to Subaru in the morning before heading off into the mountains in the afternoon! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted July 28, 2014 I'll do a full report on the car when I get a chance. Notice the plate, cool eh? This car has done 49,000 kms and is not immaculate by any means. I found at least ten little dents in various places. You can see the one on the offside front wing. Good to be driving again though and in Japan! 1 LiamJohnson reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hashiriya 52 Report post Posted July 28, 2014 You'll find that's the "G" spec model which is the lowest of the 3 grades (there's 4 if you include the RC but I wouldn't) I think it's very similar to what the Americans get as the Scion FR-S. I guess you can tell why their car is that much cheaper... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Subota Boy 402 Report post Posted July 28, 2014 Interesting read Lauren. Enjoy your trip!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted July 28, 2014 Interesting Maz, G spec yes, that rings bells from our AW11 SC days. It's funny really because with the MR2 people would post on the forums saying they thought having a tin top (no sunroof or tbar) and wind up windows was a rarity and that's it's lightweight and thus cool until I'd point out they had a poverty spec model! Should be like this then, I think: http://www.tune86.com/toyota-gt-86-technical-specs-info-details Which means manual should equal LSD. I will find a suitable car park later to test that hypothesis. What blows me away is how low rent the car feels everything is way more plasticky, the dash, is just a plain black plastic for example instead of the mock carbon we get on the UK models and when you look around the car every conceivable extra you get in the UK is missing. Except electric retracting mirrors it seems! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
keelerad 256 Report post Posted July 28, 2014 Saves 40kg, and has same rear disks as me now ! Alec Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted July 28, 2014 Interesting stuff Lauren, looking forward to your other 86 journeys over there! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted July 28, 2014 Nice! And in traffic! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted July 28, 2014 is that a white head unit? What is it? I needs one of them for my white interior trim Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted July 28, 2014 It's a Toyota head unit and yes it's white. Beyond that I don't really know. No USB or bluetooth from what it looks like, has an auxillary in. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
forge197 12 Report post Posted July 29, 2014 Think if the UK interior was like that I'd have bought something else that does look proper poverty spec, that said good base to strip out and turn in to out and out track car with less waste Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hashiriya 52 Report post Posted July 29, 2014 So this may be worthy of a new thread but I'm interested to know: If this specification 86 was available to buy in the UK at say £21000 (over the £25000 of the version we have now) how many of us would have opted for that? More importantly how many more people would have bought one at that price point? Would the car be as rare as it is? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
keelerad 256 Report post Posted July 29, 2014 Not worried about the looks, same engine and with the proper diff I'd have bought one to save the cash Alec Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted July 29, 2014 So this may be worthy of a new thread but I'm interested to know: If this specification 86 was available to buy in the UK at say £21000 (over the £25000 of the version we have now) how many of us would have opted for that? More importantly how many more people would have bought one at that price point? Would the car be as rare as it is? I personally wouldn't, I like my luxury bits, especially the push start and keyless entry, but I know a lot of people would be keen on a more poverty spec car at a lower price, take for example the previous Renault Clio Sports, I brought the full spec but added the cup pack to it where as a lot of people just went for the cup spec which was kinda poverty spec and they sold a fair few.....but then again, that was about £15k still rather than £20k odd. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted July 29, 2014 I wouldn't have gone for the lower spec model after driving it for two days. It's just a bit nasty inside and lacks all the niceties of the UK spec. But it is still a GT86 and to some that's all that matters. Pretty sure this model wouldn't equate to much more than £15K list in Japan. I know that's not the whole story when it comes to buying a car in Japan. But, yes it does have an LSD, so has the important bits. The car is not good on 205/55/16 tyres. Too much sidewall flex makes it less fun and less precise. I've now got used to looking at the analogue speedo as there isn't a digital one. I think more people would have bought one, to a point, but only the hardcore. A car with such a low spec is not appealing to the UK market which is why they don't sell it here. There has always been lower spec versions of cars we receive in the JDM. The head unit does have blue tooth but we can't connect to it. So we are stuck with Japanese radio (not good) until we can find somewhere to buy a 3.5mm jack lead. We have worked out the sat nav though, you just put in the phone number of your destination and it does the rest, so pretty easy. We're unable to decipher how to deal with a postcode though. This car does have a reversing camera though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
