S18 RSG

Can't believe I had to turn my PC on at this time of night just to reply I'll begin by saying, I have listened to every point you've made, and have replied to, or made comment on what you've said in every post, so I clearly AM listening to your points. In fact, I would counter that argument of "not wanting to listen", back to yourself. I have made my intentions quite clear on several occasions, and given my reasoning for doing so. At no point have you offered any advice that helps me. All you have said is that I'm wrong, and your way is basically the only way, as well as told me why your way is right by explaining how, where and how often you drive your car. That's all great, and I'm sure something I could read in depth in a topic that you've started covering the matter (if such a thing exists). This is not that place. I asked for opinions, explained why I wasn't sold on your opinion, and expected some other reply than being told I'm wrong. As everyone else has said, this whole debate is opinion based, and I've never said otherwise. Some people have agreed with me, some have agreed with you, some are in between and can see both perspectives. My issue isn't that someone has a different opinion than mine, my issue is that my opinion is being passed off as inferior, and wrong, just because it's different. Also, the fact that so many assumptions are being made about me, by a senior member of the forum who should know better, when in reality, nobody here knows anything about me. I worked damn hard for this car. I saved, I worked extra hours and I shopped around for a long time to get a good deal. As part of that saving, I also put aside a bit of money to replace parts that I would consider worthwhile replacing after reading so much about the car, so I find it very disrespectful to have, what was a big deal for me (buying this car) brushed off as if it's some sort of everyday thing. I didn't just "spend £20k or 30k" on the car, I worked hard and achieved a goal I set for myself (try to remember how it was for you growing up in your early 20's trying to afford a decent car). I also hate the fact that, due to the above, I'm being told I'm "skimping" on parts. No. Unlike some people, I can't just empty thousands out of my account willy nilly on parts so I can turn my PC on and brag about how great my car is. I have to be realistic, and balance what I can afford with what I want to get out. If I want to make my car handle a little better, £1000 on coilovers won't have as good of an effect as spreading that money equally on suspension, tyres, stiffening, lightening etc. and that's a fact. If I had money to spend on coilovers, I'd have already got them. I'd probably already have the car supercharged with a RB body kit and painted matte purple or something also, but I don't, so please, don't tell me I'm "doing it wrong" just because I don't have the luxury that some people do. And as a final thing before I just turn my PC off and be done with this forum altogether, please don't assume that because I'm new here, I'm new to online forums. I help to run an online car forum with a couple of hundred active members, and have been signed up to various car forums since before I could even drive, probably over 10 years. I have even designed, owned and ran my own forum (unrelated to cars) for a good period. My opinions of online forums are not based on "preconceptions", but experiences. I came from a club which some of you may have heard of, called "Rebel Motorsport Club" (I have no issue in talking about the situation as none of them have time for people outside of their group anyway). There were multiple people on that site who acted like spoiled little brats on a school yard. If somebody bought something for their car, a week later someone would buy something better, and all the people like myself, my dad, and a few friends of ours who had little interest in this competition, were looked down upon. Almost never invited to events, and had our opinions on anything dismissed. The funny thing is, none of the people on this site ever took their car on a track. They spent tens of thousands of pounds on their cars, just to brag about them online and explain how great their car was to people at car shows. When I join a forum and see someone say "don't do that, it's pointless, do this", rather than "if you have the budget, do this, if not, your best option for what you want is this", I can't help but recall that situation. Now I can see that Lauren is clearly respected here by many people, from both a personality point of view and for her talent behind the wheel, so I'm sure I'm not getting the best side of her here and am more than happy to see that, but nothing gives her or anyone else the right to tell anyone that they're wrong because they can't afford to be as spendthrift as themselves. I'm not even gonna get back into the other, completely pointless and rather pedantic discussion. I know I'm right, and I could write another 10 paragraphs explaining why, but at the end of the day, that's not what this topic was about, and quite frankly, proving that I understand a good part of how I make a living, just to prove someone else wrong on an online forum is not my intention.

I really don't get where the sudden hostility came from haha. I'm not arguing, Lauren is right in most of what she says, but I just don't feel she, or indeed anyone, has a right to say that someone is literally doing their car wrong, because it's not her way, that was my point. It's just how a lot of online forums end up. There is always someone who has the money to spend on the best parts, that thinks everyone else is below them if they don't have those same parts. Fact is, everyone has different priorities. I don't consider making my car handle better than anyone elses a priority, because it gets driven on the road, and as I've said already, the GT86 was designed for a purpose, and it achieves that purpose very well. Making the car handle like it's a racing car takes it away from that purpose completely, whereas I'm looking to still maintain the design purpose of the car, but make it better, and more fun. I don't need to spend £1000 for that. And as a final point on the dampers/shock absorbers point, I work with hydraulics and fluid process everyday, it's my job. I use the term dampers throughout my day and would say that I have grasped a decent understanding of the word. But even ignoring that, just by simply visiting the online stores of some of the highly respected suppliers we see advertising on this site, namely Amber Performance and Fensport, both refer to "dampers" as shock absorbers (just go to the suspension section of each site). So from that standpoint, I wouldn't refer to that term as, "poor", "incorrect", or "American", but I am a stickler for the facts.

I hate to repeat the same point again Lauren, but I really can't stand it it when people say you're not "doing it properly" by doing something other than what you think is best. What exactly is "it" in that context? If I want to build a car solely to race on a track, then I can understand how springs would not be "doing it properly". If I only want to lower the car a fraction and have no regard for handling, then springs are definitely "doing it properly". In my situation, I want to lower the car slightly, improve handling slightly and do so on a relative budget. Focusing on the budget part, spending £1000 on coilovers is not my idea of "doing it properly". Of course, we all have our opinions, and that's why we all have such different cars, but I don't think telling somebody they're doing their car wrong, just because they do it differently to you, is necessarily fair. There are a lot of people on this site, and in the car world in general that get just as much enjoyment out of their car which is lowered on springs, as you do with your multiple thousand pound setup. Also, a damper's job is to absorb "shocks". A damper and a shock obsorber are the same thing.

Hopefully Mark sees this thread. I'd be interested to get a relatively unbiassed opinion on the matter.

Couldn't agree more James, you just summed up my attitude entirely. For me, it's not necessarily not having the money to do it, but rather being unwilling to spend so much. I would rather use that money elsewhere and gradually increase each aspect of the car, rather than spend so much improving suspension, so that other aspects of the car (tyres, brakes, power etc.) start to feel like they're underwhelming in comparison.

Yeah, I agree, not EVERY coilover is good. I came from the VAG scene where guys would spend £200 on coilovers just for the drop. It made their cars almost undriveable, but they didn't care. Your springs and shocks option is probably what I'll end up doing. Tein springs are £150, and give a 25mm drop, which is perfectly fine for me, then coupled with ~£500 on shocks at a later date. I don't need the adjustability of coilovers, so that sounds like a perfect compromise.

Honestly, given how much they're praised, I would go against all my opinions and buy them if they were £6-700. It's paying £900, then having to get them fitted (I could do it myself, but I'd like to get it done properly and set up etc.), so all in, I'm probably looking at something like £1,100 or more. Springs are under £200, cost £100 to get fitted and £50 for geometry. That's more like it.

All good points, but again, I have no argument against the fact that coilovers are better than springs. Not even a contest. My main point was, and still is, that for every day driving, the extra £5-600 spent on coilovers over springs, doesn't make such a significant difference to justify the price. Springs lower the car and make it roll less through corners, and for most cornering during everyday driving, those two factors alone are enough to show an improvement. In those moments where you get chance to corner hard, or you're driving a particularly encouraging road, coilovers will certainly show their class, but even in that case, I would make an argument that you could spend that £5-600 on a good set of tyres, bushes and roll bars to go with your springs and probably have a more well rounded package than just buying coilovers by themselves. As we all know, the biggest bottleneck in the original car, in terms of the step up from fun, slidey handling, to good, balanced grippy handling, are the tyres. The stock suspension is (for my money) better than what most stock cars get, and can easily handle the power from the factory, and more. Just a simple stiffen and drop seems like it would do the trick when coupled with upgrades in other areas. Again, open to opinions on this, as this is clearly just my opinion.

When did I say I have an auto? Haha. I have a manual To answer you and Chruch, I swayed more towards springs than coilovers for a few reasons. Firstly, I had coilovers on a previous car. Spent around £800 on them, had them tuned in properly with full geometry setup, the whole works, and then I never took them on track (I did a few track days, just never in that car). I basically spent what was well over £1,000 all things considered, on suspension parts, just for a more uncomfortable ride and slightly better handling around roundabouts. On my previous car, I went with an ARB, bushes and springs, and for basically £300 had the same downsides as the coilovers, with very comparable upgrade in handling. I really don't buy in to this opinion of needing to spend so much money on suspension, especially in cars like these, which have been engineered for a purpose (and done extremely well at that). At the end of the day, the car will be driven on the road for 99% of it's total mileage. With springs, bushes and roll bars I have 80% of the performance (for my driving anyway), for less than half the price. I still get the better looks with the lowering aspect, and the ride comfort comes down to the quality of the springs, so honestly, unless I plan on doing track days all year (which I don't), I struggle to see the advantage in spending an extra £5-600 on coilovers, over springs. Maybe someone can try to convince me otherwise, but please try to avoid the typical forum opinions of "springs are pointless, coilovers or nothing", which I've already covered.

The latter part of your reply was my suspicion. I know that was always the case with boosted cars, just wasn't 100% on NA. The only thing I'm a little dubious about as of right now is the manifold. I know they are sworn by for the gains they yield, and the sound they produce, but so far as I can see, there isn't anything reasonably priced on the market that fits my needs. I wanted an UEL system, with a cat fitted, as I'm not a big fan of switching out cat/decat pipes come MOT time. I wanna say I've seen something on the market to this description, but at somewhere towards the £800-1000 mark, and for that price, I can't imagine the gains would be worth the cost. I would rather spend that money on wheels and tyres and make a big difference to looks and handling.

I'd love to add myself to the list so I can come meet you guys, but my work schedule is so unpredictable I literally won't know for sure until the week before. Providing that isn't an issue, then I'll let you know at that time.

Hi guys. I popped in to my local Toyota branch on the weekend to get a quote for a few bits. One of the main things I wanted, isn't even available (apparently), so I figured I'd ask on here. When I bought my car, one of the straps to hold the seat belt on the shoulder of the seat had been torn off. It's not a big deal, as I doubt I would use them much, but it's a minor blemish on an otherwise very clean car. Does anybody know where to get hold of a replacement? I could stitch it on myself if I could find one, or even if there are alternatives or anything. Any help would be great.

I would certainly be interested to know if the total closure works. This is something I was quite surprised didn't come enabled as standard, though I had a feeling it would be a setting somewhere. If nobody has chance to try before I get home, I'll try it myself. Just to confirm however, I don't need to know my pin to enable this feature do I? If I understand this right, you only need the pin if you enable the anti key theft code (*17856 *013).

The popper is still there, it's just the strap that's missing. I wonder if I could look to get mine done under warranty too?

First of all, welcome I'm sure you'll enjoy your stay here as I have since joining not too long ago myself. From your post, it doesn't seem like you've chosen the BRZ over the GT86 for any particular reason, so I'm going to assume both are an option. From the questions you're asking, you may be better suited with a GT86 instead (personal opinion, others may disagree). Firstly, as you're buying new, or nearly new, you may find that a 6-12 month old GT86 is slightly cheaper than a similar age BRZ, due to the GT86 being slightly more common. White is also a more common GT86 colour, as most BRZ's I've ever seen are in the Subaru blue. With regards to bluetooth and DAB, the GT86 has bluetooth as standard, and DAB can be fitted at any Toyota dealership for (I believe) around £180. Personally, if I were in your position, I would try to buy a white GT86 that's around 6-12 months old. That way, the initial hit on depreciation has been absorbed elsewhere, you still have 4 years of the manufacturer's warranty, and you have plenty of choice. Again, others may have their own opinions, but that's just my 2 cents.

I've been quoted £450 for a full manifold back exhaust, with a decat, and twin 4 inch tips. I don't buy into the premade systems, because for one they're mass produced, so you can't guarantee quality, and secondly, they slap a massive premium on them. I have always, and will always go to the same place for exhaust work, Prospeed in Cardiff. Charlie has done my last 4 cars, and his work is probably twice the quality of a prebuilt system at half the price.

I have refused to spend money on expensive intakes on all cars I've ever owned, so I certainly wouldn't start here, however, thanks to your replies, I placed an order for the HKS filter last night. Along with the manifold back exhaust and remap next month, should see some nice increases.

The cup holder will be more useful for me as it's somewhere to put my air freshener, and I don't drink tea/coffee, so I'll just keep a bottle of water there, but you make some fair points. If I had one, I'd probably remove it. The Chinese Android head units are surprisingly good. My Dad bought one, albeit a rather expensive one at £350, for his VW T5. Audio quality is good, nav is great and the variety of apps are brilliant. I'll probably order an aftermarket filter tonight. What brand do most people go with? I was looking at Cosworth/K&N. I fixed the rear seat by stuffing some foam in the gap between the plastic and the metal under the boot lid. When I gave it a rattle I just pinpointed the rattles and packed them with foam until they stopped. Made a fairly big difference in fairness.

Thanks Lauren. I already have found it very useful, and I'm sure I'll continue to do so

I've been looking for some meets to go to already. Was quite disappointed to see there wasn't one already in the plans. I'll most certainly be there.

Sorry to dig up a fairly old thread, but just wanted to give my 2 cents as we went through a similar ordeal recently. We looked at the Mercedes options, and a Transit, mostly because prices of T5's were so crazy, but in the end, we took the plunge and got this. Must say, in terms of drivability, it's about as close to a large car (as opposed to a quite obvious van) as any van we tried. We love it, and we didn't have to sell the Porsche just to buy it.

I had considered this, however, it's not too big of a deal for me to justify spending too much time/money fixing it. It was only going to be something I would follow through with, if there was an easy solution, which I guess there isn't. Thanks for clearing it up.

Thanks for the reply Church, very helpful. I, too, found that the rear seat latches were the cause of my rattles (not sure if I mentioned that). All seems well now though. I popped into my local Toyota dealer to get some quotes on a few bits, it's crazy how they can justify the prices of some of their options. The armrest was £120 (which is ok), the standard cup holder (which mine doesn't have) is £19 (again, not bad), but the Sat Nav retrofit at £750 and DAB radio at £180, to me, are ridiculous. I've also booked the car in for a decat next Sunday. £110 fitted from the only place I will ever go for an exhaust sounds ok to me.

Reversing camera sure is something I've been looking into, however, I will probably get this when upgrading the head unit. My dad recently picked up an Android head unit, with reversing camera, for around £400 for his T5, it's a great bit of kit. The nav works well (which is great for me, as I use the car for work also), he has all the apps you would expect (Netflix, Spotify etc.) and it just uses the 3G/4G signal from his phone to get data. Seeing as the standard head unit is currently nothing more than a music machine, it's probably worth upgrading. Arm rest is also something I'm quite interested in, just exploring options. I've seen the "official" ones on eBay for around £100, which seems ok, just didn't know if there was a better option than that.

Thanks for the replies everyone, and thanks for the welcomes. In regards to the rattles, I'm sure some people are fine with rattles, however this wasn't a general rattle (I can deal with them), it was clearly something loose/not clipped in properly. It's fixed now, and it seemed like one of the clips on the rear "parcel shelf" deal, with the rear brake light, had snapped. I kinda jammed some foam along the length of it, and there's basically no rattling from the rear at all now. And people can go ahead and abuse I have pretty thick skin haha. I see there is quite a variety in shift knobs. It seems like everyone changes them, and I can see why. Ideally, I was looking for something similar to AJ's (just plain, and round), but with a good bit of weight behind it. I can't help but feel that a nicely weighted shifter would do wonders for the precision of the gearbox. Also, thanks for clearing up the situation with the exhaust. I'm still in two minds whether to go for a second cat delete pipe now, and then a cat back in a month or two, or wait and do the decatting at the manifold when I start looking into getting a new one. Catted manifold choices are rather limited at the moment, certainly UEL ones, so it's a difficult decision to make, but in the same light, a decat pipe for the 2nd cat would potentially do wonders in terms of freeing up a bit of power and upping the noise a little. Any advise is appreciated.