Nick1980

Nice! It does take the piss that these cars are so cheap now, but I suppose it's good for us just getting in to them! I used to have a saxo VTR, and that cost me £7000 second hand quite a few years ago, although that was well before pretty much the entire youth of Britain bought one I don't care what people say now - I loved that little car! Trading it in for peanuts for an RS focus was the worst thing I ever did!

Yes! My powers of observation are still strong, even after no sleep As I recall, he wanted about 5 and a half grand for it - manage to knock him down at all? I'm lookin to spend about 5 myself I have to admit I had a pretty good look at it the other week (hate doing that tho - I always think the owner is gonna see me and think I'm gonna try to nick it or something!) and I gotta say that is a lovely car you got there If you're down again and fancy taking me for a spin sometime......

I go to energize at the mo - it's kind of part of the college over the road from the tube station. Admittedly it's pretty crap, but it only costs me £13.50 a month, so can't complain really! I usually prefer the OEM skirts and spats on supes, but with those wheels that one looks great without them! Alex: I'd love too mate, only problem is I'm looking at spending about £5000, so I wouldn't want to insult you with an offer!

Nice car fella I think I saw this one advertised on autotrader a couple of months ago - was gonna go take a look, but I'm really after an auto. Still looking too...... Actually, I swear I also saw this car parked outside Charring Cross hospital a couple of weeks ago when I was cycling home from work too. Admittedly I was knackered so I might be wrong, but I thought I recognised the wheels from the photos on the trader. Am I right? Oh yeah, and Ewen, how come I didn't get an unorthadox welcome like everyone else?! Is it cos my name isn't crazy enough?

k reg, lexus wheels, and has a mkiv owners club sticker in one of the rear windows. Always see this car on my way to the gym parked round the corner from the Queens club, just wondered if the owner came on here or if that sticker was from a previous owner. Love those wheels! By the way, looking for a supe at the mo.....

Damn, working nights that night otherwise I'd be well up for that. Having said that, I haven't actually found a suitable supra yet, so I would have had to follow you a few cars back in my RS! Are you gonna go down the A4 from chiswick? fancy taking a slight detour up shepherds bush road so i can watch and pretend to be involved?

Ok, asked the chap at the garage if they had the auction sheet, but he didn't. Naturally I then asked if he knew what grade it was, and he said "probably 3.7 to 4". Probably???? didn't really fill me with confidence tbh, I mean surely they should know that as it's just been imported?! I don't even think there is grade 3.7 is there? I thought it went 3.5 then 4? Shouldn't they have or be able to get a copy of the auction sheet anyway?

sorry lust, yeah, would be first uk owner, but the car hasn't been fully converted to uk spec yet (ie fog light, speedo etc). apparently that's getting done today. As for the bumper, I'd be quite happy with a standard one - didn't think that should cost too much? already been offered one in the right colour! Homer - thanks for the info mate, I'll go there armed with that! If the offset was 46 though (only seen them advertised at 43 and 46) would that be a major prob? would I be able to find out the offset fairly easily?

Ok, cheers mate. Yeah, did think £4500-5000 was about the going rate for private sales, and I only really wanted to spend 5k, but this is from a dealer, they're gonna service it, 12 months MOT and 6 months warranty so...... I've seen a few sell at dealers round here for about 6k recently, so I don't wanna dither too much and have someone else nick it! Still, not sure about those 3 things tho.....

sorry, meant to say stevie, cool avatar! Duffman has always been my favourite simpsons character. Oooooh yeah!

Cheers Stevie_b! Not overly concerned about MPG cos I don't do many miles and it's mainly motorway cruising, but obviously the higher the better! Good to know normal unleaded is ok though. Any ideas on the wheels offset/price though? sorry to keep on, but I'm gonna go and test drive it imminently and I might just lose all judgement

2-3mins is ages when you're sitting outside work and you're late! Nah, seriously mete, not really interested in the turbo at the moment - not too bothered about the extra speed, and it's obviously gonna cost more to buy (swapping the RS for a cheaper car mainly cos I need the money to do up my house). Have to use super/optimax at the mo anyway, so that's not too much of a prob, but wouldn't the N/A be less sensitive to normal unleaded than a TT, if I did feel the need to use it? Is it possible to get the car remapped to take 95 RON like UK supras anyway?

Thanks for the advise chaps, I appreciate it, really I do, however...... I definitely want a N/A supra, and I don't wanna wait till the summer and save up, I want one ASAP! I have looked at a lot cos I've been looking for close on a year now I suppose (albeit a lot more actively in the past few months). The specific one I'm talking about feels like it's a good'un to me, but I would really welcome some opinions on the things I mentioned in the first post. I'm probably gonna go back and take it for a test drive in a couple of hours, and if I do that I may just be tempted to buy it there and then, but I really don't wanna get ripped off/stuck with dodgy wheels/buy a car that's been in a front end smash! If anyone can, pleeeeease Nick

Thanks for the welcomes guys........hmmm, not quite thinking about slapping a single turbo on it at the mo - the reason I'm not going for a TT is cos I'm sick of worrying about something going wrong with the turbo and having to sit for ages after a run to let it cool down. Interesting suggestion though! Re the fuel situation, like I said, I probably only do 80-100 miles a week, 70% of which is on motorways/good A roads, and I reckon with my grany style driving technique it shouldn't break the bank! The RS doesn't exactly sip petrol either......

Well, not lots of motorway miles - probably about 80 a week. I just thought it would be cool cruising in comfort rather than relative discomfort (those seets look comfy, but after about 20 miles....) and trying to keep the turbo off boost all the time!

Hi all Firstly, apologies, I'm sure you get many posts like this, but any help would be appreciated! Basically, been looking for an SZ for a while to replace my RS Focus (doing a fair amount of motorway miles etc.) and I've found one that I'm seriously considering....just wondered what people thought. It's a 95 M on about 116,000 km and the dealer wants £5995. I've seen similar aged SZ's with less miles on here go for more that a grand less than that, so I think it's fairly pricey, but they're not willing to come down at all! Problem is, it's basically exactly what I'm after - very good condition inside and out, toyota skirts and spats and really nice 18" wheels, although I'm not overly keen on the aftermarket front bumper, but that can always be changed. I'm in no way a mechanic, so not sure about the mechanical condition, but there is a 6 month warranty with it. Does anyone else think this is too expensive though? I know prices have been quite low recently - I was talking to SupraSam about his nice black one with TEIN coilovers which was only up for £4650 - but I'm planning on keeping it for quite a while (prob at least 3 or 4 years), so does anyone think prices might harden in the future? After all, I'm sure some consider supes modern classics...... Don't really wanna lose too much on this, cos I think I'm gonna lose a fair bit on the RS Incidentally, anyone want a turboed Ford.......? There are a couple of things that worry me though, and like I said, I'm in no way mechanically minded, so please don't laugh...... 1. The wheels are Prodrive GC-05F's, which are extremely nice, but every website I've seen them for sale on says that they only fit Imprezza's. I've heard the Japs like putting wheels with the wrong offsets on their cars, so if this is the case obviously there could be problems with rapid or un-even tyre wear? Could this be sorted by simply getting the tracking sorted, or does having wheels with the wrong offset pose bigger probs? 2. The N/S headlight sits flush with the bonnet like it should, but the O/S one is raised a couple of mill above it. not that noticeable, but it did concern me a bit. The dealer reckons they must have had to raise the light a bit when they fitted the new front bumper cos it may not have been a perfect fit...not convinced though. My first thought was that it may have been in a front end crash. Had a look under the bonnet and everything looks straight, doesn't look like it's been replaced, and all the panel gaps seem even, but like I said I'm not exactly an expert. I've not seen the auction sheet yet (he's gonna get it for me - says he never gets anythig less than grade 3.5), but if it is 3.5 or above then it can't have been in a smash, right? Any thoughts? Is the dealer talking bollocks? Phew, that was a bit more than I planned on writing, so if anyone has made it this far, thanks for reading! Nick