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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

buying an FTO


Dave

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...my 1999 golf GTI MK4 which i know is worth £2200 all day long as its in mint condition & had alot of money spent on it.

Thing is i know i wont get £2200 for my GTI, its for sale for £2200 but i'll probably get £2000 to £1800...

 

eh?

 

 

Don't buy an FTO, you'll regret it forever.

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Agree with all of this apart from the tuning potential. There's not much extra to be had out of the B18c without spending big money.

 

You don't get UK cars in yellow or silver (only facelifted JDM afaik) so it would just be red, championship white and black if that's what you wanted. A 98spec (facelift) JDM will set you back £6k+ generally).

 

I'd choose the teg all day over pretty much all cars in it's price bracket but then I'm a bit biased there. If you want one, I'd be spending at least £4k...ideally £5k to get a good example.

 

:)

 

:yeahthat:

Tunning wise, all you'd need to do really is K&N panel filter, remove resonators, Spoon exhaust manifold, de-cat, Spoon B-pipe and Spoon N1 backbox and that'll see you damn near 200bhp. I had a Civic Jordan with these breathing mods, and I made sport of EP3s, given I was making around 180bhp. Suspension wise I did the cheap option of Koni lowering springs, which made a great improvement, but a full spring and strut package would work better. Some lightweight wheels with good tyres like Eagle F1s will help. That'd be all you need really, apart from other little things which you may want. That kind of set up on a teg would be plenty to have fun with. It's still an n/a, so chasing big bhp figures without a turbo is pointless and expensive.

Sometimes I miss my Jordan, was a great car. Held it's price because of the rearity too.

 

So yeh, I think around £4-5k for a nice UK spec would be better for you.

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Don't buy an FTO, you'll regret it forever.

 

Completely untrue... these cars should not be held up against things like the Supra! I was supposed to sell my 6 months ago but dont have the heart to sell it! I think no one notice Aron is looking to send -£2k so telling him to get a teg is no good!

 

The prelude are pretty good which is another option against the FTO, but I personally think the FTO is much better looking.

 

Drivewise it is pretty hollow because a lot of the sound deading has been removed to save weight and give this car great balance. From the numorous cars I have driven I would say the FTO is the 3rd best FWD I have driven (1. Teg 2.EP3).

 

Lets put it this way... you do saw a fair amount of FTO's on the road, 95% of these are imported due to Mr M saying he would not sell any UK ones (very few UK models were made, like 500 odd). If they were no good and very slow you would not see this massive market for this car being imported... for its price, looks, sound you can not do much better!

 

If I had to sell the Supe and get a cheaper car, I'd get an FTO in a heartbeat! :)

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I think they would give your NA a good run for its money, esp in the corners :p

 

I used to own an FTO GR and I now own an NA and they are no comparison to each other. I had a three year ownership from hell with my FTO everything that could have gone wrong went wrong...:( but i still loved it at the time. My tappets were a major issue to be honest as well as my gear box,but I may just of had bad luck with FTO ownership. I managed to px mine against the supe;) as i had real trouble trying to sell it:(.

Abz has pretty much summed up all the bad points and true they still look a nice car, however as much as i loved it,i wouldn't look back now:)

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I used to own an FTO GR and I now own an NA and they are no comparison to each other. I had a three year ownership from hell with my FTO everything that could have gone wrong went wrong...:( but i still loved it at the time. My tappets were a major issue to be honest as well as my gear box,but I may just of had bad luck with FTO ownership. I managed to px mine against the supe;) as i had real trouble trying to sell it:(.

Abz has pretty much summed up all the bad points and true they still look a nice car, however as much as i loved it,i wouldn't look back now:)

 

There are some ragged ones out there... I'd suggust taking your time, just like the Supe's you got the good,

the bad and the dam right ugly, and like all things in life you get what you pay for!

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Completely untrue... these cars should not be held up against things like the Supra! I was supposed to sell my 6 months ago but dont have the heart to sell it! I think no one notice Aron is looking to send -£2k so telling him to get a teg is no good!

...

If I had to sell the Supe and get a cheaper car, I'd get an FTO in a heartbeat! :)

 

£2K = NA Supra. Vs the FTO it's bigger, better, faster, more reliable, better looking....

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£2K = NA Supra. Vs the FTO it's bigger, better, faster, more reliable, better looking....

 

Apologises minus didnt come out clear on post before, from Aron's posts I think his looking at spending £1,800 or less? You would get a rubbish NA for that much.

 

If you do have £2.5k to spend then I would recommend a Supra over the FTO.

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Erm my experience of owning an FTO was mixed

 

Good points

  • Look great (better looking than the supra IMHO)
  • Sound great - V6
  • Quite cheap to run in comparison
  • Quite cheap to buy now
  • The only car I have ever owned which pass it's MOT the first time round

 

Bad points

  • Engines are prone to failure - look it up on the FTO club (look up big ends you'll see what I mean)
  • Mine drank oil like no other car I have ever had (linked to point one) - I was checking it every other day and topping it up at least once a week
  • I had every possible sensor replaced during the 18 months I owned it
  • The alternator is very low down and I'm sure that is responsible for the fact that I had 4 alternators replaced in 9 months - all under warranty in the end but that didn't make it less annoying
  • The club is nothing like this one!!!
  • The tiptronic gear box was dreadful, manual mode never worked, and the autobox used to drop down from 4th to 2nd when it really wasn't necesssary

 

If you are seriously looking to buy one - get one imported or get one where you know that it's had a good history.

 

Pay more for a manual over the 4 speed tip box.

 

Mine may have just been a bad egg, although I seriously question the number of Mivecs where the engine failed, owned by enthusiasts who loved their cars

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A young lad in my office has just bought a 2 litre FTO for £800. Looks ok, but it will be interesting how he gets on. He needs a new sensor already, but I dont know which one. I must admit it has a nice shape close up.

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Apologises minus didnt come out clear on post before, from Aron's posts I think his looking at spending £1,800 or less? You would get a rubbish NA for that much.

 

i originaly bought an NA for £1,800 and admitedly it was a bit of a mess but mechanicaly sound! i started the restoration just before christmas last year, engine out detail and clean up, body work was coming up nicely! if your put the work in you gain the rewards but then i got screwed when mine and my mates got robbed (kept in same garage) :(

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aron needs a car with room for his daughter of 2 years so he would love a supra but not practical

 

FTO has more space than the Supe in the back, but this is a very small difference.

 

Mine may have just been a bad egg, although I seriously question the number of Mivecs where the engine failed, owned by enthusiasts who loved their cars

 

Yep think you might have had a bad egg, I opted for a GR which is not a much demand as a MIVEC model GPX but like you said a lot of these GPX's have been ragged and have been told by EuroSpec (the guys who looked after my FTO) they get quite a few with bottom ends which have gone!

 

In the 1 & a half years, mines only had an oil change and I've only topped it up twice doing about 6k in the time I had owned it. The only issue I have had is the heater matrix going bust on mine but after doing some research seems pretty common on the FTO's but the part costs only £45, though the dash is a bitch!

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FTO has more space than the Supe in the back, but this is a very small difference.

 

 

 

Yep think you might have had a bad egg, I opted for a GR which is not a much demand as a MIVEC model GPX but like you said a lot of these GPX's have been ragged and have been told by EuroSpec (the guys who looked after my FTO) they get quite a few with bottom ends which have gone!

 

In the 1 & a half years, mines only had an oil change and I've only topped it up twice doing about 6k in the time I had owned it. The only issue I have had is the heater matrix going bust on mine but after doing some research seems pretty common on the FTO's but the part costs only £45, though the dash is a bitch!

 

 

Your opinion seems to differ from eveyone else's and you are the only one with an FTO for sale......hmmmmmmmm:innocent:

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