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View Full Version : Question for all you Supra RZ Experts



guitarguy
03-25-2009, 08:16 PM
I'm thinking of importing a 93-94 supra RZ this summer, Now all i've hear about these cars is that they are very reliable and well made vehicles. But last week i talked to a guy who brought one over and he said because of the climate change the car was running terrible and he was always having to get this turbos re tuned. He ended up just selling it cause it was so finicky, and it was costing him a fortune.

Any advise from owners out there

Thanks

ercchry
03-25-2009, 08:25 PM
that does not sound right....

i think the trick is (same with any car from japan) is to make sure the car you get still has (or just went out of) current registration (shogun or something, cant remember the actual name), this will make sure that the car is still in good shape since the inspections are pretty rigorous.

JAYMEZ
03-25-2009, 08:26 PM
He bought a POS and didn't have money to fix it.. Dont cheap out on a car like that. 2JZs are very reliable . Climate change? What??

toastgremlin
03-25-2009, 08:42 PM
Is it possible that he was running lower octane fuel or something on it? Climate change doesn't really make sense since there are parts of Japan that have similar elevation to Calgary.

SRT10Killer
03-25-2009, 08:56 PM
That sounds very strange........
but make sure to get a 6 speed, not a 5 speed.

according to a the forum and a person I know who had 2 USDM RZ's 5 speeds are unreliable.

also try to get one WITHOUT an aftermarket steering wheel because to pass the Alberta OOP you must have a airbag

also have a lot of money stored because the price in Japan is A LOT different from the final price(based on the rz 6 speed high value you will pay a lot for exchange rate and customs)

guitarguy
03-26-2009, 12:01 AM
Has anyone had experience owning one? Are they pretty finicky i just dont want to have a car that i have to pour all my money into for little tune ups all the time

Redlyne_mr2
03-26-2009, 08:29 AM
Originally posted by JAYMEZ
He bought a POS and didn't have money to fix it.. Dont cheap out on a car like that. 2JZs are very reliable . Climate change? What??

:werd:

JAYMEZ
03-26-2009, 08:31 AM
Originally posted by guitarguy
Has anyone had experience owning one? Are they pretty finicky i just dont want to have a car that i have to pour all my money into for little tune ups all the time

Ive owned a Supra for years . If shit goes wrong , have fun paying the bills. And with a JDM car , you have no idea how long its been sitting , or if its been well maintained.

badatusrnames
03-26-2009, 08:39 AM
I don't know anything about Supras specifically, but all I can say is try and find one that is already landed and ideally has already passed the out of province. That way you can actually have a look at it yourself and have a mechanic look it over before you buy it instead of buying a car sight unseen.

Let the importer assume the risk, even if it means you have to pay a little more for a landed car, it's worth avoiding any potential major headaches.

Although, since they are only recently import eligible, you might have a tough time finding a landed one for sale. They aren't yet common enough like the Fairlady's, Skyrines, etc.

ercchry
03-26-2009, 02:03 PM
Originally posted by JAYMEZ


Ive owned a Supra for years . If shit goes wrong , have fun paying the bills. And with a JDM car , you have no idea how long its been sitting , or if its been well maintained.

you can have a pretty good idea how long they were sitting if they still have the registration sticker on them, if it just expired or is still current chances are it has not been sitting, if it is expired by a few years you can venture a guess that it has either been sitting for that long or driven really hard (and illegally) and not maintained

and for buying one locally.... do you have any idea the mark up on these?

DonJuan
03-26-2009, 02:38 PM
Originally posted by ercchry

and for buying one locally.... do you have any idea the mark up on these?

If you don't got the balls or buy one sight unseen then you gotta pay. Its that simple.

As with all JDM cars watch out for ones with ECU tunes (or modifications in general), cuz they ar eporbably tuned for 100 octane.

JAYMEZ
03-26-2009, 02:47 PM
Originally posted by ercchry


you can have a pretty good idea how long they were sitting if they still have the registration sticker on them, if it just expired or is still current chances are it has not been sitting, if it is expired by a few years you can venture a guess that it has either been sitting for that long or driven really hard (and illegally) and not maintained

and for buying one locally.... do you have any idea the mark up on these?

True. But why not just buy a USDM one where you can check all the records and see what has been done to it ?

T78Supra1
03-26-2009, 02:54 PM
I've also owned one for years and nothing 15years old is reliable. The engine may be invincible but everything else will fall apart.

I loved my Supra but anybody that has owned one has their mechanic on Speed Dial.

If you want something reliable don't by anything right hand drive

n1zm0
03-26-2009, 02:57 PM
Originally posted by ercchry
i think the trick is (same with any car from japan) is to make sure the car you get still has (or just went out of) current registration (shogun or something, cant remember the actual name), this will make sure that the car is still in good shape since the inspections are pretty rigorous.

2 year sha'ken, like he said^ read the registration sticker, the number is according to when the current emperor had accepted the throne presently 1989 for Akihito, Heisei era. if the sticker says 14 and whatever 12 month number stamped for example, add that 14 to 1989, your car was last registered in 2003 and probably sat in a lot or under a bridge or whatever for 6 years potentially causing dried seals and beaten by the sun.

like someone said, try and do as much research in the car you're buying as possible, some simple things like the registration sticker can be helpful, i'll bet as said above ^ the guy got a shitty/abused example and couldn't pay for his mistakes. i can attest to this with my brothers levin, had a 15 registration sticker on the window, explains the cracked dash vinyl, paint fade and all the little bs stuff i've had to fix on it that is just on its way out.

or...

save up and buy a nice LHD :dunno:

ercchry
03-26-2009, 02:59 PM
EDIT: ^^ there we go, exactly. if that sticker is a 2 year one that means that car has to pass a inspection and to do so it is pretty close to being damn perfect, those are expensive and if a car is not up to par chances are the owner is just going to want it gone... then those are the cars you see for the majority of the part here... the shit, because it is cheap



Originally posted by T78Supra1

If you want something reliable don't by anything right hand drive

pure ignorance right there.... like i have said a million times already it all depends

the issue is that importers get the cheapest cars they can find to maximize profit thus giving rhd a bad reputation over here, they is plenty of people that do not get these free junkyard cars from japan and actually get good working order cars that legitimately pass a oop

em2ab
03-26-2009, 03:01 PM
If the oxygen levels vary in the altitudes the car operates in, you might have to change the timing. I've heard that before from someone and it seems to make sense to me.

ercchry
03-26-2009, 03:07 PM
Originally posted by em2ab
If the oxygen levels vary in the altitudes the car operates in, you might have to change the timing. I've heard that before from someone and it seems to make sense to me.

chances are this would only come into play with a map based car, dunno if the 2jz in these is map or maf though

SRT10Killer
03-26-2009, 04:24 PM
If you want something reliable don't by anything right hand


I rofl'd at that

I will only buy rhd cars because they are that reliable

If you prefer LHD thats fine, but the price difference is about 15-25k if you import it yourself.

And yes there are nice 6 speed RHD rz's that are 15-25k cheaper than stock LHD 6 speed rz's

badatusrnames
03-26-2009, 04:46 PM
Originally posted by T78Supra1
If you want something reliable don't by anything right hand drive

More like if you want something reliable, don't buy a 15+ year old turbo sports car...

guitarguy
03-27-2009, 01:31 AM
How i would love to buy a LHD Supra but the price difference is just rediculous. I can't find a manual twin turbo supra for under 30,000. i'm looking to spend about 18,000 and i'm maxed out which is why i'm asking about the reliability of these cars. cause if i get one and everytime i turn around there another bill for it i'll have to sell it.

People can ask whatever they want for there cars i've seen tons of supra that people are asking 20-25 grand them and i bet they paid about 14 or 15. I think the way the economy is right now that wont fly. I've been researching for while and a lot of these cars arent selling, and when they are i bet its for a lot sell then they were asking.

How can you tell if a car has had its ecu changed at all. I know you can reset everything by taking a fuse out for a couple seconds, Would the reset a tuned ecu?

Redlyne_mr2
03-27-2009, 09:30 AM
Originally posted by SRT10Killer


I rofl'd at that

I will only buy rhd cars because they are that reliable

If you prefer LHD thats fine, but the price difference is about 15-25k if you import it yourself.

And yes there are nice 6 speed RHD rz's that are 15-25k cheaper than stock LHD 6 speed rz's

Keep in mind the USDM Supras have some significan ugrades over the RHD ones.

Eleanor
03-27-2009, 09:35 AM
Originally posted by badatusrnames
More like if you want something reliable, don't but a 15+ year old turbo sports car... :werd:

The 15 year old Fairladies that have been sitting in a junkyard in Japan for 8 years are no less reliable than the 15 year old 300ZX that's been sitting in a junkyard for 8 years in North America.

CelicaST-162
03-27-2009, 09:35 AM
Originally posted by Redlyne_mr2


Keep in mind the USDM Supras have some significan ugrades over the RHD ones.

Larger 550cc injectors
Slightly Smaller but more durable steel turbo's, unlike the weak JDM ceramic.
Less prone to burning oil (take this statement with a grain of salt) JDM cars may sit for years thus drying out valve stem seals causing the oil burning.

heavyD
03-27-2009, 09:46 AM
Originally posted by badatusrnames


More like if you want something reliable, don't but a 15+ year old turbo sports car...

My 1993 MR2 begs to differ. IMO it's the way the car was taken care of. My car was 100% bone stock, dealer serviced, one owner and never left San Diego until I bought it. It's been almost two years and the only time it's been to a shop was for my out of province inspection. I'm definately a believer in Toyota quality/reliability after owning this car.

I'm sure if the car was owned and modded by a teenager it would be a different story but IMO the key is knowing the ownership history of the car.

badatusrnames
03-27-2009, 12:26 PM
Originally posted by ercchry


you can have a pretty good idea how long they were sitting if they still have the registration sticker on them, if it just expired or is still current chances are it has not been sitting, if it is expired by a few years you can venture a guess that it has either been sitting for that long or driven really hard (and illegally) and not maintained


This is good advice, I wish I knew that before I imported...

I got really lucky though. I bought my car in October 2007 and it came with recent road tax (expired in August 2007) and a current insurance sticker (expired September 2008)...


Originally posted by n1zm0


2 year sha'ken, like he said^ read the registration sticker, the number is according to when the current emperor had accepted the throne presently 1989 for Akihito, Heisei era. if the sticker says 14 and whatever 12 month number stamped for example, add that 14 to 1989, your car was last registered in 2003 and probably sat in a lot or under a bridge or whatever for 6 years potentially causing dried seals and beaten by the sun.

Actually, since the first year of the current Heisei is 1989 (1989 is 1), you add the number to 1989 and subtract one. So 14 would be 2002.

Here's the table:

1 1989
2 1990
3 1991
4 1992
5 1993
6 1994
7 1995
8 1996
9 1997
10 1998
11 1999
12 2000
13 2001
14 2002
15 2003
16 2004
17 2005
18 2006
19 2007
20 2008
21 2009
22 2010
23 2011
24 2012

n1zm0
03-27-2009, 12:34 PM
Originally posted by badatusrnames
Actually, since the first year of the current Heisei is 1989 (1989 is 1), you add the number to 1989 and subtract one. So 14 would be 2002.


lol well close enough, 1 year isnt going to make a difference when your car is 15 years old and has sat for 3-6 years, the dash will still be cracked, the engine front seals may or may not have shrunk/cracked and it'll still smell like stale JDM herb squash air-spencer.

badatusrnames
03-27-2009, 12:38 PM
Originally posted by n1zm0


lol well close enough, 1 year isnt going to make a difference when your car is 15 years old and has sat for 3-6 years, the dash will still be cracked, the engine front seals may or may not have shrunk/cracked and it'll still smell like stale JDM herb squash air-spencer.

Meh, I suppose 3-6 doesn't make a difference, but at least with mine I can be pretty sure it likely didn't have a chance to sit at all...

And I think my previous owner had pretty good taste when it came to air fresheners! The car still smells fresh!

R154
03-27-2009, 01:24 PM
There is no such thing as a USDM RZ. RZ was a trim level in japan only.

Second, supras never came turbo w/ a 5 speed. They came twin turbo 6speed and auto.

If you want a rhd supra, buy an NA and build it. you could throw the 10K difference into a built head, single turbo, turbo kit. A built r154 (5speed). But, the appeal of a twin turbo IS the 6speed getrag tranny that comes stock. The tranny alone is like 5K from the toyota dealership.

But you could build a street sweeper for relatively cheap (about 20 grand).

Japan stocks higher octane fuel at the pump then us. Hence the reason why modded rhd cars that come across and get baged on here are falling apart and blowing up. Modded cars that get tuned for daily driven duty are tuned for atleast 101 octane. They have 106 at the pump!
The key to RHD cars, is to get a bone stock low mileage unit. But buying a RHD car without seeing it, is kind of like getting a mail order bride... you never know if the plow skills will be up to scratch... or the car is in good condition.

As far as I am concerned, a supra is a supra, yes; However, if you are unable to afford a USDM stock 6speed, good luck with insurance, and mod fund on a RHD. You will need to do maintanence right of the bat, and unless you know your way around a 2jz, you'll be hard pressed to find a dealership that is equally as adept with that motor.
There are a few shops around the city with people who are toyota gods. CelicaST-162 is one of them.

911fever
03-27-2009, 01:39 PM
just wait until the summer, the US-Canadian dollar will be closer, and you will be able to import a nice 94-96 for under 30k.