Should I buy a Soarer coupe and which one??

[Loz]

Hey All!

Got me a GS300 Mk2 and its groovy. But I do like my coupes....

What is a good price to pay for a tidy leather trimmed Beauty? Don't want to blow a huge wad but as a second car, toy type-a-thing....

Any feed back on what's hot and whats not?

Loz

[Steve]

nice car.. been in the v8

however.. check the insurance mate... from what i have seen i nearly ended up with a heart attack.

but a well nice car!

[London Bill]

I would go for the JZZ model (2.5 Twin Turbo), then again I am biased.

Soarer TT

London Bill.

[London Bill]

Insurance aint so bad if your over 40 and live in GU15, about £580yr f/comp.

[Claire G]

I can vouch for how nice this car is from what I saw of it at Brooklands :D

[Steve]

I am actually considering one

I drove one in the states and was very impressed. Good looking car too.

good thing is you can pick them up from as little as 4k...

[Steve]

take a look at this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...&category=18211

some very nice specs!

[Matthew_McNally]

Loz

Toyota Soarers within 100 miles of you

Lexus Soarers within 100 miles of you

had to do 2 searches, as some people describe them as Toyotas and others as Lexus.

suits you sir - can see you in on of them mate :D

[Mitch]

totally off the soarer topic

BUT

when i was waiting (fcukin freezin my nuts off) for the fcukin bus in nottingham to take me to town after dropping my car at tint-r a 4x4 went passed me and i noticed the lexus badge on front and rear and the rear it was called a CYGNUS or somethin.

looked like a toyoto landcruiser and probably was an import version of it.

badged lexus though.

then seen the same model car in same colour badged as a toyota..

maybe he swapped badges over...........?????????

[London Bill]

That Soarer on eBay is a bit suspect,

"Lexus Soarer 2.5 TT, 66k This car is in british racing green metalic with grey cloth trim, Auto box, cruise control and switchable sport mode with overdrive,300BHP! the book gives this car 0-60 in 4.5 seconds it is quick, the limiter has been removed and it will go over 155MPH ( not on the road !)please don't bid on this car if you are young, it is a supercar and is not cheap to insure,if you need to know what it gets to the gallon you can't afford it. (22mpg)

It has all the toys e/windows and e/folding mirrors, climate control, Cat 1 alarm. new alloy wheels and tyres, s/s exhaust, boot spoiler. This car drives as it should it's a Lexus, but go's like a real supercar It realy is the very best of both worlds. The price of this car new was £60,000 and it is how it came out of the factory no mods no chips"

They never had 300bhp from factory (280ps/276bhp).

My modded 320bhp auto can just break 6.0sec 0-60 and is considered a fast example.

It is advertised in Mazda!

Those three spoke wheels certainly aint "how it came out of the factory".

It's Jade Green Pearl not British Racing Green, (why would a Jap car be BRG?).

I am reliably informed this car with options, was about £35k new in Japan.

Sounds very much like a dealer who just dont know what he is talking about.

London Bill - Soarer 2.5 Twin Turbo

[London Bill]

Thanks for the kind words Claire, it took a lot of time & money to get it looking that good, a big insurance claim last year helped after a myopic wagon driver reversed an artic into my front wing, now I can start on the inside which is a tip and needs leather.

[London Bill]

Buy a Soarer for £4 grand ?

One of these days I will produce a "Soarer Buyers Guide", having owned the TT for four years and recently bought a V8 with Air suspension, spent more time at Powerhouse Garage than some of the staff, run the SoarerTT website, co-founded the Toyota Imports Forum and a member of every Soarer specific forum around the world I think I can speak with some authority on the subject.

Many Soarers we see in the UK are early 91/92 examples having done well over 100k miles (they can do 200+k miles), even Lexus cars have issues at this age, this includes worn or failed;

A/C pump, suspension bushes, valve guides, cam follower rattles, fading 3D speedo's, knacked turbo's, slack boot/bonnet struts, sticky rear calipers, leaking power steering pumps & faulty air struts/suspension sensors on V8's.

This is in addition to the normal servicing items of cam belts, ancillary belts, brake discs, rotor caps/arms & leads on the V8's, not to mention oil & filter changes every 5k mls.

Straight off you can see that owning a Soarer is not "cheap motoring" a big service on a V8 could set you back £600/700 (the plugs are £120 a set), as they have come down in price in the past few years we are now starting to see them in the hands of "boy racers", these guys will not spend the money to keep the cars up to scratch, run them (neglect them) for a year or two and then get shut when big bills are looming.

Go through Loot, E&M ot Autotrader (use the search criteria of SOARER to pick up both Toyota and Lexus advertised cars), and you will see them as cheap as £3.5k why? because they are in need of some attention. Spend £4k on a Soarer and expect to spend another £2k putting it back into good condition.

If you are looking for a Soarer then a good service history is crucial, very few arrived from Japan with any service history so it's the past years in the UK which is more important, expect to see several of the bigger items from the top list have been attended to and regular servicing. Servicing should have been carried out by Lexus/Toyota dealers or a specialist like Powerhouse, Intech or JEM and not J.Bloggs around the corner.

Reading all this could make you think that an old Soarer is unreliable, that's the wrong impression. With regular servicing and prompt attention to any of the major items the Soarer is very reliable and one of the best sports coupe available. If my 1992 TT was up for sale it would be worth about £7k because of the service history and amount of rectification work.

Looks like I have the start off a buyers guide now.

London Bill - Soarer 2.5 Twin Turbo.

[Nomad]

I would have to agree with Bill on this. I am not any kind of authority, but I am stationed on okinawa, and in the land of the supercar/street racer type of vechicles.............the Soarer TT is considered a very desireble car.

I picked up a '92 with over a 100,000 kilometers and a somewhat faded paint job for $5000 us. The only problems I have had is the fuel pump ecu starting to go and idiots not paying attention when they open their doors while parked next to me!

Now I have heard that the aristos and the 4.0 soarers are also very nice, but if you're looking for a second/toy type of car, the TT is a real beaut. :D

[THE BOMB]

Well now, depends what you want;

a. 2.5 Twin turbo.......fastest (all non micro switch cars)

b. 3.0 ltr...............bag of nails (non micro also)

c. 4.0 ltr V8.............most sophisticated, adjustable air suspension, TV (can be

made to work) all micro switch controls. Leather (never available as an extra

on Soarers, only as a standard item on certain models (only the 4 ltr ltd I

think). All the gimmicks.

d. 4.0 ltr V8 Active. As above with 4 wheel steering. Drives like a go kart. OK

on a billiard table.

Toyota lost £1000,s on every car they sold. The only FULLY active suspension

road car in the world (at that time). Loads of trouble if the suspension?

steering goes wrong.

PRICES.

All about £3500 to £6000

[UKPulse]

As Bill says, service history really does seem to be a problem with these cars. I looked at about eight (both TTs and V8s) before I found one with a history!

Ended up buying a '94(M) 2.5TT with 47,000m on the clock for a shade over £4K. Bought it from a retired GP who'd had the car since 1998, and who was selling it as he was only doing about 3,000m a year in it!

Real bonus was he had all the old MOT certs back to 1998, so I could verify the mileage.