Returning to stock ... considering something I never thought possible

[AdamVR4]

Interesting thread. I hadn't seen you post in so long I thought you sold the VR4 a while ago Good luck with the VR-4!

[ukyo]

two thoughts:

1st, congratulations on keeping the 3/s.
2nd, proof once again that supra's are way overvalued; i can't imagine anyone doing that silly "drive down, ship my vehicle back" BS for something this side of a 6-figure car.

Thanks and I agree. But... they are pretty cool cars that turn heads. I'm going to miss it. It's not like it was some run of the mill red or black Supra you see everyday.

Oh well. Now it's time to either start building up my VR-4 or cleaning it up to sell. I can't make up my mind. I'm either going to be commuting ~55 miles round trip per day once we move or I'll be finding a new job. I don't know if I want to tack that kind of mileage on the VR-4. It's a '94 with 84K on it. Would be a shame to run that up using it as a daily, but we bought another house with a 2 car garage, so there can be only 2.

[TurboSinceBirth]

07/19/2011 - The saga is over. We had a guy drive down from just North of Detroit yesterday. He test drove the Supra, liked it, we haggled, came down a little on the price, and today he's driving it home. He had to call a shipping company to take his truck back. I thought it was odd he would drive to Atlanta alone to buy another car, but whatever... he had the money to throw around.

In the mean time we have put our house on the market (and we are expecting an offer any minute now) so there will be no backyard paradise. There will, however, be a much nicer house on the North side of the city. Funny the way this thread played out in reality versus plan.

So, that wraps it up for this saga. Now I have to decide if I want a TDI or not. 30 - 50 MPG (depending on who you ask) is very tempting...

I regularly get 38-48 with mine. I know it'll get 50+ considering I can get about 46 doing 80 on the highway at over 3k rpms. It's great for savings and that means more money for the VR-4.

[ukyo]

Interesting thread. I hadn't seen you post in so long I thought you sold the VR4 a while ago Good luck with the VR-4!

Thanks.

I drove the VR-4 a lot today. It still surprises me how fast our cars get to "go directly to jail" speed, and mine is tame by comparison to most on here. At least selling the Supra frees up a lot of money that we need for the move, so I guess it's not really a bad thing. It's just going to be real hard to replace if I decide I want another one in the future.

[ukyo]

I regularly get 38-48 with mine. I know it'll get 50+ considering I can get about 46 doing 80 on the highway at over 3k rpms. It's great for savings and that means more money for the VR-4.

How long have you had your TDI? What is the maintenance like on them? I'm very seriously thinking about one. Or *MAYBE* a 335D. I think I like the idea of the TDI more at this point, though.

[TurboSinceBirth]

How long have you had your TDI? What is the maintenance like on them? I'm very seriously thinking about one. Or *MAYBE* a 335D. I think I like the idea of the TDI more at this point, though.

I've had mine 8 months now and I love it for the mileage. It's slow and not a roomy car. The low end torque of the diesel engine is very nice though. Maintenance is very minimal on them. The main thing is to make sure the timing belt service has been done. Other things to consider is whether the car had synthetic oil ran in it because they require it. I run Pentosin high performance oil that meets the VW 505.10 spec, but I've heard people have had good results with Rotella and Amsoil. It's not worth a $20 savings every 10k miles for me to look through the many UOAs to see what oils cause wear on the camshaft because I frankly don't have time to do so. These cars also use a special pink colored coolant called G12 which is $22 a bottle but it's an anti-gel coolant. Using anything else will cause problems with the cooling system. I would recommend one for fuel economy if you want to save some money. Going from a 30 MPG Honda to a Jetta TDI traveling about 60 miles round trip a day I'm now saving $100 a month on fuel which makes the car payment that much cheaper.

[Chris GTO TT]

I really thought I wanted a Golf TDI, but when I test drove it I was really disappointed. The Torque seemed really slow to come up even though it was rated at 236ft-lbs @ 1800rpm it didnt feel like it had any real torque until almost 2500rpm. Otherwise it drove great. My currently daily is a 2001 Nissan Maxima with a 5spd manual, and its hard to get over the immediate torque the V6 makes compared to the TDI.

[ukyo]

I really thought I wanted a Golf TDI, but when I test drove it I was really disappointed. The Torque seemed really slow to come up even though it was rated at 236ft-lbs @ 1800rpm it didnt feel like it had any real torque until almost 2500rpm. Otherwise it drove great. My currently daily is a 2001 Nissan Maxima with a 5spd manual, and its hard to get over the immediate torque the V6 makes compared to the TDI.

Can't say I'm happy to hear that. Perhaps a 335d is the better option if I still want to enjoy driving the car. I will need to test drive both before I make up my mind, but going to a low power car after having nothing but 300+ HP for the past decade is going to be a bitter pill to swallow.

[ukyo]

I've had mine 8 months now and I love it for the mileage. It's slow and not a roomy car. The low end torque of the diesel engine is very nice though. Maintenance is very minimal on them. The main thing is to make sure the timing belt service has been done. Other things to consider is whether the car had synthetic oil ran in it because they require it. I run Pentosin high performance oil that meets the VW 505.10 spec, but I've heard people have had good results with Rotella and Amsoil. It's not worth a $20 savings every 10k miles for me to look through the many UOAs to see what oils cause wear on the camshaft because I frankly don't have time to do so. These cars also use a special pink colored coolant called G12 which is $22 a bottle but it's an anti-gel coolant. Using anything else will cause problems with the cooling system. I would recommend one for fuel economy if you want to save some money. Going from a 30 MPG Honda to a Jetta TDI traveling about 60 miles round trip a day I'm now saving $100 a month on fuel which makes the car payment that much cheaper.

Thank you for the review and details!

[TurboSinceBirth]

Can't say I'm happy to hear that. Perhaps a 335d is the better option if I still want to enjoy driving the car. I will need to test drive both before I make up my mind, but going to a low power car after having nothing but 300+ HP for the past decade is going to be a bitter pill to swallow.

It just makes the VR-4 feel uber fast when you step in it.