3 Month Ownership Review

[gabbott]

Here's a quick review after 3 months of owning my GT86 for anyone who's interested...

Firstly, i must say i'm a completely with Toyota on their choice to fit skinny tyres to the car. I thought it was a strange move at the time considering most similar cars are brandishing 20" rims and 255 tyres, but who needs that? The GT86 is an amazingly fun car to drive all day everyday. Almost every time i get into it i find myself switching off all the driver aids and going to the shops sideways just because its so easy and manageable to have fun in. Other rear wheel drive cars i've owned have just wanted to throw me into a bush and give me a severe case of death.

It does make a great noise too, it sounds mean and growly, put your foot down and everyone has a look. At 200hp its not the quickest thing on the road, but its certainly one of the best in my opinion. I try be unbiased!

The GT86 is a real head turner, it might be because not many people know what it is yet or that it is a generally decent looking car. Just the other day i took it to get valeted and half of crew at the place were crowding around it and asking questions, most of them say they'd never seen or heard of one. I'm assuming after the recent Top Gear though, people may know more about them.

On a practicality note, my only real criticism is rear leg room, but i knew this when i bought the car. Bit selfish, but i'm not that concerned about the comfort of those in the back as long as i'm having fun in the front!

Most of the time i drive like a bit of a hooligan (when the roads are empty...obviously) and still achieve about 30mpg which is more than acceptable in my eyes.

Be careful with the doors in icy conditions, sounds silly but the pillar less design was not thought up in winter. I went to open the door when it was -4 outside and the window had frozen in position, meaning it couldn't drop the couple of millimetres as you open the door. Damn near broke the thing when i pulled the handle. Note to self, pour some warm water on the seal next time!

Some clever chap at Toyota also cottoned on to the fact that occasionally people need to carry more than a couple of bags of shopping in the boot, the rear seats fold flat(ish) and create quite a large load space.

Right, onto the Touch and Go system. I opted for the Nav pack and the sat nav is certainly very good...once you've entered the destination. I don't understand why most (if not all) car companies make these systems then only let you type in the first half of the postcode. if Tom Tom can do it, why can't they? I'm sure theres a good reason, but it is !Removed! annoying. Theres some good downloadable apps including 'glass of water' which encourages you to drive shall we say, exuberantly, to spill as much as possible from the on screen glass.

I must also stress to anyone who is a bit of an audiophile or enjoys hearing the music at all in what is quite a noisy car, UPGRADE TO THE JBL Speakers IN THE OPTIONS LIST!!! if i could go back and do it i would, the standard Speakers are woefully underpowered and have no bass whatsoever. My near bottom of the range company car Mondeo has richer and louder sound than my GT86 :(

While I'm on options, seat upholstery choices. I decided against going for the leather seats, i had them in my last car and found that in summer they slowly roast your giblets and in winter they take too long too warm up (even with them being heated). That said, the standard seat seems to attract a lot of fibre from clothes and other stuff you don't want sticking to your seat. Most weekends i'm at it with a lint roller to keep it looking respectable!

Overall I'm loving the car, a couple of small niggles as detailed but nothing to lose sleep over and nothing that should stop anyone buying one! Great fun as a weekend blaster or long range cruiser, it seems to do it all.

I hope this review is helpful/interesting in some way, I'll update occasionally if anyone wants. Feedback good or bad always welcome :)

George

[Devon Aygo]

The JBL kit can be fitted after delivery if you wish. You can buy the parts and do it yourself if you want:

http://www.toyota-te...=AIM&menuitem=3

This link will show you what is available and shows you how to fit it too.

Are you saying you can't input full post codes on your GT?

Devon

[gabbott]

Thats a really useful link, thanks! Replacing it is definitely on the cards.

I can only input the first half of the postcode, then after that its road name. it just makes the whole process a bit long winded and if you don't have a road name to hand, you're screwed.

[Devon Aygo]

I shall have to check but I am pretty sure Touch & go includes full postcode input. I know it may sound obvious but you are using the space button to put a space in e.g PL# #DJ. I shall check as soon as our GT is onsite

[gabbott]

I can't remember from the last time i used it to be honest, I'll try tomorrow. Its entirely possible that ive missed something as simple as that!

[gabbott]

Don't i feel silly. Have to say i never notice the space button there in the bottom corner (hand over face). managed to input a full postcode earlier.

I take back what i said about the Toyota software, it was human error all along After playing with Sat navs on Mercedes, Mazda and a few others that only allow half the postcode i quickly gave up and assumed Toyota had done the same. Happy its sorted!

Cheers for the advice Devon.

[SuzyW]

Very interesting review. I wish I could buy one. Sadly I can't yet afford one but hopefully there will be some nice used ones out soon (the car's been out nearly a year now?) When I went to see about buying one, a £6k deposit and still over £200 a month sounded like a stinger. So, I now have a Yaris - not quite the same, lol.

I'm glad you're enjoying your car and it looks badass in black.

[Cyker]

Yaaaaaaaaaariiiiiiiiiiis! :D

[Carl David]

Hello

Great review - thinking of buying one of these now the need for a big MPV has passed.

Probs new as they do seem to be holding value...

Anything else you've noticed faults wise?

Best

CD

[gabbott]

Hi

Nothing other than what ive listed, and most of that is just me being fussy. If your looking for something fun to end your MPV days, look no further.

George