Turbo Or Not Turbo ?

[Top]

Hi all, this is Matt's bro, thanks for all your advice you've given re our situation with dodgy s.o.b. car traders.

Anyway I would like to tap your brains regarding Turbo'd MR2's.

What's the running costs like for them ? mpg and insurance etc. also any recomendations for insurance companies to try and do you know of any reputable garages/importers.

As usual any advice wold be appreciated

[disco]

elephant.co.uk insure me for £776 im 23 4 years no claims and no points they dont class imports as a higher groups everyone else quoted me around £2500 which is stupid. ill be honest the petrol is expensive when your booting it, i always use optimax due to the car being a import.

hope this helps some

dave

[Jimlad]

Petrol Costs =

Insurance Costs = :o

Fun Factor = :D

Seriously tho... running costs of a Turbo are quite high.. the bugger drinks petrol. Around 200miles to a tank and about £35ish to fill a tank. You do the maths.

Insurance is also a bugger... well depeding on your situation.

I'm 24 with 0years NCB and only 9months driving experience. My insurance is £1500 fully comp with Dorset Insurance. One plus point is tho, with dorset I can mod the car etc and the premium doesn't go up.... :)

I forgot to add...

driving in the wet with your foot flat on the floor in 2nd gear going round a bend = :o :censor: :( ... expensive repair bills.. lol

[Jimlad]

Basically if you can afford to get one... get one.

Bags of fun !

[Top]

Cheers for the input.

Its not as bad i thought then (had a BMW 535 that would need £50 for 200mile).

Will check out Dorset (elephant not working at the mo), hopefully it wont be too bad for me (getting on a bit now with 5yncb, cant see me keeping that for long tho).

I better get looking for one then, is there anything special i should be looking out for ?

Are there any special revisions, different spec turbo'd engines, interiors etc.

[Jimlad]

buyers guide and info

there are a few other buyers guides about, simply don't have the links to hand.

[Dame]

I presume the Elephant website is hitting you with "We are experiencing technicle difficulties ......". Call them - using the number on the site, it always comes up with this if you put in a MR2 Turbo. Dunno why - possibly because it required a conversation. I called them. Hope this helps :). Also it seems in some cases a T-Bar can cost a lot more to insure than a Coupe. I saved around £400 just because it's a coupe (hard top).

Fuel costs - I can get around 230 miles per tank - 270 best ever :). TBH doesn't cost too much to run as long as you don;t boot it all the time.

Maintenance costs - frequent oil changes @ 30 odd quid a time add up (you need to do this ever 3500 - 4000 miles. You can save money and learn to maintain most of the car yourself i.e. oil changes, brake pads, coolent change etc. If you're not sure how to do something, ask on the forum.

Insurance - Highly dependent on both age and no claims (and of course convictions, accidents). If you're younger than 25, no claims will be very important in getting you a decent premium. Over 25, this matters less e.g. I'm 26 with 0y NCB, been driving since 17 - cost £800 per year with elephant. Got fiancee on car too - same age. Also where you live will have a bearing e.g. London will cost much more than Bath.

[pizza boy]

One plus point is tho, with dorset I can mod the car etc and the premium doesn't go up

Are you sure Jimlad cos I spoke to Dorset about this and they said it WILL increase but not a great deal. They USED to not charge extra but this has changed apparently this year mate. Phone em an find out ASAP mate you dont want a void policy especially as your pouring a lotta cash into it of late. .

Top the T-bar is pimp but I also found out ,like dame,it can add a whopping 35% to the quote. I think its cos it can be

A)broken into easier

B)get written off easier due to the chassis bein less rigid. (Altho extensive tests carried out by Jimlad seem to prove otherwise jus kiddin! )

Also Top if your named driver on another car this will bring the insurance down significantly. Insurers know youll then be using the car less which=les chance of accident =lower quote.

Also hit this site : MR2 Turbo Buying Guide A-Z for UK peeps . It is the daddy if your looking for info on the tubby.

On a final note..if ye can afford it try and buy a rev3+ (late 94/95 onwards) facelift. Better engine, better safety, better re-sale value and much much cheaper to mod to the 300bhp level.

But whatever you go for for gawds sake dont get a dog theres loads of crappers about. Just try and get one as close to standard as possible. Never buy a moderatley modded turbo motor in any car imo unless your certain its been cared for. Always been owned buy some nutter who has thrashed it to death, got an expensive repair bill as a result and is tryin to punt it quick.

[Jimlad]

Mmm.....

well I'll speak to Dorset when I put all the cack on my car.. but when I asked they said it wouldn't increase.

Better not !! You just tell them what you've done and they go , "OK... thanks"... and that's it.. lol.

As for crash testing MR2's, hopefully never again.

[SMiFFAD]

The elephant technical difficulties thing is due to it being an import...they wont do internet quotes for imports nor will most people, you gota ring em....

Admiral gave me my best quote, tesco were jipe as usual "yes sir we are the best youll find for young drivers and imports.....that will be £1300 youll find it hard to beat sir....." next phone call, "yeh thats £700!" :censor: @tesco....

[DeusMR2]

when i was first looking for an mr2 it was a turbo, i'm 21,been driving since 17 have 0 no claims bonus since ive been a named driver (under my dad who has 5+years now) and have 3 points last february

tesco quoted me 850ish third party fire and theft for a turbo

elephant quoted me 800ish third party fire n theft for a turbo

smiffad is correct in that elephant dont handle imports online (even though you can select them in the "make of car" question).. you have to phone them up

I didnt have to phone them up because i got the quote through http://www.confused.com/ an excellent site for finding the cheapest insurance through every insurance company in the UK. (there are only 34 insurance companies in the UK,but there are hundreds of companies "subletted" to these 34 with different brand name,policies and prices)

elephant have quoted me about 700 i think for an NA

[SMiFFAD]

when i was first looking for an mr2 it was a turbo, i'm 21,been driving since 17 have 0 no claims bonus since ive been a named driver (under my dad who has 5+years now) and have 3 points last february

tesco quoted me 850ish third party fire and theft for a turbo

elephant quoted me 800ish third party fire n theft for a turbo

smiffad is correct in that elephant dont handle imports online (even though you can select them in the "make of car" question).. you have to phone them up

I didnt have to phone them up because i got the quote through http://www.confused.com/ an excellent site for finding the cheapest insurance through every insurance company in the UK. (there are only 34 insurance companies in the UK,but there are hundreds of companies "subletted" to these 34 with different brand name,policies and prices)

elephant have quoted me about 700 i think for an NA

Flippin ek, thats a blinding quote for 21 no NCB...... i was in the exact same position as you when i bought my sx and ended up paying £2000 for it :arrgg-matey: (granted it was v reg and fully comp but a turbo mr2 would have been more even if it was 10 years older)

I hate insurance companies........ :censor:

[DeusMR2]

yeah i was pretty damn surprised too..its amazing what switching to just third party can do though, in my case it was £2000 fully comp with tesco for a tubby! switching to third party fire n theft more than halved it!

[John R]

Yeah, www.confused.com is the badgers nadgers.... Saves loads of time.

For me, Bell Direct are the best for an n/a... I'm 18, 1 whole year NCD (!).

My top tip is to get your insurance under your name (start saving your no claims) Then add your parents to the car if they have some NCD. I did this with my last car, I put my Dad on the insurance and it went down! But that might be because My dad is an advanced and proffesional driver...... and a traffic sergeant

[CraigT]

Well I have a rev 3 n/a and I got the best quote with Tesco. Im 26 with 4 years no claims and thery charged me about £760'odd.

I was quite happy with that

Some insurance companies made me laugh with their wild quotes

[Jimlad]

I wouldn't go tpf&t mate.... can you afford to coff up the repair bill for anything ??

I know I couldn't afford the £2500 my car cost the insurance company.

[TheBoyRoss]

The running costs are as everyone say dependant upon how heavy you are on that FUN pedal..!!! :D

The insurance for me was higher than your average 21 y/o (now 22) but I had, had the misfortune of a couple of silly bumps which buggered my NCB but I still managed to get quote from Keith Michaels for £1120.??p and they never bumped up my premium when I added my Exhaust or Filter... Egg also offered good quotes (even better if you paid on your egg card)..

Servicing again dependant on mileage and fun outings (track days etc), I change the oil every 3-4 months, I've changed the plugs twice since I've had mine 9 months (std>platinum>Iridium) with a set of leads, oil filter and coolant... All the parts are readily available from places like Fensport and even your local toyota dealer at reasonable prices..

Good luck.. Make the plunge you know you want to..!!!

Oh and mine is For Sale... :D :D :D

[pizza boy]

yea TPFT is deffo not advised imo. I have always been full comp especially considerin me car was £8k. Would only go TPFT if i had a car under £2k.

[screechmr2]

my renewal came through from dorset the other day for my rev 1 turbo. now one year older at 23, no extra mods, no extra points, and now 6yrs ncb so they decide to load an extra £300 onto my policy so it's £1300 the money grabbing *****s.

i paid £1300 2 yrs ago when i first got it and had all the mods done and declared. so when i was 21, 3pts, the turbo being my first rwd car and first sports car i was deemed as competent as i am now, how the hell can 2 extra years experience count for bugger all?

[pizza boy]

I cant beleive that..its gonna cost you MORE? ...%$(! Theyve had a very high number of claims last year unfortunately this is why they are pushin the premiums up. Bugger eh they were cheap as %$( and didnt give a toss bout mods 2 years ago.

[MattMR2Turbo]

You've got to buy a turbo though. In my case anyway, if I was to buy an N/A I'd always crave for the faster turbo and the extra's you get with them.....

I've bought a rev3 turbo (which is the better engine, and styling is slighty better) and I've been nothing but pleased with it :D Especially after thrashing brand new scoobies....

I'm 21 with 4 years NCD and 3 points. I got insured through Tesco's (who I think are by far the best insurer if you have a standard car) for £960 fully comp with protected no claims. Which isn't too bad at all!

I find that it drinks a lot of petrol, especially as I want to drive it a lot!

I also really love the driving position. After driving an MR2 for ages, it's like driving a bus when you get into a regular car!

Hope that helps

Matt

[Jimlad]

Yeah... lol

If I ever drive the womans corsa it's like driving a ruddy space wagon... all high up.. all big and bouncy too. ( ooh er.. lol )

[MattMR2Turbo]

We are talking about the corsa right.... :P

Yea I don't think I could drive another car without it at least having an armrest between the seats