So in November I said a painful farewell to my '89 Eunos after steering problems caused me to understeer into another car on a corner. Being 22 and losing my no-claims I expected to be driving Clios for the next few years... A bit of persistance however, and I've found I can insure an FD or S13 import for much less than I expected. I'm looking at importing either a '96 Kouki S13 Type X or a Type-R RX7. I love both cars and would like opinions from owners. In particular, those of you who've owned an MX-5 in the past, as I hear FD's are basically a bigger, angrier MX-5. What are they like to live with, is an FD at all conceivable as a daily driver? I take a train to work, so the job of the daily is only to ferry me 15 minutes in a morning to the station. Other than that, it is purely a pleasure car. For maintenance reasons, I would install a remote start and turbo timer to the car, so I would not risk running it cold or turning it off hot, probably only beneficial to the FD, but it would be nice for either. My current plan is to import an FD, run it for a year and see how it gets on, maybe sell it off if it proves too maintenance heavy or thirsty. Does this sound like a decent idea? What mileage do FD's tend to begin to suffer rotor tip wear? I'd like to know what to avoid on my searches! Any other info would be appreciated of course. Hoping to begin the importing process tomorrow!
What steering problems caused you to understeer in to another car? The remote start thing has to advantages for an FD any more than a 180. And unless it's stock I'm sure any neighbors are gonna love a rotary sitting there with a big exhaust warming up every day. Or even a S13 for that matter. Seems a bit of a waste leaving/risking TypeX/TypeR in a train station car park every day too. Rotor tip wear has very little to do with miles. Unless you're psychic you'll have no idea of its past. They can fuck up 1000 miles after a shit rebuild with a shit owner, they can last 100k+ on the original engine if it's had a decent life. If you got one from the UK you'd know its past a bit better, but barely. FDs aren't that much like MX5s at all in my experience, awesome cars, but not massively similar.
Chees Stavros. Not sure exactly what happened, but the car didn't respond at all to steering input. Police put it down to reckless driving and I'm sure most other people would assume the same, only difference between them and me is that I was in the seat. I won't try to convince anyone either way. Neighbors aren't an issue. I live in a rural area, and my brother's Skyline tends to sit there pretty often warming up. I get your point on it being both a risk and a waste, but at the end of the day, a car is a car, no matter how special it is. I will of course do my best to find other means of transport, but for the time being, it would be a daily. Models already in the UK (S13's and FD's) seem to fetch much higher prices than ones I can import, thus my choice to import. The way I see it, the risk isn't much higher than buying a car online in the UK, and the guys at JapaneseUsedCars.com have done a good job of reassuring me. I'm not put off by their not being similar. I loved the way the MX-5 handled, and I've heard similar levels of praise for the FD. I love their styling much more than the MX-5's, I love the idea behind the engine and the car - it's basically a race engine in a road car. Honestly, I can't remember why I started this thread or what my goals for it where... Maybe hoping someone could convince me into one car or the other, or maybe I was hoping someone would tell me how stupid I am. Either way, soon I imagine I will be both stupid and bankrupt
I love my fd, but I'd never use it as a daily. However others do with no issues. Aslong as you can live with the fact it WILL drink loads of fuel and your prepared to take the effort to maintain it then you'll be ok.
Thanks for the input mpls24. Any ideas what sort of mileage you're getting? I'm getting some people telling me to expect 15mpg, others telling me 25mpg, and I've seen one guy claiming 30mpg. The fuelling doesn't bother me too much, most of my journeys are pointless 'I fancy a drive' type affairs and can be avoided if I'm too skint to fuel the car.
On average mine is about 18mpg, can get low 20's on a run. If I'm hooning then I can drink a 3rd of a tank in 20 miles lol
Fd's are lovely. If you're intent is to drift on a reasonable budget I'd go down the sbody route. If you just want a nice jap car that you can use for track days etc, go for the fd. And stavs right about getting one that's been imported already, at leat that way you have some idea about how long the engine will last. They're pretty much all imports anyway
Drift isn't my intention here. I did that with the Eunos, would love to do it with an FD, but they're too beautiful. I want a nice looking, reasonably quick, well handling daily. I also miss pop-up headlights. Both the 180 (kouki) and the FD fit that bill nicely. I know the FD is a heart over head choice, but it does fit my main criteria most closely. If it becomes obvious to me that I've made a horrible decision dailying an FD, I suppose it could always go back up on the market and the funds used to buy something more practical.
I loved my RX7, I haven't really got over getting rid of it and that was over a year ago now. I've driven a lot of different cars and it is one that put a huge smile on my face both inside and outside of the car. They aren't the easiest to drift but it is possible. They will cost you quite a bit in fuel (best I got was about 300 miles out of £90) but it depends how you drive it. If you get the 1.3 on the log book ones then they are cheap to tax. A rebuild won't cost you a fortune tbh if it comes to that. I got about 15,000 miles out of mine over a couple of years, drove on the hottest and the coldest days of the year and it never skipped a beat. The 180sx is beautiful but from the two that I've been a passenger in, they don't compare. A rotary revs up in a very unique way and it will become addictive very quickly.
