Thanntos' Asphalt FR-S (AT)

[Thanntos]

I know I am incredibly new to the forums, just like to share my new FR-S to the community!

About a month and a half ago, I came onto this site asking for a lot of advise and information about this car, and was helped tremendously by Chewie and many others. I spent those few days pondering the decision like crazy and searching around for the specific color choice I wanted and trying to set up a test drive. I had a few bad experiences with the first few dealerships I went to. One, tried to say I couldn't even test drive the car, and if I wanted it, I had to "just buy it". Another, only after letting me take the car around its lot at 15 mph, tried to mark up the car to $35k, saying it was their right to try and get "fair market value", for such a hot car.

At this point I was getting very frustrated and annoyed with the whole process. The day of the 15th of August, I decided to call a dealership in Lawrenceville/Princeton NJ, where I got my RSX to see how I would fair there. The Acura dealer I got my RSX from had incredible customer service and an overall wonderful experience. I expected the same from the Toyota dealer right down the road. That night, I called and set up a test drive of an Argento a few days later.

However, that night, literally the most unthinkable thing happened to me. A few hours after calling and setting up the drive, sitting in my apartment at 10pm, a massive storm system came up out of nowhere, and lightning hit my third floor appt roof. The place caught on fire, and my appt was completely destroyed. I lost everything I owned and was basically homeless. The next few days were choas of course, but luckily me and my family had a place to stay at my sisters home not far away. But I thought all my hope for the car was lost. Even still, I went to my scheduled appointment to test drive. The whole experience went great, and while I was in love with the car, I wasn't in love with the Argento color :P (I know, picky, but I had to get what I wanted.) I had to have this car, even with all that happened, I knew I would get a lot of insurance money down the road, and didn't want to pass up this opportunity. I put a deposit down, and had an Asphalt FR-S on order at MSRP pure price, and I left with a huge smile on my face.

While the dealership literally had no time frame for me, they said it could take anywhere from a month, to three, to get the car in, but they would keep me updated. I wasn't expecting anything. But with my recent bad experience and losing everything in a fire, I felt like my luck would change. And it did. As fate would have it, I got the call super early, and went to pick up my FR-S literally one month to the day the appt fire happened. While I DID have to wait about 4-5 hours for everything to be done with paperwork and financing, I walked out the door a proud owner of an Asphalt FR-S!!!

I've had it for a week now and couldn't be happier!! Right now I have about 275 miles on it (picked it up with 11) so the breakin will be rather slow, haha. Getting a lot of looks, window roll downs, thumbs ups and waving, Kinda enjoying it. Also had a manager of a bank come out as I was going to the ATM today asking if he could look at it and talk to me about it.

Now that I have it, I still have a lot of questions and will continue to be a pest on the forums! :P I've just never owned a car that I WANTED to take care of that much before, and I've never owned a car that I wanted to mod a bit. Therefore, I am saying I am a complete noob car owner with this type of car. But I know what I like and want. My basic mod plans for right now are as follows though, from what I have been browsing through on these forums the past few days and seeing what others have done that I liked.

Mod Wishlist
-Exhaust Tips or full replace
-Black Chrome/or Matte Scion emblems
-Remove FRS emblem
-Shark fin antenna (Beatsonic)
-50-70% all around window tint?
-LEDs and HIDs Kits
-Clear side reflectors

Frankly, with absolutely no modding experience, or even car alteration experience, I feel I am out of place owning this car. So, many of these things may take me a long while to get onto this car.
I have read and searched a massive amount on these forums in the past few days but still, any tips or knowledge would help GREATLY!!

Also, if anyone who lives in PA knows of what people can get away with with window Tints, could you let me know? I saw on a few sites, the legal limit is extremely high, like 70%, which kinda sucks and is a massive worry for me, but I always notice cars with much much darker tints around here.

ALSO, like I said I really never had a car I wanted to keep detailed and clean like I do this one, and reading that it's a very bad idea to run this through auto washes, I will be planning on doing my own washes every week or two. BUT....again, I am a massive noobie, don't know any technique, products or just general hand washing knowledge other then stuff I have read on here.

ie-
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...51&postcount=2
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...74&postcount=1

Should I start off maybe by taking it to a detailer to do it all first, and see if they can apply Opti-coat (something I've read a lot on here)? Or just start off by getting all my own supplies and doing a wash myself as per the two thread above?

Anyway, enough with my ranting so far. Below are some pictures of my new baby, and I hope to keep it updated as I move forward with my ownership, and mods!!!

[Thanntos]

[geero]

sweet ride! how is are the paddle shifters on AT?

[whitefrs]

CONGRATS!!!

[Thanntos]

Thanks!

I actually haven't tried the paddle shifters yet (I know I know!!) but will soon, kinda been babying it a bit.

EDIT: I'm also curious, what is all this JDM and Carson toyota stuff people are getting coming from? Like clear side markers and exhaust tips and such?