Buying my FIRST EVER CAR very soon!

[Berry]

Hello guys,

Ive always driven family cars before during uni ( Audi Q7, Lexus RX350 ) and its time for me to get my own car!!!

The twins are obviously the top of my list since of the great amount of positive review it has received.
Ive driven the car and i absolutely loved it and believe it is the right car for me at the present time, but since this will be the first car i own i will need some help from you

How is the reliability of this car ?
I live in a VERY VERY hot and humid country, will this car not live up to expectations during this weather ? Ive only test drove the car during winter ( around 14-20 degrees C )

I am of course considering modding the car and ive been lurking around the forums for a long time to have a slight idea about what i want but of course ill need some help with that.
I want to change the taillights and i am considering TOM'S since they look very 'conservative(?)' and not so rice.
I want to improve the cars cooling since im in a hot country, what do you think i should do to it ?

Also if you were to recommend any other car what would you recommend ? My budget is 27,000 pounds MAX. Also please no miata or S2K or a super small 2 seat car!!!

Thanks a lot for your time.

[thill]

There are several folks from Dubai who post here. I would look a few of them up and ask them directly. The one thing to be aware of is that ECU on this car will start cutting back on power if it is hot and humid to avoid overheating. I suppose this is true of most modern cars, but this car is already slightly down on power so something to consider although it sounds like you drove one already.

Improving cooling, best bet would be adding a better radiator. Something like this:
http://fullblownmotorsports.com/shop...n/f-rs/cooling

And maybe an oil cooler if you plan on tracking the car.

[carbonBLUE]

Originally Posted by Berry

Hello guys,

Ive always driven family cars before during uni ( Audi Q7, Lexus RX350 ) and its time for me to get my own car!!!

The twins are obviously the top of my list since of the great amount of positive review it has received.
Ive driven the car and i absolutely loved it and believe it is the right car for me at the present time, but since this will be the first car i own i will need some help from you

How is the reliability of this car ?
I live in a VERY VERY hot and humid country, will this car not live up to expectations during this weather ? Ive only test drove the car during winter ( around 14-20 degrees C )

I am of course considering modding the car and ive been lurking around the forums for a long time to have a slight idea about what i want but of course ill need some help with that.
I want to change the taillights and i am considering TOM'S since they look very 'conservative(?)' and not so rice.
I want to improve the cars cooling since im in a hot country, what do you think i should do to it ?

Also if you were to recommend any other car what would you recommend ? My budget is 27,000 pounds MAX. Also please no miata or S2K or a super small 2 seat car!!!

Thanks a lot for your time.

The car will be owned in dubai? If so i would consider doing routine maintenance on your in cabin air filter and engine filter twice as often due to your climate. Sandstorms!

Reliability? Break-in the car easy for the first 1000 miles. You can let those rpms climb but try to stay away from the redline.

The crickets are normal, people don't like them but I have 50k miles on my car and I've had it since may 2012 with zero engine issues and I drive my car decently hard with no problems.

Tom's are great tail lights, not many complaints are to be heard from them.

I didn't have problems here in Texas so far during the summer. It's humid and gets to 42ºC+ here sometimes. If you drive hard then you may want to consider an aftermarket radiator, but i would suggest that for anyone that drives hard in any car where temperatures get 40ºC+. Also general maintenance of keeping the coolant topped off. If you want to go all out and get a new radiator, oil coolers, and transmission coolers. I say go for it. Trying to run as cool as possible in hot climates can only do good for the car.

As for any other cars in your price range... I don't know... mainly because I do not know what cars go for in your region as I am in the US. Our car ranges from 42000 british pounds to 16000 british pounds and other cars aren't equally inflated in price around the world depending on where you are buying your car.

Hope this helps!

[wheelhaus]

Definitely perform air filter maintenance a little more frequently like carbonBLUE mentioned.

Break in is a highly contested procedure. Some say baby it for 1000 miles, others say drive it like you would every day, others say drive it hard. Personally I believe it should be driven like it would be every day. That is drive easy after starting, stay under 3k rpm until the needle moves past the "C"old mark, then stay under 4k until it reaches normal temp. During break in after it's warm, do several full throttle pulls to redline in 2nd or 3rd gear. This is most important when the miles are very young. Doing this at mile 1 is more effective than mile 1001. Don't slam gears, don't beat on the car, but smooth pulls. This is supposed to help seat/mate the rings and cylinder wall surfaces when they're young, where they would otherwise be left rough for too long and create odd wear patterns (or something to that effect). All cars and motorcycles I've broken in this way have had zero problems with oil consumption.

I also agree a better radiator and/or oil cooler if you'll be driving hard or tracking it.

[Berry]

Thanks a lot for all the replies.
The car will be my DD and i wont track it too much. i just like to enjoy driving it around on long road trips on nice roads and such.
A radiator is on my list of things to consider. What about an air intake ? or a drop-in filter ? do these make any difference ?

OH also i will be buying an AT not a MT if this makes any difference to the advice i am getting.
The reason for this is mainly traffic but i head the auto is pretty good on this car and is as fast as a dual clutch transmission.

OH another question. Should i wait for MY2015 ? are there any confirmed differences or rumours about them ?

And if i order any FR-S parts from the US will they completely fit on a GT 86/BRZ in Dubai ?

Thank you all for the help! really appreciate it

[EDIT] Can i change the coolant and car oil as soon as i get it or should i wait till after the first recommended oil change or break-in period ?

[Pegasus]

Originally Posted by Berry

Thanks a lot for all the replies.
The car will be my DD and i wont track it too much. i just like to enjoy driving it around on long road trips on nice roads and such.
A radiator is on my list of things to consider. What about an air intake ? or a drop-in filter ? do these make any difference ?

OH also i will be buying an AT not a MT if this makes any difference to the advice i am getting.
The reason for this is mainly traffic but i head the auto is pretty good on this car and is as fast as a dual clutch transmission.

OH another question. Should i wait for MY2015 ? are there any confirmed differences or rumours about them ?

And if i order any FR-S parts from the US will they completely fit on a GT 86/BRZ in Dubai ?

Thank you all for the help! really appreciate it

[EDIT] Can i change the coolant and car oil as soon as i get it or should i wait till after the first recommended oil change or break-in period ?

Air intakes don't do anything, the engineers working on this car did everything they could to get power out of it, so I can promise you they didn't put in a restrictive filter. I would only advise getting an aftermarket filter if you go forced induction or want to save on air filter replacements by cleaning the aftermarket filter yourself.


A/T is very good on this car, but it might not like added power as much as the manual. That would be my only concern.


There will be a power bump and a mid-cycle refresh for the car, but it's more than a year off and will probably up the price. I personally am sick of waiting so I am buying now.


I will assume the car you get will be left hand drive, so in certain area's there will be fitment issues. I would order from your dealer or another left hand drive market like JP, AUS, UK ect.


Follow your owners manual to the letter, and you will be fine.


Honestly it sounds like you want more of a GT car, this isn't much of a long distance cruiser. It's more of a hardline sports car for twisty roads over shorter distances. It's quite loud on the inside, slow, and uncomfortable for big drives. I may be wrong but it seems a 370Z, Hyundai Genesis Coupe or a Hot hatch like a Ford Focus ST would be a better fit. I don't have many curvy roads around here in Houston, so I may switch over to one of those cars in the future if I find this car's great handling never finds a use. Test drive them and see what you think.

[leicaboss]

@Pegasus

I believe the cars there are actually left hand drive, meaning it's exactly the same as ours. The JDM market has RHD. You shouldn't have any problems fitting USDM compatible parts, things that will work on any LHD car should work on yours.

If anything, I'd double check that your components can work on a A/T. The reason is some exhausts are not designed with A/T in mind and won't fit (though many companies have since made changes to make it fit on both M/T and A/T).

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Berry

............
[EDIT] Can i change the coolant and car oil as soon as i get it or should i wait till after the first recommended oil change or break-in period ?

I'd suggest you just follow the maintenance schedule in the drivers manual. The coolant in these cars lasts a long time.

humfrz

[Pegasus]

Originally Posted by leicaboss

@Pegasus

I believe the cars there are actually left hand drive, meaning it's exactly the same as ours. The JDM market has RHD. You shouldn't have any problems fitting USDM compatible parts, things that will work on any LHD car should work on yours.

If anything, I'd double check that your components can work on a A/T. The reason is some exhausts are not designed with A/T in mind and won't fit (though many companies have since made changes to make it fit on both M/T and A/T).

You are correct, It should be identical then.

[N1rve]

Add more additional coolers.

I've read/watched videos where they state this car is very sensitive to temperatures. It will cut back power if the temperatures are too hot.

And the air filter maintenance...Inspect it often. You won't decrease MPG with a clogged filter, only a decrease in performance.

If you want to save money, vinyl wrap the tail lights. That's a good alternative.