Lauren

Why? I've done a 100K had my car 4.5 years it still works. Every car is fitted with this refrigerant so it will get cheaper everywhere. The trick is to run with your AC on all the time and never turn it off. I sort of get why it's a consumable but I'd expect it to last an easy five years more like ten. My old AE86 when I got it was 26 years old it still had working AC. Mark has a 16 year old Yaris. The AC still works. I think it's fair to expect to re-gas it at 10 years or so, but I'm very surprised at the number of GT's with this issue.

May help to post the actual details.

Yes, if the car is in under warranty then it should be covered.

You may want to put how much MOT it has and what the spec is in regard to the interior. Also if you know at what age when it was CatD and what happened may also help.

No probs. I've been around 86's a while. Lose the second cat to get a bit more fruity on the exhaust front. I think I'm used to a louder exhaust as I always thought the stock TRD system a bit quiet. I did quite a lot of research before I went to Japan three years ago. It's best if you time it with an 86 event. We went to 86 style but if I go again I would likely look at a drift event as I fancy having a go over there myself. We did meet up with some 86 fanatics though of the AE86 variety and it was just amazing. I would say don't worry about the Buddhist temple stuff. Nice wood and all that, but once you've seen one.... Concentrate on the car scene stuff. Get to Tsukuba, Fuji Speedway etc for an event and do the night scene stuff in downtown Yokohama at Daikoke Fotu. You will need to hire car though if you want to get out and about to the tracks and drive the mountain roads. Just makes it a bit easier really. Maybe start a new thread and all can benefit, as doubtless there are others that have been. I was there only two weeks and did a lot of stuff. Visiting some of the cool tuning garages is a must as well, there are loads around so it's a matter of organising where you want to visit. You can also get a factory tour at Maebashi but you'll need a Japanese friend to book it by phone for you. Hiring a car from Toyota is easy you just call Japan and an English speaking person sorts it out for you. They seem to do a lot by phone, but if they say it's happening, it's happening. This was weird as we organised to pick up a GT86 from some small Toyota hire centre in Yokohama. No receipt, no email, nothing. But we turned up, it was there and all was well! Japan is a bit like that it seems!

Just buy stuff and stick it in your case. You should get a VAT exemption in Japan as well which helps. A car is good if you're going over the Skylines round Mount Fuji area and Gunma. I hired a GT86 from Toyota. Simply enough to do. You won't be able to get there by train so easily and obviously you need a car to drive the touge and all that. First class for a week on the bullet train is definitely worth doing. I'm guessing you've figured that out already.

Bear in mind if you can't carry it, then you'll have to work out shipping which may be expensive, not saving you that much really. Yokohama MM has a Super Autobacs, it's only 20 mins on the train/subway. Or about an hour and a half if you hire a car.

Well the obvious answer is one of the big Super Autobacs, they have a selection of TRD parts but way more of everything else. I got my engine start/stop button there off the shelf. A snip at £60.

Totally agree it is a shame. It would be lovely wouldn't it knowing that your chassis had specific VINs that identified it as a TRD and it was taken off the main line whilst they added TRD goodness. I've been to the Maebashi Subaru factory where all GT86's and BRZ's are made. I had a factory tour. Though I wasn't allowed into the actual assembly line for the GT, I had a tour of the Forester being made from sheet metal to driving out the other end. You can kind of see why when you watch it in action why it would not be feasible to have factory built cars unless they were hand finished, given how automonous production is. I think you have to remember how much more a TRD was compared to the stock car which wasn't cheap anyway which is in part due to the £3K tax (then add VAT) for cars produced in Japan and imported to the UK. I remember well enough when it was released and reviewed the RRG TRD demo when it came in. It certainly seemed a lot of money for a bodykit and precious little else. I was surprised at the time that they didn't add any performance TRD parts and not even the TRD engine start/stop button (I bought one of these for my car whilst in Japan incidentally!). I think at the time it came out people expected more and the price put a lot of people off. TRD nowadays is simply cosmetic mods with Gazzoo Racing taking over the performance parts side of Toyota. That there was only 166 or so sold in the UK make it a rarity (though the Giallo and Blanco are by nature of only 86 of each being available are rarer still), but it is a pity that the UK TRD is a Toyota GB special only, though the car was sold as a TRD in Europe and other markets of course all with variations on what got fitted. So it's the same everywhere if that makes sense with the authenticity of this model. Most were white or black, so having a red one is rare.

Yep, they were stock cars that were made into UK TRD's by Toyota GB hence the sticker. They didn't number them like the Giallo or Blanco, though they were of course called as such by Toyota GB. The Giallo has a specific colour of course. All of these including the TRD especially which has the TRD bodykit. Other markets got variations of TRD and Giallos as some regions got different parts fitted, like the big brakes on the JDM TRD which the UK didn't get. You can contact Toyota GB, from what is known I think 166 UK TRD's were sold, so they didn't get to the apparent run of 250, mainly due to the high price I would have thought. But unfortunately none of these were factory built. They simply had TRD parts from the parts catalogue added when they arrived at Portbury docks.

Yes, I get that, but that is just stuck on in the UK. Yes it verifies it as a UK TRD, but that's not actually part of the VIN is it? The VIN is behind the windscreen. I thought you meant that there were specific numbers of the VIN like you were describing would designate it being a TRD, but I doubt that's the case.

Nope. Trouble is you've used photobucket so it's doing the message that you need to pay to enable 3rd party hosting which is happening to everyone who uses photobucket at the moment.

Steve, your pics aren't showing for some reason.

Interesting stuff! So what part of it says it's a 'TRD' and how do you know that?

Looks good, gutted I missed it. Next time! September is cool, but not the first weekend as it's JAE.

I'm really gutted I couldn't make it this morning. The some kind of lurgy I contracted that floored me yesterday meant that even with an early night I knew by 1am that I was in big trouble. Gutted though as I was up at 4am, just in case things got better. They didn't. I would have gone over 100K miles in my car this morning and what a fitting way that would be to do it. Sort of a celebration of driving. But the bloody lurgy got in the way. Hope you have a wicked time guys.

I'm just dying to get into the groove with my car after spending all that money on the new mods. Should be good.

Okay, suffering from some cold all day has wiped me out. But obviously I am not going to let such trivia bother me. So I'm going to take advantage of feeling like shite and have an early night. Fingers crossed I'll be okay in the morning. If I take a turn for the worse at 4am, I will let you guys know. I will do my best to make it though.

You have to click on the 'insert other media' option and paste the URL into that. It's so easy, but I'm not doing it for you.

Thought so, Steve. They were not numbered but were supposed to do 250 for the UK market but only sold 166, I think.

I thought all the TRD bodykit and stuff was added in the UK rather than a factory build?

Post pics up. How many more times? It's really not hard to do takes seconds! They tyres on them are worthless btw.

You can track it stock, it will be fine.

I'm quite happy to have Claire ride with me. No problem. I'm sure I can add the route into my sat nav too. That would help, but certainly the first leg I know well enough.

I've added the time and details to your first post, Neal and added RRG's address just in case! I must say the route looks good. There's a fair amount of that I know and some of it very well.