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My Supra Story!!

eyeye96

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Hello Guys,

I've been an active member of this forum for quite a long time now and I wanted to share my story and all the obstacles I had to go through to get this car.

I am in the bay area and for some reason, there are less Supra's here compared to the east coast. I dont know the exact reason but it was very hard for me to get a good deal. I was looking for a red supra since October 2019, but was in no hurry as I wanted to get a good deal (at that time, a good deal in California was finding a dealership with no markups). I did find a dealership in SF city who was selling without a markup in November but they didnt have a red one back then and asked me to wait till Feb 2020. I decided against getting a new car till October 2020 due to covid after that. During this time, I was closely monitoring the prices and the forums and I saw people getting crazy amount of discounts I was super excited to enter the market again to get the car, only to realize that there are no red 2020 supras in the entire west coast and 2021's hardly arrived in california. The ones I did find were back to pre covid prices and even with the $3500 rebate, I wasnt getting the awesome deals I read about his very forum other people were getting.

Dealing with California dealerships was getting tough as none of them were willing to budge on the pricing. I kept expanding my search radius and by pure luck, I mistakenly opened the listing of a red supra in a dealership in New Jersey. I was shocked looking at their asking price. I decided not to pass on it and I called them up and spoke to the salesperson. They lost interest when I told them that I was calling from Cali and they weren't really keen on selling me the car. I stopped following up and was preparing myself for the long haul of waiting for the 2021's and buying them from the greedy Cali dealers.

When all hope was lost, I received a call from the sales manager in New Jersey, who I guess wanted to meet some sort of sales quota and was willing to negotiate and make the sale. I did my negotiations and got a great deal which I was comfortable to make and said OK.

Then started the real process of researching everything from insurance, to shipping, to out of state vehicle registration rules in California. After the day I gave my card details for the credit card payment, It took 35 sleepless nights and hours of internet research for the car to arrive at my doorstep. After all, when I finally saw the truck which made its way through wildfires and windstorms and finally arrived at my place, it was more a sense of relief rather than excitement. I had 0 adrenaline rush and I was so tired with the process that I just wanted it to end. it arrived on a Monday night and I wasn't even able to admire the car properly on the night it arrived. I just put it in the parking lot and was lost as I did not know what next to do. Some pictures I took while unloading the vehicle.



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After exploring the car and understanding that the brake squeal is a normal ting to happen, I realized that the navigation system was not activated by the dealership in NJ so I had to put it in the shop overnight on the second day so that the local dealership activates it. I was eagerly waiting for the weekend to actually explore the vehicle and I got it washed in the middle of the week as the car was filthy after the 3000+ mile truck ride. I finally got a chane to spend the full day Saturday with the car and I had no clue that I just purchased a monster.

The car was brilliant, I had the time of my life driving on a few twisty roads and at that moment when I was on that road, with my foot on the throttle and the rear end of the car about to slide, is when i realized, all the effort and stress was completely worth it. I am super happy with the car and even though there are a few minor things I dont like, I just love this car. It looks amazing, It handles amazing, it drives amazing and it feels amazing.

I spent the whole weekend taking pictures of the car -

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The things I didnt like which I would love to get it fixed -

1. the brake squeal noise when slowly braking out from rest is just horrible. I've never seen that happen in any car and people who are admiring the car started giving looks when they hear the noise. I try to release the brakes as suddenly as possible, but when I am navigating through tough parking spots, i need to release the brake slowly and the noise is just horrible.

2. Its pointless complaining about the fuel economy of a sports car but during city driving in heavy traffic (had to do it in SF city), the fuel economy is horrible. I was averaging 14-15 mpg and I would have been happier if it would have given at least 20 mpg. On highway it averages well above 26 and I am happy about it.

3. I am not that big of an audiophile but I would have preferred a better audio system. It doesn't feel like a premium audio experience.

4. If I get a chance to meet the person who approved the steering wheel on this car, I am pretty sure I would kill him so that such horrible mistakes are never made ever again, it just looks horrible and I would have preferred a fatter wheel.

5. I would have preferred a heavier key fob and also auto-lock when I walk away from the vehicle. the lack of a trunk release was something I thought I can survive with but I see why it's an annoyance.

But for every point I wrote above, I have 10 points that I love about the car. I am very happy with my purchase and can't wait for the next weekend. The car is just so beautiful that I want to just go downstairs and keep looking at it.

The reason I want to share my story is that I received a lot of help through this forum and if not for this forum, I would have probably not even bought the car. This was a great learning experience for me and I would like to help people if there is anyone considering shipping their car from out of state or have questions with buying a car virtually and get it delivered. I would love to share my experience in more detail if that helps others in any way. Feel free to DM me if any questions.

Also, looking forward to meeting my fellow supra owners in Northern California. Would love to go on some drives together... :)


TLDR - I bought a SUPRA!!! :headbang:
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Paolo

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Congrats looks gorgeous and love reading these new owner threads. :)

The brake squeal should not be happening so that may need to be checked or they may need proper break in.

Safe driving.. :thumbsup: and yes I love my weekends with the Supra too(best time of the week)
Long live the Supra A90..
 

legacy_etu

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Ha, great story. I can understand your feelings of exhaustion you described when the car showed up. Glad things worked out for you.
Great pictures. I love San Francisco. All the architecture, great food, water, history, and sailing and I’m not a city guy. The only thing I didn’t like was the aggressive homeless folks and the lack of parking. California dealers are the worst from everything I’m reading. Glad you didn’t help reinforce their business model.
 

Ultimateone

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Congrats!

Couple things, you should look up the "tadda" stereo fix for the subs and rear box it's life changing. And I get 30-31mpg with mixed driving so maybe you have just been driving very hard since the car is new. There is a trunk button also...
 

SunbirdGTO

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Congrats! you need to properly break-in breaks as well as engine. that's my opinion. Also, I do have speculation that these break rotors are a bit different compound of steel than just steel used on everyday car..
You can fix a couple of those concerns with a brake pad swap (huge difference) and some coding (better stereo and turn off the auto stop/start feature). And even a new steering wheel if you want to go that far. It really makes it a fantastic car when you customize it exactly how you'd like it. Do some search's on this site. Its unbelievably informative.
 

legacy_etu

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Weird. My brakes are quiet as can be. The only time they make a noise is when the tires throw a pebble up and it gets jammed in the rotor. Backing up removes it .

I get 25 mpg and thats a mix of driving. I think you have a heavy foot and a non broken in engine :)
 
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eyeye96

eyeye96

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Congrats looks gorgeous and love reading these new owner threads. :)

The brake squeal should not be happening so that may need to be checked or they may need proper break in.

Safe driving.. :thumbsup: and yes I love my weekends with the Supra too(best time of the week)
Long live the Supra A90..
Thank you! I have read on the forum that the brake squeal is a normal thing that's happening on this car.

https://www.supramkv.com/threads/brake-squeal.6089/

This thread above discussed this and the solution to this is new brake pads. I am gonna think about this after a while. I want to enjoy the car now.
 
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eyeye96

eyeye96

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Ha, great story. I can understand your feelings of exhaustion you described when the car showed up. Glad things worked out for you.
Great pictures. I love San Francisco. All the architecture, great food, water, history, and sailing and I’m not a city guy. The only thing I didn’t like was the aggressive homeless folks and the lack of parking. California dealers are the worst from everything I’m reading. Glad you didn’t help reinforce their business model.
I mean seriously. Including the shipping costs, it still cost me less than what I would be paying if I bought from Cali dealership.
 
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eyeye96

eyeye96

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Congrats!

Couple things, you should look up the "tadda" stereo fix for the subs and rear box it's life changing. And I get 30-31mpg with mixed driving so maybe you have just been driving very hard since the car is new. There is a trunk button also...
Thank you.

I did look at the stereo settings, I didn't get a chance to try it out extensively and fiddle around with the audio settings. Will definitely try it.

I was definitely driving it a bit hard. But I made sure it never went above 4500 rpm. I am hoping that the fuel economy improves over time as I break-in the engine.

I meant the exterior trunk button at the back of the car which isn't there. I have to open it through the key fob or the small button on the driver door.
 
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eyeye96

eyeye96

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You can fix a couple of those concerns with a brake pad swap (huge difference) and some coding (better stereo and turn off the auto stop/start feature). And even a new steering wheel if you want to go that far. It really makes it a fantastic car when you customize it exactly how you'd like it. Do some search's on this site. Its unbelievably informative.

Yes this is just day 10 of me getting the car so I would like to thoroughly enjoy the car before getting to work again. But something I can look into.
 
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eyeye96

eyeye96

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Weird. My brakes are quiet as can be. The only time they make a noise is when the tires throw a pebble up and it gets jammed in the rotor. Backing up removes it .

I get 25 mpg and thats a mix of driving. I think you have a heavy foot and a non broken in engine :)
https://www.supramkv.com/threads/brake-squeal.6089/

This thread details the issue and I see that a bunch of people have this issue. I also got it looked up at the dealership and they said I can go test drive a new one right now and the same issue will be there. It's just how these cars are apparently. It doesn't happen while driving. Just while slow braking out from hard stop.
 
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eyeye96

eyeye96

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Congrats! you need to properly break-in breaks as well as engine. that's my opinion. Also, I do have speculation that these break rotors are a bit different compound of steel than just steel used on everyday car..
Yeah I will be driving more and hopefully I should get a better number for the fuel economy.
 

Ultimateone

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Thank you.

I did look at the stereo settings, I didn't get a chance to try it out extensively and fiddle around with the audio settings. Will definitely try it.
Not just settings, taking off that plate first just to see on the back of the sub box and then from there the port mod etc. Search it up!
 

antonio88x

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Congrats! In the beginning my brakes squealed all the time. I followed a bedding in procedure and now they only squeal when I first get in the car and a little in the rain. But it may take some more miles for me for it to fully go away. I put about 1500 miles on my car on my drive back from NY, but that was all highway. Now that I'm doing mostly city driving, I'm sure most of the brake squeal will go away, but I think its reasonable to expect some squeal.

And I recommend coding your car to get rid of the active sound design, that'll greatly improve the sound quality before you can dig deeper into the Tadda fix. I did that on my first day of ownership and it made a huge difference. I travelled with my OBD bluetooth adapter and after taking delivery of the car, I basically coded all my options and then hit the road.
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