1 Year on: VR4 Running Costs: The Whole Truth!

What's it cost to run a VR4?

In my quest to be voted the most anal man of the year, I've kept a record of my first year's running costs. I've posted this in the general forum rather than the members section as it's likely to be of interest to people before they become members ;)!

For those of you who don't know the story, I imported my 1996 Legnum VR4 from Japan myself. I had spent many months trawling around the tat offered by UK importers and dealers, and got fed up with the locals! I set out to buy the best example I could find, which turned out to be an auction grade 4.5 Trigger Mauve VR4 with around 40000 miles on the clock. I had hoped that by doing this, I would avoid having to make costly repairs... as you can see from the list below, I haven't been entirely successful. I think that this is because no matter how low the mileage, for most of us with imports, our cars are hitting 10 years old - and age is just as good at killing rubber seals, bushes, etc as mileage is.

(Orignal import story threads here and here).

When you read the figures below, bear in mind that I'm a high miler - just over 17000 miles in the first year. A service every 4500 miles makes the VR4 a very expensive high miler! I've also had all the servicing done by Xtreme - not the cheapest option, but they're convenient, and I have limited time!

(I've had to insert the table as an image as I can't work out how to post it! Click to enlarge)

Bottom line as you can see is that these cars cost around 50p/mile to run - this is not bad for a performance car. Official figures for many cars are a lot more ( I think the 7 series costs close on a pound/mile :o)

Very nice Bern. at 51p per mile.. its not all that bad, really.

this should give a great indication for newbies, and or scare them off! :D

Good Job though... and as for anal? bleh, im kinda in that boat to regarding certain issue.

I see you have done a lot to your pride and joy just recently too Bern.

Have you seen much of gain from all that hard work you have put in recently?

Should prove helpful to many Bern - I was going to give you a rec point but I see you already have plenty. /GJ

Very useful, and if you take out the mods it's only 43p per mile which is even better :2thumbsup

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Originally Posted by Spirit

Very useful, and if you take out the mods it's only 43p per mile which is even better :2thumbsup

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...but can any leggie owner resist the temptation... :evilgrin:

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Originally Posted by Funkstar

I see you have done a lot to your pride and joy just recently too Bern.

Have you seen much of gain from all that hard work you have put in recently?

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Well, the new BOV goes pssssht quietly (my old one was working fine - just replaced it to preempt diaphragm failure), and I haven't cranked the EBC up much - waiting until I've done the fuel pump and FPR. FPR should be done this weekend or early next week. Pump whenever it arrives.

Good stuff.

But assuming the gearbox hadn't gone bang...what would the ppm have been then?

Also, what are you doing with the brake fluid - drinking it?! :)

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Originally Posted by ghanda

But assuming the gearbox hadn't gone bang...what would the ppm have been then?

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Doesn't everyone's :speechles? Well, considering that those f*ckwits at VMTP managed to destroy my driveshaft in all their incompetent fumbling, if the g/box hadn't gone, I wouldn't have needed a new driveshaft either. So running costs would have only been £2872.66 - 17p/mile, and overall 44p/mile. However I don't think prospective buyers should work on this figure - things go wrong with our cars, and they're not cheap to fix - may not be the g/box, but it only takes a minute or two of browsing the forums to find a littany of pain!. You have to take this into account when buying.

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Also, what are you doing with the brake fluid - drinking it?! :)

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Well spotted - Oilman gave me a good price on a case of RBF600 (12 bottles!) - it'll last me a lifetime :D.

LOL

True true. In terms of repair work in 6 months - Torque Seal Convertor and a few gaskets and that's it touch wood. And I bought a good one :)
Mods on the other hand...are now approaching what I paid for the car :D

Glad to hear I'm not the only anal one.....I've got detailed records of both my VR4's; excluding the car itself, road tax, and insurance, the 14000 miles I did in the first VR4 worked out at 53p a mile, so very similar to yours. The current one is averaging 67p a mile though (over 9000)....it's no wonder I'm skint all the time!

Why the higher running costs for this one, Jimbo?

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Originally Posted by Nick Mann

Why the higher running costs for this one, Jimbo?

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Very little went wrong with the last one, but with this one it seems like all the big bills have come in the past 12 months and I've only done 9000 miles in it so far, so I guess it's taking longer to average out. New tyres (£500), gearbox flush (£150), diff/ayc flush, new rear discs & pads, services....and then more recently new front discs and pads (£700), t/c seal, and oil changes. My MPG is also rather pathetic from all the track days and local commuting - the poor gal very rarely gets to stretch it's legs!

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Originally Posted by Brunty

Should prove helpful to many Bern - I was going to give you a rec point but I see you already have plenty.

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Yeah, I don't need any more of *your* type of rep point, you bad man /pan/pan/Handbag/Handbag/Handbag/Grrr:evilgrin:

:D:D:D

(:|)

Thats really helpful. We might be getting a leggie next weekend and i thought i'd look at this thread. I actually thought it would be higher than that so its a nice surprise cheers

Excellent work bern!

Insurance should not be included because that will vary so much between different people. Mods also fall into that.

In which case, it's surprisingly close the GLS, which is 31p/mile + insurance.

Good work Bern, very informative, I would do something myself, but I think I would be :sad3: and probably :bigcry:

I've had my legnum since 23rd December 2005 and already I've had to replace the Tein type HA suspension (due to certain faults) with a new set of Tein superwagon coil overs. That cost me £1025. Then 3 wheel bearings went which cost me £190 each. Now my turbos are on the way out and have been quoted £600 per turbo for a standard set up. I had it serviced too incase there was anything else wrong that I hadn't noticed and that cost me over £250. Then theres road tax and insurance and shell optimax and octane boost and all of the other cost which come with it. Even after all of this I still LOVE my VR-4 !fIt all seems worth it for those brief moments when everything seems to work perfectly. Its not the best looking VR-4 due to the incompetant b*****ds who neglected it before I owned it, but it never fails to turn heads where ever I go, which has a HUGE grin factor! The wife laughs at me when i'm grinning from ear to ear when some one shows interest in it when we drive past.

very interesting. Ive had my vr4 since january and my costs have been -

£200 for full service when bought
£50 for new rear numberplate lamp
£??? for gearbox failure. this hasnt been a complete failure, as you know from my other posts. thought i better get it sorted whilst it wasnt to bad .... shame i dont know a price yet.

everything else is ok.

my other half keeps saying why do you keep this car ... it costs loads on petrol and you already have had a major issue. My response - the auto box does have it's faults and this is well documented and do you even see the smile on my face as im shooting around the place??