Newbie with newbie style Q's :)

[Kelly&Ben]

Hiya,

First off what a nice site! really well laid out, been having a read at the buying guides etc but still wanted to ask a few questions if you can spare the time :)

Currently driving my beloved lil starlet which i refuse to sell but with a baby on the way we've been thinking about the idea of having 4 doors and a boot. Has to be Jap and cool so the first car that popped into my mind was the VR4 estate.
I remember seeing one years ago when use to hang around at my mates tuning garage and i always loved them, and the fact you dont see many on the road is a nice bonus!

The car will mainly be used for the school run and to the shops etc but would also be lovely to be able to use it to go the local jap meets if need be. So my first question is what are they like fuel consumption wise driving around very mundane at 30mph or so? as monday to friday that will prob be the case!

Also been looking at a few online and seen some quite tasty ones from a guy who trades under the name of Phat N Modified, anyone got any feedback on them? I have searched using the search bar but it only brought up two threads which didnt say much either way.

Also is there any common faults too look out for? Does the transmission do the car proud? i only ask as im currently pushing the boundaries of my automatic starlet with the bhp but its abit of an unknown area of how much power/torque it can handle, is there any issues with these?

Anyway thanks for reading i shall look forward to the replies :)

[peter thomson]

Welcome to the club Kelly.Just sent you a pm. Servicing them properly is the main criteria and proof that they have been looked after in the past. Driving in town will see around 20mpg but the triptronic box is ideal for that kind of driving in my opinion.

[Nikola]

hello and welcome . Now to your thread glad to hear you are looking to buy a vr4, excellent cars (if looked after properly) now on the note of mpg i tend to find pottering round town i pull between 17 and 20 mpg but i do live in a town with a lot of traffic lights if you know what i mean. But on my run to work down the motorway i pull a healthy 30+ mpg depending on how heavy my foot is and how late for work i am. As for the reliabillity of the auto boxes properly maintained with an atf cooler fitted they work fine. *waits for someone to start the age old "manuals vs auto argument* hope that answer some of your questions yours tib

[Kelly&Ben]

Thankyou for the speedy replies! The mpg around town is the only thing concerning me at the moment! to be honest i only get 33mpg on the motorway out my starlet so thats not too bad as drive down southampton every other month.

Will deffo make sure its a well looked after/serviced example and hopefully be lucky enough get one off a fellow member.

Nikola dont suppose there is any places in lancs which deal with a few of these cars? Or am i best browsing the classifieds on here?

[TAR]

/Welcome
ask away!

you will probably find that you get a much better fuel consumption when you put your foot down a bit, they tend to run very rich at low speed.

Take your time to find one, don't just stump up a wedge of cash for the first thing you see without being sure its all ok. There are a few expensive items which need to be looked after, but the cars are as reliable as any other 10+ year old car, and a fair bit more fun. /rally

:happy:

[Kelly&Ben]

Yeh i gathered they must run quite rich as standard, i saw a more improved fuel comsumption when i fitted my piggyback ecu and leaned the fuelling off with what i could get away with. Just browsing the forum now and coming across posts which mention having piggybacks fitted and mapped.

I'm in no rush baby due in July so i shall keep browsing around! lol

[Nikola]

yes is the simple answer their is a few importers in bradford but stay away from keighley autos. And newbie mistake although its says nikola as the name you'll notice it says tib at the end of the post. I share the login with the wife as i bought the car for her

[Nick Mann]

Don't expect the MPG that is posted above. You may get it, but many of us don't. I have never had 30 mpg from a VR4, although I did get close once! With an auto box I used to get 17ish round town and 22ish on the motorway. 28 was achieved once with a very gentle cruise over a long distance.

[orionn2o]

Don't expect the MPG that is posted above. You may get it, but many of us don't. I have never had 30 mpg from a VR4, although I did get close once! With an auto box I used to get 17ish round town and 22ish on the motorway. 28 was achieved once with a very gentle cruise over a long distance.

Good old Nick "Brick Foot" Mann lol

[Atik]

Welcome Kelly,

Expect to get similar to Nick's MPG readings. They are close to what I get in mine. Mine is running very rich at any speed!

I do mainly local driving, short work runs to town (2.5 miles each way), with the occasional long motorway stint. On pure local driving, I get around 20mpg, and I usually drive very sedately. Very rarely put my foot down, for more than a couple of seconds (but thats long enough to reach inappropriate speeds on most roads). On cruising motorway driving I get about 26mpg, but have managed a 29.75mpg, driving at 65-70mph for 290miles!!!

Also, the 'Phat and Modified' trader is on these forums under 'Torque of the Devil'. I dont have any experience of dealing with him, except a couple of emails, but there are a few recent purchases on these forums from him, so keep a look out for them.

And finally, awesome choice of your next potential car /yes

[Kelly&Ben]

yes is the simple answer their is a few importers in bradford but stay away from keighley autos. And newbie mistake although its says nikola as the name you'll notice it says tib at the end of the post. I share the login with the wife as i bought the car for her


Oh dont worry i went to Keighley autos once many years ago and walked straight out i think their rep is on every owners club forum along with WRC.
Thanks for the heads up i wondered what tib was for at the end i thought i wasn't clued up on all my shorthand for a moment lol.

[Kelly&Ben]

Thanks Nick Mann and atikali2000 for the insight in the mpg, to be honest this is what concerns me the most at buying this car. The initial idea was to buy a cheap scooby estate n/a (dont hate me) and insure that for a year and then get rid. The benefit of doing so would be alot of extra spare cash for that first year! and then after that if im still wanting a VR4 maybe sell both cars and use the cash to buy one outright! At least i'm in no rush to decide.

[HMG1K]

How about getting the 'soft' VR4 - a V6 Sport or V6 Elegance model?

The same V6-24V engine but without the twin-turbos but the same styling if you go for a facelift model. Ok, you won't have traction control or the flared wheel arch extensions, but you'll have better fuel economy.

I'm not sure what my MPG translates to, but with my V6 I get at worse 250 miles out of a tank on short journeys, non-motorway, of around 9 miles return. At best 320 on motorway driving. I'm not a heavy footer - but to like to open the engine up if I get the chance!

[Atik]

Yup, I was gonna suggest if the MPG is too much of a worry with the VR4, then you could always go for the 2.5 V6 Sport or Elegance. As HMG says, they are both very capable cars, look great, are cheaper to run (in comparison to the VR4) and return a better MPG. Granted, they dont have as many toys, but they are generally selling for peanuts these days, so you might pick up a real bargain if you look around.

Thought I'd add (so you can compare with HMG's readings), I usually fill up my tank just as the amber lights starts flickering on/off, and get about 45 litres in (V Power, by the way). I usually see that return 200miles before the fuel warning light comes on again, and thats mainly local driving. With motorway journeys added in there the figure usually jumps a bit but also depends on how you drive it. The best I've managed from a full tank was 293 miles, all cruising at 65-70mph on the motorway. I filled up 50 litres straight after, and the book says that the car has a 60 litre fuel tank capacity. Hope that helps.

[Kelly&Ben]

Yeh thanks for the insight really helping! I know theres lots of more sensible options out there but im just trying to decide weather should be sensible or not. I dont do much driving in my starlet which is a 30litre tank i get 200miles ish out of that and i only use a tank a week coz i always make a point of going for a lil drive when i get bored!

My other half has gone without a 'fun' car for awhile now and buying the vr4 would put him off wanting to buy an rx7 (for awhile) so im trying to think about him too lol

Oohhh decisions decisions lol

[Nick Mann]

You'll get a similar amount of miles to a tank, but it will be more like 50 litres of fuel for the same distance.

If you drive like a granny, you will get 250 miles, maybe even 300, but most of us have never done that, let alone regularly!

On track you will get more like 60 miles to a tank..... /pan :D /rally

[HMG1K]

Yeh thanks for the insight really helping! I know theres lots of more sensible options out there but im just trying to decide weather should be sensible or not. I dont do much driving in my starlet which is a 30litre tank i get 200miles ish out of that and i only use a tank a week coz i always make a point of going for a lil drive when i get bored!

My other half has gone without a 'fun' car for awhile now and buying the vr4 would put him off wanting to buy an rx7 (for awhile) so im trying to think about him too lol

Oohhh decisions decisions lol

Here's another thing to consider - with fuel economy.

If you're currently getting around 200 miles on a 30 litre Starlet tank, a Galant / Legnum tank holds double that, 60 litres, which is great! However you won't get more than 250 miles out of a 60 litre tank in a VR4.

Have a search of these forums for fuel economy for individual driver stories on thie best and worst consumption. On my V6-24, a model below the VR4, I get at best 320 out of a 60 litre tank.

[Kelly&Ben]

Nick Mann -- Yeh to be honest at the moment i fill up once a week, if i was just going about things normal and doing my daily school run and errands every now and then i could get away with a quarter of a tank maybe a lil more a week. Im guessing with a newborn etc thats all i will have the energy for anyway so the consumption may not be too bad financially.

HMG1k -- Thanks yeah im looking around and reading peoples threads, round town your lucky if you reach 30mph so i wont have any other option but to drive nice monday to friday lol every other month we do a 230 mile trip each way to southampton and back so that will be nice hopefully being able do that without needing fill up again!

[Wodjno]

Hi ! And welcome to the Club /yes

In my past experience of the Auto VR4 i have achieved 390 miles from fill up to fill up(58.5 litres/13 gal) and as little as 45 miles(4mpg) before geting fuel starvation while driving the car hard on track :speechles

I think they are the very extremes of what the VR4 will return in MPG :thinking: Although i'm still pretty sure if i had a long enough Motorway run i would be able to achieve 32-35mpg :D

Town driving with a light foot for a full tank, i saw around 20-22mpg..

Town driving with the odd Blat saw 17mpg.

Town driving with nearly all foot to the floor saw 9.5 mpg..

But i normally averaged around 13-14mpg round town with a good mix of spirited driving and stuck in traffic..

Hope this helps :pimp2:

[N9nebar]

for all those people who find working out MPG confusing (maybe its just me) i found this http://www.eforecourt.com/calc_mpg.htm hope its useful

[Kelly&Ben]

WODJNO -- thanks for that info :) to be honest from what you've all said running the car wont be too bad, just out of curiosity whats the tax like on these?

[shaun1978]

car tax is pretty good at 185 quid a year....