what to look for when buying an FTO?

Craigh · Post by **Craigh** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 5:16 pm

Looking at buying an FTO pretty soon, but I'm not really sure what I should be looking for...
I mean, should I go a GR or a GPX? If I want to turbo it later, which is the better bet? Then, manual or tiptronic? I love driving manual, but actually finding a manual fto for sale is pretty tough...can you do a conversion from the tip to manual easily and cheaply or is it going to cost big $$$ to do? Are there performance gains to be had from choosing one over the other?
What sort of kilometers should you expect froma 95 model? is over 100k too many? just right? it seems a lot to me and looking around, you find values varying from 50k-150k for the same model.
Lastly, what sort of price range would you be looking at for the base models of a 95 GR and GPX? A locl guy here (rockhampton) reckons you should be able to pick up a GR for ~13-14000 and a GPX for ~17-18000, is that about right?

Lastly, which do you think is the better deal? the gr or the gpx? What does the gpx offer over the gr besides the mivec? anything?

Any help anyone can offer is greatly appreciated.

Craig

thecook · Post by **thecook** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 6:56 pm

gpx has mivec, mivec is velly powerfull

u'll get more top end power from a mivec if u turbo it

manual will be better of course, computers arn't as smart as we are! i THINK its a fact that u can get more power out of a manual

manual conversion will cost heaps... theres lots of discussion on these forums about manual conversion, have a search

the km's vary a lot, i think theres a thread somewhere about how many km's everyone has done so far in their fto

i dont think 100,000km is a lot for a 95 model (9 year old car)

hmm 95 gpx, stock, i'll probably pay about $16k
for gr, i'll pay a few grand less

things to consider should be the year, model, milage, condition, mods, factory options etc...

i think gpx is better
coz i drive a gpx
haha

Craigh · Post by **Craigh** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 8:05 pm

good info, thanks cook.
The hard part is finding manuals for sale...everywhere I look, I can find heaps of tiptronic, but little to no manual.

TimmyD · Post by **TimmyD** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 8:49 pm

have a look on the sites for sale topics or on www.carsales.com.au
bot a good source to look for a car (found mine on carsales)

llsf1225 · Post by **llsf1225** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 11:00 am

You won't able to get a FTO with 13000-14000, even the GR model.
They are not that cheap mate

Craigh · Post by **Craigh** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 4:02 pm

llsf1225 wrote:You won't able to get a FTO with 13000-14000, even the GR model.
They are not that cheap mate

Thats why I asked the question, because I didn't know if that was reasonable or not. Prices seem to vary wildly for the same thing. after looking around, i have found you can pick up a gpx (95 model) for anything from 15,500 - 23,000.

RallyMad · Post by **RallyMad** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 6:33 pm

G'day mate, and welcome to the forum, it's nice to see another fellow Rocky person here.

Did you get the information about prices from Garth by chance (Kaos Racing) he does know what he is talking about, and while the price he thought for a GR may be a bit low those prices are about right I think.

As for the cars, doing a search not only here but on other websites will give you a fair bit of information about what to look out for. Generally though you'll need to at least go to Brisbane or maybe Sydney for a nice car though. THe silver GR from the donsinson's ad has been for sale, though it sin't in the paper anymore, it was tiptronic I thought and a little over priced. In my opinion if you want to turbo it later on look at a Manual GR, while being quite rare. I think that would be your best bet. Garth's old FTO was a manual GR which the new owner turboed, with parts they basically all made up themselves (it wasn't a kit) up in Mackay, I haven't seen the car but have heard a lot of good things about it.

I think the manuals will have a little bit more power over the autmotics and at the same time a GPX has 10 or 20 horspower more than most GR's (except for those freaks

). Anyway best of luck in your search mate, by the time I fianlly get an FTO, it would be great to organise some local cruises with some of the other FTO owners around the place, including the new white one, the three black ones, and the silver ones from dobisons's ad that I know of.

Again welcome mate.

Craigh · Post by **Craigh** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 10:51 pm

Hey RallyMad, yeah I was speaking with Garth about it. I am calling him tomorrow to see what he can get me, though he isn't too hopeful(no-one seems to be selling manual ftos). I have some pics of his old fto all done up with the turbo in it if you are interested, I can forward em on...it looks really really nice eh.
The silver one in the dobinsons ad belongs to a friend of mine. It is a GR tiptronic. has done a bit of work on it. not sure if he has sold it or not yet (he bought himself a Pulsar GTiR to replace it with)

I have been thinking of my options and I have it down to probably the GPX (though, garth was saying his old one, they got it up to 220kw after the turbo was installed

I have looked here, carsales.com.au, autotrader.com, autopages.autoweb.com.au and getting little to no results on a manual. not in qld at any rate.

as for the cruise, most definately. what do you drive presently?

Craig

RallyMad · Post by **RallyMad** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 6:41 pm

Oh ok, the guy that sold the GTiR is getting a 32 GTR? I think I know of that car, good on him. I've seen the pics of his old FTO so thanks anyway. Although I'm not sure of that power figure, it seems to be a hell of a lot, I think at least it is horsepower not kw's. But then again I don't know and am only guessing, maybe it is putting out that much power at the engine or something even? The places you are looking on the web would probably be the places to look. While Garth might know of some other FTO's around for sale he won't be able to import one for you because no one has compliance for an FTO under SEVS (the new import scheme, at least as far as anyone seems to know).

I'll agree that it is bloody hard but keep an eye out and be prepared to travel, I've loved FTO's for about the last four years but have not had the money (damn uni) and have seen some fantastic cars go up for sale and be sold, might be worth getting the personal trading post newspaper as well, sometimes there are a few in there, although the nearest I've seen them is Brisbane.

Oh, and my current ride is a old laser TX3 with big red mud flaps, soon to have FTOaustralia stickers installed

mrx · Post by **mrx** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 8:37 pm

As for things to look for, there are a few things to be checked.

The cam seals are getting to the age where some are starting to leak - mine was doing that when I bought it, but as it was from a dealer, I just turned around, took it back a week later and said "fix it". All new seals through the engine

, but they completely buggered the settings on the tapets (as anyone at the national cruise can testify)

.

Nothing realy major. This has all been convered before, but check the inner guards on the front wheels, especially if you are going to lower it.

Apart from that, just the usual stuff you would get checked on any car. If you are buying privatly, see if you can get the car checked at a workshop. They can then give you a better idea of the general condition of the car. Of course, finding a mechanic who knows anything about them is extremely hard.

Good luck, and just wait for the right car to come along.

SilentBob · Post by **SilentBob** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 10:15 am

mrx wrote: but they completely buggered the settings on the tapets (as anyone at the national cruise can testify) .

really??? I just thought you had run over skippy and he was stuck under the engine

SilentBob

mrx · Post by **mrx** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 11:13 pm

It could be used for the sixty minutes intro at idle.

Bit sad really. Will be all quiet come Sunday.

Oh, and I have a comple of new things in the works. One mod I am very keen on testing and developing. That is all for now.

SilentBob · Post by **SilentBob** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:14 am

ooo mod-dy goodness

feel free to give me a yell if you need any extra hands for assistance as im only up the road

SilentBob

tomy33 · Post by **tomy33** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 4:34 pm

mrx how much did u get your fto for??

mrx · Post by **mrx** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 8:30 pm

Paid $19k for manual GPX, absolutely stock from a dealer. Could have paid less, but at least got some warranty with it, and the car was not full of squeaks and rattles. I get to add them myself

tomy33 · Post by **tomy33** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 8:59 pm

hahaha which dealer?

mrx · Post by **mrx** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:02 am

Gary Blogg Motors in Sydney, but there are many others along Paramatta road to look at.