Faults:

Exhaust began blowing from the rear end.

Cylinder head gasket blew at 65 000 miles.

Bodywork rotten - arches to front and rear.

Strip under the windscreen was rotten.

Oil leak from the engine manifold.

Leather seats unusually worn for 60k miles (genuine by the way), especially in the rear.

Rear hatch leaks when raised.

Driver's side door fails to activate the outer light.

General Comments:

The best thing is the acceleration.

I am 6' 4" and eighteen stone - there is no better car for someone my size.

I have changed the following since purchase:

New wheels and tyres, new windscreen rebate strip, new cream leather interior, new cylinder head gasket, new radiator, new interior carpet, full respray (including side strips/mouldings), private plate, new rear fog light assembly, new cd player, oil leak from manifold cured, new rear exhaust system, new rear shock absorbers, etc etc. Car cost me £2600 and in the last nine months I have spent a further £8000 making a total of well over £10k!

Would like to find somebody close to home who could recover the brown (dated I think) hard plastic interior.

Faults:

Got this car cheap (£800) due to suspension problems. It cost £800 to sort everything out (front wishbones, geometry setup, work to the brakes + misc bits and bobs). The front driver seat is worn (not a problem on a 150000 mile car). But the purchase cost was offset by a personalised plate (worth £500) and a good CD player (worth £300)

General Comments:

This car is QUICK! once the turbo kicks in it flys. The downside is that it drinks fuel (pushing it around a track returns 8mpg, that equates to about 13mpg when pushing the pace on the road). But when being gentle (difficult when you know the cars speed potential) it returns almost 30mpg on a good run. The equipment levels are superb and it fits all the family in (2 adults and 3 children + all the associate toys, pushchair, etc.), which is MUCH better than ANY competitor.

Faults:

Engine management problems with a cam-sensor at 90,000K.

Head gasket blew at 110,000K (turbo models are more prone to this).

Always extremely hard ride from TENS Active Suspension (Imports only).

Removable roof leaked from a perished window seal.

Back lights failed when water drained off the tailgate into a light sensor box (black box under the driver's side rear light cover) corroding the components inside.

General Comments:

Expensive when it goes wrong, but usually reliable. Turbos less reliable.

High performance imports have the capability to blow themselves apart (head gaskets especially).

Faults:

The engine leaks oil from every gasket as well as burning oil along with the petrol. This is probably due to broken piston rings and the engine could do with reconditioning or replacing.

Rust is rampant over the rear wheel arches.

The boot (trunk) seals have perished and water leaks in whenever it rains, filling the spare wheel well and soaking anything in contact with the carpet.

Radiator cooling fan cowling has snapped and the cowling fouled the fan, causing overheating problems (to be fair, even though the fan was jammed, the engine was fine after being allowed to cool down and still runs well).

General Comments:

Fast, fun motoring, but too expensive to run on any sort of budget.

Don't even consider buying a Supra of this age unless you're prepared to pay for repairs and maintenance.

Still starts first time every time and I still enjoy driving it. I've even made excuses to go out just so I can have a drive!

Faults:

The radiator blew on the first day of ownership, but this was because the previous owner let it run out of coolant. However no further damage was suffered.

General Comments:

I found keeping up with the general maintenance of the car ensured its reliability, so other than parts required for scheduled services, no parts were necessary.

The drivers seat was rather worn, but no more than can be expected for a high mileage vehicle.

Faults:

Nothing at all within the last twelve months of ownership. It had a head gasket at 80,000. Now the mileage is at 137,000 and still going strong.

General Comments:

Good, solid, dependable sports car. Parts can be VERY expensive, and they do suffer from the dreaded blown head gasket, which costs a packet to have fixed at a main dealer.

Rather thirsty on petrol, too. If you can live with these quirks, then it's a secondhand bargain.