I Bought a Toyota Supra! transcript

This is a 1994 Toyota Supra Turbo, and in fact, it's my Toyota Supra Turbo. I've always wanted a Mark IV Supra Turbo, and I finally did it. I went and got one. And today, I'm going to take you on a tour of my car. I'm going to show you all around it. I'm going to explain why I like this car so much, and I'll show you all of the quirks and features of my Toyota Supra Turbo. Before we get started, are you ready for your next cool car?

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Sell on Cars and Bids and join the best community to sell your enthusiast car. All right, let's talk Supra, my Supra. I'm going to start with a little overview of what makes this car cool, and then I'll get a little more into the details of this car. What is it? What am I going to use it for? Why did I want one? But let's start with the basics. So, the Supra first came out in the late 1970s, and initially it was sort of a different version of the Toyota Celica, which was a sporty car that was in Toyota's lineup at the time.

Eventually, the Supra was spun off to become its own model entirely. It was the higher performance Toyota sports car compared to the Celica and the MR2, the Supra sat at the top of the heap. But among all of the Supras over many years, there is no Supra is more iconic and more famous than the Mark IV. That's what this car is called because it was the fourth generation Supra. And here in North America, it was sold from the '93 model year through the '98 model year.

And in the world of the Supra, the Mark IV Supra, the one you want is the Supra Turbo. That's this car, the high-performance version of the high-performance car. Now, the regular Supra and the Turbo shared an engine. It's a 3-liter straight-6, more on that in a second, but the difference was the turbocharging. The base car, naturally aspirated, had about 220 horsepower, but the Turbo added a twin turbocharger setup for 320 horsepower, which was a significant increase and a pretty big number back in the day.

Now, there's a few reasons that this car is famous, an icon in the Japanese performance car world, but one of the primary reasons is this powertrain, this 3-liter straight-6, the 2JZ. That was Toyota's internal engine code for it, and it is beloved in the automotive Japanese tuner car scene. And that's because, number one, it is dead reliable. It is a very stout powertrain. It can handle a lot of stuff, which brings us to number two, it is very tunable.

And this engine got a reputation for being very easy to modify, and even if you put a lot more power through it, it wouldn't break. And so, the 2JZ remains kind of an iconic powertrain all these years later. And of course, the Supra Turbo got the best version of the 2JZ, the turbocharged one, and this was the coolest car that it went into. Now, it wasn't just the powertrain that made this car iconic. Of course, there's also the shape.

It is a beautiful car, very emblematic of its age, the '90s, sort of the rounded design, the big wing on the back, very famous. But, it was also the movie. This car was of course the hero car in the original Fast and the Furious movie, which has gone down as one of the iconic automotive movies of all time and certainly of my generation. It's a beloved movie and this was a beloved car from the movie. Coincidentally, that movie is celebrating 25 years since it was first released and it's been re-released in theaters as a big hubbub around it again and the Supra.

This was not planned by me. I didn't even think about it, but it's kind of an interesting coincidence and sort of a good cultural resurgence for the Supra reminding a lot of people the love for this car. So, that's the story of what makes the Supra such an icon and so cool both in the car world and beyond that. It's kind of culturally due to the Fast and the Furious movie. But, you may be wondering why exactly did I want it?

Well, as you may know, I have three really special supercars that I use for really special occasions or for like real driving purposes, going on a canyon run or doing something really special behind the wheel, some fun drive or some fun event. My three supercars, I love them dearly and that's kind of my main car thing. But, last year I bought a Porsche 911 Turbo, a 993, a 1996 911 Turbo for kind of more regular around town car duty because my supercars aren't really daily driver usable grocery getter cars.

And I wanted something that I could do regular errands with, but still have fun, still be in a special exciting car. And so, that was the 993 Turbo. It became my family car, it became my dog car, it became my grocery getter car. All my errands were in that and it was kind of cool to be able to have the special supercars for a special occasion, but also still drive a sports car for regular errands. I owned that car for almost exactly a year, that 911 Turbo, and I put about 3,200 mi on it.

So, I really got my use out of it, but I decided it was time to move on. I had had the experience, and I wanted to have a different one, and that's this. Now, specifically, the Supra was exciting to me because I've always loved the car. I love the Fast and the Furious movie. I love how it looks. I love that it's such a cool special car. I love that it's relatively reliable and easy to work on compared to some other potential cars at this price point.

I just think it's cool. And there was another factor that played a role here, too. My kids ride in the back of my 911 Turbo, and I've already installed car seats in the back of the Supra, and they're riding back here, too. More on that in a little bit, but I realized during my ownership of the Porsche that I wasn't going to be able to put my kids in the back seat of two-door cars for very long. These little sports cars have these back seats, and they are usable for now, but not for long.

My kids are growing up, and they're going to outgrow these back seats. And so, my thinking was if I wanted to get another two-door car that would be fun with a family, I had kind of limited time to do that. And so, the Porsche was lovely, and now the Supra is here. And after this, I may have to switch to four doors. And so, for the next year or so, I think this is going to be my errand car, my daily driver, my kind of around town use for the kids, the dog, etc.

That's going to be this, my daily driver Mark IV Toyota Supra Turbo. There's going to be people who think that's sacrilege to use such a special car that way, but I think it's so cool to be able to have that experience in such a cool iconic vehicle. But, there's a lot of icons out there. A lot of cars I could run errands with and put my kids in. Why the Supra specifically? Well, I've actually always been into kind of the special Japanese cars from this era.

In fact, I owned an R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R about 10 years ago. Loved that car. It also had an iconic powertrain from this period, the RB26. And that was great and I really loved that. always kind of been eyeing the Supra, like I mentioned. Love how it looks. I love the whole cultural significance. And honestly, that stuff is more appealing to me about this car kind of than the driving experience. In fact, a lot of people these days say that all of this attention around the Mark IV Supra has made it overhyped and that it really doesn't actually live up to expectations once you get behind the wheel and drive it.

There's all this hype and nostalgia factor and the car itself is really not that amazing to drive. People say that. And for me, that's actually okay. I already have my three special supercars to drive for driving stuff. And this car, I don't need to have an ultra-focused performance car experience. And I've already noticed a bunch of people in comment sections and my own friends saying, "You're going to get bored of this car." Well, that's not really my purpose.

I'm not trying to have an all-out sports car. I just want something cool for regular daily use. And my kids already absolutely love it. Part of the fun of having my 911 Turbo before this and the Supra now is being able to share the car hobby with my two boys who are five and two. They're really little. They're just getting into it. They don't really understand why daddy's so into cars until they can actually experience these cars.

And so far, they've loved it. They're begging me to take them to school in the Supra, the fast car. My little son the other day came up to my wife and said, "Me love the Supra." >> [laughter] >> They like it. They're into it. And I love being able to share that with them. And I don't necessarily want to do that in some crazy high performance, ultra fast. That's not really the point. This does the job perfectly for me and what I'm using it for.

And so, that brings me to this exact car. This is where I think the purists may start to hate me just a little bit because this car is really nice. This is a '94 Supra Turbo, like I said. It was a one-owner car for its entire life, from when it was bought new all the way until 2020, when it was purchased by a dealership, Diamond Motorworks outside Chicago, which is where I got it. So, one actual person who owned the car for basically its entire life.

It has only 31,000 mi on it. So, this is a 31,000 mi one-owner, very well-preserved, completely original, totally stock, not modified Supra Turbo. This car is way too nice for me and for my purposes using it to carry my dog and my kids, who will undoubtedly eat Cheez-Its in this car, and there will be crumbs and wrappers all throughout the back that will that will happen here, unfortunately. In fact, you can already see their handprints all over the side of the car from excitedly wanting to climb in and show their friends the car.

They've all been like pawing at it and looking inside. And I know there's a lot of people out there who are going to get really upset about the fact that I'm using such a perfect, pristine, one-owner, unmodified car. People are going to say, "Why don't buy a high mileage, damaged car to use for this purpose instead of such a nice one?" And honestly, that's a reasonable question. But, I really wanted to find a Mark IV Supra Turbo in this color, Renaissance Red, with a factory manual transmission, with no modifications.

I didn't want a giant exhaust, stuff that's going to get me sent to the state ref when I'm driving my kids to school. It's not really what I'm looking for. And honestly, it was really hard to find what I was looking for. A nice Supra Turbo with a manual and no mods, it doesn't really come up often. So, I got offered this car. It's clearly a lot nicer than I wanted, but I realized I could wait weeks, months, maybe even years trying to find something a little less nice, or I could just buy this car and take the hit that comes with actually using a car as a car.

And I've decided given the experience we've already had and given how much my kids already love it, it's worth it. It's totally worth it even if it means a little bit less value when I go to sell it. I just think it's worth it to have the experience of this car rather than waiting around to try to find something a little bit more our speed. Now, one interesting thing you'll notice this car has a targa roof that has been removed.

Toyota referred to this as the sport roof. And actually, they offered these Supras in two configurations. There was a hardtop coupe or a sport roof with the removable target top. I prefer the look of the car with the roof on. And my plan was to leave the roof on and possibly not even tell my children that it was removable so I could just use the car kind of in the shape that I wanted. But, here in Southern California, it took me less than 24 hours to pull the roof off.

And now that it's off, I love it and I'm so thrilled. Of course, that adds to the fun for my kids having a convertible that also goes fast. The wind is blowing, it's very cool. And so, I have a suspicion that despite maybe preferring a coupe, now that the roof is off, I think it probably won't go back on and this is definitely the preference with the targa sport roof. Now, one other interesting thing about this car, yes, it is a Supra Turbo, although it is not badged that way in back.

You You see it just says Toyota on one side and then Supra over on the other side, and that's because Toyota didn't actually put Supra Turbo badges on the earlier Supra Turbo models like this one. The first couple model years, they said Supra, whether it was a naturally aspirated base model or a turbo, they didn't distinguish with the badging. So, there's a few interesting ways that you can tell. A big one is the wheels.

The turbo got larger wheels than the regular base car, and it also got larger brakes. The wheels are pretty easy to change, but the brakes are a lot less easy to change. And so, you look at this car, and anybody who knows these can instantly tell it's a factory turbo. But, there's one other interesting way that you can tell if you just kind of glance inside the car, and that is the center console below the radio, there is a button that says track off for traction control.

Only the turbos got traction control. And so, while some people may upgrade their brakes and upgrade their wheels to look like a turbo, nobody ever is really putting on the traction control button in order to try to mimic the turbo look on the inside. And so, that's an easy way to tell if you're looking at a factory turbo whether it has the track off button or not. This one does have the button, and so, it is indeed a factory turbo.

Of course, you can also tell the VIN and various other things, but that's an easy way to tell at a quick glance. Now, one interesting thing about this car, because it was a one-owner car only 31,000 mi, hasn't been used very much over the last few years, and I've already started using it truly daily. I'm driving it three, four times a day to do errands. >> [laughter] >> And that's kind of unusual for a car like this.

And when you start driving a car that's been sitting for a long time, you start to notice some issues, and indeed there are some. The radio was working when I got the car, but has stopped. I got to figure that out. The climate control is maybe working. The air conditioning doesn't seem to be blowing totally cold. Got to figure that out. There's a little clunk from the suspension in back. But, this leads me to something else that I love about this car.

It's easy and relatively affordable to fix, unlike the 993 Turbo or the supercars. It's a Toyota. And in fact, Diamond Motorworks, where I bought the car, in order to get the timing belt changed, they just took it to the Toyota dealer. The guy who runs Diamond Motorworks, Ramy, he's an expert in Supras, and he said, "It's no problem. They work on 2JZs. They know what they're doing. They can handle it." And indeed they did.

And that is a breath of fresh air compared to some of the rather obscure cars that I've had over the years that have had rather difficult mechanic situations. Kind of nice to be in this one. Now, and beyond that, a couple of other questions I've been getting from people that I wanted to answer in case you're curious, too. One big question everybody's been asking, "Are you going to modify the car?" These cars have such a tuner culture.

There are so many mods you can do to wake them up, get more power, better handling, et cetera. And my answer is, "No." Again, it's not really even in the purpose of what I'm trying to do with this car just as a daily usable errand car. I don't need to get ultra stiff suspension and crazy power and a big loud exhaust. That's really I'm good. [laughter] I don't I don't want to go down that road with this car. It's just not It doesn't fit the purpose, and it kind of makes it less drivable, which is exactly the reason that I got it.

I just wanted to be able to use it all the time, and it's perfect for that right now. I also happen to love a well-preserved stock car. You get in and you actually feel what it was like back then. I drive a lot of brand new cars, and I know how cars are now, but it's kind of cool to get in this car and know this is how these cars were set up back in the day. And driving this back-to-back with my 993 Turbo is kind of cool.

It's a neat feeling. Yes, there's a lot of stuff you can do to improve them, but it's also just kind of nice to actually have that nostalgic feel of how these cars came off the assembly line and how they felt and how they were set up at the time. What was sort of the best that they could do in the era. The other question I've been I'm a lot is, "Isn't it crazy money? Isn't it just ridiculously expensive this car? And the answer is yeah, I think for what it is it's pretty expensive.

I paid around $130,000 for this car. That is big money for a 1994 Toyota. Uh it's about in line with market price for these cars. It's totally reasonable, but it is big money especially compared to a 300ZX twin turbo which would be less than a third of that or a 3000GT this car's competitors in period are a lot less expensive. And everybody thinks it's crazy to spend so much, but it's just not how I think about car purchases like this.

I don't consider it money spent. I'm very lucky to be in the financial position where I can just kind of park money in a car like this. I've spent the money on this car, yes, but in a year when I go to sell it it's going to be worth basically the same. These cars aren't really shooting up in value anymore, but they're not really declining either. And I have a suspicion it's just going to be kind of a store of value. Probably could make more money in the stock market, but I wouldn't get the thrills with my kids and driving around in such a special car.

And to me that's worth the opportunity cost. I do find it crazy though the number of people who freak out about how much this car costs when they drive a brand new Toyota Highlander or Ford Explorer that's going to lose far more money over the course of a year or two than I will lose in this car. I bought it for what I paid. I'll probably sell it for about the same. Won't lose much money, but any brand new SUV off a showroom floor is going to depreciate far more than this car.

And that's kind of how I think about these things. I'm very nervous about depreciation, but I don't have much of a problem with buying a car even if it's expensive if it means I can get my money out in a year or two for basically the same. To me that's a pretty reasonable deal to own a car. So there you go. That's a tour of my Supra an explanation of why it's cool, why I got it, what I'm going to use it for, everything I think you could want to know, including some details about this car.

I'm not going to show you all of the quirks and features because actually recently reviewed a different Supra on my channel and showed you the quirks and features. I don't really need to get into it again, but I do want to get behind the wheel and tell you my thoughts about the driving experience of a stock Mark IV Supra Turbo, my Mark IV Supra Turbo. So, let's get behind the wheel and let's drive it. All right, driving the Mark IV Supra Turbo, my Mark IV Supra Turbo.

And I got to say, you know, there's a lot of talk about this car, "Oh, in stock form it's not what you want. Oh, you're going to be underwhelmed driving it." People say that about this car. Um and people have said that specifically to me a lot about this car. LIKE, "OH, YOU KNOW, I DON'T KNOW." I have a lot of my friends are into Euro cars and they kind of poopoo anything like this. And um that's not how I feel. I love it.

I I think that what people still are having trouble wrapping their head around, based on the comments I'm getting on that, is that this is not a car that I'm trying to go all out and have crazy fun in all the time. For the purposes of having a daily use, like daily driver with my kids, taking the dog to the daycare, you know, picking up groceries, like this car is so cool to do that. Like, it's an iconic, special, amazing car.

Yes, it does not drive like my sports cars, but that's why I have my like special exotic sports cars. This, for daily purposes, gives me a pretty good driving experience, but also like the ability to drive around in a truly special car while I'm doing mundane tasks. And that is one of the coolest feelings in the world. Like, I'm doing something boring, you know, now we're going to go have some We're going to at least I get to do it in something really, really exciting.

But beyond sort of the ethos of the car, I actually think it drives pretty well. So, I'm coming off of my 993 twin turbo, which was the Porsche 911 Turbo basically from this car's era. The 993 Turbo was was sold 95 to 98 more or less and this was sold 93 to 98. And it's kind of an interesting comparison. My kids are convinced that the Supra is faster. I don't think that's true. I just think it's a little laggy and so when the turbo does kick in, turbos, it it really does feel a lot sharper in that band, but overall I don't think it's faster.

However, I am convinced that this car handles better. I just think it's it's more precise, it's more direct, it feels like more of an athlete than that 911 Turbo, which is kind of crazy to say because that car is a Porsche 911 Turbo. What it cost a lot more than this car back in the day. Those Porsches are kind of softly sprung. Like they're not really intended for like really forced, you know, canyon road type of driving.

I mean, there were other 993 models at that time like the GT2 models. They weren't sold in the states, but they were more focused. This car, however, was kind of the top of the range for the Supra. So, they really threw everything they had at it and it feels like that. It really feels sporty. I am shocked at how much confidence I have going hard around corners in this car, how planted it feels, how stable and solid it feels, predictable and surprisingly quick to change directions given that you're talking about a 30-plus year-old car, you know, on old technology, old suspension, old steering technology, uh low miles, it's pretty well preserved, but it's still, you know, it's not like it's a brand new car.

And by the way, I do want to talk about the engine specifically. Of course, the 2JZ is a famous powertrain, famous more for its reliability um than basically anything else, reliable even when you tune it, um which is not always true for a lot of power trains. It was so stout and so overbuilt that you could really get a lot of power out of it and it would stay pretty pretty reliable. In addition to that though, it is a smooth power train.

I love this engine. Even in this stock form boring Supra doesn't have anything on it. I love this power train. I really enjoy how it feels in the mid-range. It's got a lot of power. It doesn't have as much turbo lag as I was expecting. There is good like potent response at basically all revs. It is actually a pretty damn good engine even stock. I could totally understand why people who want like a real all out sports car wouldn't view this driving experience as enough without modifications, but for my guy who has a Countach and a Ford GT and a Carrera GT, I'll leave those cars to have the all out sport driving experience.

For me, as a like grocery getter car, this is just the coolest damn thing in the world. And by the way, the last thing I want to mention, one thing I was not expecting, I cannot believe how excited people get when I drive this car around. It is similar to my Countach. People go absolutely insane crazy to see this this car. People roll down their window at virtually every stoplight and say, "Oh my god, that Supra. It's so clean.

That's so cool." I had a guy follow me home the other day. He was so excited. He was asking if I wanted to sell the car. He didn't know who I was. He just was a Supra enthusiast and he was asking if I wanted to sell the car. He said it was his dream car. It's It's shocking to me just how much love there is for this car. And I think that a lot of people who have performance Japanese cars, this is like the daddy. This is like the the the you know, the one that everybody respects.

If you whether you have a Civic Type R or a Celica or Lexus RC or it doesn't matter. Like all of that stuff, everybody respects like the Mark IV Supra. Everybody knows it and everybody loves it. And I've been really shocked at the reception so far. And I I that adds to kind of the fun factor of driving it, just how happy it makes people. It It's been a great car. It's truly excellent for my purposes. I really, really love it.

I I I I don't know. I For what I use it for, I think this is just a wonderful car, and I'm really thrilled that I took the plunge to get it. Uh and so are my kids. And so, that's the 1994 Toyota Supra Turbo, my Mark IV Supra Turbo. These cars have a lot of hype, and some people say it doesn't live up. But for me and my purposes, this car is perfect, and it's exactly what I want. And I am so glad that I now have a Mark IV Supra in my life.

And now, no Doug Score in this video, cuz I recently reviewed a different Supra Turbo, and I gave it a Doug Score. Instead, I'm just going to say, "Thanks for watching. I appreciate it." And now it's time for me to go and drive my new Supra.