60,000 Mile Service

I had the GT86 serviced today. It was a big one. 60,000 miles. It was a big bill too. I had it done at my local Toyota dealer Motorline Toyota in Stourbridge and it cost £650. It might have been more, but luckily didn’t require brake disks or pads, which I thought it would. It was also MOT’d and failed on a wiper blade but they threw that in for free as the service was so expensive.

Warranty Claims

So far the car has been 100% reliable. I did have the rear screen replaced under warranty because one of the heated rear window elements broke – maybe when I pulled the ‘Toyota 5 year warranty’ sticker off? The car still looks good apart from the paintwork at the front where the lacquer is coming off, probably because I take it to the car wash and those guys blast it too much with the high pressure hoses and this on areas with stone chips has resulted in the lacquer lifting. I tried to claim under warranty but the claim was refused.

I had to have some bodywork repaired after I backed it into a tree on a camp site in La Rochelle but otherwise no mishaps.

Changes I’ve made

The spec of the limited edition Giallo is pretty good but one of the first things I changed was the head unit which I replaced with a Clarion unit which has much better sound and came with sat nav. I don’t like it though as it is fiddly to change settings when you’re on the move, so intend buying an Android head unit before the next roadtrip. I also bought a Toyota centre arm rest to cover the storage bin between the seats, new wheels, a dashcam and a reversing camera, but otherwise it’s stock.

Tuning and Detuning

I had it tuned once by Mike at Tuning Developments – had the whole kit installed, had it mapped and did a season’s hillclimbing and a few Toyota Sprint Series sprints, but then I was going to part exchange it for a Civic Type R so had it all put back to standard and sold the kit. Then I changed my mind about the Honda and now regret putting it back to stock. I have no idea what I’m doing with this car. Maybe I should supercharge it. Maybe I should sell it and get an F Type. Probably indecision will result in me hitting 100K with it.

What I do know though is that it is a superb Grand Tourer. Very comfortable over long distances and remarkably economical (about 35 mpg on roadtrips) and very practical too in comparison with the Honda S2000 we had before and in which we also did some great European drives.

Where we’ve been in that 60K miles

Let’s hope the next 60K is just as much fun.