Car ownership in H'burg/Rockingham County

[Goodspeed]

So, I am planning to buy a car at the end of the summer/beginning of the semester. The car will be titled and registered in Rockingham county, and I will have my own insurance plan.

A few questions....

If your vehicle is garaged in the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, or Stafford, or the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas or Manassas Park, your vehicle must meet the emissions inspection requirements. Inspections are valid for two years and may be obtained by having your vehicle inspected by a certified emissions inspection station.

I take it Rockingham county then does not have emissions? No visual inspection, or instrumented emissions tests? Does this mean a car with a DP and test pipe elminating all cats will be road legal in Rockingham county?

Also, insurance. What insurance do you recommend? Keep in mind this is a college town, with accidents, theft, and vandalism not uncommon. I got a free quote from Geico, with the bare minimum (VA mandated) coverage levels, and it came to 169.30 dollars a month. What are your thoughts/comments on insurance?

Thanks for your help, if I have any more questions I'll post them here. The car in question is a 1987-1992 Toyota Supra Turbo.

[.RJ]

You dont need emissions. You do however need a rockingham county decal for your windshield - they're $25.

For insurance - call as many places as you can. See if you can get on your parents insurance plan for now - it sounds lame, but it will save you a ton of coin.

And dont buy a damn supra...

[Ginger]

And if you plan on keeping the car a while you may want to consider leaving the emissions equipment in place... if you move out of the Burg, which eventually is something you should do, you may move to a place emissions requirements. If you do I forsee a big hassle putting the stuff back in.

And I use USAA for my car insurance because they rock.

[Mike]

They are supposed to do a visual inspection, which that set up would fail. All you get out of is emissions... that the car isn't blowing nasty shit in to the air.

As far as future-proofing your car? Don't worry about it, my Civic is still garaged in h-burg even though I've changed the NoVA address that they mail me my bill to 3 times

State Farm = moneybags for me, but each company is very different for each individual from what I've seen.

[ViPER1313]

IIRC the car has to pass a safety inspection which includes a visual check to ensure emissions equipment is in place - just no tailpipe or OBD2 check.

As for insurance that depends on whether you are taking out a loan for the car or not and what sort of protection you want from being sued. Most car loans stipulate that you carry comprehensive on the car with a maximum value set for the deductible (the VW's loan says $500 IIRC), but if you are buying the car outright it's probably a smart call not to carry comprehensive insurance as its much cheaper. Its also probably smart to have limits of at least $100,000 for health bills, property damage, etc.. in case you get into an accident. You can save a decent amount of money by keeping your deductibles high (usually $1000) and saying that the car is only driven 2 miles a day each way to work / school.

JUST BUY A CAR ALREADY :wink: - you can worry about these types of things afterwards!

[Goodspeed]

Thanks for the replies. My parents haven't lived in the US since 1996 and thus don't have any American car insurance. I'm not quite sure what they have (they barely drive their 2000 Avalon w/ 40k on it) but they have told me that I will need my own plan.

So Rockingham still does visual inspection? As in they put the car up on a lift for a look? Any way to get around this? I wouldn't go as far as to remove the EGR and put block off plates or anything, but would one cat be sufficient to pass?

As for the car, I could post up why I chose it but I don't want to deter from my original questions. I considered other platforms (mainly the S14 240 for a long time) but this is better suited to my needs/wants/requirements. Thanks and keep them coming

[Dave]

You'll need to have something that looks like a cat that is in plain sight. That's pretty much it. You can block off the EGR, but I'd put the device over the plates so that it at least looks like it is still functional. In terms of exhaust piping, I'd recommend a high flow cat, or buy a used cat from for a larger truck, destroy it's innards, and run a pipe down the center that is the same diameter of the rest of your exhaust.

As for your choice of car... It's a boat and won't handle particularly well without extensive suspension work and some major weight loss. Otherwise, it's a fantastic cruising car, fairly comfortable, and pretty fun to drive. They look great (aim for the later years) and have decent potential, aside from the problem of blowing head gaskets. Speaking of that, they blow head gaskets. People dump these cars for practically nothing in good shape b/c of that. If it costs $500 and seems to run well, get online and buy another engine as soon as you get home, or better yet stop somewhere that has internet during your test drive. Otherwise, I'm quite intriqued by your choice, care to share your reasoning?

P.S. I'll have an S13 and a mkIV for sale soon. Both are more bEttaR :-).

[Mike]

P.S. I'll have an S13 and a mkIV for sale soon. Both are more bEttaR :-).

Agreed. I'm not sure what makes a MkIII Supra fit one's needs better than those.

[Ryan T]

Bravo on the mkiii, I loved mine. Comfortable, safe, fast in a straight line and doesn't handle as bad as everyone says. Try and get one with the TEMS system, you'll love it.

[.RJ]

Miata > Supra

[CaptainHenreh]

MkIII's are ok, just a bit heavy. You'll have fun in it.

But please, for the love of god, do not hollow out a cat. They are worth way too much money to stick a screwdriver into, especially considering there are test pipes that LOOK like catalytic converters.

Besides, I very seriously doubt that removing your cat does jack shit.

[Goodspeed]

I'll move to these questions since my original ones were pretty much answered, thanks again

Otherwise, I'm quite intriqued by your choice, care to share your reasoning?

Price, safety, reliability, looks, performance...the MKIII seems to meet all my requirements here. I have read all the threads in the SF MKIII FAQ/Tech section, and I recently purchased a book containing nearly every magazine Supra review from 1982-1998 to study these cars further. I'm really trying to do my homework here. I have talked it over somewhat with the rents and it seems to fit their bill too.

I'd probably prefer a 90-92 car for the standard airbag/upgraded stereo/body color trim. As for the BHG, I'd try to look for a car that has either a new stock one (with the head properly torqued down unlike Toyota) or a MHG/machined head and block already done. I guess every car has its Achilles heel. If I would have to install it myself, I know its a huge pain but it would be a valuable lesson that I wouldn't mind undertaking. Beyond that I have read that these cars have great reliability, the looks are great, and they are apparently tanks when it comes to safety. Of course any input you could give me would be greatly appreciated from your past MKIII. (Ryan too!)

Agreed. I'm not sure what makes a MkIII Supra fit one's needs better than those.

Concerning the S13 or MKIV, I'm just not a big fan of the S13 generation 240. I'm not looking to swap motors at all while I'm in college, so the SR20 route is out the window, and say I wanted boost, that would leave me with the KA-T route (which I also heavily studied), but things like hacking the MAF and sourcing all the custom bits would be too much of a pain and things would blow up probably. I understand that it would be better suited for a track car, but that, IMO, is the only leg up it has on the MKIII and at this point in my life thats not enough to consider it.

The MKIV....no way I could afford one. I'd love to though, and someday I will, but financially thats just not going to happen. Sad to hear you're letting it go Dave, if I had the cash I'd pick her up in a heartbeat.

Miata > Supra

I'd love a Montego blue first gen, but practicality is lacking here as I need something with useable cargo space/room for more than 2. But after writing off the 240 as an option, I did think about it....

[ScottyB]

i've had good luck with Allstate insurance. and as Rex mentioned, it's probably a better idea to just keep the emmisions stuff. unless you're making huge power a properly matched cat isn't gonna hurt anything IMO. also, i've ridden in catless cars and the smell is awful, i'd have a headache from it everyday if i had to deal with that

oh, and good to hear how much you've researched your choices. not that i thought you wouldn't but we all know your obsessions can cloud judgement :lol:

[CaptainHenreh]

If I would have to install it myself, I know its a huge pain but it would be a valuable lesson that I wouldn't mind undertaking.

It's really not that big of a deal. Lots of room in the engine bay, and if you have time and tools it's not that hard.

If you want a Japanese RWD manual transmission car with seating for four and an under 5k price tag, your only real option is a MKIII Supra.

What about a European car, though? Tons of those that are RWD, manual trans, seating for four and under 5K.

[Goodspeed]

If I would have to install it myself, I know its a huge pain but it would be a valuable lesson that I wouldn't mind undertaking.

It's really not that big of a deal. Lots of room in the engine bay, and if you have time and tools it's not that hard.

If you want a Japanese RWD manual transmission car with seating for four and an under 5k price tag, your only real option is a MKIII Supra.

What about a European car, though? Tons of those that are RWD, manual trans, seating for four and under 5K.

My father actually brought up a while ago importing a car from Europe to the States. Of course, I can't bring over any old car that hasn't been crash tested and federalized in the States, but I have been on the local (French) Supra forum and there are lots of MK3's here. That might be worth looking into, though I'd have to look at the fees and see if its actually worth it.

[HAULN-SS]

when he said european, i dont think he meant japanese car in europe?

[Jeff]

I have an 86 Plymouth station wagon for sale that would fit you perfectly!

I'm with Rex...just get a BMW.

[Jeff]

when he said european, i dont think he meant japanese car in europe?

+1....wtf... :lol:

[Ryan T]

I had the pleasure to experience 3 mkiii's at the same time. My first car was a 87 auto n/a, my twin brother had a 87 manual n/a and my older brother had (still has) a 91 auto turbo. Even though they are heavy they are still a blast to drive. They are also extremely safe, I've been in accidents in 2 different mkiii's at a decent speed and the cars were never damanged very badly. I've seen a video on some of those wildest police chase shows where an expedition sized vehicle was running from the cops, ran a redlight at like 50mph and hit a mkiii in the front drivers side. The supra stayed completely intact and just spun around in the road several times before hitting a sign and coming to a stop. Neigther the lady driving or the baby in her car were injured, but the expedition driver wasn't so lucky.

[CaptainHenreh]

when he said european, i dont think he meant japanese car in europe?

You're right, I didn't mean that, although it's an option.

Hell, if you're family's in Europe, I wouldn't even bother with anything else. Go to germany and shell out a few marks for a 635CSI and stick it in a container bound for the New World.

Oooh! Or a Euro E28. Oooh, that makes my happy places tingle. Hell, a Euro 3 series would be some funky shit, but you couldn't import an E30 Touring. I'd do that in a hearbeat if I could.