Questions for st205 Owners Options

[jordisonjr]

What's up guys. I finally have all my student loans paid off, and was starting to think maybe a 205 would be right for me.
However, I have some concerns, and some questions for current st205 owners.

My main concern with purchasing a gt four would be the super strut suspension in the front end. From what i've read, when it wears out, its pretty hard to find (correct me if im wrong) if you live in a country that the gt four was not produced in (im in canada). and also, if you can find the parts, its really exoensive.

How have you guys found the super strut on your cars. Are they hard to diagnose issues, when parts wear out? Has it been extremely difficult to source parts when needed? and how was the cost on doing work on the front suspension?

My next question would be mods. Of course, I wouldn't be able to keep it stock. From my understanding, theres no coilover manufacturer that makes coilovers for SS, except for Tien, but those are either discontinued, or once again, extremely hard to find. Is this true?

I know there was a mod floating around here, where you can cut and weld BC racing (I think) coilovers, to work with the super strut suspension, however, I don't really have the knowledge to do this. Running lowering springs on the stock struts would probably cause them to blow out quickly. Is there any replacement struts that work directly on the SS suspension?

Has anyone ever had issues with dealerships/shops refusing to do work on their car (timing belts, clutch jobs etc.) because it is RHD ad has not been produced in that country? Thats another thing I would be worried about.

I guess the super strut is really the only thing putting me off from bringing one in, as I don't want to be stranded without a car for long periods at a time, while trying to source out parts.

Hopefully some of you st205 guys can enlighten me on this, and I'm sure ill have a couple more questions to post up in here.
Thanks!

[dudeofchaos]

Hard to say as I've mine for not 2 full years yet and I didn't use it for about 1/2 the time I've had it.

Nothing has broken down or worn out yet (Might need new top plates though, but haven't changed them yet) but everything for St205 is a lot more expensive (if you're used to St204s like me)

It is not THAT hard to find stuff though but you have to know where to look for since you won't find anything here in Canada. (Since I've subscribe to Gt4oc.net I've found a lot of stuff for quite cheap)
Most of the time you'll find yourself looking for parts oversea. (Price, most of the time, is cheaper over there but shipping kills it)

Suspension is what's killing me. There are only Oem suspension, Tein and TRD that make SSS for the Gt-Four. There is also the option to get BC racing coilover and weld them with the SSS oem part but like you I'm not really into this cause I don't have the knowledge for this myself. (Thinking about it still.. Maybe my mechanic would agree to do it. He's THE BEST ever.)

I haven't had any problems yet but I would not look into dealerships anymore. I've been there and they don't know **** about our car.
Like I said, my mechanic is the best. He could tell everything about my Gt-Four even before I showed him the car haha and even if he never worked on one before. He's the only one to work on my car when I am not.

Best hint I can give you is to learn the most about this car by yourself (Forums help a lot) so you can do most basic stuff by yourself and find a good mechanic you can trust to do the complex stuff.

But in the end, it'll all be worth it when you look in your driveway and see this beast asking you to go take it for a ride

Hope it helped! Good luck in your purchase!

This post has been edited by dudeofchaos: Apr 6, 2013 - 7:23 PM