1993 Lexus Soarer 2.5 GT-T from UK and Ireland - Comments

Oil level sender unit gone on the blink, Lexus dealer wanted £300 but £50 bought a good secondhand one.

Build quality not up to modern Lexus levels... but it is a 1993 car.

A little slow off the mark (relative to my friends Audi S4) due to the auto. transmission, but flies after the first second or so. Gyrometer testing ran a best of 5.71s to 60mph, average was around 5.9s.

Surprisingly good fuel economy, averages 20mpg around town and 30mpg on a long motorway run at 75-80mph.

Has no traction control etc. and there's no grip at all from the back wheels under power in the wet. Will wheelspin and slither around at 50mph if kickdown engaged even if travelling in a straight line... quite unnerving!

Hey I agree with you on the wheel spin! it is nerve pinching. I have a 1993 sc400 and I think it great and powerful, but it is horrible in the wet or snow, but when it is dry it is unstopable! I think I'm just going to put allseason tires on instead of low profile tires. Good luck with your car it a great one!

"Build quality not up to modern Lexus levels"- There is a reason it isn't up to Lexus standards: Your car isn't a Lexus.

The Jzz30 Soarer with the 2.5l 1JZ-gte was only ever released as a Toyota Soarer: The only cars released under the Lexus brand were the 4.0l 1UZ-fe V8 cars named SC400 (mechanically similar to the UZZ30 Toyota Soarer, but with minor differences) and the 3.0l 2Jz-ge SC300 (mechanically similar to the Jzz31 Toyota Soarer, but with minor differences). The Lexus models were all LHD since they were only sold on the US market.

The Lexus and Toyota cars were made at the same plant and are essentially the same cars although quality control on the Toyota models weren't up to the standards of the cars being built for Lexus.

You still have a fantastic car (I used to own one) but it's a re-badged Toyota not a Lexus :)

The Lexus SC400 was also sold in NZ as a new car, and NZ is RHD (probably only sold a handful as they were about NZ$200k if I recall.) I've spoken to guys in the club out there and they have not been able to identify any difference in build quality as between the imports and the locally sold SC 400. Same factory, same car.

I have a 1991 soarer 2.5tt and I love it to pieces.

The comments on wheelspin and whole car spin are very very true and after a small incident last winter I won't let my partner drive it again, it is not an easy car in the wet!

However we have a new BMW and the soarer is easily my favourite!

Hello all.

I am Considering buying gtt. Does any one know if they have or come with a slip diff. Whats the biggest problem with them cost wise? I Never delayed so much about buying a car.

Hi there..

The GT-T is an amazing car. I managed to find a manual 1999 model in Japan and ended up importing here to NZ. Cost wise I was expecting it to be worst, but in the 60k zone I get around 8km/l which is pretty good I think. Even my 1992 2.2 V-tec Prelude did only about 9..so 8-8.5 is quite good for a big car like the Soarer.. but then again I'm talking about driving it easy without letting the turbos kick in too often. I tend to keep revs down about 2000 most of the time. I think it's got slip diff/traction control as well cos when it's slippery an orange 'SNOW' sign comes up on the dash..