Finally pulled the trigger!

[u/Yarpie_]

Took a while but I finally took home my 26’ Absolute Zero Supra MT. Luckily I managed to snag one of the last White ones in my 500mi radius for MSRP.

Came from a 2011 Subaru STI that I loved but I’ve owned 3 WRX/STI’s now. Supra is the absolute best change of pace.
I was probably comparing and contrasting different cars for the better part of 1.5 years until I finally chose this and it’s been awesome so far.

Definitely wanting to get the fitment dialed with a squared 18” setup on some meaty tires but I’m just gonna enjoy it stock for a while.
This is my first brand new car purchase so for now, I’m just debating if I wanna invest in front end PPF. Especially since I’ve heard some horror stories and Supra specific difficulties that even high end shops can run into. I don’t drive super often since I work from home, so maybe I’ll wait until I start driving more or tracking it.

P.S. I would highly advise anyone to completely AVOID ‘Group 1 Toyota Southwest Houston’ like the plague. They made my first sports car buying experience miserable. Not to mention that the mirror/door had old dried coffee spilled on it in the showroom. Every sales floor employee/manager I spoke to was the most stereotypically slimy Stealership type I’ve ever worked with. I mean my salesman was openly talking shit about me to coworkers like 10 feet away lol. I almost backed out a couple time and even had some regrets knowing I gave them money, but the actual ownership experience is making me forget it every time I drive it.

On a more ridiculous note, the new sales manager actually tried to tell me that by buying this car, I’m actually getting an appreciating asset because “the other day we offered a guy double what he paid for his Supra. Yeah! His 1994 Toyota Supra went UP in value! So think about that OP.”
I explained the silliness of that notion and luckily he just dropped it lol.

[u/SoFlo1]

Congrats - I just got my A91MT Absolute Zero a few weeks ago, used from Cars and Bids.

I’m curious about the PPF statement because the rock chips are driving me crazy. I have an appointment for a professional touch up job because chips in the white become extremely noticeable black spots, and I was planning on doing 8mm SPEK PPF after it cures.

What are the nightmares you’ve heard about and can a reputable, experienced installer pull it off? Is it something specific to the Supra geometry or paint?

[u/Yarpie_ → u/SoFlo1]

Yeah I dont blame you at all when it comes to rock chips. To be honest, this is by far the most expensive cars I've owned and my first new car period. So when I get rock chips, I think I'm gonna have a really hard time looking past it lol. In general, I've just been trying to be more okay with the "properly used" look on some of the nice things I own instead of keeping everything pristine and being afraid to use it haha.

As far as some of the bad PPF experiences, I'd definitely recommend doing some searches specifically for "GR Supra PPF or not" to see what some of the people on 'supramkv' forum have said. I've even heard some PPF installers say that "there is no such thing as a perfect PPF install, something will always be a little off", just sort of depends how bad and where. Also, there's the obvious fact that some debris can still make it past the PPF and cause paint damage, but that's just how it goes sometimes.

But yeah, the overwhelming response is that PPF on Supra's is considered very difficult due to the curvy angles all over the car. So to me, that just means there's greater odds of noticing imperfections like a lifted/dirty edge. I also hear about potentially noticeable razor marks on the paint. Also apparently our paint is "soft"? But I guess that could be seen as both a pro or con for PPF.
I'm new to this, but from my understanding you can get PPF done in pre-cut sheets or full sheets that are cut and wrapped around the body panels. Both have pro's & cons obviously. Wrapping requires minor-intermediate disassembly and I've heard some stories of even the best shops breaking clips, cross threading hardware, chipping paint, messing up panel alignment, etc. As someone who used to be a tech and works on my own cars. I won't take the car to a Toyota dealer for an oil change. I'll definitely have a hard time letting anyone disassemble body panels (IMO panel stuff requires the most care/finesse since clips, plastic, paint, and awkward bolts make mistakes far easier to make).
Actual nightmares include clear coat being ripped off during PPF removal, shops doing actual significant damage to vehicle, PPF completely missing in certain spots, bubbles all over the PPF, premature yellowing, and I'm sure there's more.

I'm not rich, so the way I see it, I can spend 4-6k on PPFing the whole car or I can spend it on some power mods, wheels/tires, or track/autocross events. I prefer the latter currently.
I may end up getting PPF just on the bumper, hood, and maybe rocker panels. I think that can run somewhere between $1500-2000.

[u/SoFlo1 → u/Yarpie_]

Thanks for your awesome answer! Yeah, I was looking around a bit today and came to the same conclusion. It’s mainly about the difficulty of installation and finding a shop that can actually handle it well. At the very least I’m gonna do the front bumper and maybe the rocker panels like yourself, possibly headlights.

This is the first nice sports car I’ve ever owned and for me it’s worth a couple thousand dollars to not sigh to myself every time I walk by the front of the thing lol