fwa's JDM nugget - 2000 Toyota Vitz

I have officially purchased a little JDM nugget. By far the smallest, lightest, least powerful (86hp), smallest engined (1.3L), least monochrome, most actually JDM, and easily the cheapest car I have owned. I present my 2000 Toyota Vitz Clavia. It is hilarious. Definitely not a long term car but it s a good cheap set of wheels that will get me around nice and cheaply.

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Basic Stats
2000 Toyota Vitz Clavia
-Maroooon
-2NZ-FE
—86hp
-4AT
-FWD
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Modifications
Interior
-B1W Dashcam
-Sony DSX-410BT head unit

Exterior
-Stock

Engine and Exhaust
-Stock

Suspension, Wheels and Tyres
-Cusco front strut tower bar
-14x6" alloy wheels with 185/60r14 Michelin Energy XM2

To-Do (Stuff that is ready to be done)
-Fix/clean the throttle position sensor

Planned (Stuff that might happen eventually)
-Fresh struts with mild lowering springs

Dashcam arrived today so I got that installed:

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Went up to the wind farm for a bit just to get out of town. This thing has absolutely no power on the uphills and yet we overtook someone, it is good fun on the downhill bits though it really will benefit from better tyres with shorter sidewalls on larger wheels, the stock 155/80R13s are just not the most confidence inspiring things...The transmission also doesn't like to downshift (much like in my old BK).

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Package arrived from China today containing the replacement radio surround so I went ahead and put that on in place of the stock unit which only picked up a couple stations (Japan uses a different spread in the FM spectrum from most of the rest of the world) and had no aux-in. I will be getting a bluetooth capable headunit shortly.

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Drove down to Wellington to pick up some cheap wheels and facilitate better tyres as the ones the car came with are just about dead. They did come with tyres but they are mismatched and old with one having severe dry-rot so new rubber all around is needed.

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Will be bumping up from 155/80r13s to 185/60r14s which should make it stick to the road like crazy as this car weighs next to nothing.

I was bored so I test fit one of the wheels today, wont put them on for real until I can get new tyres though.

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Those are going to be a huge improvement all around. Once those are on the next thing is going to be refreshing the suspension as the stock struts feel quite dead.

EDIT 20/5:

Not worth bumping the thread with a new post so I'll just tack this on here, went for lunch with friends and ended up swinging out to the beach, was an awesome day

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Update time! Finally got a new Sony head unit and a single din pocket to fil the gap. Naturally, the cheap Chinese eBay dash trim piece needed lots of trimming so I attacked it with a Dremel (still not perfect). It is so nice having music again...

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I also finally received a cheap thing from Japan, a Cusco front strut bar. It makes a surprising difference in the cornering stability though the current tyres are pretty shit. I will be getting fresh rubber for the 14s after my next pay cycle.

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And yes, I will be cleaning the engine bay eventually.

The wheels are now on complete with new and matching Michelins, it makes a world of difference!

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This thing is awesome. It could use a sportier version Vitz grill to help out the looks.

I'm actually contemplating moving up to a FunCargo (based on the Vitz) to have a little more capability without sacrificing much economy around town, more specifically an '05 model with the 1.5L and factory aero kit like this:

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Funky little things...

Do it. That thing looks sweet.

I've been looking at the Vitz/Yaris/Echo offerings weekly ever since first discovering your thread. Hope you're enjoying life over there!

So I have to admit something. After I got the Crown this sat in the driveway and really didn't move from Dec. 2019 until last week when I finally sold it. I feel bad leaving a perfectly good car sitting unused but I just didn't have the time to deal with it and didn't really think about it because the Crown has been so good...