I after years of planning and much hard work have finally made it overseas to Japan! Its been a long time in coming and required lots of sacrifice on my part including selling my beloved S.

After living here fodder nearly 6 months now I am now seriously gearing up to buy a car here and one of the harder choices I am having to make is between a FD2 type R which is obviously more practical etc... or climbing back into the S a base grade probably type V.

Even though I have made friends in the car auction biz here the type R is generally more expensive on average than the S2000.

Your thoughts?

 

It seems like you've survived 6 months without a car, so it doesn't seem that 'practicality' is necessarily at the top of your list. Doesn't seem like you need to move people or things often so...

Get the newer, cheaper car; the S. We'll disregard the part where it's you know, faster and not a civc.

 

Wow awesome position to be in. If I were in your shoes I would go with something out of the ordinary - anything Type R, newer Silvias (S15), older skylines (R33/R34), Evo V-VII, etc. But if you're constraining it to an S or Civic R, then do the Civic R. And post pictures to make us all jealous.

 

Getting a FD2 Type R WOULD be pretty sweet, just for the sake of it being pretty damn exclusive, even here in Japan (I live in Tokyo and have only seen several in this time)

But I have options like Type V S2000's you cant really get anywhere else either.

I HAVE done the due diligence and researched all those JDM Gems you mentioned prior (R33/R34, S15's, etc) and quite honestly most are still oddly expensive. Both FD2's and S2000's are far far cheaper than R34 GTRs still. And I would say that R33's and Silvias aren't really my thing. I have looked at other cars like STi's, Evos, but for whatever reason I am kinda just drawn back to the contenders from Honda.

Side note, RX7's here are dirt cheap. Type 5 and 6 RX7's produced between 99' and 2002 which in their stock form were more than a match for stock NSX's on the track are readily available for less than 7k. Probably because most people don't want to be bothered with learning how to care and maintain a rotary.

I very much love small fast cars. But at the same time I am really conflicted as to whether or not I SHOULD have something more practical in the stable like a FD2 for that special occasion when I have more than one friend visiting, or I am with MORE than just the girlfriend out on the town. For me these events are granted, rather few and far between. But its like there is part of my brain that is nagging and gnawing at the back, simply unsatisfied if I don't have SOME kind of choice to mull over. I don't want to feel dumb if I ever did find myself in a spot like that where a 4 door saloon would be useful. And yet 80% of the time all I see myself doing is tackling the famous mountain roads here and taking the little lady to the beach...

 

It's still just a Civic. A late model RX-7 would be pretty sweet though. Huge power, looks, exclusive to Japan, and hatchback utility.

 

The great thing here is that most used cars are practically minters by American standards. I am paying lots of attention to late model year 7s since where I live is only an hour and a half drive from RE Amemiyas tuning garage

 

Between the two, I'd go S2K. But while you're over there, why not get something that can't be had here? Skyline GTR anyone? I know that if I were living in a country where they are both legal and plentiful, I'd give one a very long hard look.

 

Way ahead of you on the GT-R thing...

You'd think with the R35 out for so long now that the R34s could be had for cheap... but not really. their reputation alone keeps prices high.

 

So many great cars to choose from, but between those two i go s. Ive studied in japan and know a good amount of people who lived there... its a different lifestyle and u really dont need a car, which i why id go s. But if it were me, s15 aaaaaaaaall the way, or a gtr o some kind.

 

Silvia's are quite common out here. You see them all the time because they are so incredibly cheap, even compared to other cheap performance cars.

That said, they tend to be a little more beat up because people drift the shit out of them and swap parts on them constantly.

Speaking of parts, thats another reason I am not going all out to get a GT-R. For one, I could buy an S2000 and a Type 5 RX-7 FD3S FOR LESS than the price of one GT R (R34). And I am also friends with a Nissan mechanic out here, and stopped looking for one all together when i was given parts estimates on RB26 engines. Like paying the maintenance on a BMW M car for something that's domestic here. Too rich for my blood.