




I finally joined the club. 2026 Subaru BRZ tS 🤍
Walked out of the dealer at 34.6k, 11 miles (when I picked it up), and a lower payment from the 4Runner. I call that a win. 🤙🏼





Walked out of the dealer at 34.6k, 11 miles (when I picked it up), and a lower payment from the 4Runner. I call that a win. 🤙🏼
Hello!
I recently bought a 2026 BRZ tS from my local Subaru dealer. When I saw it on their site (vin number and all), it said that it was currently “in transit”.
I got a text yesterday (vin provided) that the BRZ has been released to the shipping company.
My sales rep says , “I predict it will show up next month”(Up to this point I was told ETA was Aug 22).
So I did some questioning, and was also told “The BRZ should be here next week or the week after.”
I told him that I was “taken aback when he said next month”, and he replied with, “Yeah my bad, I think it will be here next week.”
If the BRZ was already in transit to begin with, had an existing vin from the start when I looked at it on their site, and then I’m told that it is with the shipping company”, does this mean that it is with the overseas company from Japan on the boat, or is it here in the states?
If it’s in the states, I was told that they work out of Georgia for the Southeast area. I did some research on my own and found out it’s from Brunswick GA.
Anyone know of a better way to get a proper ETA on this? I’m eager to drive if you can’t tell… 😅
I’m trying to get out of my 2025 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off-Road Premium lease early and could use some advice from people who’ve dealt with Southeast Toyota Finance (SETF).
My current payoff is $46,941.58 and I’m paying $669 a month. Buying the truck out myself isn’t realistic — I just don’t have that kind of money sitting around, being a recent grad and with a job I’ve been at for almost a year now. I need a dealer to handle the payoff as part of a trade.
The main reason I want out is that the 4Runner doesn’t match how I actually live. I almost never carry more than one other passenger typically, and I can’t reliably haul my 240SX and the equipment I need with it (which was the main reason Ieased it).
I’m paying every month for size, 4WD, and ground clearance that I simply don’t use (in an area of the US that is all flat land to begin with… it’s basically a glorified mall crawler. On top of that, the GR brakes already squeak and annoy me. I don’t want a truck now or later.
What I actually want is something closer to the 2016 Honda Civic I used to have — a smaller, more efficient daily driver that still feels engaging. A 6-speed manual is a big plus for me because it’s more fun and closer to the character of my 240sx, while still being simple enough for regular commuting.
Right now I’m looking at two options:
My local Subaru has a 2026 BRZ tS (manual) and is showing a trade allowance of $53,050. Their current quote is about $433 a month with $0 due at signing on a 36-month lease.
An out of state Toyota dealership has a 2026 GR86 Premium MT. They’re working with a $53,000 trade value (about $6,059 in equity after the payoff) and quoting around $432 a month, but with roughly $6,559 due at signing.
Both cars would cut my monthly payment by a little over $230 and free up the equity in the 4Runner. I’m also planning to sell my 200SX project car so that money, plus any leftover equity, can go into savings instead of staying tied up in vehicles I don’t need day-to-day.
The biggest unknown is whether a Subaru dealer can actually pay off a Southeast Toyota Finance lease. From what I’ve read, SETF is pretty restrictive about third-party buyouts and often requires the payoff to go through a Toyota dealer.
There is one dealer that has a BRZ, under the same name as a Toyota dealer nearby, in the same area?
Has anyone successfully traded a leased Toyota into a non-Toyota store when the lease was with SETF? Or does the dealer usually force you to buy it out first?
Any real experiences with SETF early buyouts or cross-brand trades would be really helpful!
I’m trying to get out of my 2025 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off-Road Premium lease early and could use some advice from people who’ve dealt with Southeast Toyota Finance (SETF).
My current payoff is $46,941.58 and I’m paying $669 a month. Buying the truck out myself isn’t realistic — I just don’t have that kind of money sitting around, being a recent grad and with a job I’ve been at for almost a year now. I need a dealer to handle the payoff as part of a trade.
The main reason I want out is that the 4Runner doesn’t match how I actually live. I almost never carry more than one other passenger typically, and I can’t reliably haul my 240SX and the equipment I need with it (which was the main reason Ieased it).
I’m paying every month for size, 4WD, and ground clearance that I simply don’t use (in an area of the US that is all flat land to begin with… it’s basically a glorified mall crawler. On top of that, the GR brakes already squeak and annoy me. I don’t want a truck now or later.
What I actually want is something closer to the 2016 Honda Civic I used to have — a smaller, more efficient daily driver that still feels engaging. A 6-speed manual is a big plus for me because it’s more fun and closer to the character of my 240sx, while still being simple enough for regular commuting.
Right now I’m looking at two options:
My local Subaru has a 2026 BRZ tS (manual) and is showing a trade allowance of $53,050. Their current quote is about $433 a month with $0 due at signing on a 36-month lease.
An out of state Toyota dealership has a 2026 GR86 Premium MT. They’re working with a $53,000 trade value (about $6,059 in equity after the payoff) and quoting around $432 a month, but with roughly $6,559 due at signing.
Both cars would cut my monthly payment by a little over $230 and free up the equity in the 4Runner. I’m also planning to sell my 200SX project car so that money, plus any leftover equity, can go into savings instead of staying tied up in vehicles I don’t need day-to-day.
The biggest unknown is whether a Subaru dealer can actually pay off a Southeast Toyota Finance lease. From what I’ve read, SETF is pretty restrictive about third-party buyouts and often requires the payoff to go through a Toyota dealer.
Has anyone successfully traded a leased Toyota into a non-Toyota store when the lease was with SETF? Or does the dealer usually force you to buy it out first?
Any real experiences with SETF early buyouts or cross-brand trades would be really helpful. Thanks.
It’s a long one, but this one tells a story. Please be sure to share this one to your friends and your story for visibility! Thank you in advance for the views, everyone!
From about 8:00 yesterday morning working on the car to midnight… 9 years later, 7 years on the sim… We finally did it. I did a lot more than this, so stay tuned!
So our second street test didn’t go as best as we’d hoped…
Dad unloaded it and took it for a spin for a sec to stretch its legs, as you can see.
I ended up doing really well learning manual on my clutch; I only stalled once AT a red light. Aside from that, I got it middleways to 3rd, so safe to say she runs right.
The bad news is that the gauge cluster doesn’t work at all, we have a fuel vent / burping issue still, and the alignment is slightly out of whack…
Regarding the fuel issue, we got it over to my truck to check the lug nuts, so we shut the car off. Good thing we did there, because when we went to try and crank again, the car wouldn’t stay running, and wouldn’t rev up past very little RPM. We checked the MAF, checked for a vacuum leak, checked the throttle cable, and checked fuel pressure. Everything checked out.
We went back and thought it was fuel related (like a starvation issue or fuel cut). Low and behold, we had a friend of ours come and save the day again.
He put a little bit of fuel in the car, dad cranked it up to get it going back on the trailer, and it had no issues once we put fuel in it.
We tried to go fill it up at the gas station to get ready for the weekend, and it clicked on the pump after putting a whole $1 in it, and leaked fuel all down the side of the car outside of the tank filler neck…
Still running into a vent issue, which could mean some things… the float is deteriorated, we have a bad vent issue, or the tank could be bad in some way. Fuel pump primes without issue, so it’s not that.
We experienced no issues outside of the fuel cut, so it leads me to believe that it could be related to one of those things…
Got a lot of work ahead of us before Saturday. Fingers crossed.
We did do the thing, and the thing performed well for the first time! I also didn’t stall for my first time driving manual, soooooo that’s a win in my book!
We didn’t know we’d be doing this for you, but we did THIS for you, bro… I know you’re thrilled to see it come to light. 💛
After all the years of sim drifting / driving, I can’t wait to see what the real thing is like…
I’m thankful for my dad in helping me every step of the way, being there for me when I wanted to give up and sell it all, because it was moving at a pace that I didn’t understand… Who knew that a track would open up as local as it did for us to share the moment together.
After tomorrow, we still have a bit to go to really button her up, but it’ll be awesome to see the look on everyone’s faces, come August 1st, at my first drift event.
Got some of my “sponsor” stickers up on my car (on both sides), and I also got to test fit my new Zamp Racing helmet, courtesy of drift.hq, so now I have a backup for ride alongs!
We finished my driver side G-Force 5 point harness as well, so that’s cool.
Hopefully we’ll come to fruition with a FULL test drive this Friday 🤞
Decided to restore my rear lower sway bar earlier today, so I got to work! I also figured out a way to get slight bit more camber out of the front end.
Everything is coming together nicely! I can’t wait to see friends and family at the track in 2 weeks! 🤙🏼
Thankful for GKTech!
Still a long ways to go, and a short time to get there, but she’s looking better every day.
Thought I was going to be able to test the car today, but that came to a halt after running into some clearance issues during steering testing with my new spacer setup, courtesy of gktech.
I adjusted my rear height, dad and I played with caster, I tested some go-pro and insta360 camera setups for the first event, and we also finalized my headlight setup for good.
Roughly 3 weeks left. Let’s keep it moving!
Somehow, the gauge cluster all works… the headlights do their thing (yes they do power on), but now I’m running into an issue of a solid green right blinker.
We are running the 180sx style running lights, and have to go from 3 wire to 2 wire.
Maybe it’s the flasher relay, maybe it’s another relay or fuse… who knows.
Still working some things out, little by little, but it’s looking goooood 👀
Another step complete. Gotta work the kinks out of it, but I’m not complaining!
I think most of my issues came from not having the correct plug locations in the back of the cluster.
I forgot to test the blinkers or hazards as well… as soon as I saw the tach jumping (since I’ve never seen it do that), I didn’t care about much else lol
1986 Nissan 200SX Mark I Turbo:
I plan on rebuilding it a bit, but keeping it stock. It was a barn find and had the past owner bring it to me.
55k mi, 1 owner (minus the ones that had the car before me), and 100% original paint with a CA18ET. Some cosmetic / engine things need to be done to it, but other than that, all original.
Only 5000 Nissan S12s were imported to the US, based on what I was told?
I’m excited to see where it goes, since I ordered some cosmetic parts, once the 240sx is finished ☺️
I analyzed the boards on this cluster, and it looks to be repairable if I clean the corrosion and re-solder the boards.
Let’s hope that fixes our issue! Any other ideas?
Just to give a bit more info… (with both clusters)
the fuel light works, check engine light works, light that shows power to the unit is fine, and the seat belt light is on.
I also saw the right turn signal indicator working last night (but no activity with our blinkers), along with the bright light indicator when switched on.
Nothing else works.
No tach, no speedometer no needles, no clock, no leds, nothing…