Edmunds.com review - Supercharged tC:

kenratboy said:

Link:

To be honest, I was under the impression the 0-60 time was in the mid 6-second range. I am sure it kicks ass and all, but I am not that impressed.

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Neither am I. $3500 plus tax.... that's roughly $100 per 1 horsepower. And you lose out on 12 months of warranty if you installed the thing yourself. The labor rates for installing the thing at the dealership is ridiculous (warranty of the thing stays intact if you install it through the dealer). I got quoted $175/hr at around 8-9hrs installation time with an additional $100 storage fee for overnight storing due to length of install (here at Burlingame Putnam Toyota). The sad thing is, for about $20,000+ (which is what the car would be estimated to be with the s/c not installed), there are other cars at that price range with more horsepower and better performance STOCK. There's only so much you can do to a 4-cylinder engine. If it's horses you want, might as well just get a V6 or V8. It's cheaper than constantly modifying your car with add-ons. In this case, no matter what you do to your car, there will ALWAYS be a car faster than yours while in the meantime, the Highway Patrol is always waiting right around the corner.

vespa5 said:

I know. We all know that a stock tC without any add-ons is about 16K. $20K includes the stock tC and the supercharger alone NOT including the installation of the s/c. We were mainly referencing the car that was reviewed in the article. After reading the article about their testing of this supercharged tC, "their" tC that they tested with the s/c was about $26K according to the article and it's about $23K with just the s/c and few add-ons like the overpriced 18" rims (I guess that includes all the installation and what not that you're bound to have to pay for if you install it through the dealership without nulling the 12month warranty as the article states). I just don't think spending $23K-$26K on a package like the one edmunds tested is worth it. Like the last person stated, around $27K, you might as well just get an Evo or a nice V6 '06 Eclipse GT that has some pretty nice numbers for performance. Just my opinion that's all.

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Well, I dunno... look at Tony The Tiger... he dynoed his custom turbo Camry out at 394HP to the wheels.... he's destroying Evo's, from what I've been hearing. He put in $10,000+ in the engine alone. And its very admirable. I wouldn't want a car that comes built for performance or crap like that. I think the high road is when you take a regular car that seemingly has little potential, and turn it into a monster. In all honesty, I have absolutely zero desire to get an Evo or an STi. Absolutely none. There's no personal satisfaction there for me. I'm planning a big project for my Camry sometime in the not-too-distant future thats going to boost my numbers like crazy, and I'll be destroying Si's, even with my 4-speed auto. Its my little secret, but its in planning.

So I don't agree with the way you guys make the whole S/C'd tC thing seem like a bad, overpriced idea. I think there's lots of potential there, you just have to add the right things to it, tweak it the right way, and make sure its tuned properly. Besides, how do you know the tC that Edmunds tested was even tuned at the dyno? Maybe they just slapped on the S/C and jumped on the track without changing the a/f ratio with an SAFC II or anything? You should keep that in mind... Toyota has a tC show car that they transport from show to show... it has the TRD supercharger and a prototype TMIC. The guy was telling me that Toyota ran a few tests with it before making it strictly a show car, but they never tuned it .What says that Edmunds did? All they say is that they're running 7 pounds of boost, which is great... but how do they know that that boost is being used efficiently without dyno-tuning it? In an untuned car, its very easy for all that boost to just be wasted and unused.

supercharger cont'd

Here are my own questions about the supercharger. I'd like to go faster, but not if it compromises the longevity or day-to-day driving expense of my car.

1) If I drive 80% babying and 20% aggressively, how much will the supercharger affect my mileage? (I have the cold air intake and I'm getting 29-30 right now).

2) How does adding the supercharger affect the life of the engine?

3) I found out after the fact that with the cold air intake my car may or may not pass smog (see other discussion threads). Does the supercharger affect successful smog inspections?

4) Can one install both the cold air intake and the supercharger with no problems? -- Probably a newbie question on this one, be gentle.

Peace,

1) That really depends on how much freeway and how much city driving you actually do. But superchargers are A LOT more economical than turbo's.

2) Force inducing ANY engine that doesn't come force induced from factory will wear out the engine parts a lot faster than stock would. Even putting in your cold-air intake will decrease the life of the engine a little bit more than it would normally. Most people rebuild their engines with forged internals when they force induce so that the boost doesn't destroy the pistons and other parts. TRD made sure that the engine could handle the supercharger's boost, but like I said, whenever you force induce any engine that wasn't built for boost, you're going to greatly decrease engine life.

3) Forced induction will affect emissions 99.9% of the time. You will not pass smog if you force induce. You would need to find someone that would pass you for a little bit of extra $$. But you wouldn't have to worry about smog until 2011 so I wouldn't even worry about it.

4) Yes.