6th Gen Trim Levels - Australian Market, Searching for Info - SX, SX-R, ZR, GT Options

[m4dm4n]

Hopefully enough good reliable info can be compiled in this thread so that it can be thrown up onto the Resource Site or maybe a Sticky.

I've been trying to find info on the different trim levels available to the Aus market. In particular, the ST204 GT. Using a search term "ST204 GT" is pretty well useless as most search engines will disregard the "GT" as being too short but then return thousands of pages containing "ST204".

Wikipedia gave a little bit of info, but it's very lacking. I've searched other forums but again, the search string is not much use (1000+ matches) and often if it does work I just get results on the TA22 etc. Wading through over 1000 posts isn't something I'm really looking forward to.

So far as I can tell, the ST204 released to the Australian market came in 4 trim levels:

SX

Very common, base model with few options. Factory alloys, driver airbag, no ABS... a very "vanilla" option if you wanted a sporty looking car.

SX-R

Very similar to the SX, the SX-R had black/red interior and the white gauge faces. No ABS, driver airbag only (?), factory alloy rims, aircon, and the sunroof was an optional extra. Not as many around as the SX, but still fairly common.

ZR

The ZR trim level included dual airbags, ABS brakes, fog lights, factory alloys, aircon and optional sunroof. Seemingly fewer of these are around than the SX-R.

GT

From what I can tell and from what little I can dig up from the interweb, the GT is the same as the ZR except it came with more options as factory standard, and is badged with "GT" in gold lettering. I've only ever seen 2 of these. The included extras (and I may well be very wrong here) are things like an immobiliser, 6-stack CD, fog lights, alloys, abs, dual airbags, aircon. I don't know what kind of limit there was on releases to market, and i can't even find any reliable evidence that they were even manufacturer imported (IE available at the dealer) or if the very few that are around are all personal imports.

From the tiny amount of info I've been able to get so far the SX, SX-R and ZR were available from '94 through to '99 right until the 7th Gen was released. The GT from what I can tell was available '95 to '97. There was a GT for sale recently which was listed as a '95 model and the other one i saw I read the rego sticker in the windscreen to see the year model, so I don't know if the were available in other years as well.

This post has been edited by m4dm4n: Aug 19, 2010 - 9:30 PM

[m4dm4n]

So I contacted the Toyota Experience Centre in Australia (basically just customer support) regarding the GT. I supplied the VIN and info i already know about the vehicle and asked if they can confirm it's not a grey import. Toyota confirmed it was originally sold in Australia so I'm pretty happy about that. I'll be picking up the vehicle soon so hopefully photos will follow soon after!

As a side note, I have contacted quite a number of auto insurers to try to get a quote for comprehensive insurance. Almost all insurers have rejected the car as it isn't currently on their list of cars that they insure - my guess is the rarity of the model makes it too much of a pain for them to insure. One company (A) that didn't have it on their list offered full insurance with an annual premium of $1900. The excess - which is the amount you need to pay if you need to make a claim - was $800. I couldn't help but laugh. Paying 25% of the vehicle's market value every year just for piece of mind that that I'd get the value paid back if i happen to write the car off to me is not a worthwhile purchase.

Another company has offered to insure it for $1200 per year with a $600 excess - not great but a darn site better than the almost $2k quoted from company (A).