Just bought my 2002 Cuore L701 a couple of weeks ago, and for the first time in my life, I actually own a car that I like, love, and look forward to driving every day!
Bought it for €1000,- with 70.000kms on it, interior looking pretty much spotless, and some minor scratches and dents on the body, so it seemed like a nice deal.
I’m not very car-savvy, but I’m interested in learning more about my car, and am working on/planning some upgrades (mainly easthetics). I put in a new headunit (Blaupunkt BPA1123) so I could get bluetooth connectivity, MagSafe phonemount so I can mount my phone without having to stick anything to the windshield, and I have a pair of JBL Stage3 527 speakers to swap with the stock ones (hoping to find some time for that today). Oh and I put a piece of electrical tape on my steering wheel as a poor man’s centerline indicator lol.
In the future, I’m hoping to:
Settle on a name, for now it’s Fuki (short for Fukamidori-game or Dark Green Turtle)
Put a sticker with said name on the rear windshield
Replace the worn parcel shelf, maybe mount the one working stock speaker in the center.
Redo the headunit wiring since it’s a mess
Put some wheelcaps on it, maybe even rims, eventually
Tint the rear windows
Put on a spoiler, something OEM-like, but possibly a tad bigger?
If possible, put some lower seats in there, because at times I’m breaking my neck trying to keep an eye on traffic lights lol
Maybe spice up the door cards a little? They’re so…bland
Knowing my tight budget and my inability to actually save some money, some of these might never actually happen, but we’ll see. In the mean time I’ll be on here, gawking at all the stuff you guys are doing to your sweet rides, maybe ask some dumb questions from time to time, and hopefully learn more about my car and cars in general
There are a lot of NL members on here who know lots about these cars, so ask away with any questions - someone will definitely be able to help! From what I understand there are quite a few still available in scrap yards in NL so you may be able to pick up things like the parcel shelf and OEM wheel trims there cheaply. Also they may yield door cards that you could upgrade in your own time & off the car as well?
Anyway, welcome along - make yourself at home and don’t eat all the biscuits
While lurking the forum, I noticed a lot of Dutchies on here, and apparently there’s even an L701-club, that’s awesome! I’ve never been to a scrap yard before (although there are quite a few in my town), how does that work, do you just show up and ask to look around? Do you call in advance? And if you find something worthwhile, do you just ask if you can take it of and what the price would be? I’m probably fulfilling my own ‘dumb questions’-prophecy, but aside from driving cars, my experience is basically 0 haha.
The idea about the door cards is a smart move, thanks for the tip!
I’ll do my best to make myself at home, but no guarantee about the biscuits
In the UK, most scrapyards let you in and let you walk around - you’re expected to bring your own tools. Then you remove anything you want and take it up to the counter and they tell you the price. Often you can phone in advance to check they have the right car in stock, and what bits remain on it. You might even get them to agree in advance a price for the parts you need?
I like to go scrapyard hunting because it gives you a chance to remove parts from cars and understand how they fit. So you don’t break parts on your own car removing them. It allows you to have a ‘trial run’ and if you break whatever you are trying to remove from the scrap car it doesn’t massively matter.
The things you have mentioned though should be super easy - wheeltrims just pull off, the parcel shelf will lift out and door cards you just need something flat to slide between the door card and metal door frame and lever the poppers off the door. You will probably need a screwdriver to undo the door release from the door but its all easy, visible stuff.
Cool, hopefully someone from NL will be able to chime in on the do’s and don’ts when scrapyard hunting!
I’ve already had the door cards of on my car because I wanted to check out the speaker-situation (since one was dead and I wanted to check the size for replacements), and you are correct- pretty easy. I have some basic tools, power drill with bits, socket adapter, socket wrench with sockets, assorted collection of nippers and stuff, so as long as I don’t dive into the engine bay, I reckon I should be fine disassembling most things.
From my experience with Daihatsu repairs, if you have a posidrive screwdriver and a 10mm and 12mm socket you can fix 99% of whats on the car!
Does your car have the 989cc EJ-DE engine, or the 847cc ED-DE out of interest?
I have a big soft spot for the L700/701. Many years ago I owned the UK press demonstrator S201 UKL which was a brilliant car. Sadly it had been neglected by owners before me, and with a growing family I traded it in for a bigger car, but it still sticks in my mind as a wonderful car to have owned.
Hi, co-founder/co-admin of the Dutch L7 club :). Cool to see your car! It looks quite neat, but green usually never disappoints as far as I’m concerned.
If you send me a DM (click on my name/picture and click on ‘message’ or ‘chat’), I’ll hook you up to our socials
I’m really loving the colour, too. My previous car (Chevrolet Matiz ) was orange, so almost any colour would have been an improvement, but when I was washing my Green Beauty the other day, and the sun bounced off the wet roof… *chef’s kiss
Welcome to the forum! Looks like your getting along well and making yourself at home. Good to see.
BTW my first 3 cylinder car was a Daewoo Matiz aka Chevrolet Matiz. I did put a supercharger on it lol.
Hahaha I love it when people turn cars into something they’re not supposed to be. I’m hoping to turn my Cuore into something that looks like it’d kill on a track day. Knowing my financial situation, performance will probably never reach that same level. Let’s call it a reverse-sleeper build lol.
I bought my Matiz purely because I needed a car for my new job (signed on thursday, started friday) and had little to no budget, so it was the only car that was good-to-go, for sale and affordable to me. But I never liked it; it was slow (it was never a powerful car, but it kept getting worse until the clutch plate(?) gave up) and to round to my taste (I like boxy cars), so in a desperate attempt to make it feel ‘mine’ I just stickerbombed the center of the dash and loved it as little as I could
BUT! New car, new me <3 I plan on pampering my little Fuky and drive it untill the odometer loops back to 0
Don’t worry heaps about budget I have never really had a big budget to play with. My matis was slow also. I did make it faster as they had a reducer in the air intake pipe just above the airbox. I took it out and put an aftermarket filter on it and it made a big difference. I eventually put an amr supercharger on it for a little bit too.
The Cuore is a great car. I guess we are all biased with being Dai fans but at least you have more support from the help of the forum and Dai Fans around the world.
) was orange, so almost any colour would have been an improvement, but when I was washing my Green Beauty the other day, and the sun bounced off the wet roof… *chef’s kiss
