Looking at buying one, would prefer a gt-s or gt but in my price range will likely be a g-limited. Has anyone had any experience with these cars in general! Any recommendations on what year I should be looking at! Likely problems it will have! Also any idea on petrol use!
grangies,
Jun 22, 8:28am
Petrol use will be good. They are tiny little cars.
Age will be the biggest problem in anysecond generation MR2, because even the latest model is about 15 or so years old.
They are very well built little cars though. Toyota had a major public relations disaster with the first MR2 due to body rust making many of them virtually written off before they were even 10 years old.
They obviously leaned their lesson and built the MKII to an almost over-engineered quality, to make up for it.
For instance. The average 1992 Toyota MR2 is in better condition than most other 1992 Toyota vehicles.
They stopped building them in the late 90's. Maybe it was too expensive for Toyota to keep up the quality for a relatively low price. They have managed it with their Corollas, but a cheap little sports car is a different story, as far as profit goes.
The first MR2 was crap. The next was great, but cost Toyota too much dollars in research and production.
Buy an original one with relatively low K's and clean and cared for, and you'll love it.
jolly_26,
Jun 22, 8:32am
good to hear about the rust and fuel use! Do you know if the targa top is noticeably slower than the regular hard top! I will likely track day the car.
wsnownz,
Jun 22, 8:38am
MR2s are a very nice car actually. I had a vtec one and it was just crazy. I used to track day it every now and then but the bodykit on mine scraped everywhere and the 4 inch exhaust was really quiet for some reason. Took it off in the end. Anyway if you get the targa top all your girls can just jump in the top. Girls love convertibles!
jolly_26,
Jun 22, 8:41am
Loose, did you have sick chromies on it too! Colour matched interior! Epic 5" tacho!
wsnownz,
Jun 22, 8:44am
How did you know! I had the 5" tacho mounted on the bonnet because it looked totally phat there. Couldn't actually see it and it was terrible for aerodynamics but the girls seemed to like it and thats all that matters. The only chromies I could find at the time for 20" so I put it on bagz g. IT. WAS. SICK.
alimac1,
Jun 22, 8:49am
Vtec! Who put a Honda motor in it!
geedubu,
Jun 22, 8:53am
An excellent car with performance way beyond your expectations for $ spent.Handling at the limit (and to be honest who of us can really exploit the limit) can deliver snap oversteer, but a very fine little machine, especially in turbo form.The difference in chassis stiffness for the targa, if it exists, will not appear within your and my range of driving experiences.
jolly_26,
Jun 22, 8:59am
Yeah I'm assuming on the road there will be very little difference. Was more concerned about weight difference anyway between targa top and hard top! Also leaking! Car will not be garaged most of the time
pollymay,
Jun 22, 9:15am
I'm an mr2 fanatic. But realistically it's an older car. Bushings and brakes are often flogged out so many of them need a little attention. However very fun to drive
The mr2 is RIDICULOUSLY stiff, T-top, hardtop or sunroof personally I don't feel that much of a difference. I know some of the hardcores that will tell you otherwise but you have to be pushing super super hard to tell at all and in the end it doesn't matter anyway. If you are selecting a hardtop purely because you want that extra 0.01 second a lap at a track then be my guest. T-tops do often leak though, you can replace the seals at about $400 or glue them up or whatever, kind of a pain but I do like the removable roof.
They're fun go karts. Won't forgive you for your mistakes or poor tyres and often need a bit of TLC but really a cheap one with even 2k in maintenance items is a drop in the bucket for a fair quality sports car. The Gen3 turbos are quite fast even by modern standards, more than you'd need for most things, they're around 280hp at the wheels at 18psi with a downpipe. Somewhere around the 300 mark at the flywheel, that's on a standard turbo and whatnot and they will do that all day fairly reliably. The 3sge isn't super fast, the mkI supercharged and mkII turbo are my choices, wicked fun cars.
jolly_26,
Jun 22, 9:28am
Yeah I hear the gt-s with nothing but a boost adjustment can hit 100k in less than 5 seconds, which is pretty damn fast by any standards.
pollymay,
Jun 22, 1:08pm
There are 2 types of turbo MKII, the gen 2 turbo and the gen 3. The gen2 runs a ct26 turbo and uses an air flow meter. The Gen 3 motor runs a ct20b (it's actually officially not called that, it's still a ct26 but it's generally accepted as the ct20b to distinguish between them) and is MAP sensored/speed density or whatever you want to call it, basically not AFM like the previous gen; better more powerful turbo and has a better cylinder head design.
There are a few other things to consider, there was updated suspension in 1993 which I'd describe as more understeery. It was a partial response to the "snap oversteer" people criticized. Now personally I like the pre 93 suspension with my own alignment specs but each to his own. It's also generally accepted the 94+ tail lights, 93+ front lip and 94+ spoiler looks better but you can always buy those bits if you want them.
n1smo_gtir,
Jun 22, 1:53pm
I had a gen2 N/A targa top and few years latera gen 2 turbo targa top. my targa tops never leaked. the turbo version was a real pocket rocket. sh1te i never hit 100 from stand still so fast in my entire life. it was a real blast to drive. it fishtails like a mofo with a good jerk of the steering wheel n a blip of the accelerator pedal. great fun drifting the roundabouts on empty roads. sadly the poor thing overheated=(. cooling system can be a real c*nt as the engine is at the back and radiator all the way at the front. very easy car to do your own tint job professionally. chuck a 10" sub behind the seat n you can really rattle your brain=D. love the tiny lil gear stick, almost like a short shifter out of the box. overall very fun car to drive.
jolly_26,
Jun 22, 9:37pm
Sounds like you had a lot of fun with your MR2, I hope to do the same. Yeah I've been a car audio guy for a while and until I sold my Mazda yesterday was in the process of building a truly brutal sub with parts from all over the place. Don't think a 1500 watt rms sub will be going in an MR2, especially not with my weight saving aims. Might try though. Would be deafening.
kcf,
Jun 23, 12:29am
If you're aiming to track it, I suggest stick with hard top, because you're safer with a solid roof just in case you do stick it on it's roof.
pollymay,
Jun 23, 10:13am
Not actually necessarily true as it's the pillars that hold it up not the tin in the middle. I'm expert at crashing them to, I rolled my hardtop and the tin roof did bugger all to stop anything when the windows were gone skidding along on the car's side. A lot of it comes down to luck and where it rolls, if it's rolling through a field of stumps you're pretty rooted regardless unless you have a cage with a headplate.
This is the sub setup in my car. Coupled with a DVD player and GPS in the dash with a 7 inch touch screen. I'm looking at putting a laptop in the glovebox with full keyboard and using the reversing camera port as a TV-port for the laptop to output video into. I'd have a fully functional car PC at that point. Could even throw a megasquirt ECU into it and then I could have full gauge display in dash and tuning on the fly. Always wanted to do it, have all the parts I need to do it just it's a buttload of wiring.
Basically I don't see me "finishing" this car. It's just something to tinker with whenever I feel.
sw20,
Jun 23, 10:52am
I'm on my 2nd SW20 turbo. Bought the current one for $2900, gen1 turbo. Had it running 12 second 1/4s for less than $5k including the price of the car. Standard, and well maintained they will give no problems. Modify them poorly and they will end up broken in your driveway for months on end.
I'm in Christchurch as well if you ever want a look.
bigfatmat1,
Jun 23, 11:37pm
they were made upto 07 shape op is talking about was made from 90-99
pollymay,
Jun 24, 12:26am
The power steer is normally a broken relay. You can replace it with another high amp unit if that's the issue.
I wouldn't say the mkI is crap either, supercharged hardtops are wicked fun cars. Even my little n/a is a blast.
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