MR2, do I REALLY want one?

Educate me. What's the good, the bad, and the ugly on the 1st gen MR2? What about the 2nd gen?

Yes, you want one.
More usable room than a Miata when you add up all the small spaces.
Good mpg.
Go cart-like sense of driving.

Mine was a Mk1 Supercharged version. Addictive little engine that was hard to convince myself to drive in a fashion that got good mpg. In reality, I got crappy mpg and a 10 gallon tank but it was sooooo fun. Non- Sc'ed version will consistently deliver good mpg and fun together.

The epicenter of all things MR2 is the MR2 Owners Club www.mr2oc.com
You must register to enter but it is safe and well worth it.

Short answer, yes, you want one. In the worst way.

I had a few MK1s and an MKII.

The MK1 is a go cart. Like jrw said, you feel like your connected to the car. It's really nimble, very tossable, slick shifting trans (assuming it's still in good shape). They're just fun. They rust a lot. They have small nagging issues, such as the headlight switch becoming inoperable, cruise control, etc...but the drivetrain is bulletproof. I got 32-35mpg with mine routinely.

The MKII is more of a GT cruiser type car. Still tossable, but much better at the highway cruise. More comfortable than the MK1, quicker too. As a daily driver, I'd say it's better. But you lose some of that "connection" you feel with the MK1.

My understanding of that supercharged engine is that the blower is on a clutch system, right? Can it be retrofitted to be more of a standard supercharged engine, IE no clutch and complicated piping? Does it really matter? LOL

Yes, the SC is clutch.
I do not know of retrofitting with different type.
Back in the day, the popular swaps were either to go with the larger Toyota SC. The MR2 used a SC12 and the Previa Van was offered with a larger SC14. I do not know what is involved with the swap but www.mr20c.com should have tons of archive on the topic.

The other hot mod was to twin-charge. Keep the SC for low and immediate power and add a turbo for high end power. These are supposed to be be crazy fast and www.mr2oc.com will have much on that topic as well.

My SC was stock and under 50mph with a quick downshift the car was a real joy. The instant, low end power was really usable for real world driving.

Ugh... Now I really want one...

My supercharged one was a blast. It was hard to keep the 'Supercharged' light from coming on, and the one week I did that, it got good gas mileage.

At 6'1" and a 32" inseam, fitment was tight but not impossible.
The '85 and '86 cars have the parking brake lever on the US driver's side. For '87 to '89 that lever was moved to the passenger side. Though a little thing, this really helped to improve driver's legroom.
For '85 & '86 the steering wheel is 15" wide. For '87 to '89 this is 14.5"
From my '88 I replaced the factory wheel with and aftermarket 13.5" wheel to gain more legroom.
I found a 13" wheel to be too small and the 13.5" to be "Goldilocks - just right."

All SC's came with t-tops. Many regular cars had a sunroof and few regular cars came with a hard top. The sunroof steals the most headroom and t-top is not too bad. It was actually having my t-top open that allowed me to drive the car with a autox helmet on.

Pics:
Head sticking out:

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1152692660035467440VYyNzo

Yeah, you want one. MK1 with a 20V is what I had. A real blast, if a bit heavy.

I've had my mk1 (86 NA) since 2006 and I think I love it more now than I ever did. I've been in much faster cars and much nicer cars, but none of them have quite felt as special as the MR2. It feels like you're piloting it more than driving it if that makes any sense. My wife once commented that any rudimentary trip to the store becomes an adventure when you take the MR2. Maybe it's just my driving.

That said, the cars are far from perfect. As was mentioned, rust is an issue on the mk1. You won't find a gazillion aftermarket widgets-n-mods like a Honda or even a mk2. The mac-strut suspension doesn't like being over-lowered and needs to be dd-unfriendly stiff to be competitive at autocross (pretty typical of the type I guess). They're heavier than you'd think and unless you start replacing glass & body panels with lexan & fiberglass it's hard to do any serious weight savings. You better like working on your own, because any car that old is going to need near-constant attention. At least once you fix it - it stays fixed.

None of these things matter enough to me though. Caring for a 26yr old car has taught me more in 6 years than any of my Hondas did in 12. I don't need a bunch of different overpriced over-damped coilovers when there's Koni and GC around and I'm looking at fabbing up my own exhaust, thankyouverymuch.

Also, from my admittedly limited understanding, the SC14 swap is not as easy as it sounds, that is unless you're good at fabbing up adapter plates. Not really a big let-down though, when you consider the myriad of engine swaps and/or forced induction options out there.

Come to think of it, that full blacktop swap for $1K on the Nagasaki site is calling my name.

Yet another car that I really wish they still made.

Try it. You'll like it...

power is available.........

Stock 4AG is 112-115hp @ the crank, about 100-105 @ the wheels(95#/ft @ the wheels)... when it was new! Keeping stock electronics the 4AGE can be carefully modded to have about 120-125 whp before it really needs management options besides the stock computer.

A carefully ported head, a mild set of cams(w/cam pulleys)...a set of late 80s Honda 2.0 injectors(tan - low ohm, 240cc) and a quality header will do wonders...

I've had a couple of 1st gens....I really love those little cars....so much that I bought my last one back.

They are slow, but still a lot of fun. I liked the t-tops, but then again I'm a fan of targa and t-top cars.

I want one.

Know a guy less than a mile from me who has several. Like 4 or 5. And a couple are SC'ed. Won't sell though. He's hoarding them. Jerk.

Maybe if I keep pestering him...

I love the first gen cars as much as anyone, but don't overlook the 2nd gen cars. Most of the first gen cars I have seen advertised lately are serious projects. Driveable 2nd gen cars seem much more common. They are only a couple of hundred pounds heavier and can be made to handle quite well with minimal mods. Arguably, they look better too. If I could find a 2nd gen hardtop in need of a motor, I would love to try the Camry V6 swap.

-chris r.

The good: Looks, handling, fun, economy

The bad: Aftermarket support, finding AW11-specific parts, suspension geometry (use go-kart theory of suspension design to work around)

The ugly: Finding one that isn't rusted all to hell

I bought an MR2 Mk2 NA back in December. I'd never had a small car (I'm a V8 kind of guy), so I thought I'd try it out. The short version is that I really enjoy the car. Here are some likes and dislikes.

Like: -The fun factor is very high. The car isn't fast, but it's lots of fun.

-It's the heaviest MR2, but it's still 800 pounds lighter than my LS1 Camaro, so it's tiny to me. It's all relative.

-I get 31 mpg. Better than my Camaro.

-Surprisingly, the trunk has been large enough to hold everything I've ever tried to put in it, including multiple rifle cases.

-Parts are cheap and easy to find.

-It's pretty to look at.

Dislike: -Performance tires in 14-inch sizes don't exist anymore. When I needed tires, there was literally one model of tire that I could find available in both the front and rear sizes. 15-inch tire selection isn't much better.

-Pretty sure Toyota welded the spark plug wires to the distributor cap and coil. I broke the dizzy cap trying to get the wires off, and I had to remove the coil so I wouldn't break that, too. And that's not just as quick as it sounds.

-No cupholders. I know it's a sports car, but there are some times when I want to just hit a drive through for a combo meal.

-I wish the car had a taller rear gear, or a 6-speed. It would get a lot better mileage if it wasn't doing 3,000 RPM at 60 mph.

Yes, you really do want one. I've had maybe a dozen of all flavors. The best in my opinion is the '85. It feels the best and is lighter than all but the ones optioned "correctly" by the original owners. Meaning they left off all of the weight adding options. And yes, you really, really want a 20V.

My second favorite is the 2nd gen turbo. There's not much not to like about this car, except rear tire wear, snap oversteer, and previous owners.

Finding any MR2 in good shape is difficult these days, but they are well worth the search. I sold my last one to my brother ('85) and drove it again a couple of weeks ago. Even after getting out of my Cooper S, it just felt special.

You do really, really want one....

I want a MK2 with a Camry V6 and no rear spoiler

Yes you want one.

I just scratched that itch with a nice sw20 and I'm so glad I did. It's a little GTish when compared to the Miata it replaced in my garage but for me at 6'1 and a 34" inseam, I just have so much room.

The trunk is very large for the size of the car.

The worse thing is making sure the car was taken care of. Mine is low miles at 83K but I've had to go through and put 2K into it already just catching up on little stuff. The good thing is nothing was too expensive really and I could get everything with ease.

a real blast, if a bit heavy.

Yo dawg we put jaded in your jaded so you can jade while you get jaded!

you look just like me in m 91 vette only reason i run a convertableIn reply to jrw1621:

I am getting ready to sell one, but this thread is causing second thoughts.

I learned to drive a stick on a MK2.

You want one, and I hate Toyota!