I work with a guy who has an AW11 MR2 with thirty-some-odd thousand miles (silver with 5-speed and alloys). He wants to sell.
I have always been fascinated by these cars, but I have no experience with them. I am sure that this one has done a lot of sitting around and will need some sprucing up, but what should I look out for? Where does the rust start? What is NLA on these? What is an AW11 with 35k miles and lots of original & questionable rubber parts worth?
Thanks!
Being on my 2nd car (a supercharged one this time) and little mechanical abilities, you can search some of my threads. Two'sRus is awesome. eBay and a few other vendors that I don't have here at work help as well.
This one is on about 150k and running well. The previous one was about the same and plenty of fun (I recently bought it back and resold to a friend who loves it). Fun little cars if you can live with less than 300HP, I love this SC and I'm (sort-of) patiently waiting on the new exhaust from SV3 coming any day now...
As for rust, the previous one was rust-free having been a FL car 99% of it's life. This one has a little around the top of the windshield and behind a wheel well. I've heard rear wheel well's are good places to check.
35k miles? Buy it if it runs.
http://www.mr2oc.com/showthread.php?t=570761
As to value... it all depends.. For some reason there isn't a premium on these cars.... YET.
There are some issues with rust, I tried to find a thread or two as to where and what to avoid, but I wasn't able to find anything on short notice.
Your friends - mr2oc.com, mr2.com
These cars are on my "will own" list.
I think there is a premium on these cars. I bought a reasonable mileage one-owner, fanatically maintained 85, way back in the year 2006 for the princely sum of $1000.
Look for rust in the rear wheel arches. Pull up the trunk carpet and you can see the backside.
Radio surround, C-pillar trim, eyelids and front fascia and spoilers are all-but-unobtanium. If this stuff is good, be very gentle with it.
Early cars are prone to 5th gear pop-out if abused. 87+ has a stouter tranny and brakes, redesigned tail lights and interior. Distributors and plug wells can leak oil. Head gaskets can be a problem on old 4AGEs, but not too bad to fix.
At 35k, I would be all over it.
Im told that the c60 six speed from a celiac/matrix/elise/ect. is a easy swap.
Q: When is the last time we had an AW11 learn-me thread?
A: Seems to have been 2010 as shown in these links:
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/1985-aw11-mr2-buyers-guide/19345/page1/
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/the-answer-is-aw11-mr2/17805/page1/
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-aw11/9774/page1/
I'm still waffling on a spyder or an AW11. An AW11 with fender flares just makes everything better.
Also, on a car that has been sitting, it is going to need a fuel pump. You have to drop the tank which is a PITA. Rust usually is around the arches or windshield. Great cars, I've owned about a dozen or so and owned a road race version that I built. They are easy cars to own and keep going forever if you take care of them. I once forgot to tighten down my distributor after setting the timing in a mad thrash to get to a race. It ran all weekend without issues, even with that. I love these things.
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