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Man Maths: Toyota MR2 Mk1
1 week ago
The original MR2 was highly rated for its handling
They really were that good. In 1989 Autocar conducted the first of its now annual events to find Britain’s best handling car and while it didn’t win, it was beaten only by a Porsche. The only other mid-engined car there that year was a Ferrari 328 GTB which ended its participation and, indeed, existence in the tyre barrier on the outside of Castle Combe’s Quarry bend. It was years later that I discovered that Lotus chassis guru Roger Becker had been instrumental in setting the MR2 up, but now I know it makes perfect sense.
I next drove another when Toyota launched the all-new, second-generation MR2 in Harrogate and I took an original along to compare and contrast. And in every single way that mattered to me, the older car was better.
Looking around today I see that prices vary enormously, from less than £5k for leggy and visibly unloved examples, to an extraordinary £22k I saw for an apparently perfect car with a mere 5000 miles on the clock. I’d not buy either, the former for obvious reasons, the latter because I’d worry about a car that had had so little use and would be deterred from using it because its value is all in keeping that mileage as low as possible. I think 10 grand is probably the right price to pay for a clean car with maybe only 60-70,000 miles on the clock.
They’re not entirely without issues – they can jump out of fifth gear and later cars (1987 model year onwards) are mechanically more robust, but the major issue is, no surprises, rust. Everything else is manageable, but if it’s succumbed in any meaningful way to the tin worm it’s never going to be economic to put it right.
So choose carefully, spend more if you need to and find that rare example that has been genuinely cared for: they are out there. Despite all I went through in one, I’d leap at the chance to drive another tomorrow. By contrast I’ve not wittingly touched goat’s cheese since, and I never will.
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