Ok, since the new style MR2 first came out a few years back, I've never really heard that much frm people across the border. They caught my eye before settling on my MCS. But........They're are not made available to us folk up north here in Canada. Only seen them in person in car shows. Nobody has ever talked about them here really that much or compared them to performance or style, etc with the Mini. Even though they're in serparate classes of cars. Just wondering what you all percieve it as being. I'm always a fan of a mid engine car. This thing must be like driving a MINI with its size and power to weight. Is it too much of a 'chick-car' or what? Not sure why they're not offered up here in Canada. The older style was, but the new style is unknown to us up here. Anyone driven one? Comments, opinions? Just being curious. I think it has real potential. Looks great. Rear drive, mid engine. Must handle good. Sure it would look even better modified.
Cheers,

 

The 2nd gen MR2 (the more plump looking one) was always touted as the best of the marque to date. The current MR2 seems too aneimic and cheap to actually qualify as a sports car

I briefly looked into getting a Mk1 MR2 (the wedge!), but was less than enthused with its' handling, um, prowess, lol. Manual steering plus no rear swaybar plus lots of front-end lift at higher speeds equals a car that not only doesn't handle well but is unstable too, eeek! Did I mention the non-boosted is a dooooggggg, zzzzz

I hope the 4th gen MR2 is more along the lines of the 2nd gen, which is kinda like a mid-engine Miata.

 

The current MR2 sold here in the US is known as the Spyder. It will no longer be produced after January 2005. It's taken several years but they have finally become quite competitive with the Miata in SCCA Solo II competition. Their styling is unique, many people do not care for it. The primary complaint I have heard concerns their lack of any kind of storage space. Make no mistake, in the hands of an experienced driver, they will easily outhandle a MINI. An MR2 Spyder is about as close to a pure "sports car" as one can get these days. Only the recently arrived Elise is more pure, needless to say, it is also twice the price. I did not know that the Spyders are not available in Canada, it would be interesting to know why. You would be a very popular fellow if you could manage to get one registered. .

 

I loved the 1st Gen MR2s. The supercharged one that looked like a wedge. Friends back in the day in high school had an '88 supercharged version MR2 and a Fierro GT. There was a lot of fun to be had with those. Thought maybe the new Spyder would be something like them.
But if they're getting rid of the new MR2 Spyder now from the line up, than I guess that I'll be totally missing out, being that they never hit Canadian soil through Toyota's Canadian line. Not sure why they never came to Canada. Things may have been different if they had them available here. Depending on whether or not the car actually lived up to it's past generations of the name.
The only I have is the one in PS2's GT3 game.
So will there be a 4th gen. version?
Cheers,

 

I sure hope so. I really love the current MR2 Spyder. My only complaint is its lack of much storage space. :smile:

 

Just my own personal impressions:

I've always been a fan of mid-engine sports cars. I even know what "low polar moment of inertia means" and can sort of explain it.

And I think the current MR2 is a real cutie. There was one at the Sacramento Auto Show this weekend (surprising if it's about to be discontinued, as someone else suggested in this thread), and it seemed to be drawing a fair amount of attention.

That being said, I tried getting into it. Definitely not the thing for a 54 year old with a bad back! The MINI is:

• A lot easier to get in and out of
• A lot roomier
• More appealing to a wide range of ages???
• Lots cuter, (IMHO)
• Got more heritage
• In the MINI you can choose: 1) more people, or 2) luggage. In the MR2, you've got one choice: 3) none of the above!

But the MR2 is a real cutie!

 

I sold an MR2 Spyder to buy my '05 MINI Cabrio. If you want to know about this car go to http://www.spyderchat.com/

It was a fun car. I was always a bit uncommitted when it came to it's appearance. I got comments from "Cool car" to "ugly car". I loved how it looked from some angles (such as from behind) and wasn't crazy about others. There's a lot of plastic on the car and I never did like how the interior looked. You sit low in the car, like in a bathtub. But the interior was fairly roomy for a two seater, as long as you didn't need to take any real luggage along!

It was a real banterweight! It only weighed about 2200-2300lbs and was quite zippy. Handled really nice, though it could get squirrely if pushed hard. The shifter could've been better and I was always puzzled why Toyota put an "open rear" differential on it. Rather bizarre, considering it was supposed to be a sports car.

But all in all, it's a fun car. There are some pretty good mods out there for the Spyder. I added on some nice bolt ons and tires and it was fun to drive.

The Spyder never really took off sales-wise. If I hadn't made an effort to get together with other Spyder owners I probably wouldn't have seen too many aside from my own.

I sold it for a number of reasons. Mileage-wise it was getting up there. I drove it around a lot. It was also almost 4 years old. The fact that Toyota is no longer producing them concerned me as well. I didn't like the idea of having an obsolete car closing in on 100k miles. I had almost 75,000 miles on my Spyder when I sold it.

Plus the lack of storage capacity really got to me. It's a good thing I'm single and could use the passenger seat. I think I was just getting bored and wanted a change.

So I looked around. I wanted another convertible and thought of the Miata but want more space and a back seat. VW Cabrio, no thanks. Than I saw that the MINI had some out with a Cabrio and I could get one in yellow (same color as my Spyder!). It has everything I was looking for. I'm a happy man.

 

Thanx Topless for the reply. Snuck around that link their to the Spyder site. Some pretty schnazzy pics there of some. Always thought they looked pretty cool, and thought they'd look wayy better and crazy-cool all modded out. That one they have on GT3 is sweet lookin'. Some pics of it on that Spyder site. The racing version from Autobachs or Apexi or whomever. If they had 'em offered in Canada, I'm sure I would of have debated largely on whether to spring for one of them or the MCS that I have now.
Cheers,

 

If you stick to their "tech" forum you can get a lot of good info there about Spyders. I lurked there a lot. Some of the social interaction was a bit of a turn-off but I never got involved in that respect though I did go to some Spyder gatherings.

I find it amazing that Toyota never saw fit to market the MR2 Spyder in Canada but now I guess it's all irrelevant. Shame, because it's a pretty good car and lots of fun. I don't think they gave it much of a chance.

 

I have the chance to get a 2005 MR2 Spyder for about $16,000 - $17,000 dollars, leather seats, manual tranny, K&N system (intake included) and about 500 miles on the odometer.

What do you think? I really don't care it's discontinued, because Toyota is a good company and there shouldn't be problems with service and parts. Plus is mostly unknown and a good project for mods.

And the MINI stays at home.

 

Sounds like a great deal since they sold new for low 30s. 500 miles is a new car.

We looked at that a few years ago after owning both the supercharged and turbocharged versions and said no. It was just too slow and impractical. This sounds like a steal

 

This one is totally legal, and it's in perfect condition. The last news are:

I can make a downpayment of $6,434 and monthly payments of $300

Did you own two modded MR2S's? I didn't knew there were turbos and supercharged versions.

 

the MR2 spyders only came NA no forced iduction from the factory, plus they sold for the low 20's when new

 

1st gen's had a SC model while 2nd gen's had turbo. I think there was some TRD aftermarket forced induction option for the MRS.

 

I owned a 1985 MR2. Loved that car, a bit boxy, but fun to drive. I traded it with 150k. In 2002 I bought a 2000 MR2 for 16500. It had 13000 miles. At 18000 toyota replaced the engine with a brand new one. It was totally fun to drive and very peppy off the line. I certainly like to drive hard and fast. It was great as 2nd car. My golden retriever loved riding in that car. And the car certainly captured a lot of attention. Almost too much. I sold it in 2004 with barely 19000k miles. Resale sucked. Only minor mods..like rims, etc.

 

Thank you for the responses. Now I'm more decided than ever to get it. It will not be the second car. The MINI and MR2S are going to share the 1st place.

In mods I'm planning:

• Rims 17" front and 18" back
• Chip
• Spoiler http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.c...1910_196853250
• Audio

What else do you suggest?

 

MSRP & shipping on an 05 stripped was 26K. Toyotas always come with some options. I saw two in the showroom, both about $33K.

VM Asked Did you own two modded MR2S's? I didn't knew there were turbos and supercharged versions.

We had a 88 Supercharger MR2 and a 91 MR2 Turbo.

We kept the 88 for 9 years, IMO, the better of the two cars, much better transmission.

Kept the 91 Turbo for only two years because it was impossible to live with two (2) two seater cars ... totally impractical.

As to mods ... We had a 83 944 heavily modded, major suspension tire, exhaust work for autox. Huge pain in the butt, always in the shop. When buying the first MR2 we said "NO MODS". Car needs to be reliable ... get to work (and of course it was a toyota ... that car NEVER saw the inside of a shop for any work, no warranty work, nothing).

With the Turbo, that car, 16 years ago was faster than any MINI JCW or most likely any of the more heavily modded MINIs now. 0 - 60 5.9 TS 150.

The new "spyder" is not the same thing 138 HP vice the Turbos 200 HP.

 

Actually I have this turbo kit on the list. Maybe for christmas



[FONT='Times New Roman']Brand:[/FONT][FONT='Times New Roman'] HASS Turbo
Desc: 00-05 MR2 Spyder
Type: Street/Strip
Status: Made to Order
4-6 Weeks
Price: $3995.00[/FONT]
[FONT='Times New Roman'][/FONT]
[FONT='Times New Roman'][FONT='Times New Roman']For Engines:[/FONT][FONT='Times New Roman'] 1.8L (1ZZ-FE)
Boost: 8 PSI (safely on stock engine)
HP Gain: 75-100 WHP
Direct Bolt-On: Yes
Warranty: 1 Year[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT='Times New Roman'][/FONT]
[FONT='Times New Roman'][FONT='Times New Roman']HASS MR2 Spyder Turbo Kits Include:[/FONT][FONT='Times New Roman']
- Garrett GT28R Dual BB Turbo
- HASS Turbo Manifold
- 3" Turbo Back Exhaust
- Pre-Programmed GReddy eManage
- eManage Ignition & Timing Harnesses
- (4) Drop-In 410cc Injectors
- 2"-2.5" Lightweight Intercooler Piping
- 6.25"x18"x3.5" Front Mount IC
- Factory Porsche 911 Twin Turbo BOV
- VDO 30PSI Boost Gauge
- Stainless Braided Oil/Water Feed Lines
- Stainless Braided Oil/Water Return Lines
- 4 Ply Nomex Intercooler Couplers
- T-Bolt Clamps
- All Hardware & Fittings for Install
- Full Install Instructions[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT='Times New Roman'][FONT='Times New Roman'][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT='Times New Roman'][FONT='Times New Roman'][/FONT][/FONT]

 

what is the point of having spent $4K on a freaking Toyota that will have 200hp?

True Need For Speed guys around, what has happened to NAM?

 

Could it be that maybe it only weighs 2200 pounds (whats that about 500 pound lighter than a MCS?) and with only 138 HP is faster than a MCS? Hmm.

Add another 62 HP in a true mid-engined sports car and that thing will just be slightly slower than a 190 HP Elise at 2000 pounds

Maybe thats the reason?

Why is that Lotus uses Toyota engines?

I might also add that when Toyota can only sell 50,000 units/year in the US, it drops the line as its not worth their effort. A car like MINI sells 35,000 units in the US and they can't believe what a good year they had. A bit different perspective.

 

Bingo!

 

MR2 is better on truck because u can swap engine to VTEC and much much lighter.

anyway MRS is kind ugly car, so it is necessary to modify by aero parts.