Anyone Driven A Mk3 Mr2?

[JamesE 5]

I'm planning for a winter project and quite fancy the latest shape MR2 soft top.

What are they like to drive? I'm not too bothered about being labelled as a hairdresser - I'm going a bit bald so it could be classed as an early mid-life crisis

[205turbo 32 2 Cars]

I beleve Anthony had one from new iirc

[Anthony 1,003]

I used to own one - a 2002 pre-facelift model that I owned from 2002-2004.

 

 

Very nice cars to drive, and in many ways are a softer, more accessable Elise that's been built properly. Very nimle/agile as you'd expect being mid-engined, but with that, they're snappy on the limit compared to something like an MX-5 and perhaps not one if you're looking to be big smokey drifts everywere (although you can, just need to be ready to catch it) - they really are more one to drive tidily in a point and squirt sort of way. Not hugely quick, but adequate - about the same as a 1.9 GTi I guess. They've very tyre sensitive, be warned - even down to the two factory supplied tyres (Bridgestone and Yokohama) being completely different, the former being far more friendly in the wet.

 

Gearbox, suspension and brakes were all pretty good from what I remember, and they have an LSD as standard. Steering was a little over-assisted for my tastes, but not too bad and still a decent level of feedback. Seats are comfortable and driving position good, but the interior as a whole doesn't feel special in the way that more expensive stuff does - you can see that bits of it have been raided from the Toyota parts bin.

 

Luggage space is pitiful on them, although I managed fine with one as an only car (and did 10 days around Europe in it), and fuel economy and running costs all seemed reasonable from memory - it was a new car at the time, so I can't comment on running costs of a 10 year old one. Excellent soft top design, and the lack of wind buffering coupled with what I swore was the worlds best heater meant that the roof could be (and in my case, was) off pretty much all year round.

 

Main issue that I know of now is that on the earlier cars like mine the pre-cat is known to break up and ends up being sucked back into the engine, damaging the bores resulting in high oil consumption and eventually loss of compression. The fix is to just remove the pre-cat (no issue with MOT emissions) before they break up, but certainly be wary of anything that smells a bit oily when running or that is low on oil. I don't believe that the later facelift cars suffered the problem, although worth checking for yourself.

 

Speaking of the facelift, they gained 16" rear wheels, 6 speed gearbox, front fog lamps, new seats, new front and rear lights, and different valances from memory. I personally prefer the look of the pre-facelift models, particularly from the back, although in truth neither is stunning looks wise.

 

Given the prices the earlier cars are now, I'd be tempted to get another, although equally there's plenty of other cars that I'd like to try if only I could get these French tin cans out of my system...

 

Try one back to back with an MX-5 and see what you think, as whilst they're nominally the same type of car, they are completely different to drive and chances are that you'll like one far more than the other

[Alan_M 66 1 Cars]

That car & scenery brings back a few memories Anthony.....

 

(Apologies for butting in!)

[JamesE 5]

Wow thanks for that. Think that's definitely going to be the winter project