Among the more unusual cars that I see frequently in the boneyard are first-generation Toyota MR2s. They’re usually quite rusty but not heavily damaged; it makes me think that most of these unique two-seaters live happy lives with their owners before the tin-worm reneders them to the scrap pile. Well, this super low-mileage example here on eBay has escaped that fate, with only 21,528 miles from new.
Check out that interior. How could you resist driving the doors off a car like this when it was new? The color-keyed inserts, the low-slung cockpit, the engine right behind your head – it all adds up to a package that makes the Toyota brand of the 80s seem a lot more fun than they do now. Popular with hot-shoe autocrossers and hairdressers alike, the MR2 was a sports car you could live with daily.
Everything on this MR2 appears as new, including the spare tire, painted surfaces inside and out, and even the black-plastic trim. Interestingly, the seller claims this car has been a part of their personal museum collection, which is apparently an extension of a new car dealership. In fact, they have another low mileage MR2 Turbo (the yellow car in the background) with less than 5,000 original miles!
Unmarked wheels, gorgeous paint – heck, even the lettering is still bright on the mudflaps. I’d imagine as a dealer it’d be sorely temping to squirrel away the sports cars and limited production models to save for a rainy day. Although bidding is quite active, it’s not close to meeting the $12,000 Buy-It-Now price. While this MR2 is quite unrepeatable, I’m not sure it’s achieved collector car status yet. What do you think?
My boss’s brother had one of these back in the day. Light as a feather; not a good machine in icy conditions but went like a striped assed ape when conditions were dry. The brother moved down to Australia and the car sat out back of the shop for a couple of years before the boss got it going again and gave it to his father in law to drive around. He didn’t like it because it was too squeamish on ice so he parked it and got a Plymouth Volare, which he still drives. A hippy-type saw it parked out back and made an offer and he now drives it.
What exactly is a “hippy-type”?
Hi Jeffro. Maybe it should have been spelled: ‘Hippie-Type.’ Long day yesterday and I wasn’t very sharp. The buyer was scruffy, needed a bath, and looked like he came through a time warp back to ’69 and Woodstock. He did have a sufficient wad of cash and the boss was only too glad to transfer that MR2 over to him.
.I remember that from the old A&E crime series in the nineties….I didnt realize he was such a sporty murderER
I dated a gogo (I wanted to use another word) dancer back in the early 90’s that had one of these, I dont remember what was more fun the car or the girl, but they both left an indelible memory.
Was the other word the same word you’d use to describe a car sold with no options?
With a pole somewhere in the equation?
This one is very nice but, I prefer the generation after this one. (yellow one)
It has the more rounded body shape. The BIN seems to be on the high end for both of them but then, I don’t know the market on these.
I’m sure that the go go dancer also had a well rounded shape!
This one will be worth more next year.
I’ve been looking at these for the last few years and I’ll admit that this one is sorely tempting. Good, clean, and low-ish mileage examples are available for around $8k, and project versions are $5k and lower. Given the low mileage on this one it would feel like a good buy, but note that it’s of a VERY low spec. . . Crank windows, no additional body trim, base wheels. At least it has A/C.
I’m seeing $6k-$8k for this one based only on the condition and NOT the low mileage. If I suddenly owned this car the mileage would nearly double by the time it got put away this fall, negating whatever perceived value there is in the low mileage shown.
I’d still be happy to own it, though. The blue ones looked better, but that’s literally just my opinion.
When these were first marketed, many people felt they were “a girls car”. At the timeI was doing some contract work for a Toyota Dealer installing aftermarket ground kits. These could be made to look bad a@$. The first time I drove one, I was convinced that Toyota had made it to the big leagues. This car acted like it was glued to the road, had plenty of power, and with the manual transmission was extremely fun to drive. I would be proud to own this one.
When I was crawling around salvage yards in my teens (mid 90’s) the car I saw most often was the Fiero. Coincidence?
A friend’s dad had one of first of these for sale in New Hampshire. He gave me a ride up their street and proceeded to do smoky, full-throttle donuts across both lanes of traffic. Luckily not much traffic back then. The experience made an impression and I later owned several of these wonderful little cars. Maybe it’s just age, but I think the Japanese hit their automotive peak back then. Remember the Supra of the same year? Had one of those too.
We had a guy that would autocross one with our club. His was a later MY, but had the supercharged engine. That thing could really lay down some track times! Great little car. Had a neighbor that had one in Gold that he used to go back and forth from St. Louis to Mobile, AL. It had over 200K on it when I knew him. Always wondered how many more miles that sporty little wedge ended up with.
I chose the new Fiero over the MR2 – one of the worse decisions I ever made.
But Pontiac built EXCITEMENT, that you loved to drive….
One of my fondest Toyota memories was spending a week driving a supercharged first-gen MR2 that had been hotted-up (engine and suspension mods, plus wider rubber) by TRD. Wish I could have kept it…even though there was no way it could have passed a state emissions test.
It doesn’t take much to make a serious canyon-carver out of these!
A number of years ago when I was working for a large pharmaceutical company, I had a contractor working for my team in the UK. He had one of these that he had heated up the engine significantly. I don’t recall what he did to it, but when I was in Stevenage one time, he took me for a hot ride in it. There’s an underpass on Gunnels Wood Road. We were screaming along when he made the underpass. I swear the wheels left the ground as we entered (think the car chase in Bullitt in San Francisco) and I’d swear they left the ground as we left it too. Thing handled like an F1 machine.
I believe that they are undervalued right now and will, over time, be very collectible.
Friend had one; it had the slickest, smoothest shifting manual transmission that I ever met.
First year A-11, true hard top (no sunroof or t-top) or weight of power windows, and the lowest mileage First Gen MR2 for sale in years…someone will get a rightful bargain buying this at the B.I.N. which is pretty close to what this car was brand new…in 32 years ago dollars. We’ll all be talking about this one in 5 years!
I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah at that time (still do) and I remember seeing Hoffman’s MR2 (I think it was metallic blue) sitting at the top of a hill near my house surrounded by police cars. After he was convicted, it sat in the corner of the SLC police impound lot under a tarp for several years. Don’t know what ever happened to it.