10 Things You Need To Know Before Buying An MR2

ten things you need to know before buying an mr2 if you're young and looking to get a piece of that sweet rear-wheel drive life and no search will pretty much start and end with the Miata but wait what if there was another option out there what if there was a car out there that also had pop ups to seats and rear-wheel drive well fellow petrol heads I bring the good news because the second-generation sw20 toyota mr2 is all of these things and more here are 10 things you should know about one of the most rewarding and affordable mid-engine sports cars right now early cars were prone to dangerous snap oversteer the mr2 went through multiple revisions commonly referred to as rev one to five on launch reviews of the mr2 alluded to snap oversteer which a car quickly gained a bad reputation for in response to this the rev to model introduced in 1993 featured upgraded suspension components a bigger anti-roll bar and increased standard wheel size of 15 inches larger brakes and wider tires for that reason if you want to keep your mr2 completely stock and if you don't plan on an unexpected reverse entry into a brick wall avoid pre 1993 cars engines are plentiful and strong the engines offered in the mr2 included the economy driven 120 HP 3s EFI the more powerful 5s Fe and 3s ge with up to 135 and 200 horsepower respectively and the Big Daddy turbo 3s GTE with up to 242 horsepower the earlier na 3s fe and 3s GE engines were non-interference engines meaning that if the timing belt failed you had a much lower chance of bending foul this was not true however but the later beam-style 3s ge so if you plan on doing your own maintenance know the difference and plan your timing belt maintenance accordingly the good news is if you have a catastrophic engine failure Toyota used a wide variety of engine options in everything from the Camry to the silica gt4 so finding replacements is easy aftermarket wheels are your oyster with a bolt pattern of one hundred and fourteen point three and five lug nuts the mr2 shares standard fitment with many Japanese cars including the r32 GTR this means that a wealth of aftermarket wheel setups will fit with ease due to the fact that the rear hubs sit further in in the Front's though flush fitment will only be achieved if you run a staggered fitment or if you use spacers to push the wheels out turbo gearboxes can handle serious power if power and reliability is what you're after then you'll be pleased to know that the mr2 turbo featured a beefier gearbox and then naturally aspirated car this gearbox is capable of handling up to 350 pounds foot of torque while the NA transmission topped out at around 250 pound put the turbo transmission also had longer gears while the NA versions kept shorter ratios to aid in acceleration look out for rust the most common areas for rust on an mr2 are on the sills and the rear arches so make sure you investigate these it's also a good idea to pop out the plastic rivets in the boot to check behind the carpet for rust as well and for any existing mr2 owners out there you might like to know that there's foam located in the rear of the sills from factory over time this foam collects water and can promote rust so remove the interior trim behind the seatbelts and throw the foam in the bin to help prevent your midship from rotting away spoiler alert if you're thinking about switching spoilers then keep in mind that the 1992-1993 wings extend onto the rear quarters leaving holes behind if the conversion is made the inner structure also differs in later years so some cutting may be required a few fancy switching up your spoiler know your intervals the timing belt on sw20 mr2s need to be replaced every thirty to forty thousand miles while belt driven water pumps and tensioner should be changed at least every 70 to 80 thousand miles luckily belt replacement is pretty cheap to do because the engine doesn't need to come out check the cooling system make sure the cooling system on the car that you're looking at is in good condition on turbo cars especially you'll need a significant 15 liters of coolant and with four bleed points a call and flush should be done by someone who knows what they're doing as air pockets in the system can lead to overheating and head gasket replacement which you definitely don't want how much should you expect to pay as it stands today in September 2016 the average price for an na in the UK falls between seven hundred and fifteen hundred pounds turbo cars are considerably more starting at around two thousand pounds and climbing to four grand in America asking prices range wildly from two thousand to as high as fifteen thousand bucks for a well preserved turbo version on average though a decent na will set you back around five thousand bucks on to which you should roughly budget a further two to three thousand dollars for a clean turbo so what's an sw20 mr2 like to own this is Jake he recently bought the White Rev one you've seen in this video and here are his thoughts on mr2 ownership an mr2 isn't a sensible car to purchase but rather one that you buy with your heart when I bought the car I was expecting a two-seater that would have a little - no real-world functionality was going to be somewhat lacking the power department and would most likely kill me with it snap oversteer as I spent more time with it it surprised me with the respectable amount of trunk and interior storage space which has proven to be more than big enough for how long most everyday cargo also despite being hands down the least powerful car I've ever owned it feels nowhere near the slowest the only disappointing parts of the car to me are the incredibly long shift through which you find in the 92 92 models along with the surprisingly large turning radius the shifting issue is an easy fix but the frustration of the turning radius is only amplified if you own an early non power steering model like I rode over all this 90s midship is one that falls right in the sweet spot of being affordable fun and unique and I'm looking forward to my first mods i'm here at Brighton Park to my left is a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT v8 461 horsepower and today I'm going to be racing a plane an actual plane and here is the plains driver a guy called Peter how is it to drive in the sky

Channel: Car Throttle

Views: 805,546

Keywords: toyota mr2, toyota mr2 credits, sw20 toyota mr2, sw20, toyota, mr2, mazda mx-5, jdm, rwd, oversteer, drift, top 10, alex kersten, car throttle, carthrottle

Id: tVqrEC-BUac

Length: 5min 25sec (325 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 14 2016