Good car but very pricey.

A friend of mine had one of these in the late 1990s - a bright red Japanese import heavily modified turbo fresh from the docks and with "Man of world - Man in action" together with some Japanese script emblazoned across the boot lid. This was removed with boiling water the moment he got it home.

It was mind-that-hedge fast – exciting to the point of fear! Either that or it wouldn’t start. It blew up in the end and he replaced it with a E36 3 series which was a good car but boring in comparison.

I think of it now with a wistful snigger; that’s a good sign for a car like this.

I owned an import 91H celica for 7 years and took from 60k to 248,500 miles before it let go badly in the fast lane on the A3. driven hard every day and loved, I think this also had the 3sge engine in from memory! so with regular oil changes this has still a little bit of life left in it.

Wtf! Camskill used to have them for £30-35, I know because 195/55/15 was the same size as my MX5. They've upped the price to £50 as you say. That's annoying.

Had both, glad I did. The ITR is the better car of the two though IMHO, its a lot faster on the corners, as well as being more practical and better sounding... but the MR2 is cheaper and mid engined, and a tiny bit quicker in a straight line (when standard).

Not sure what the NA version is like though in comparison. I was tempted to try but I have heard from some they're a little slow for their claimed power output?

This makes me miss my MR2, sold via Piston Heads (obviously).

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/3823101.htm

I think this shed is a bit pricey given the miles and that its not hard to pick up a mint example for >£800.

Extremely fun cars though and i never really feared the handling... it seemed pretty neutral and progressive on smooth roads, a bit of a different story if there was a bump/manhole mid corner.

I stand corrected.

The MR2 I found had better traction out of a corner than the ITR (only just though), but the ITR could go into a corner much faster and hold it there. Brakes were fantastic too (not that the brakes on the 2 were that bad).

Had an early Turbo t-top in BRG which was reasonably entertaining. Dropping into third and winding it out on the motorway was good fun but they need a big single turbo mod otherwise they run out of huff - non turbo I found a bit slow. Handling was fine unless you did something stupid like lift off mid corner. T-top leaked like a sieve - the quick fix is vaseline but that will stuff the rubbers in the medium term. With 185 on it I'd be a bit concerned about the bottom end unless its FSH.

I don't get the obsession with mileage on a 20 year old car, were people meant to stash them awayin case you wanted it later on ?

I would be ignoring almost completely the odometer and looking at the invoices for work done, the state of the body and how it drives and not a fairly arbitrary and often plain wrong mileage reading.

Ok on a car up to what, five years old it has more relevance but on something this old you buy on condition, I really don't trust mileages, cant imagine for instance there are many low mileage 3 series BMW's out there from private dealers, clocking is rife, in fact this may have lost 60k at some point in its life as well.

I know someone who justifies a change of car as it has 60k on and rejects possible replacements due to it having covered the epic distance of 35,000 miles.

All MR2's will probably be a little baggy by now, if that bothers you don't buy a twenty year old car.

There are loads of ruined ones of these out there, this looks quite good, as long as the interior isnt a whiffy old bin, the body is good and it drives ok then I dotn see an issue.

My Japanese import had a sunroof.