Discussion
Before I start looking for one I thought Id do some homework on them.
Are they reliable enough to use every day-my wife is a district nurse so uses the car nearly all day
how big is the boot space
parts- I have heard some dealers will not work on them as they are Imports?
Insurance, where is the best place to get it for Jap Imports
What are the major things to look out for on them when looking to buy?
Sorry about so many questions, I have no idea about these cars (- not to say I dont know my way around a engine!)
They look like a fantastic performance bargain, £2000 for a mid engined mini super car!
Are they reliable enough to use every day-my wife is a district nurse so uses the car nearly all day
how big is the boot space
parts- I have heard some dealers will not work on them as they are Imports?
Insurance, where is the best place to get it for Jap Imports
What are the major things to look out for on them when looking to buy?
Sorry about so many questions, I have no idea about these cars (- not to say I dont know my way around a engine!)
They look like a fantastic performance bargain, £2000 for a mid engined mini super car!
Hi Chap,
I've had a Rev2 MRT for a year or two now.
Reliability: They are very well screwed together, and engines and gearboxes are strong. The head gasket went on mine, not uncommon on any turbocharged car. Using the correct coolant is essential to prevent head corrosion and HG failure. Many insist on Toyota ForLife, but any good 'red' coolant with corrosion inhibitors works fine. Although generally reliable, turbos have a myriad of systems and sensors; the engine is festooned with sensors and solenoids, even the power-steering system is separately ECU controlled, so there is a lot potentially to go wrong. Having said that, in 14k miles, other than the HG going, the only snag I've had on mine is a leaking PAS rack seal. It is possible to diagnose ECU fault codes on the car yourself with nothing more than a paperclip, however!
Bootspace: It's pretty deep in the back, useful enough. You'll get a set of golf clubs in easily. There is some room in the nose but not much. Some owners take the spare wheel out of the nose and use the extra space. You'll even get a fair amount of shopping behind the seats.
Parts: Haven't had a problem obtaining them, though parts are expensive. I've sourced the odd bit from Toyota and most things are already in the UK. Certainly Toyota UK have been fine with supplying MR2T-specific parts. Haven't used them for maintenance, as anyone using Toyota to work on their MRT needs their head examined. There are plenty of specialists, 3S, Millway, Fensport, Rogue etc. These outfits are good for performance parts as well.
Insurance: Car is Group 20. I stuck with Direct Line, as they were happy to handle the car, despite it being modified. I'm 38, full no claims, decent postcode, car is 10% up on standard power, alloys, S/S exhaust etc, and I pay around £600 FC. Turbos were either GT or GT-S spec. Make sure the insurer gets this right. The average call centre worker hasn't a clue, so steer them in the right direction as they'll normally assume you have a UK car...
They are very expensive to run. They must have high-octane fuel, V-Power or whatever. If you run it on standard unleaded the engine will last about a month if the boost has been increased. My car is very lightly modified and I get 20-22 mpg on average, down into the teens if I use it 'properly'. They must be serviced on the button, with fully synthetic oil. Some owners change the oil & filter every 3k miles, although I use 5k intervals on synthetic. HT components have to be in good order, turbos eat dizzy caps, rotor arms and plugs.
Buying: There are a lot of dogs about. Make sure the car boosts to the redline without flatspots or hesitation when warm. In the higher gears the needle on the dash-mounted boost gauge should be at least up at the '+' if not higher. A lot of cars will not run proper boost or will hiccup at full-throttle, usually due to HT issues. Make sure you get it fully warmed up and drive it on boost for a while. Check it doesn't overheat; the water temp gauge needle should sit just below halfway. Buy a cheap CO-detector, the plastic cards with a chemical spot, and clamp it over the open coolant filler hole for a minute or two to check for exhaust gas in the coolant (HG failure). If the HG has gone it'll either overheat, be hesitant on boost, or both. Do a diagnostic check after the test drive. The owners clubs forums will show you how to do this by bridging the diagnostics connector with a paper clip and reading the fault code flashes on the dash.
Have a look at www.imoc.co.uk
Good luck, but make sure you are committed financially to running one every day. There are other MRT owners on here who will be along with more advice.
Can't really fault a word of the above.
Mine has had a few issues but it's over 100,000 miles now.
Quite a few MRT gearboxes crunch between gears. Best to avoid those, but from personal experience (over the past 30,000 miles) it doesn't do anything but irritate you.
I've had issues with;
Strange banging noise from the engine (PH Wales meet). Turned out a bolt had somehow worked its way into the cambelt cover - no idea how it got in there. No harm done but one hell of a job to get it out.
Electrical-related engine cutouts. Had water getting into the wiring loom that runs past the body vent on the passenger side. Stripped down, dried out, re-wrapped no problem.
Misfire (current) insulation on the king lead has broken down. Gave me one hell of a shock. Don't doubt for a second that she'll be back on form when I replace it.
Air-con: front radiator corroded through.
Top half of the engine is getting loud now so it's probably due the tappet shims renewing (non-adjustable). Or it could just be the fact I run it on the thinnest synthetic oil she'll take in winter - it warms up faster that way and avoids wear on short trips.
Mine will do 28mpg on a motorway run, dropping to about 11 on a real thrash. Budget for a lot of high-octane fuel. Oil change is about £50 if you do it yourself. Always buy the filter from Toyota - they fitted quite a wide range for some reason. It turns out that mine takes the 'High-flow' option. Costs £9.60 + VAT so I'm not complaining. Halfrauds wanted £50!!!
Depending on your driving style they can eat a lot of rear tyres. I took it steady when I first got the car and the set that were on there lasted quite a while. Put some Toyos on it and began exploring the world of high-power corner exits. I've virtually stripped them already.
Aside from that - test drive a lot before you buy. The first one I drove was a real let-down but still much faster than anything else I'd ever sat in. The one I eventually bought blew me away. Still turned out that it was only running 0.5 bar boost. When I sorted that it was like a totally different car.
On the Wales meet for example it was barely, if any, faster than an FTO V6 MIVEC. These days it utterly obliterates the same FTO.
All I've done is get it boosting right and change the ARC filter for an APEXI.
Check www.mr2oc.co.uk for a decent amount of information in 'know ur 2'. The same advice as any car applies really;
Buy with the head, not the heart.
And the all time favorite
If you can't afford a good one, you definitely can't afford a bad one.
Mine has had a few issues but it's over 100,000 miles now.
Quite a few MRT gearboxes crunch between gears. Best to avoid those, but from personal experience (over the past 30,000 miles) it doesn't do anything but irritate you.
I've had issues with;
Strange banging noise from the engine (PH Wales meet). Turned out a bolt had somehow worked its way into the cambelt cover - no idea how it got in there. No harm done but one hell of a job to get it out.
Electrical-related engine cutouts. Had water getting into the wiring loom that runs past the body vent on the passenger side. Stripped down, dried out, re-wrapped no problem.
Misfire (current) insulation on the king lead has broken down. Gave me one hell of a shock. Don't doubt for a second that she'll be back on form when I replace it.
Air-con: front radiator corroded through.
Top half of the engine is getting loud now so it's probably due the tappet shims renewing (non-adjustable). Or it could just be the fact I run it on the thinnest synthetic oil she'll take in winter - it warms up faster that way and avoids wear on short trips.
Mine will do 28mpg on a motorway run, dropping to about 11 on a real thrash. Budget for a lot of high-octane fuel. Oil change is about £50 if you do it yourself. Always buy the filter from Toyota - they fitted quite a wide range for some reason. It turns out that mine takes the 'High-flow' option. Costs £9.60 + VAT so I'm not complaining. Halfrauds wanted £50!!!
Depending on your driving style they can eat a lot of rear tyres. I took it steady when I first got the car and the set that were on there lasted quite a while. Put some Toyos on it and began exploring the world of high-power corner exits. I've virtually stripped them already.
Aside from that - test drive a lot before you buy. The first one I drove was a real let-down but still much faster than anything else I'd ever sat in. The one I eventually bought blew me away. Still turned out that it was only running 0.5 bar boost. When I sorted that it was like a totally different car.
On the Wales meet for example it was barely, if any, faster than an FTO V6 MIVEC. These days it utterly obliterates the same FTO.
All I've done is get it boosting right and change the ARC filter for an APEXI.
Check www.mr2oc.co.uk for a decent amount of information in 'know ur 2'. The same advice as any car applies really;
Buy with the head, not the heart.
And the all time favorite
If you can't afford a good one, you definitely can't afford a bad one.
_Al_ said:
On the Wales meet for example it was barely, if any, faster than an FTO V6 MIVEC. These days it utterly obliterates the same FTO.
I reckon that's all down to the driver
_Al_ said:
If you can't afford a good one, you definitely can't afford a bad one.
Too True! (Bitter experience!)
ol' dirty said:
They look like a fantastic performance bargain, £2000 for a mid engined mini super car!
Personally, I think £2k sounds suspiciously cheap.... If I only had that to spend, I think my money would go elsewhere...
Gazboy said:
It'd be a braver man than me who spends £2k on a Turbo.
True. I'd get another but I wouldn't look at any thing older than 1992 as they have little brakes, narrow rear track, weaker gearboxes etc if i was only spending £2K and to be honest then I'd compression check before buying as there are hundreds of overboosted cars with cracked ringlands out there. Ideally I wouldn't get one older than 1994 and then I'd look hard and expect to pay £4500 for a good one.
Gazboy said:
These cars are very tyre specific- get the wrong ones and the car is a nightmare, get it right and the car is a joy.
Not sure - mine's got £50 budget tyres on (well, winter's coming up so no points spending on decent tyres that get wet
) and I can't complain about the handling or grip.If it's only 2K I'd be suspicious, you can get a good (but not mint) 2.0 NA for that price.
www.cheaptoyotaparts.co.uk for erm parts! (get the part number if you can first from Toyota but these guys generally know what you mean - just makes it easier)
Sky Insurance for, guess what, insurance - become a member of a club to get extra discount.
The boots are much bigger than I expected. Sold a table and 4 chairs to a mate and he came to collect, in an MR2...... fitted the table and 3 chairs in the car! (we took a chair out in the end as we said we'd take the spare chair for him, it made sense to take two).
great little cars IMHO
shadowninja said:
Gazboy said:
These cars are very tyre specific- get the wrong ones and the car is a nightmare, get it right and the car is a joy.
Not sure - mine's got £50 budget tyres on (well, winter's coming up so no points spending on decent tyres that get wet
) and I can't complain about the handling or grip.
Cheap tyres are great for hot summers days when you fancy a bit of tail-out action on a deserted air field.
Otherwise...
Clicky
Honestly chap - cheap tyres are fine most of the time, but it's that one time that you hit a drain cover, a patch of oil, patch of diesel, spot of ice, a pothole or even when you accidentally put the power down on a camber change that they save you.
The price difference between cheap tyres and expensive ones is a hell of a lot less than any insurance claim would cost you.
Mine arrived on "Champiro Sport Contact +" rubber. I changed to Toyo Proxes T1s and found that a full second came off the 0-60 and I could corner as fast in the wet on the Toyos as the Champs managed in the dry.
You'll never waste money on expensive boots...
Gazboy said:
shadowninja said:
Gazboy said:
These cars are very tyre specific- get the wrong ones and the car is a nightmare, get it right and the car is a joy.
Not sure - mine's got £50 budget tyres on (well, winter's coming up so no points spending on decent tyres that get wet
) and I can't complain about the handling or grip.Put 4 Perreli P6000's on, then post from your hospital bed about how you found them.
God dont remind me, i'm using up 2 of those at the moment. I was told they were the pirelli equivalent of the yokos I usually get and took the straight off again when I found out how crap they were. I've stuck them back on as I needed to get through an MOT. The last thing I need right now is to crash again...
I know there is no naming and shaming rules on here. I have an idea...
Pirelli P6000 the ultimate tyre for drifting!
_Al_ said:
Accelerating up to normal road speed, he says. Foot to the floor, though? Of course we all know that 110% of all crashes are never the fault of the driver and that speed kills.
I drove for 5+ years with Avon ZZ1s on my Chimaera 365 days a year (even in untreated snowy roads - which was a chuckle) so I'll take my chances.
shadowninja said:
_Al_ said:
Accelerating up to normal road speed, he says. Foot to the floor, though? Of course we all know that 110% of all crashes are never the fault of the driver and that speed kills.
I drove for 5+ years with Avon ZZ1s on my Chimaera 365 days a year (even in untreated snowy roads - which was a chuckle) so I'll take my chances.
If you read crefully there's a mention to the fact that the manhole cover he slid on was 100yards from the traffic lights where he turned left.
I'm pretty sure an MRT can make 30mph before that sort of distance.
Gazboy said:
_Al_ said:
shadowninja said:
_Al_ said:
Accelerating up to normal road speed, he says. Foot to the floor, though? Of course we all know that 110% of all crashes are never the fault of the driver and that speed kills.
I drove for 5+ years with Avon ZZ1s on my Chimaera 365 days a year (even in untreated snowy roads - which was a chuckle) so I'll take my chances.
If you read crefully there's a mention to the fact that the manhole cover he slid on was 100yards from the traffic lights where he turned left.
I'm pretty sure an MRT can make 30mph before that sort of distance.
MEM is a bit of a prick isn't he????
He's forever getting into arguments.
He's a professional in the auto-industry(1) and owns a large amount of performance vehicles(2) so obviously his word is law.
(1) He polishes cars for a living.
(2) He owns a motorbike as well as the MR2.
shadowninja said:
Well, I am not sure top-of-the-range tyres would grip on a wet, metal manhole cover...
One of them wouldn't, but assuming his story is true and he was crawling along within the speed limit I hardly expect that to matter. The other three should be well able to control the car.
Gazboy said:
He's still a t
t.
t.
Gassing Station | Japanese Chat | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff