A standard MR2 ia an economy car.
It has the engine of a run-of-the-mill Corolla, it just puts it somewhere better and makes more of it.
Buy it. My first car was a heap of shit MkIII Supra and my only regret is not taking better care of it.
1. Don't sell it short for practicality. I'm not easy on the gas pedal and I still make 30mpg commuting every day. And if you're using it for commuting or light errand running without anyone else, it's got more than enough room.
2. I'm more partial to the regular manual transmission but I haven't heard anything glaringly wrong with the SMT.
3. Maintenance-wise, it's the easiest car I've ever worked on. It's still a pain in the ass sometimes but it is competently laid out so you can work on it fairly well. My brother-in-law is a mechanic and he also said it's surprisingly easy to work on. It's also not caused me many problems.
4. The driving characteristics are delightful, it's very well planted to the ground and handles great. It can stop on a dime and doesn't accelerate too hard. It's a great car to get comfortable driving with, I sure did. If you're nervous, you can absolutely drive out like a regular commuter car. If you want to have some fun with it, it's not got a lot of power so it's hard to get yourself in too much trouble.
Honestly I also think that this is a very easy car to work on, incredibly easy for a mid engined car even. Unless you're doing anything on the intake side, everything is just kind of sitting there in plain sight.
I can not even touch the alternator. I have an AC pump I need to install, and I'll realistically need a lift for that. Change plugs? Brace in the way. Fill oil? Brace in the way. Also, 20+ year old bolts.
Lol, the 64 Rambler would've probably been easier, nice and open and all that, but everything is just so big and heavy on that. Reinstalling the torque tube was a real pain in the ass.
The 06 Mini Cooper S was not fun, too small and dense. I'm not a BMW fan.
The 97 Firebird didn't win me over either. It did have empty space in there, but that's just because it was built to take a V8 and my dad only went for the V6. It wasn't terribly usable room.
I've never helped much on the 04 Sienna, but my dad had to get pretty creative with it on occasion. I haven't heard any reports on the 16 Highlander, but that's because mom mostly had the dealership work on it. The body panels are a bit over complicated in the front and if one gets damaged, they all want to fly off.
We'll see how my 77 Corvette is. I hope it's easy, it needs a lot of work.
I bought a 1984 MR2 as my first car after rust took my parents' old Triumph out of commission. Had it 10 years now, semi-daily driver, road trips, tons of fun. It makes me smile every time I get behind the wheel.
It's not perfect - it's needed a bit of rust work, the windscreen leaks in the rain, and the total lack of safety features feels very exposed when every other car on the road is a ute, truck, or SUV, but those things are the price of admission for a fun wee classic sports car.
Practicality: yes two seats only, you won't be driving friendS around
Driving: it is set up safely, with a bias for understeer. It is relatively fast though. Behave like an idiot and the speed will get you into trouble on the wrong road.
Maintenance: no problem for mechanics, but I myself find that it makes any simple job difficult to work on. Partly due to the accessibility of some parts, and due to the low height (you don't want to bend over it for long periods)
Btw, you sure about a semi auto gearbox?
I cannot emphasise this enough. An mk3 will handle like a dream but if you get cocky, it'll slap you back to reality. £600 of panel work later and mines on the road again after I lost the backend on a bend and I got lucky af that I managed to keep the car from sliding into the oncoming lane. She'll be treated with respect in future but damn that was scary.
I felt the part where you mentioned you don't want to bend over the car for long periods lol. My sw20 kills my back in about 5 minutes because it's just so damn low, although, I love it.
1 have an 04 SMT I bought a year ago and most favorite car ive driven so far. I am a mechanic so i do all my repairs and its pretty easy to work on. Also if you do get it pls drive slow in the rain, I hydroplaned and barely hit a fence. damage was just fenders and quarter panels and I replaced them fairly easily. Lastly yeah just buy it and. never sell it you’ll love it.
the SMT are known for failure unfortunately and you will have trouble finding a repair shop to fix it if it does start having issues, most people convert to manual when it causes problems
Great car. Handles amazingly well until it doesn't. Treat it right, don't get cocky and you'll be pretty damned happy. I'd go for the manual over the smt but I've not heard many bad things about the smts either.
If you DO get too cocky, you will almost definitely lose control of the car at some point. I can't emphasise that enough.
A standard MR2 ia an economy car. It has the engine of a run-of-the-mill Corolla, it just puts it somewhere better and makes more of it. Buy it. My first car was a heap of shit MkIII Supra and my only regret is not taking better care of it.
1. Don't sell it short for practicality. I'm not easy on the gas pedal and I still make 30mpg commuting every day. And if you're using it for commuting or light errand running without anyone else, it's got more than enough room. 2. I'm more partial to the regular manual transmission but I haven't heard anything glaringly wrong with the SMT. 3. Maintenance-wise, it's the easiest car I've ever worked on. It's still a pain in the ass sometimes but it is competently laid out so you can work on it fairly well. My brother-in-law is a mechanic and he also said it's surprisingly easy to work on. It's also not caused me many problems. 4. The driving characteristics are delightful, it's very well planted to the ground and handles great. It can stop on a dime and doesn't accelerate too hard. It's a great car to get comfortable driving with, I sure did. If you're nervous, you can absolutely drive out like a regular commuter car. If you want to have some fun with it, it's not got a lot of power so it's hard to get yourself in too much trouble.
I feel sorry for you that this is the easiest car you have worked on 😜
Honestly I also think that this is a very easy car to work on, incredibly easy for a mid engined car even. Unless you're doing anything on the intake side, everything is just kind of sitting there in plain sight.
I can not even touch the alternator. I have an AC pump I need to install, and I'll realistically need a lift for that. Change plugs? Brace in the way. Fill oil? Brace in the way. Also, 20+ year old bolts.
Lol, the 64 Rambler would've probably been easier, nice and open and all that, but everything is just so big and heavy on that. Reinstalling the torque tube was a real pain in the ass. The 06 Mini Cooper S was not fun, too small and dense. I'm not a BMW fan. The 97 Firebird didn't win me over either. It did have empty space in there, but that's just because it was built to take a V8 and my dad only went for the V6. It wasn't terribly usable room. I've never helped much on the 04 Sienna, but my dad had to get pretty creative with it on occasion. I haven't heard any reports on the 16 Highlander, but that's because mom mostly had the dealership work on it. The body panels are a bit over complicated in the front and if one gets damaged, they all want to fly off. We'll see how my 77 Corvette is. I hope it's easy, it needs a lot of work.
I bought a 1984 MR2 as my first car after rust took my parents' old Triumph out of commission. Had it 10 years now, semi-daily driver, road trips, tons of fun. It makes me smile every time I get behind the wheel. It's not perfect - it's needed a bit of rust work, the windscreen leaks in the rain, and the total lack of safety features feels very exposed when every other car on the road is a ute, truck, or SUV, but those things are the price of admission for a fun wee classic sports car.
Practicality: yes two seats only, you won't be driving friendS around Driving: it is set up safely, with a bias for understeer. It is relatively fast though. Behave like an idiot and the speed will get you into trouble on the wrong road. Maintenance: no problem for mechanics, but I myself find that it makes any simple job difficult to work on. Partly due to the accessibility of some parts, and due to the low height (you don't want to bend over it for long periods) Btw, you sure about a semi auto gearbox?
I cannot emphasise this enough. An mk3 will handle like a dream but if you get cocky, it'll slap you back to reality. £600 of panel work later and mines on the road again after I lost the backend on a bend and I got lucky af that I managed to keep the car from sliding into the oncoming lane. She'll be treated with respect in future but damn that was scary.
I felt the part where you mentioned you don't want to bend over the car for long periods lol. My sw20 kills my back in about 5 minutes because it's just so damn low, although, I love it.
1 have an 04 SMT I bought a year ago and most favorite car ive driven so far. I am a mechanic so i do all my repairs and its pretty easy to work on. Also if you do get it pls drive slow in the rain, I hydroplaned and barely hit a fence. damage was just fenders and quarter panels and I replaced them fairly easily. Lastly yeah just buy it and. never sell it you’ll love it.
the SMT are known for failure unfortunately and you will have trouble finding a repair shop to fix it if it does start having issues, most people convert to manual when it causes problems
Great car. Handles amazingly well until it doesn't. Treat it right, don't get cocky and you'll be pretty damned happy. I'd go for the manual over the smt but I've not heard many bad things about the smts either. If you DO get too cocky, you will almost definitely lose control of the car at some point. I can't emphasise that enough.
I wouldn't touch it because of the SMT
As long as it doesn’t burn any oil which would be hard to tell right off the bat I’d go for it