Thinking about picking up a 91 MR2, yay or nay?

[VTECking]

So Im thinking about picking it up, red with 170,000 miles, and its a 5-speed "of course, wouldnt take anything else". So do you all know anything about them that is bad, because I'll be new to the toyota game and I dont really know anything about them besides that they are mid-engined, and RWD. Thanks!!!

[FlipKing]

A. do you own thing, ask for mechanical opinions, not " those suck, get a honda" or anything like that. I've heard they are hard to work on and kinda failboat. but that were n-a.

[HypnoToad]

if its not a turbo,its kinda of a waste of money.......ive never drove one,so i cant say to much

but 3SGs are good engines

[pr8yr]

yay , if you have a lot of money homie.

[JITB]

toyota has always made reliable motors, id say it would be fun car turbo or NA.. I cnat see it being very unreliable. I know aftermarket might be expensive.. simply because of the name and it being an MR2. Ive heard of the v6 swap from the camry in them too.. i bet that would be a blast.

[VTECking]

Well I wanted to get a NA for insurance purposes, but I want to drop the turbo motor in it eventually.

[RedEj8]

They're fun. PITA to work on. Buy it and go to NAD auto and buy a turbo rear clip. It's like driving a go-cart.

[AE86Raptor]

I have a friend who has one and it's difficult to work on the motor since you have to hang over the fenders to get to things in the motor. Also with it being N/A, it'll have the 5S-FE (2.2) which those aren't bad just a bit for difficult to find upgrades for it. I've driven his and it feels similar to my 86, just a little bit heavier. When I'm looking for my second vehicle an SW20/21 would be one of the cars on my list.

[Sport1.3]

if its not a turbo,its kinda of a waste of money.......ive never drove one,so i cant say to much

but 3SGs are good engines


The N/A's are extremely fun to drive stock or modified, they look just as good as the turbo model and are twice as reliable....i dont see the waste here?


its a 5sfe here in the good old US :cheers:


I have a friend who has one and it's difficult to work on the motor since you have to hang over the fenders to get to things in the motor. Also with it being N/A, it'll have the 5S-FE (2.2) which those aren't bad just a bit for difficult to find upgrades for it. I've driven his and it feels similar to my 86, just a little bit heavier. When I'm looking for my second vehicle an SW20/21 would be one of the cars on my list.


you mean the rear quarter panels :D ...they are WAAAAY easier to work on than the AW11 (1st gen).....idk what you guys are complaining about.....the 5sfe is also a stout motor and takes well to boost on its own.

[MR2DR]

I'm a little biased but I'll share what I know about them.

Toyota is known for their bulletproof cars and the mr2 is not an exception. The only problem is that, like what they said^^^, they are hard as fuck to work on. Being a mid engine car, you have limited access to many parts.. but like other cars.. pulling the engine would make your life a lot easier.

The 3sgte is an amazing engine and parts are plentiful. If you want to go fast, power to weight will only get you so far with the 5sfe from the N/A... but there are pros and cons of being N/A (i.e. insurance, gas mileage, reliability).Their handling is amazing due to the weight distribution; however Turbo models and 93+ got better suspension than the N/A 91-92's.

That said, they're fun little cars. Opt for a 93+ since the 91-92 had quite a few problems that they sorted out in 93. Likewise, t-top will inevitably leak so opt for a sunroof or if you could find one, a hardtop.

If I were in your shoes, I'd get a N/A, drive the shit out of the 5sfe and then do a swap. The cookie cutter thing to do would be to do the 3sgte turbo swap. If you want to be a little more unique, do a v6 swap. If you want to be super fucking jdm tyte.. BEAMS (the toyota equivalent of a b18c with super vtec IMO) :goodjob:

[AE86Raptor]

you mean the rear quarter panels :D ...

Yeah, I actually the rear quarters, lol. On picking the year, you may want the 93+. The only issues I'm aware of were the earlier models were more neutral handling at the limit and they could/would snap oversteer. The 93 and up models got different shocks in the rear and larger tires and when pushed to the limit, they now tend to understeer (like most cars out of the factory today). But that would be on your preferences...

[hadouken]

i say go for it it seems like a fun car