The Arch Bishop
Active member
Well, after making a grown up decision earlier in the year to cut down on my project car habits, I've just gone and bought another one.
I have history with Toyota MR2s having had 2 mk1's years back. When a stricken MOT-fail mk3 popped up for sale in my Gumtree alerts just 2 miles away, I decided it was probably worth a look.
Ok, it was an early car so no six-speed box and more of a chance of a grenade engine (early ones can have issues with bore ovaling and ingesting their own catalytic converters), but it had managed 120k miles over the last 17 years so what the hell.
I phoned up over my lunch break to be told that there were two people in front of me in the pecking order, but I could come and take a look after the first guy had been that evening. Oh well, never mind. In the lap of the Gods. At 7pm, the seller messaged me to say that the first guy was a no-show and the second guy was haggling before he'd even seen the car, so I was welcome to come and take a look. At 8pm and in monsoon conditions, I arrived to give it a look over and was amazed by what I found.
The car was in fantastic condition with very few marks on the body, recently refurbished wheels, decent tyres, new brakes (now a bit scaled up after having stood), all three keys and a bulging Toyota history file. Mine for £500 if I wanted it.
Well I did want it - body and seat colour combination was nice - Silver with red leather - the roof was in great condition with no leaks (it was wizzing it down so I would have known if not), it had aircon and the engine sounded nice and fit (if you ignored the wildly rattling heat shields).
I had a bit of cash put aside for buying a Playstation 4 Pro, but cars are more fun so I payed a deposit to the very nice seller and the next day brought the rest the following day. He then drove it over to my place - deal done.
Time for the pictures then (lots of them);
So, the bad bits...
It's an MOT fail, but only on one item - a badly rusted rear sub frame. Luckily, this is a bolt-in panel so replacement isn't a massive job. There are no other MOT issues other than a windscreen wiper that needs replacing.
The clutch is a little high - may well be a characteristic as my old Toyota's were always the same even with new parts.
Heat shield is rattling like a devil until it warms up.
It's been well-loved and maintained but not well cleaned - everything is grubby and the paint is a bit flat.
It has a full history up until three years ago due to the seller having done less than 3,000 miles in the last three years. Will still need an oil change.
That's all I can really find until I drive it, but ultimately it seems like a decent buy.
I have history with Toyota MR2s having had 2 mk1's years back. When a stricken MOT-fail mk3 popped up for sale in my Gumtree alerts just 2 miles away, I decided it was probably worth a look.
Ok, it was an early car so no six-speed box and more of a chance of a grenade engine (early ones can have issues with bore ovaling and ingesting their own catalytic converters), but it had managed 120k miles over the last 17 years so what the hell.
I phoned up over my lunch break to be told that there were two people in front of me in the pecking order, but I could come and take a look after the first guy had been that evening. Oh well, never mind. In the lap of the Gods. At 7pm, the seller messaged me to say that the first guy was a no-show and the second guy was haggling before he'd even seen the car, so I was welcome to come and take a look. At 8pm and in monsoon conditions, I arrived to give it a look over and was amazed by what I found.
The car was in fantastic condition with very few marks on the body, recently refurbished wheels, decent tyres, new brakes (now a bit scaled up after having stood), all three keys and a bulging Toyota history file. Mine for £500 if I wanted it.
Well I did want it - body and seat colour combination was nice - Silver with red leather - the roof was in great condition with no leaks (it was wizzing it down so I would have known if not), it had aircon and the engine sounded nice and fit (if you ignored the wildly rattling heat shields).
I had a bit of cash put aside for buying a Playstation 4 Pro, but cars are more fun so I payed a deposit to the very nice seller and the next day brought the rest the following day. He then drove it over to my place - deal done.
Time for the pictures then (lots of them);
So, the bad bits...
It's an MOT fail, but only on one item - a badly rusted rear sub frame. Luckily, this is a bolt-in panel so replacement isn't a massive job. There are no other MOT issues other than a windscreen wiper that needs replacing.
The clutch is a little high - may well be a characteristic as my old Toyota's were always the same even with new parts.
Heat shield is rattling like a devil until it warms up.
It's been well-loved and maintained but not well cleaned - everything is grubby and the paint is a bit flat.
It has a full history up until three years ago due to the seller having done less than 3,000 miles in the last three years. Will still need an oil change.
That's all I can really find until I drive it, but ultimately it seems like a decent buy.
Are you starting a rear/mid engined collection?
