Faults:

Added oil to throttle cable when car was bought as accelerator pedal required a lot of force to move.

Clutch master cylinder needed replacement.

Exhaust pipe/muffler mount required re-welding.

Intermittent windscreen wiper temperamental.

Deteriorated rubber seals around windscreen and windows allow water to drip when car is moved.

Radiator hoses leaked.

Sometimes turns over very slowly when starting, possibly from battery drainage.

A drive shaft needed replacing around 195,000km (car required towing to mechanic)

Caster on left front wheel out, causing the car to pull heavily to the left.

Steering wander at high speeds, related to rubber parts in suspension/steering which have detriorated.

Deteriorating paintwork, bubbles in paint of fibreglass spoiler and front bumper.

General Comments:

This was my first sports car, I had saved up a long time doing taxi driving (at the age of 21). MR2's were fairly scarce in Adelaide and this was an acceptable example, it had high km's, but everything worked (power windows, mirrors etc) and nothing seemed to be wrong with it.

I was hoping for trouble free motoring requiring little more than replacing oil, coolant, spark plugs, belts etc. but it seems like everything has started to go wrong with it. This mostly due to the car's age, the previous owner got rid of it just before things started to pack up. I have been unemployed since the taxi driving so repairs are a real headache. Having to keep going to repair shops is far from my favourite activity. There is a whole back catalogue of repairs that need doing to get it back to near 100%.

The one thing that hasn't let me down is the Yamaha-designed 4A-GE engine, it is by far the most reliable component in the whole car and I suspect it will still be going strong at 300,000km.

Working on the car is difficult as the engine bay is constricted and there aren't too many angles of approach, I'm fortunate to be in a place with a car pit, but even this doesn't make things easy.

The MR2 is a very well-designed car and isn't something everyone else has like a Nissan Silvia, 180SX or Skyline. It is a classic that will make anyone who can afford the repairs expected of a car of this age happy. If I could do it all over again I would make sure I got an MR2 with no more than 120,000km and check how deteriorated the rubber components are.

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong with the car, but it had a few minor problems when I purchased it.

The drivers side electric window does not work properly. The electric motor's drive cog seems to be missing some teeth or is broken.

The air conditioning does not work.

General Comments:

At first glance of the car in standard for I knew it could be a very nice looking car with a few changes. The car is white in color with blue interior.

The cabin feels surprisingly large to sit in and as soon as you are in the drivers seat it feels like you are about to go for a drive in a Lotus or Ferrari. The seats are very comfortable with about 4 adjustments.

Although the car feels like a 10 second car to sit in it does lack a bit in the speed factor, but what can you expect out of a naturally aspired 1.6 liter four banger.

Although the car lacks in straight line speed it definitely does not lack in handling where it can basically outcorner most cars on the road. I have stuck right behind my mates WRX around corners where he could only pull away on the straight!! It does not have power steering which can be annoying with bigger wheels fitted, but feels excellent to drive having no weight over the wheels.

Fuel economy is extremely good. I get about 350 km's out of a full tank of about 35 litres, and that is not taking it easy, regularly revving to 6 grand. I used to only get 350km's out of the Magna and it's tank size was over 70 liters!!

The standard stereo was very very ordinary so I decided to place some speakers between the seats of the car, where there once was a console. I replaced the head unit and the speakers with 6x9's and some 4 inches for the front. The reult is excellent and I couldn't be happier.

I have done some mild modifications to the appearance of the car, installing 17 inch chrome wheels, lowering the suspension, tinting the windows, installing an aftermarket exhaust system from the cat back (which is very loud, but sounds nice), installing a high flow air filter and taking the wing off. After all of that the car looks very nice and I am very happy with the way it looks.

The car has always started first go and I have never had any engine problems with it. If only it went faster!