1997 Toyota MR2 GTi-16 GT from UK and Ireland - Comments

Battery died in one of the remote central locking blippers.

Button dropped out of one of the remote central locking blippers.

Drivers side electric mirror non-functioning. Caused by previous owner dropping car off at dealer and smashing it off on wall. Heater element still works though...

Front brake discs warped.

Got locked in the car when the switch inside the drivers door which locks and unlocks the door got jammed in. Repaired with brute force.

Power aireal sometimes sticks up by a few centimetres after shutting down the radio/engine.

Blower fan doesn't work until its in the third position.

This is without a doubt the best car that I have ever owned. It is the second car I have owned since getting my lisence, but is the fifth car that I have had.

THE CAR:

My car is a '97 R plate Revision Three model with removable sunroof (not T-Tops) in Pure White. It has the body-coloured skirt trim, wider rear tyres, high-level brake light, "afterburner" tail-lights and clear front indicator covers. It is a three-lady-owner car with full service history.

DRIVING:

The car is a delight to drive. It is surprisingly comfy once in, but taller or larger built drivers may struggle a bit getting in and out due to the car's low height.

Visibility is good, but the large rear spoiler does cut in straight through the middle of the veiw in the interior mirror.

I am six feet tall and have plenty of headroom. My left leg is a bit restricted, but I drive with the steering wheel quite low, so it's not really an issue.

I have to say that the clutch is quite heavy, and can become tiresome when sitting in traffic. The brake pedal is also quite heavy, but is bearable. The steering is power assissted, but is weighted quite heavily, probably to give the car a more "sporty" feel. The steering wheel is also a bit on the large side for a sports car, but it's not overly big. I think that the rim of the steering wheel could have been made a bit thicker.

The stubby gearlever is great, and gives a nice shift action, snicking into gears nicely. I have never had a problem getting the car into reverse.

Despite my initial fears, the car is very easy to reverse, with the rear window being dirctly beind the driver. All four corners of the car can be seen from the drivers seat.

The car does bump quite a bit over imperfections in the road, but the suspension copes quite well and the car has never bounced a wheel off the road. The seats counter the harsh ride very well as they are very soft and comfy, but provide plenty of support at the same time.

EXTERIOR:

The car is quite prone to stone chips and the pillarless doors require a good slam to get them to shut properly. The wipers on the car are a bit naff, but adequate enough. This is'nt really a wet-weather car, as I'll go into later. I'm not too keen on the way that the headlights pop up when flashing someone, as it takes ages to flash. One of my previous cars, a Ford Probe, simply flashed the foglights in the bumper and I think that this is better. The headlights are, however, very good.

INTERIOR:

The interior is really quite nice. I'm not usually a fan of Japanese ineriors, as they seem to be made entirely of cheap plastic. I have no doubt that the interior of my MR2 is also plastic, but 90% of it is covered in leather, 5% is made of plastic which looks like leather and the last 5% is carpeted or out of view. The car has original MR2 badged mats, which fit perfectly and don't move around much, despite the clips which hold them in place being broken.

The ashtray and lighter are a bit awkward, but bearable. One thing that does wind me up is the fact that water always comes into the car if you have the window even slightly open, meaning getting soaked smoking in the car with the window down in the rain and getting flooded by the washer jets. I think this is because of the pillarless doors (my Probe did the same tricks).

GADGETS:

Apart from the mirror problem mentioned above, evrything in the car works. Both electric windows go up and down at the same speed, the heated mirrors and window work well and the stereo is awesome. My car was specified with the "Premium" sound system, which includes an RDS tape unit with a single-shot CD player mounted above and eight speakers, which in the relativey small cabin sounds great. The CD player takes all of my CD-R and CR-RW discs without problems. The RDS tape unit is the main control unit, and I have to say it's a bit fiddly. The buttons are very small and can be quite diffIcult to use while driving. The unit has a face-off panel, and the car still has the plastic box for this (much like the carry boxes you get with aftermarket head units for the faceplates), which I find quite quaint. In sunlight, the display is quite hard to read. I'm sure that a new owner will get used to this, I just notice it more as my previous car, a Focus, had a stalk-remote and the head unit had buttons like boiled sweets and a huge display.

The tape paler is a full logic-control deck with loads of features like search, random, skip and auto-reverse as wellas some more complicated features that I am yet to figure out. The CD has random, skip and repeat functions.

The seats are fully manual, no electrickery here, but the drivers seat can be adjusted for height, side support, angle, bakrest angle and lumbar. The backrest adjustment is of the pull-up-a-lever-and-move-about-untill-you-get-the-right-angle type, and is very annoying. I will always prefer the knobbed wheel type better. Anyone agree?

The sunvisors are perfectly placed, and the controls are OK. The stalks for the indicators/lights and wipers are quite a stretch from the wheel, and if the lights are in high-beam, you have to let go of the wheel to indicate or return to low-beam as you have to push the stalk away to engage high-beam. The foglight swithches are well placed with the dash-dimmer underneath the driver's side dash vent.

The ventilation controls are good, having a selection of buttons for the air direction control and a slider for temperature control. The fan control is a tiny turn-switch, and all of this, along with the button for switching between outside and recirculated air and the heated rear window button are in a space the size of a single-DIN head unit.

The clock keeps time well and can easily be seen.

The dials are very good, with a big speedo (going up in 20mpg increments from 0mph) and rev counter (reading to 9000 rpm!) dominating the dash. Fuel gauge is to the left, temperature to the right. In the centre above the speedo and rev counter is a volt gauge, where I personally would rather have an oil pressure gauge. The dials are black, with white backlighting (even though the rest of the car's interior backlighting is standard green. Anyone have any idea why?) with lit red needles.

The remote locking can be a bit temperamental sometimws, but I think this may be due to a run-down battery.

PERFORMANCE:

As expected, brilliant. As mentioned above, my car is the Revision Three car rated at approximately 174bhp, so is quite up on power compared to earlier versions. From tickover to 3000rpm the car is docile and quiet, but still very responsive. 3000-4000rpm, the car is a bit buzzy, most noticeable on motorways or dual-carrigeways as 70mph in fifth is just aboove 3250rpm. At 4000rpm, the starts to pick up a bit, 5000rpm will see the car really coming onto the cam and at 6000rpm, the trick airbox really opens up and the car flies. Each gearchange will keep the car in the main powerband and the car WILL redline in each gear. Toyota literature say 0-60mph in 7.8secs, but it feels faster than this as you're right near the ground. Top speed is quoted in my handbook as 137mph, but I have no doubt that it can beat this figure.

The brakes are awesome. They have loads of feel, they are easily modulated and the ABS only cuts in when it is absolutely vital that it does. The car can easily be brought to a smooth slow stop, or if you stamp hard on the middle pedal the car will stop way before your internal organs do. The car does have a tendancy to warp the front discs through constant hard use, so keep this in mind.

The clutch has a very low biting point, almost to the point where as soon as you move your foot up from the depressed pedal, the car is at bite. The clutch also has quite a short travel, making quick gearchanges very easy, but can take some getting used to at first.

The engine sounds fantastic and I regularly drive with the sunroof open just to hear it.

Handling. Ahh, the handling. Perfection. the car is so well balanced, hardly leans in bends and even driving around a roundabout will put a grin on your face. My car is equipped with 195/55 R15's at the front and 225/55 R15's on the back and suit the car perfectly. the car has a surfeit of grip that I have not yet broke in the dry, and provided the road is clear from water, the rear tyres will only spin under extreme sufferance. The car just wants to grip and go and the car has never wheelspinned in the dry for more than about two inches.

There is no slack whatsoever in the steering. Any movement on the wheel translates into movement of the front wheels.

A WARNING:

My reveiw of the performance is of driving the car in the dry. It's a whole different story in the wet.

When pulling away in first in the wet, the car will wheelspin. I have had wheelspin in first, second, third and fourth in the wet. When pulling out of junctions in the wet the car will wheelspin. The only way to stop this is by pulling away with no power, wait untill the clutch is fully enagaged, then accellerate. Whilst ignoring the drivers behind honking and flashing you to get a move on.

Roundabouts in the wet in this car can be terrifying at first. Two days after picking up the car, I came round an island in fourth at less than 20mph and the rear wheels still lost traction. I'm used to it now, and can be seen regularly sliding the car round roundabouts in the wet, a trick easily learned in such a well balanced car.

QUALITY:

The car is very well screwed together, with no squeaks or rattles and no wind noise at all untill you get above 90mph. Tyre noise is bearable unless you drive with the windows down.

COSTS:

Fine. I'm 22 and the car costs me £750 a year with zero no claims fully comp.

Tyre prices are higher than on my Focus, but not that bad (approx. £80 for rear tyres and £45 for front).

Economy is good if your gentle (keep it below 2500rpm and below 71mph in fifth and you'll easily see 400 miles to a full tank (about £39) ), but put your foot down and you can watch the needlee drop.

PRACTICALITY:

The rear boot is quite spacious, and is about the same size as my sister's 106's boot. The front boot can hold a few bits, but it isn't carpeted (spare wheel, battery and tools stored here). Only a two seater, but both occupants have plenty of space. There are loads of cubby holes in the car (behind seats, between seats etc.).

Overall a brilliant car.

That's it I'm buying one.

'400 miles to a full tank (about £39) '

That must be one small fuel tank, about 40L.

Great review.

Who are you insured with? 750 is cheap.

I picked mine up on Saturday, and I'd say this is a very accurate review, I've had much more powerful cars than this, but nothing anywhere near as much fun to drive, it definitely gives you a whole new approach to driving, going fast to prove a point disappears out of the window, because, let's face it, you look cool as **** just sat in one. Again I'm another tall driver, (6'3" 15 stone) and I feel safer in this than the 08 plate Vectra I've just handed back (company car).

Not heavy on juice at all, unless you have heavy right foot, and as mentioned the fuel tank suddenly becomes a vacuum.

The engine sound - the only way to describe it would be like this - "You know that lovely sound that comes from a V6??... Well it's much better than that!)