Junkyard Find: 1986 Toyota MR2
The Toyota MR2 has always been a somewhat rare Junkyard Find, partly because not many were sold in the first place, and partly because the surviving examples tend to be cherished by MR2 enthusiasts. Here’s a solid ’86 that showed up in a Denver self-service wrecking yard a couple of weeks back.
Judging from the line of silt visible at about driver waist level, this car spent some time partially submerged. The most likely culprit is the flooding along Colorado’s Front Range in September, 2013. During the first couple of years after the 2013 floods, Denver-area wrecking yards were well stocked with flood victims, including some real heartbreakers.
Before the deluge, this car traveled well over 200,000 miles. MR2s are surprisingly sensible commuter cars.
This one even has the optional air conditioning, a must for those hot Denver summers in a tiny car.
I have seen dozens, maybe hundreds, of first-generation MR2s racing in the 24 Hours of Lemons during my decade with the series, and I have learned that this car is not so great at low-budget endurance racing.
Like most Toyotas in the Lemons series, the MR2 suffers from severe reliability problems, and most 4AGE-powered ones are no quicker around a road course than their 1980s Ford Escort GT, Honda Civic, and Volkswagen Golf competitors (having been an MR2 admirer since these cars were new, this knowledge disappoints me). With a Camry V6 swap, though, an MR2 can turn some decent lap times.
The flood damage is more obvious in person than it is in photographs, so nobody is likely to buy it and fix all the water-damaged electrical stuff. I saw it a couple of days ago, and few parts had been pulled. Is it possible every Colorado MR2 collector already has all the parts they need?
The most innovatory value!
Watch out for the pop bumpers while driving your MR2.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I consider my first car — an 86 NA — my first true automotive love. It came to me with 98k on it and left me with 262k and was pretty trouble-free in between. It was a lot of fun for a castaway that a couple of old parents were trying to sell for their son, who'd taken a job overseas. They didn't want the old bondo'd thing in their yard anymore. The worst issue I remember it having was it began popping out of fifth gear. I actually drove it from Alabama to California and back by way of Canada, holding it in fifth with my right arm the entire way (keeping in fourth would have been noisy madness.) It sounds crazy but actually wasn't that uncomfortable. I've never had a car that more perfectly matched car to human in the interface, everything just fell right into place.
A friend of mine bought a red one new in 1986 and drove it until he passed away in 2012. When he could no longer ride his motorcycle due to health problems in 2009, he had it buffed and detailed, rebuilt the front end, put sticky tires on it and took it for a fast outing at least once a week. We made some great memories on rural Texas roads. When he passed away his wife gave it to his brother (also a car guy), and it's still going at over 600k. Really awesome car.