Hello Veeky Forums this is my first time posting here, I'm a britbong living in Turkey and i'm looking for a good decently priced first car. Unfortunately cars are extremely expensive in my country and even a crappy renault or fiat costs a good 7-10k GBP or 40K Turkish lira respectively. Now I was browsing a bunch of ads for second hand vehicles and came across a beautiful Toyota MR2 AW11, the car seemed to be in good shape and will cost around the same as a shite french car or cheap italian. Plus since its a vintage vehicle you don't have to pay tax. I have had trouble discerning if it was a Mk1a or Mk1b and I have posted a picture of the engine to get some advice off you guys (pic related) What difficulties may I face? How can I extend the life of this beautiful car? What is Veeky Forums's advice? Any other recommended vehicles I should look out for?
The interior is black leather and the car is a smoky dark gray. The pop up headlight motors work but I have yet to see the vehicle in person. The seller says it has no rust and only needs some TLC.
an AW11 isnt a good choice if it's going to be your only car and you absolutely NEED a car to get you to work/school/wherever.
in my own experience, rubber seals, gaskets, and o rings are going to be an issue. Theyre about 30 years old now and if they havent been replaced at some point things are going to start to leak.
mk1a vs mk2b is mostly just body style changes IIRC and isnt super important beyond aesthetics. As long as you know the year of the car you should be okay for parts.
Preventative maintenance will help and if you can do the work yourself it isnt very expensive, but if you need to pay a mechanic it will get expensive quickly.
Ian Torres
U can expect spoopy skelertons from owners past 2 haunt u, flip the headlights 3 times and doot the horn 2 avoid da haunting of snap oversteers.
Cameron Thomas
how hard would it be to change the gaskets and o rings? The owner said it was serviced recently by an official toyota maintenance center.
Ryder Nguyen
Also forgot to ask , why wouldn't the AW11 be a good daily driver? Does it have a bad fuel economy?
Joshua Cooper
If you're asking overall if gasket and o rings are hard to replace, not specifically this engine, then seriously don't get the car. You won't have the technical prowess to keep up on it without issues every few months. If you really want a decent dd with good fuel economy and 80s aesthetic look into 944s. It's way more practical and reliable.
Owen Torres
Porsche 944's cost 50k Euros here senpai. Even if i did have the money I would opt to go with the MR2... Can you discern if this engine belongs to a MK1b or MK1a? I read that the gearbox setup is slightly better on the b model.
Isaac Perry
Shameless self bump yet again? I need all the information on this vehicle I can get...
Luke Lopez
>why wouldn't the AW11 be a good daily driver? Does it have a bad fuel economy?
because its a 30 year old car and 30 year old car break down and need a lot of attention. Unless you're buying one that's been fully rebuilt - as in a completely rebuilt and refreshed engine, suspension, and body - you're buying a project car, and project cars don't make good daily drivers.
