I am a young grandad with 4 kids and 1 grandaughter, I have been married to Tina for 20 years, and n...
I am a young grandad with 4 kids and 1 grandaughter, I have been married to Tina for 20 years, and now the kids are growing up, we can start spending some time (and money) on ourselves at last.
Member since:23.12.2004
Reviews:9
Well, for a long time I always wanted a car which was a bit sporty, a bit different from the Mondeos and Vectras we have to drive each day which fall into the "satisfactory" group for everything, they get you from a - b, usually without too many dramas, they use about the same amount of fuel as the car next door, the cost about average to keep on the road, in fact they are just average !!
I wanted something a little different, something which wasn't average, something I could get behind the wheel of and feel like I was actually contributing something rather than just pushing peddles and turning a wheel. I wanted to drive something that would put a smile on my face whenever I turned the key.
I was driving in North Yorkshire on a hot summers day (yes, they do happen occasionally), when a red sports car came up behind me, it indicated and quickly overtook me, I was immediatley struck by the wonderfull sound of the exhaust, not boomy like some modded boy racer Saxo or Nova you often see screeching
around town centres of an evening, the car had it's roof off and the passenger, a lady with her hair flapping about under her cap smiled at me as they passed and dissapeared into the distance.
I looked around the staid utilitarian cabin of my car, the sunroof was open as much as the tilt allowed but it still felt very enclosed, and I wished there and then that I too could be out on the open road, probably heading for the coast or somewhere similar rather than heading for a boring meeting in a stuffy office with people who really wished they were not there either.
I had spoken to my wife a few times previously, carefully broaching the subject of perhaps buying a "little run around" which we could use for the occasional weekend away, but with 4 kids, 3 still at home she soon firmly reminded me that my priorities laid firstly with the family and thier needs rather than fullfilling my "middle age crisis fantasy"!!
Well, I didn't wan't to have that charge thrown up at me again even though it was completley scurrilous for anyone even think it..(gulp)....but mud can stick.
But one day an opertunity arose, we were in a line of slow moving traffic when I saw a black MR2 trying to edge out into the traffic, I let it in and we followed behind it. I commented to my wife about how nice it looked, she said she agreed, I remarked about how well they hold their value against run of the mill cars, she agreed again, then I tested her by saying, of course, you wouldn't like one sitting in the drive to which she came back with..."I could live with it"....!
Stunned but trying to keep a steady hand on the wheel I said that I might just have a look on Autotrader when I had time to see how much they were going for.
So as soon as we got back to the house, I sprinted to the PC, logged on and started searching autotrader for my (err our) car. It wasn't very long before I had narrowed down a selection which were relatively close and reasonably priced, in fact, I was surprised by just how low the prices were. I also checked out a MR2 website to see if there was anything I should be looking out for but it seemed that these cars, especially the Mk2's were very well built with few problems.
So I looked at a few cars but they were a bit "dog earred" but then I came upon one...I knew when I walked up to it with the owner that it was the one...you just do sometimes don't you. But I still closely checked it over. My first drive in it was great, no - actually excellent, it was better than I could have imagined, you sit very snug in the sports seats with all the controls well positioned, the gear leaver is short and sits on a central tunnel which seperates you and your passenger, it is very comfortable indeed. The car was a Japanese import G-Limited which roughly equates to a top of the range UK MR2, but with the added bonuses of air con, retractable mirrors and strange fog lights which turn with the steering wheel??? The car was in pristeen condition and was a T-Bar which meant that the roof section came out to give you true wind in the hair driving. It was a 1990 model but had been imported in 1997, in reality you could not tell how old it was as it looked no more than a few years old. It only cost £2,700 and had a bit of tax still left.
I paid there and then in cash (which I had been carrying around for the previous 3 weeks for just this occasion ).
Two weeks later, I managed to secure a long weekend with my wife and we headed to Whitby in North Yorkshire, the sun was beating down again and the roof was off, the music was playing, vying with the wind noise as we zoomed along the twisty dale roads. We managed to fit 2 large and 1 small suitcases into the surprisngly spacious boot (the small one was mine of course). This was one of the first weekends my wife and I had had away from the kids and it was one of the best we have had, we stayed in a small cottage, ate seafood in a nice restaurant, had a walk along the beach and all in all had a great romantic time.
Now 3 years on, the car still sits in the drive ready for me (and the wife) to jump in and zoom off, it has not been any more costly to run than our family car, fuel economy is a little less frugal but for sheer smileability it must get 5 gold stars!! I still get a buzz out of driving it each time, and my wife has also driven it to work on a few occasions when the "reliable" family car let her down.
I would encourage anyone who can to get themselves a little sports car at least once in their lives..........you only live once after all.
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Advantages: Handling developbed by Lotus, stuning looks, perfect reliability. A1 examples still under £5,000. Disadvantages: Rust kills most of them, lots of very rough examples out there - especialy T-Bars.
gafr21 15.10.2009 ·
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Review of ToyotaMR2 MK1
Jan 10th, 2005
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