My first-generation Toyota MR2

I bought this car back in the 1990's. I wasn't originally looking for an MR2, but I remember them coming to my attention when I was reading a sports car comparison test in a Porsche book I had. The MR2 did amazingly well in the test and out-performed many more powerful and expensive cars.

I looked at a few and then came across this dark blue 1989 model at a dealer. The asking price was $23,500 and I think it had 80 or 90,000 km on the clock.

It was stock but did have a pop-up removable sunroof, which I don't know if it was factory or aftermarket.

These are tiny cars but still comfortable enough. Well, comfortable for two. I do remember once needing to unexpectedly transport two passengers one night, and they very uncomfortably shared the passenger seat.

I had read about these cars having snappy handling -- this being mostly attributed to the engine's location behind the passenger compartment -- and was always worried about pushing it too far. This was reinforced by a spin on the first day I owned the car which happened to occur on the first corner of the Bathurst race circuit, which was operating as a public road that day.

I took the car away for a few days driving holiday around the north coast of NSW. I drove up the Putty Road and on to Tamworth, then stayed the night in Glen Innes after 640 km. The next day I drove across to the coast on the Gwydir Highway and then down to Thrumster where I went back inland again on the Oxley Highway. After 650 km I stayed the night in Tamworth then headed back the 400 km to Sydney the next day.

I recall the car being totally reliable for the eighteen-months I owned it. The exhaust pipes did fall of a few times and I ended up replacing the exhaust with a system custom-made by a local exhaust shop.

The attached photo is from a brochure and is the same colour as my MR2, which I later was traded in on a Porsche 944. I actually considered buying another one of these later, and also looked at a couple of second-generation models too.