The Baby Supercar You Can Afford

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In 1987, if you wanted a wedgy, mid engined sports car, you could buy a V12 Ferrari Testarossa that could accelerate to 100kph in 5.8 seconds and cost more than an average house. Or you could buy a Toyota MR2 for a fraction of the Ferrari money and still get to 100kph in 6.5 seconds, if it had a supercharger strapped on. Turners Hamilton has this Supercharged edition with low kilometres and only one NZ owner in the 29 years it has lived here. And guess what? It’s still much cheaper than a Ferrari. Read on...

When you think about mid-engined sports cars you are likely to conjure up images of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other supercars usually driven by Premier League footballers, oil barons and social media influencers. But why should rich people have all the fun? That’s what Toyota were clearly thinking when they introduced the first MR2 (MR=midship runabout) in 1984. It wasn’t as powerful as a Ferrari but it was huge fun, reliable and cheap and it was rightfully highly praised in the motoring press.

In recent years the price of the first generation MR2 has shot up, along with many other 80s and 90s Japanese cars. But a cost of living crisis combined with a looming Christmas has subdued the collector car market a bit. So you could say it’s a buyers’ market. Will it remain that way? Unlikely. So now is a good time to buy good examples of desirable cars.

This 1987 example arrived in NZ in 1995 and has had one private owner since then. The kms are a low 118,000, is the rare JDM supercharged edition, is manual and also has the glass targa top option. There are areas you can improve to add value but on the whole it’s a very nice example of the iconic Japanese sports car.

The MR2 is still huge fun to drive today and is a fairly easy classic to own. This one is being auctioned at Turners Hamilton on 19^th December with a guide of $18,500 - $19,500, or around 10% of the cost of a Testarossa. More details here.