When i first bought it, it wasn’t much to look at.  But now that it’s got a new coat of paint, wow is she a beaut!  Just need some new wheels now.  I took this as an opportunity to get the 93 front spoiler installed, as well as J-spec clear corners (front turn signals) installed.  I installed 94 tail lights myself a few weeks ago.

I got her done up at Keri Coach, in Westbury NY on a tip from my boss Erik. He said he used to take his Mitsu Starion there when he was my age and he had some incidents (I haven’t had any yet, well one slight, but nothing a new tire couldn’t fix heh).

More pics in my gallery as usual!

The problem I had with the car the first two weeks wasn’t the car’s fault, it was my fault.  I was not driving stick correctly.  Instead of feathering the clutch while giving it gas, I neglected to give it gas.  I’ve learned to feather very gently to avoid stalling, but this would only get the car moving fast enough to engage the clutch completely (get off the clutch pedal) if the road was perfectly level (or downhill).  If the road was at all uphill, the car would install stall.  I learned this the hard way, at a red light that turned green.  20 cars behind you honking.

I also had my cousin Tomasz give me a quick lesson near his house in Glen Cove NY on a pretty steep road.  Kind of like trial by fire, but i got it eventually (good thing stalling doesn’t do any real damage to the engine).

I found a red 91 MR2 Turbo that had 92K (91,950) miles on it with t-tops online at carbuyersmarket.com, a site I didn’t know about till my long time friend, Kevin Libutsi told me about.  The owner is a woman, Shannon, who lives in the city, about 20 minutes away.  I talked to her about the car a little over email, and then on the weekend made an appointment to check out the car in person.  I found out, she bought the car in Ohio and was the original owner, well after it was used as the test model for a Toyota dealership.  She moved to Connecticut and drove back to Ohio every once in a while, meaning a lot of highway miles, which are good for a car.  She found a job in Manhattan and drove the car to the train station and left it there in the sun all day.  Its paint is a little faded but I don’t really concern myself.  She ended up moving to Manhattan obviously, and didn’t drive around there much, probably because of mass transit.  She had garaged it the last 3 months and barely driven it, so she was looking to sell it save on the garage money.  It seemed to work out in my favor, and the car only had a minor ding or two due to the valet people she tells me.  

I was getting excited about this car.  Even my mom seemed to like this MR2.  I take a look at the engine bay, although unfamiliar with what I saw at that point, I noticed that the valve cover was all black (oily) but she assured me it wasn’t anything to worry about.  The turbo emblem, which I only knew about because of the previous dealer’s MR2, was missing.  Shannon explained that it was probably removed when it was last detailed.  The fog lights also would not turn on.  She explained that she was unaware of that because she never used them so didn’t notice they weren’t working.

Shannon was kind enough to give me a test drive up and down Manhattan a few blocks, because I still didn’t know how to drive stick.  It was rather funny but embarrassing having her drive me around.  Not so much because she was a women, but more because this is the car I was seriously interested in, yet didn’t really know how to drive!

actual cash i saved up to buy my mr2

I came back another day, with $6500 in cash, 3-4k of it was my own money I’ve been saving up for about two years before I got a job last month.  The rest, my mom contributed kindly.  I was ready to buy the car, but Shannon said she was hoping to get about 8k or 9k for it.  Kevin, who came with us the second time, said “how bout 7k”? She contemplated, “Hmm, yeah, I could let it go for 7k, that sounds alright”.  And it did seem alright, afterall, the paint was pretty faded and 

So here I was, on the verge of having my first car, well not JUST my own car, but my own MR2!  I don’t think I can describe how excited I was.  There was just one problem.  I was $500 short.  Shannon stood her ground at 7K even after we practically waved the 6500 in her face.  It was Sunday, so I could not get another $500 anywhere.  So I was forced to go home MR2-less one last time.  But the deal was practically sealed.  Shannon offered to drop the car off where I live the next morning.  It turned out to be very nice of her because I still didn’t know how to drive stick.  She knocked off $100 dollars for the fog lights.  We went to my mom’s bank, and closed the deal, with all the paper work.  By 11 AM, that Monday, July 3rd, 2000.  I was the proud over of my own 1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo!

(more pix here)

I had to somehow contain myself and suppress the urge to drive my car (or at least learn how to drive it), because I had work that day.  I somehow drove the car onto my mom’s parking spot behind the building and left it there until I could get plates and such.  I would leave that up to my mom, since the car was under her name (insurance is cheaper that way).  Because it was under her name, it didn’t feel like it was really my car, but that’s something I’ve learned to live with.

There arose a complication later that day.  It seems I forgot to get some paperwork from Shannon that was vital to getting the car registered.  I had to have Shannon fax it to me. And get it registered another day, but the next day was July 4th, so it wouldn’t be till later that week that I’d get to actually drive my MR2.

Several times I think I found a good MR2 to buy but it turns out it’s either not meeting my requirements, it’s already sold, or it’s too much, or it’s too far, or it has too many miles.  Since it seems now that I’ll never get an MR2 at this rate, I start to open my mind more, saying it can be any color mr2 with any type of roof (I didn’t really know hard-tops existed then).  I’ve looked online, in newspapers, asked people, etc.   

I found a black MR2 turbo online with a sunroof that had 120k miles.  It was in Long Island, about half an hour from me.  My mom on the other hand is against black cars, saying they’re bad luck and they’re hard to see and all around not bad.  By the time I email the guy, he told me he already sold it to someone else in Flushing, where I live!!

I found a red 93 MR2 Turbo w/ T-tops on eBay with only 49k miles on it but it was in Florida.  My mom actually was more favorable to this one, and I was happy about it, but the price went up to 12k, at the time my price range was only up to around 8k, 9k in an emergency.

I found a red 91 MR2 Turbo in the newspaper ad with 99k miles at dealer about 10 minutes away and it seemed to be my best hope.  I went to take a look at it.  The dealer lot looked rather low budget, and there was no one around.  It wasn’t until this car that I started to appreciate T-tops, it allowed a lot more air into the car, and gave it a more open-air feel.  It had decent paint as well, but no leather.  The dealer came out of his trailer (yeah, that low budget!) and I started to talk about the car with him.  When he turned it on, a little bit white smoke came out, but I heard somewhere this was ok for a car of this age.  My mom however was wary.  I decided to not get my hopes too high up about this one.  

I went back one time for a test drive, but since the MR2 Turbo only has manual transmission, and I don’t know how to drive stick, I had the dealer test drive it for me, and take it to a mechanic, one he recommended.  I was wary myself at this point.  I checked Carfax and the car had traded owners 3 times in the last two years.  Something was definitely fishy!

My long time (since elementary school) friend, Charles “chuck” Wong contacts me.  I haven’t heard from him in a while (a year or so?) and he tells me he bought a car a while ago.  We get to talking and I ask him what kind, he says an MR2.  I ask “a what?”, so he shows me a picture,

picture chuck sent me of his mr2 (tho this isn't actually his but looks like it)

and I respond: “not bad”, although not that impressed.  He also informs me that the picture he showed me isn’t really his car but it looks just like it, with different wheels, so my impressed-ness falls a bit.

We go hang out to catch up on old times and he picks me up in his car and I get a little more impressed, but it still seems like ‘just a car’.  It wasn’t until we drove off to a shopping/arcade mall type place in bayside, queens, that I start to get into his car more and more.  On the way back, he shows off what his car can do, and takes a regular street turn at like 30-40 MPH and my jaw drops.  I’ve never seen anything like it before.  It was incredible, even from inside the car in the passenger seat.  At that time, his car was still stock too!

I start doing research on this MR2, becoming a regular in channel #mr2 on EFNet (IRC), talking to people, learning about the car.  I start investigating how much one would cost, and run it by my mom.  She eventually reluctantly approved, after many lectures and arguments about how impractical a 2 seat car is, and how unsafe it probably is being so small.  My requirements for an mr2 take shape.  I decided on: a silver MR2 turbo with a sun-roof.  Silver because that is a beautiful color (in general, not specifically on cars), turbo because I couldn’t understand anyone not wanting that extra power, back then I thought power was everything.  Sun-roof because Charles has a sunroof and the only other car I’ve ever driven, my mom’s Pontiac Grand Am, is a hard top, which I didn’t think I could stand on a car of my own.

My birthday is coming up (17th) and I really (unrealistically) want a car as present.  I don’t really know what kind of car I want yet, i just know i want one though, I  don’t  even really know why, it’s just one of those things i really want but am not sure why.