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.