Thinking about buying an MR2... (PIC HEAVY)

[f_kuhar]

Hi, I've had my eye out for a cheapish MR2 for a while now and I finally found one in my local classifieds. However, I thought the price seemed a little high. I did some research and I found this website and I figured you guys would be my best bet. The classified says that the car is an 86 has 130,000 miles and he is asking $2200. I haven't gotten much more information than that but i do have several pictures. I am going to see the car on saturday and I was just hoping to have a leg up on negotiations. Any help would be appreciated.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1235/p4050034u.jpg

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5061/p5040150.jpg

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9097/p5040152.jpg

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/4610/p5040153.jpg

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3380/p5060157.jpg

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/3065/p5060158.jpg

[mr2mk1chick]

Hiya and welcome

great pics, but waay too large for our limit on here ;)
I've removed the image tags so the links are there. you can repost them here if you resize to 800 pixels wide (as per forum rules) :+:
I let the odd one or two of members large pics go under the radar, but these wouldn't even load up LOL!

also pop your location in your profile so we can say hi if you are local, but i guess you are not in the UK as you post up in $

thanks

Jo
(moderator)

[Gary1958]

looks nice but the steering wheel is on the wrong side :lol:

[f_kuhar]

Sorry about the huge images and thanks for the help. I'm posting from Philadelphia, Pa from the USA.

[kevin..in]

Sorry about the huge images and thanks for the help. I'm posting from Philadelphia, Pa from the USA.
Ok well its very difficult to advise on price in the USA as market trends and availabilty is an unknown quantity to us here in UK, but at a guess I'd say that $2,200 is quite high price for what looks to be an average condition car although you say its offered cheap!
how many cars have you viewed? always best to see as many as you can to get a feel for condition and price

[f_kuhar]

Well it seems like they are on the rarer side here because I've only seen a few in the last year or so. I think if I can talk him down to 1700 or 1800 I might get it though. I am going later today to look at it. Wish me luck!

[Ben]

Good luck! :)

Pics look pretty good... the rust around the front may hide worse sins underneath, but I get the drier envirinment and lack of salty roads over there will mean that the UK rust problems won't be nearly as bad!

Either way, check all along the sills, arches, suspension mounts etc for signs of tin-worm. Other than that (and those wheels!) it looks pretty good :+:

[f_kuhar]

ok so my mechanic uncle took a look and says its in good shape. The only problem he foud was where the upper and lower control arms meet the subframe on the rear driver side wheel there is a bracket that is almost totally rusted out. Ive been searching for the part online but I cannot find anything. Any one have any idea where i could find one and how much it might cost? thanks

[mr2mk1chick]

i know the part you mean i think, but i don't know the name either.
they are hard to get hold of for the 1a but easier i've heard to ge them for the 1b

if you don't get the part name here, post up the question in the bodywork section

[f_kuhar]

well the guy called me earlier to tell me that he sold it to someone else so im back to square one for getting an mr2

[Monkeymax]

Heya,
I'd meant to reply sooner but have been a bit too busy... :(
Prices in the USA are completely different than here in the UK - they seem to fetch more money and so it'd be very difficult for us to advise on pricing. For help on that, you'd be best heading over to http://www.mr2oc.com/ - the US MR2 club. Registration there is free and they are a huge community.
Check out their for sale section... admittedly not many cars there, but there are a couple of nice examples such as:
http://www.mr2oc.com/showthread.php?t=374818
Remember you may have to travel a little to get a car that's really worth it (as I realise the above car is quite some way from you)... They are getting rarer and rarer over there though.
When I was visiting LA a couple of years back I bumped into an owner of a champagne gold early mk1. We started talking (I wanted to know a bit about the club scene over there) and he mentioned he was selling it soon, but hadn't advertised yet - so it's probably worth putting a wanted post up on the forum too as perhaps others will be in the same frame of mind.

Good luck with your search! :+: