Used Car of the Day: 1985 Toyota MR2

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

We're back at it after a break while I was playing with UTVS in the desert (more to come later this week). We jump back into the madness with a 1985 Toyota MR2.


This one has just 86,000 miles on it, appears to be clean-looking and in good shape, and has original items such as the cassette player. Indeed, this manual-transmission car is 100 percent stock.

The seller says it's had one owner for 99 percent of its life and has been well-maintained. The maintenance list is in the post -- it's too long to share here.

Flaws include a trunk that only opens with a key and scratches that have accrued over the years.

If this Virginia-based car catches your eye, you can click here to see it.

The asking price is $20,000.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • ScarecrowRepair ScarecrowRepair 2 hours ago
    I remember when the Gen 2 turbos came out and I was worried my '86 might not last and I should look at the replacements. Not as much fun, and the dealer was an absolute jerk, wouldn't let me do anything but drive around the block. I ended up finally giving it away at 533,000 miles and 29 years when the second engine (first lasted 473,000) blew its head gasket and the connecting rod bearings started knocking. Someone's using it for parts now, and I miss it all the time.
  • Mike Beranek Mike Beranek 1 hour ago
    He needs that 20 grand to get a psychiatrist to cure him of being crazy enough to ask 20 grand for this car.
  • MrIcky Having worked several catastrophes for insurance, the following "The bottom line is that if the insurance agency can find ways not to cover the car, they probably won’t." just isn't the way it works. The insurance company will have some drop off areas where cars will be brought. The adjuster will check for water height and draw a line at the high water point with a posca marker. If that line is generally over the electronics- bam, it's totaled, if you have comprehensive they look up your car on KBB and/or NADA by mileage and write a check. Most comprehensive vehicle policies look almost exactly the same-at least for "standard" carriers. If the water line isn't over the electronics, then it generally goes to a shop to get tested. You aren't going to get gamed for a car in a cat loss scenario because there just isn't time to f'with it. After a Houston flooding event I worked 16 hour days for 2 weeks under a big tent like you'd set up for a wedding and went over nearly 100 cars/day taking pictures and sorting them into total or check with mechanic "piles". Most people who had totaled vehicles had a check within 20 minutes of me looking at their car. Buildings on the other hand have all sorts of different terms (commercial or consumer) with regard to how the wind or water entered your building and whether coverage applies.
  • Theflyersfan Well, Milton just went from a tropical storm to 175mph in less than a day so this guy means business. Even if it weakens a little bit, it'll expand and pretty much all of Florida south of Jacksonville is going to feel something. Everyone who saw that disaster in the NC/VA/TN mountains before Helene's landfall is either from the future or a liar (and that includes the insurance companies) because heavy rain started well before the storm arrived and then the crazy thing just sat in that general area. My part of Kentucky - it didn't stop raining for almost five days. And now this nuclear bomb of a hurricane. I understand Florida has a high percentage of homeowners without insurance because they can no longer afford it. My parents have a home near Naples and they carry extra flood and wind coverage and that costs well over five digits per year. Home renovations about 8-9 years ago gave them the chance to make hurricane-proof changes like lashing the roof and hurricane windows. It survived the direct hit from Irma and the heavy punch from Ian so they worked. After this storm, I don't know how Florida will totally recover. Much like California and the earthquakes and firestorms, there might have to be a "Come to Jesus" talk with the perils of living in Florida. I'm already making plans to head down there post-storm if the roads or airport is open in the days following landfall to help cleanup and rebuild any part of the home that might need it. In the short term, if it hasn't happened already, gas prices are probably going to rocket upwards as the oil rigs in the Gulf shut down and prepare. And if this storm directly hits Tampa/St Pete, it's going to be game over in those cities for a while. And imagine if the storm at this power was aiming towards New Orleans or Miami.
  • Jalop1991 "...leaving Doherty and his passenger to be pulled from the wreck by passersby." Or not. I would get a HUGE laugh out of seeing a video of passersby with their phones whipped out, recording it and doing nothing else.
  • Jalop1991 Hey, as soon as the water drains Stellantis will have lots of empty dealer lots to stash their cars on.
  • Mike Beranek Usually, those of us from Salt country will travel down south to find a used car that hasn't been exposed and "won't" rust. At least not right away, like a used car from up here.Now maybe the tables have turned. Will we be seeing lots of rusty cars from states that begin with a vowel running around down south?
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