Cars are rated one (forget it) to four ('bout as good as it gets) James Deans

 GOOD STUFF               BAD STUFF

     Major fun                    NO cargo space
     Looks funky                  Blind spots with top up
     Superb handling              Shifter could be better
     Decent power                 Exhaust note needs work
     Fuel economy                 Engine cross braces?
     Glass rear window            No cruise control option!
     Built-in windscreen          Gotta get out to raise the top
 

• Style: sports car
• Engine: 1.8-liter four-cylinder
• Transmission: five-speed manual
• Drivetrain: rear-wheel-drive
• Horsepower: 138 hp @ 6,400 rpm
• Torque: 125 ft-lbs. @ 4,400 rpm
• EPA mileage: 25 city/30 highway
• Weight: 2,195 lb.
• Base price: $23,583
• Price as tested: $23,682

Get out your pencil and paper. We're going to start today with a pop quiz.

Ooooooo. You didn't study, did you? Not to worry. Finals come later.

Which answer is incorrect here? Think of the 2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder as:

1. A fun toy.
   
   
2. A motorcycle with four wheels.
   
   
3. A go-cart with a ragtop.
   
   
4. A Porsche Boxster wannabe without the price or prestige.
   
   
5. A fine all round vehicle for a family planning a vacation in Grand Teton National Park.

Time's up.

The correct answer is 5. This little Toyota sports car is not even suitable for an overnight trip for ONE person. It's a toy, a fun thing that might serve commuter duties, but a complete lack of trunk space and a dearth of interior cargo space relegate this tiny toy to second class car citizenship.

If Toyota can make room for even a single suitcase, then the MR2 might have a shot at attracting a larger segment of the buying public. As it is, the MR2 is best thought of as a college kid's plaything or a single person's lookatme statement.

Honestly, you can carry more on a Harley hog with saddlebags.

The question most would-be MR2 buyers will ask is: Is it better than the Mazda Miata? The answer must be equivocal. In a few ways it's better. It certainly corners at speeds few vehicles can approach, thanks to its mid-engine setup. But even Toyota's own focus groups have come to this conclusion: Overall, the Mazda Miata is more evolved. It's a more complete sports car. It's more satisfying.

That's my conclusion as well. The MR2 will not dent the Miata's continued popularity, nor does it deserve to.

The two have similar pricing and are remarkably similar in dimensions, with one striking exception. Toyota grabbed all four wheels on this baby and stretched them to the outer limits! The result is that the wheelbase on a Miata is 89.2 inches, but it's 96.5 inches on the MR2.

This Chrysler trick adds a tick to the MR2's superb handling, but it makes it look downright funny to some people. Kinda like one of those Mattel toy cars.

Certainly, this MR2 does not approach the styling excellence of the Miata or Porsche Boxster, with their clean, flowing lines. This one will never reside in an automotive art museum. To see a Quicktime VR of the MR2, click here.

The previous two generations of MR2s looked like the committee decisions they were. The first generation, introduced in 1985, was a styling disaster. It appeared one set of designers did the front end, another the middle, and yet a third group the rear.

There was no cohesion to that design. Result? A dysfunctional wedgie.

By the second generation, the car at least looked like all its sections belonged together. But runaway pricing took the little two-seater into no-man's buying land, and models with sticker-shock spittle on their hoods spent many lonely nights in dealer showrooms. The MR2 disappeared from Toyota's lineup in 1995.

In contrast, the Miata was the inspiration/achievement of one man. The Miata was his offspring in every way. And it shows. The car was great from Day One. It's been a huge Mazda success story.

Back after its five-year absence, this newest model MR2 looks okay from some angles, although the rear still has an unfinished appearance. And what's with the Mustang side scoops? What's with the wheelwell flares that would be more at home on a sport utility? Worse, look under the hood (it's in the rear, remember). You are greeted with cross braces usually found after a vehicle has a torsional rigidity problem in testing.

How could Toyota flunk this test? This engine bay should be clean as a whistle and cross braces should be hidden within the body. As it is, good luck to any mechanic working on this.

At the Toyota Web site, comparisons are offered with the Miata, Honda's S2000, BMW's Z3 and the Porsche Boxster. Really, only the Miata competes. The Honda S2000 is highly advanced, with an engine akin to those in Formula One racing (the MR2 has the Celica's 138-hp base engine). And no Toyota has the pure prestige an owner instantly has by owning a BMW or Porsche product. Blame false values if you must, but it's a true statement nonetheless. It translates to cash at trade-in time!

In all past attempts at sports cars, Toyota (and other Japanese companies) have missed the sales mark. There have been great ones -- the Toyota Supra, Nissan 300ZX, Mazda RX-7, Mitsubishi 3000GT -- but none put a dent in British, German or American sports car sales.

Hunch? This one won't either.

Two thousand, one hundred and ninety-five pounds. That's the curb weight of a Toyota MR2.

Need more be said?

Yes, the MR2 has dual front air bags. Yes, it has anti-lock brakes. But let's face it, it will come in second-best after colliding with virtually anything else on the road.

Plus, a driver sits so low that decapitation is more than a possibility if the collision is with a large truck or cement mixer. A driver's head is at bumper height for these monsters. Of course, this can be said of all low-slung, two-seat sports cars. A buyer simply has to dismiss these collision concerns if one of these is purchased.

What all of them have, however, is extraordinary capabilities to avoid an accident.

Often, that's enough.

How on earth did Toyota achieve the remarkable handling enjoyed by anyone driving an MR2? Well, to find out, we went straight to Toyota. Here's the explanation:

"Here's the vehicle, and here's the center of gravity," the engineer explained of the drawing on the left. "These are the front tires. Let us call the distance between the center of gravity and the wheel (parallel to the axis of the vehicle) L. The turning moment can be expressed as L multiplied by CF, which is the cornering force. In order to increase L, it is necessary to increase the wheelbase. The turning capability is represented by the omega dot (angular velocity) here in this formula which is equal to the turning moment, which is expressed by L multiplied by CF, divided by the moment of inertia, i. The turning capability, i.e., omega dot (angular velocity), can be increased by increasing L and reducing i."

So that's exactly what Toyota did. Now you know.

Bottom line: It runs like L. The thing scats through corners like a scalded cat.

An MR2 features a front-passenger, mid-engine design currently found in Indy and Formula race cars (and formerly available in Porsche 914s, Fiat X19s and Lotus Europas). Locating the engine ahead of the rear axle but behind the passenger compartment optimizes weight distribution on the one hand and performs that L multiplied by CF wizardly to improve the "turning moment" on the other.

The steering is near-perfect and the four-wheel disc brakes with anti-lock standard stop the MR2 in a scant few feet more than a Porsche Boxster!

The combination is terrific for getting out of trouble.

Particularly praiseworthy for city commuters: The MR2 has a 17-foot turning radius (34-foot diameter). It could draw the Olympic circles in an area needed by the Suburban or Excursion to turn once. Parking an MR2 anywhere is a snap.

If you're the type of enthusiast who turns first to horsepower or torque figures when evaluating a vehicle, the Toyota MR2 Spyder might not impress you.

Come on, just how impressive can 138 horses be?

In this case, very impressive. The reason: Power to weight.

See, the MR2 is a true flyweight at just over one ton. Two hundred of more horses just aren't needed to put one ton into rapid motion. The car runs 0 to 60 in 7 to 7.5 seconds. Pretty darn good. While that won't cause neck injuries, the motion seems quicker thanks to seats that put your butt a few inches off the pavement.

It was hypnotically fascinating to watch the yellow striped road lines whiz by closely in a blur.

But there's more to this story.

The last generation MR2 was much faster than this one. Supercharging was used on the first generation engines, then Toyota turned to turbocharging. That did the trick. The screaming whine of the turbo under acceleration was a howling delight! I flat loved it. The MR2 back then was a rocket.

No scream here. In fact, I'd like a louder exhaust, or a more tuned one, at least.

But those early-'90s' power boosts had a couple of undesirable results. The first was increased cost. The little sports car that began life to compete with the Pontiac Fiero suddenly cost a Porsche-like bottom line. The young buyers attracted to MR2s just couldn't afford a sticker in the upper '30s, approaching $40,000 in some cases.

Increasing power also caught the eye of the insurance industry. The MR2 certainly was not some cute, docile two-seat commuter car. It was ... a screaming sports car, and buddy you'll pay to drive one of those! So rates went up in proportion to power.

It all spiralled out of control until Toyota cut its losses and stopped producing MR2s.

That was five years ago.

When young designers at Toyota argued to bring back a sports car (geez, every other automaker in the world was suddenly offering sports coupes or ragtops) they knew they had to avoid past mistakes. First off, and most importantly, the car had to be affordable.

Mazda set the affordability standard with its Miata. Toyota had to offer its sports car at figures close to Miata's pricing.

To constrain costs, Toyota decided to use the engine and transmission from a base Celica in the MR2. There is a bigger, hotter engine available for the Celica, but this sports car won't get it! Reason? Insurance. By using a relatively tame base engine, insurance rates could reside in the "reasonable" zone.

It all made sense. Still does. The Celica four-cylinder performs quite well, thank you, when several hundred pounds of weight are removed. Fuel mileage also improves. The result is a quick, fun yet thrifty car.

But just look at those cross braces in the engine bay. It's as if the designers and engineers didn't communicate until the car was tested -- and body flex became evident. Such bracing is often added to stiffen a car, and that appears to be the case here. Better designs hide essential cross bracing. These braces simply get in the way of anyone working on the engine. They'll need to be removed for some work.

While the engine performs well -- certainly not in the league of Honda's S2000 screamer -- the transmission is another story. It's good and shifts are quick and sure, but it lacks the beautiful snick-snick of the Miata. This one needs a throw; the Miata needs a wrist flip.

The figures that follow are from computer testing the 2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder.

A driver doesn't sit in a sports car. A driver wears a sports car.

The car fits the driver like a pair of well-worn jeans.

Seats are narrow, with lateral supports, to hold a driver in place during hard cornering. The window sill should be low, so that a left elbow can be relaxed there at a comfortable 90-degree angle. All controls fall readily at hand, including the all-important shifter. Shift throws must be instantaneous, without wasted motion. No console or gadget should intrude on the shift pattern.

The MR2 misses this mark.

Maybe Gen Y will think of this as "baggie jeans' and go for it. But this cockpit needs work.

Entry and exit are made very difficult for many by the extremely low base of the seats. And this creates the second problem: In relation to the seat base, the window sill is too high. Yes, an arm can be draped there, but not nearly as easily as in a Miata.

For shorter people, this MR2 can create that almost-funny look of only the head being visible above the sill. It may work for Michael Andretti on a race track, but it draws snickers on the street.

On the doors are handles that are quite functional, thank you, but look for all the world like the grab handles in a handicapped bathroom stall.

The steering wheel is of the three-spoke variety, meaning a driver cannot rest a hand at the bottom of the wheel.

The white cluster of instruments is easily read at a glance, however, and the parking brake lever is properly located between the front seats. Large dials -- which can be used even while wearing gloves -- control the standard air conditioning. (To view a panoramic photo of the dash, and hear some funky MR2-type Caribbean music, click here.)

The pedals in the MR2 Spyder are metal, with rubber insets. These proved slippery surfaces for leather-soled shoes freshly wet from morning dew. There's a reason for most everything in common use today, and the reason solid rubber is used on most pedals is to avoid this kind of slipping around and its potential danger. Metal looks great; doesn't work well in the real-world.

Head restraints are built into the seats. Between the two seats and behind the passenger compartment is a plastic windscreen that blocks wind turbulence that would otherwise muss Buffy's do.

Tall drivers may lack headroom with the top up, but drivers of all sizes will face large blind spots, particularly when glancing to the right rear. The canvas top does have a glass window (pay attention, Honda) but the window is small. There's a large area of black canvas wrapping around both sides of the car from the rear window to the side windows. It's these areas that block vision.

Lowering this manual top can be easily accomplished from the driver's seat. There are two, black (ouch in the hot sun) levers that must be released on each side of the windshield top. Then the top can be flipped backward into its well. Oddly, there is no tonneau cover, which never gets used for anything but photographs anyway. Securing the top in its well can be done by pulling a lever between the seats and depressing the top until it locks into place.

Raising the top is another matter. You'll have to exit the MR2. Pull out that locking lever and then lift the top forward. This really can't be done from a seated position; the top is too heavy and unwieldy. Several times, in fact, the latches for the windshield locks did not line up. It proved difficult to use one hand to bring them into position and another to make the latch close.

This time around, there is no hardtop MR2. There is only this convertible model. (Also, there is no automatic transmission option, as if anyone should use one in a car like this!).

But the real fatal flaw in the MR2 is its complete lack of storage space. And I mean complete. There is no trunk! Raise the front hood and you're greeted with wall-to-wall plastic. In the middle of that plastic is a well for a miniature spare tire. It would not hold a shaving kit. Inside, what little cargo space can be found could hold a change of socks. Perhaps.

Friends, the Miata has a trunk. The pricier competitors have trunks. People need trunks. People have stuff to take with them.

The Toyota MR2 Spyder's lack of cargo space is unacceptable. It relegates the car to toy status, a commuter cutie for a single person who carries one briefcase -- on the passenger seat -- to work.

Early on, I said the Toyota MR2 was fun. And that it is. If a buyer looks past safety issues (common to sports cars) and places top priority on superb handling, then the MR2 deserves consideration.

It is, after all, priced right at $23,098. Toyota knew it had to keep the price competitive with the Mazda Miata this time around, and has done so. Comparably equipped, the sticker prices of the two mini-runners are almost identical.

In addition to getting a fun-to-drive, wannabe racer, the MR2 buyer also gets Toyota's legendary reliability. While this is a new model, and no statistics are yet available, it should prove as durable and trustworthy as other Toyota products. Which is to say "outstanding".

But Toyota needs to face its problems with the MR2 and solve them. The need for cargo space is critical and deserves the most attention. Next, Toyota should dump all the styling gimmicks used on what could be an attractive two-seater. Think clean, not trick.

Lower the body line. Please. Get the window sill at the same level as an average person's armpit. Do not seat your driver and passenger on the floorboard. It only increases dangers and makes entry/exit more difficult.

Expand the glass rear window. Contour the seats even more, particularly adding serious lateral adjustment wings. Study your competition -- and copy what it does right.

What would your MR2 look like if this were done? In this rendering from the photo that begins this review, the MR2 body line has been lowered four inches, and the front and rear have been rounded for a more aerodynamic look than the present chopped-it-off-right-here look.

'Nuff said. 'Nuff drawn.

Home, James