 2002 Toyota MR2 Spyder
 GOOD STUFFFun, fun, fun Zippy Great brakes Do-anything handling New sequential transmission  BAD STUFFNo cargo space to speak of Inadequate safety features Wrong exterior door handle design Windscreen doesn't stop buffeting of ears Inadequate gear indicator illumination Window sills too high New sequential transmission
 First, the bottom line
But this year brought an innovation called the Sequential Manual Transmission. It's a clutchless shifter. Not new, you say. Well, this design is, and I don't think we'll see this particular Toyota innovation spreading to other makes. It takes a lot of getting used to. And once you get used to it, you'll wish you had a stick shift instead of .. this. Here's the layout:
This is NOT an automatic. There isn't even an automatic option, as on most clutchless systems. No. You WILL upshift this one.
When the MR2 comes to a complete stop, the transmission thoughtfully moves into first gear. Step on the accelerator pedal and off you go. Just as with any automatic. But, wait.. the gear holds. And holds. And holds. It holds until you bump the selector downward once, toward that plus sign. There is a half-second or so of delay and second gear is engaged. Watch the rpm in the tachometer and shift again to engage third, fourth, fifth. As you approach a corner, bump the lever forward and you downshift one gear. The "gear of the moment" is shown in an orange liquid crystal display inside the tachometer, dead ahead and centered among the dashboard instruments. Should you tire of using the stick shifter, you can press buttons on the steering wheel -- borrowed from Lexus -- to shift up (behind the steering wheel spokes) or down (in front on the spokes). Pause for a moment to consider the logic here: With the stick selector, an up-gear is a backward press; with the buttons, an up gear is a forward button press. Did Toyota ask Range Rover or Saab for design tips?) So what's wrong? Sounds like shifting could be fun, just like the rest of the MR2. Fun is about the only reason, after all, that anyone would buy an MR2. It is impractical in the extreme. But, just considering this innovation, there's a good deal wrong. Let's begin with the startup sequence. Insert the key, turn it, and nothing may happen (at least until you're familiar with this strange transmission). To allow ignition, the selector must be in neutral. The parking brake is set. And -- finally -- you must be depressing the brake pedal. Now it can start. Move the selector to reverse and you'll hear what sounds like construction heavy equipment backing up. Only it's not coming from outside the MR2. The beep .. beep ... beep .. is sounded inside the car. Frankly, I've never felt the need for an aural clue as scenery was moving by me in backward fashion, my head turned rearward. Now, with the top up, the beep might be useful if sounded outside the MR2, since a driver can't see a blessed thing while backing up and people in the path will need to flee. Okay, you've backed out of the driveway. Move the selector down to neutral and over to the right side and down. You're in first gear. Press the accelerator and what feels like clutch slip inches you away. Rev up a little and bump the selector rearward (to go up in gears, you shift down; to go down in gears, you shift up). But what do you do with the accelerator pedal? What if you want to speed-shift? What about no-rpm reduction shifts? Can't be done, Bubba. Toyota has built a torque limiter into this transmission. That's to prevent heads being snapped against the headrests on upshifts, but this one is too limiting. If you release the accelerator pedal a moment, then depress it again, a smooth shift can be achieved. But your timing must be learned. Too quickly or too slowly and you'll jerk a passenger anyhow. Keep the pedal to the metal for a speed shift, and the MR2 won't allow it. There will be a pronounced delay as the torque limiter says no-no and drops engine rpm. Then the nest higher gear will engage abruptly. Another jerk for your passenger. And a routine that results in slower acceleration than a good driver can achieve with a five-speed manual transmission.
First suggestion to Toyota: Use a brightness rheostat for the display, the same kind used for dimming most instrument lights at night. I want this thing bright! I want that numeral to pop at me, to stand out at all times under all lighting conditions. This display doesn't even come close to success.
Okay, you'll trust your ears, listening to the rpm and shifting accordingly. But there's another problem. It's down in the footwell.
Several decades ago, Jim Hall innovated sports car racing with Chapparel cars powered by Chevy V8s and automatic transmissions. His drivers were taught to use their right foot on the accelerator pedal, to keep rpm up, while their left foot supplied braking. Hall's Chapparels cleaned a lot of clocks before all the man's innovations were banned by hold-back-any-progress types. I learned -- as did a number of my generation -- to drive cars with automatic transmissions in just that fashion. I brake with my left foot and never take my right foot off the accelerator. As with Hall's drivers, I'm quicker in every situation you can name. But key to efficiency here is a large brake pedal. Sometimes, the left foot will ride just above the pedal, but most often the left foot is located on a foot rest to the far left of the footwell. The foot then must move across the distance of the footwell and find that brake pedal. In the MR2, the pedal is hopelessly small and the distance is great. Add a slippery surface and you have an awful brake setup. That's the case with the MR2.
With a stick shift, the pedal locations are important for heel-toe braking/accelerating. Mazda's Miata is perfect for this (and few others are). Different considerations come into play for automatic transmissions, and this clutchless sequential transmission needs that setup. So Toyota must stop the cost-cutting efficiency of using the same pedal in the same location for manual and sequential transmissions. We need a wider pedal located a bit farther left of the accelerator for this sequential transmission. This setup -- for left-foot brakers -- is an accident waiting to happen. Within a day or two, I had determined this setup offered no advantage to me over a manual shift transmission. But, in fairness, I did get used to it, and even used the steering wheel shift buttons in some tight-traffic situations.  Safety
See the earlier review. Nothing has changed. No side air bags. No rollbars. You are SO VERY TINY in this thing that I never, not once, felt safe on an interstate. That was a good reason to travel back country roads. Which I did.  Handling
Fun, no-limits handling seems to characterize this little sports car. See the earlier review for details.  Performance
Zippy. Same power as the 2000 model. See earlier review. Zippy as this is, it can't hold a candle to the earlier turbocharged MR2 models. Those were rocket ships. This one isn't. But the anti-lock brakes were very strong and smooth in panic stops with this 2002 model.  Comfort
Again, same interior as the 2000 model, except for the new shifter and its needed tachometer, which now is centered in the instrument display. This has created the unfortunate consequence of making the speedometer difficult to read. A driver with hands properly positioned at 10 and 2 will cover the left half of the speedometer. The left hand must be raised or moved to determine any legal speed. Not that's poor design. Why not incorporate the speedometer and tachometer into a single unit, as Mopar did three decades ago? Biggest complaint? The high window sill, not a mistake made by Mazda with its Miata. A left elbow cannot be comfortably rested at a 90-degree angle on this window sill. And, friends, your head is bumper high for a cement mixer. You're a toy playing among some serious Big Boys. I never was comfortable in that knowledge. Nor was I ever comfortable with the blind spots created when the ragtop was raised. Final complaint: The windscreen is essentially ineffectual. With it raised, wind still buffets ears. This can result in earache hours later and is a problem on only a few convertibles or sports cars. It was worst with the Cadillac Allante but the Ford Mustang also generated severe buffeting of front-seat occupants. It's not as if the MR2 Spyder is all that aerodynamic, either. Its 0.35 coefficient of drag is bested by numerous German sedans and most sports cars. The MR2, not very attractive to my eye, can't claim sleek design as the reason for wind turbulence. Poor design is the reason.  Parting Shots
It's not that I don't like the 2002 Toyota MR2. Fact is, I enjoyed every trip I took in it during test week. I learned to stay out of traffic, prefer back roads, and leave the top down. Under those conditions, I had fun. But it comes up short -- way short -- of the perfection I've come to expect from Toyota.
Most un-Toyotalike, all this. The little roadster with the bow legs and wallflower looks needs more than a quirky transmission to stand above its rivals.
'Nuff said.
  Home, James |
Specifications
Toyota's 2002 MR2 Spyder is little changed from the "reintroductory" model of 2000. Read the 
Forward, down and to the right of the driver is a chrome-balled gear selector knob. At first glance, it could be mistaken for an automatic transmission selector. But look again. On the left, in the gate, is reverse and neutral. On the right, you see a minus side at the top and a plus sign at the bottom.
This rather large 
Now glance at the gear indicator. What gear are you in? It's hard to tell. Under any lighting condition. If the tachometer is shaded, you'll miss the indicator all together. Wear sunglasses and you might be in trouble. But even in the best of daylight conditions, the gear indicator is difficult to read. The LCD intensity is not adjustable and isn't bright enough.
There is no clutch pedal, of course, but the brake pedal used here appears to be lifted directly from a stick shift MR2. Both the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal are metal -- and can become very slick if wet. The brake pedal is located quite close to the accelerator pedal, and this creates another problem.
Nail-breaking door handles. Water pouring in off the ragtop roof. High window sills. Hurricane-force wind buffeting directly over the ears and down the shirt collar. No cargo space -- just none (the family vehicle had a dead battery and there was no place in the MR2 to put the battery except under my wife's feet in the passenger side footwell as we took it in for trade-in!). No roll bars. No side air bags. Cross bracing in the engine compartment that makes accessing the engine for some repairs a more time-consuming and thus expensive proposition.