Minneapolis Street Sighting: Toyota MR2 Spider

I've written about Toyota quite often here; I love the company's old philosophy for making good, fun, driver's cars, and other carmakers did too. Hell,Lotus built off the "MR" idea for their Elise/Exige duo, and the idea of building a small, lightweight, fun-to-drive car still rings true today--for Lotus. The Toyota MR2 has been around since 1985, and died in 2007 after a drastic change in 1999. When the third-generation car came out in 1999, the hardtop died, and the MR was turned into a convertible. It was also marketed as kind of a poor-man's Boxster, and used a high-revving 1.8L four used in the contemporary Celica and Corolla. In its favor, the little guy only weighed a smidgen over 2000 pounds; while not an overly quick vehicle, Toyota's MR2 was not slow by any means.

 As the years wore on,and US crash regulations hindered vehicle styling more and more (raising bumper height and ride height requirement, adding stricter door re-enforcements, etc.), the MR2 gained a raised ride height, a weight gain,and an increase in MSRP, thus making the choice between this and a Boxster even easier. In 2005, when the MR2 earned its last year for US sales, there was talking of Lotus bringing over the Elise, which--well-- why have the MR2 when you can have a Lotus?

In any event, these cars are still coveted today, and the aftermarket potential is quite broad; back in 2004 and 2005, when the import-tuning scene was at its peak, the MR2 was a hot choice; there were even examples featured in 2Fast 2Furious, as well as Tokyo Drift. Recently, though,  I have not seen a nice one around.

While I do quite like the MR2 in general, this one leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.While I generally approve of JDM-style modifications, I am not quite a fan of everything done on this example. I adore the white and black combination, and the Panda license plate is quite cute.

The overall appearance, with its little stickers and one-too-many badges clinches it for me. If the owner left off the stupid sticker, the TRD badge, or the JDM front badge, it would be nearly perfect.

I don't see these much anymore despite being relatively new. I liked these when they first came out, and I still do. For that reason alone, I hope I can shoot a cleaner or at least, less molested example.