When I was a teen, my father subscribed to Consumer Reports Magazine and I was a heavy researcher into knowing what products worked well. I would watch MotorWeek on television and cars had a magical charm to me. The Toyota MR2 had an incredible appeal to me. It was high tech, it was fun, it wasn’t terribly expensive, it had pop up headlights and a spoiler, and it was Japanese. Growing up with two older brothers, I can remember the family cars had been a variety of brands from BMW, VW, Volvo, Jaguar, Cadillac, Buick. The cars I got to drive were always high mileage European cars that were always breaking down on me, which is partly why I like to tinker and fix things, but also why I wanted a Japanese car because of their reliability. My father has been driving a Lexus for over the past 20 years and loves them and keeps replacing his car for another Lexus.

This was my first MR2. I found it on Craigslist. It wasn’t exactly my dream car as it was white, automatic, blue interior, salvage title, non supercharged, but what it did have was low miles. I should have kept it. I ended up selling it to buy my current MR2 and regretting it as it was totaled a few months later. Back in 2009, I had to go to Palm Beach Florida for DetailFest where I was a vendor. While there, my rental car was upgraded to a Saturn Sky and after driving that two seater for several days, I realized it might be time to go look for the MR2 of my dreams! And that’s when I came across this one.

This car became a salvage title in part because of bad tires. I could tell because they had absolutely no traction and I found myself sliding through intersections instead of stopping. So I bought new Nittos. I also changed out the speakers and installed a Bazooka Subwoofer. There wasn’t much that needed changing. I got a personalized license plate as well.

While I dreamt of an MR2 in my youth, I still had a model kit that I never built.

Plenty of great memories with that car. Here’s my son when he was tiny with his favorite bear.

This unfortunately is what became of my beloved MR2 after selling it to a high school student whose parents and friends said he was very responsible. He was texting and was distracted when this happened. There is a happy ending to this story however. 7 years after I sold it, I got an email from the new owner in Massachusetts! He bought it off a Craigslist ad in San Diego, CA.

Now THAT’S a happy ending! Thank you Rob for giving my old car the love she deserves!