I am looking at a fun toy car for a future purpose and the MR2 spyder seems like a perfect intersection between cost and being fun to drive. I noticed they have VVTI engines and you are not a fan of late model Celicas because they had issues with blowing up their engines due to the VVTI. To your knowledge are the spyders free of this issue or do they share the same fate, being of similar production years to the Celica's VVTI engine.
Well they are interference engines, which means if the timing belt snaps its goodbye motor.
The MR2 was a decent little car but you have to understand that they are EXTREMELY difficult to work on, especially compared to the Celica. I know some guys who bought them as projects, but later sold them for near nothing as they didn't have the experience required to work on them and the parts costs are relatively high.
If you want reliable, go with the 2nd generation (90-93) MR2. Same engine as in Scotty's Celica, I believe. But maybe I'm prejudiced.
