#HTE

Guy Trades in FIVE Toyota MR2s

When I was a kid I worked at a restaurant in the suburbs. I can’t remember how this started, but when my shift was over, the staff would give me money to drive their cars to a nearby gas station to fill them up. On the weekends, some of them paid me to take their cars home with me and wash them. I’d just gotten my driver’s license and this was an exciting opportunity to try driving different car types.

The hostess, Miranda, had this awesome cherry red 1985 Toyota MR2. It was a stickshift, and at the risk of being crass, I remember the shifter was shaped like big penis sheathed in leather. The car was fast, and whenever I drove this car to the Mobil station, it took every ounce of my willpower to not pull it onto the interstate, slam it up into fifth gear and drive to Connecticut.

To this day whenever I see an MR2, I smile, remembering Miranda handing me her keys and warning me not to scratch her car. So after encountering the following piece of news I was grinning like an idiot. A retired college professor rolled up to this Toyota dealership in Missouri looking for a used car. He had something to trade in: His collection of five Toyota MR2s!

The collection consists of a yellow ‘85, a red '86, a white '87, a supercharged white '88 and an ice blue '89.

According to Japanese Nostalgic Car:

The owner clearly loved the first-generation of Toyota’s mid-engined sports cars. Why, then, would he get rid of them all? “He was widowed about two years ago, and just finally decided that five classics is too much to keep up with,” Ben [Brotherton, COAD Salesperson] explained.

The collection had been even bigger at one point. “In fact,” Ben says, “He traded a black MK1 to us as well. So at one time he had 6 MK1 MR2s.” Ben adds, “He also has a new Tacoma he bought last year. He traded in a '89 MR2 and '91 pickup on that one.”

We asked Ben what this MR2 obsessive bought after purging his collection anthology of AW11s. “A 2016 Miata with 10,000 miles.”