“MR2” is an acronym that stands for what the car is: a Midship, Runabout, 2-seater.

The “Mister Two” from Toyota has three separate generations that all follow a similar formula, yet couldn’t be much more different from each other. The cars are all a two-seat, rear-wheel-drive, mid-engine sports cars, but that’s sort of where the similarities end.

These cars have alternately featured turbochargers, superchargers, and naturally aspirated engines, both knife-edged and melted-bean styling, and hard roofs, targa tops, and convertibles. They’ve never sold as well as other roadster competitors from Japan, like the Mazda Miata, but they’ve earned appreciation as great daily drivers and full-blown race cars, even spawning a rally car or two over the generations.

Generations: Three

Toyota MR2 1st Generation Toyota MR2 2nd Generation Toyota MR2 3rd Generation

Pros: Relatively affordable, even in the earliest years, Toyota reliability, Outstanding fun in all generations
Cons: Age is catching up to them, even with the latest cars, Non-existent aftermarket compared to Miata, Making a choice among these radically different cars can be difficult

Toyota MR2 3rd Generation (2000-2006)

In the United States, the third generation was marketed not as an “MR2” but as a “Toyota MR2 Spyder,” as a means of capturing some market share from the Mazda Miata and the Porsche Boxster. While the MR2 Spyder would never have the audience or the cachet of the Miata or Boxster, it did have something those cars could never offer: A mid-mounted engine that offered the driving dynamics of the Porsche at the Miata owner’s budget.

The aesthetics were—how to say this politely—“controversial.” The cars were slab-sided, with big bug-eye headlamps. They had a high-waisted profile that stuck the driver and passenger deep down inside, with the edges of the doors at ear-level, so that to be in the driver’s seat was not unlike sitting in a large bathtub. The 1980s-era T-top roof was gone in favor of a manual folding convertible top.

The only engine in the MR2 Spider was a naturally aspirated 1.8-liter four-cylinder with variable valve timing and 138 horsepower, which came directly from the Toyota Celica GT of the same era. 138 hp might not seem like a lot, but the 2000 Miata only had 140 hp, and the MR2 offered a 138-pound weight savings versus Mazda’s hot-seller.

The only gearbox for the first two years was a five-speed manual. In 2002, the manual transmission got an extra gear, and for the first time, the MR2 Spyder was available with an automatic transmission. But in true weirdo MR2 form, the transmission wasn’t some basic five-speed you could get in a Corolla. It was a five-speed SMT, or “clutchless” sequential manual transmission. These transmissions took care of all the boring clutch-related duties, while leaving the driver to manage the fun part of rowing through the gears with a forward- and rearward- rocking gearshift. Unlike the “autostick” style transmissions you’ll find today with paddle shifters, there was no fully automatic mode in this automatic. If you bought one, you were shifting gears whether you wanted to or not.

The interior of the MR2 Spyder might have been its downfall. There was really nothing inside to distinguish this car from a high-trim-level Corolla. They had the requisite safety and entertainment systems of the era, but nothing out of the ordinary.

The base MSRP of the lone MR2 Spyder trim level available in the United States was $23,098, plus a destination charge. Compare that to the Miata, which was available for $20,545, and you begin to see where the MR2’s problem might have been in 2000. It only sold 7,233 units that year, after which it suffered a precipitous drop to just 780 cars in 2005. In its final year, just five were sold in the US. Today, though, the MR2 Spyder is something of a bargain. Low-mileage examples have tended to sell in the $14,000 range and have so far topped out around $30k.

Toyota MR2 2nd Generation (1991-1995)

The second-generation MR2 is arguably the best-looking of the three generations, even though its looks definitely date it to the early 1990s. These cars were often referred to as “Baby Ferraris,” thanks to styling that very closely mimicked the Ferrari 348, and they also shared a bit of an aerodynamic profile from the Toyota Supra.

US-based cars were offered in two basic versions: The MR2 featured a naturally aspirated, 130-horsepower 2.2-liter inline four-cylinder mounted sideways behind the seats. The MR2 Turbo was—as its name suggests—equipped with a smaller 2.0-liter engine, but turbocharging boosted this powertrain’s horsepower to 200, and torque was a matching 200 lb-ft.

The 2.2-liter cars were available with either a five-speed manual or an optional four-speed automatic transmission. The turbo models were manual only.

These cars were also serious handlers, thanks to input from people like Dan Gurney, an F1, NASCAR, and Le Mans legend. Nevertheless, they got a lot of negative attention for inducing what some reviewers referred to as “snap oversteer,” but investigation revealed that it was no more dramatic than any other sports car with a mid-engine. The result was a change in suspension geometry to the post-1992 cars that many felt “neutered” the car’s once lively performance.

These cars were further broken into sub-generations. Nearly annual tweaks, replacements, and additions led to five different “Revisions” recognized by MR2 fans, bringing features like larger wheels and tires, better transmission synchros, a limited-slip differential for the Turbo cars, and upgrades to the anti-lock braking system (ABS).

A recession and a rapidly disparate US-dollar-to-Japanese-yen conversion put a huge damper on MR2 sales in the US market. While the second gen kept selling worldwide until 1999, 1995 was the last year the car was available in North America.

Toyota MR2 1st Generation (1985-1989)

The late 1980s were a golden age for Toyota fans. You could walk into a dealership and see any manner of wackadoodle vehicles like all-wheel drive Celicas, the odd Corolla All-Trac wagon, a van shaped like a Twinkie, and the first-generation MR2, a sharply styled little doorstop of a car that beat the Miata to the punch by five years.

Unlike the Miata, the MR2 wasn’t some exercise in Carnaby Street nostalgia. This was a cutting-edge sports car: Light, nimble, massively communicative, and, in some forms, actually fast. The base engine was a 4A-GE DOHC 1.6-liter inline four-cylinder, rather exotic for its time. These engines only pushed out 115 horsepower, but they did it right up the 7,500 RPM redline. Still, they could only hit 60 mph in 8.5 seconds.

Three years after it launched, the MR2 got the power boost that many people thought it needed. Toyota bolted a supercharger in place and the engine delivered 145 hp, transforming the car into something that could hit 60 in just 6.5 seconds, dramatically quicker for its day. At the time, there were just a handful of competitors, including the Pontiac Fiero (powered at first by a grim “Iron Duke” four-cylinder from the 1970s) and the Fiat X1/9 (marketed as a “Bertone X1/9). The latter was a terrific little car, but it was way more expensive and basically the same Fiat it had been since 1974.

Toyota had spent years working with Lotus, all the way back to the 1960s. The first-generation MR2’s suspension was designed by Lotus engineer Roger Becker.

In addition to the coupe body style, the car also was offered with a T-bar roof. It wasn’t quite as nifty and cheap as the later Miata’s folding top, but it did provide an open-air feel at a time when convertibles felt like they were going to be legislated out of business. For the 1987 model year. the new MR2 got a fairly comprehensive facelift which included engine, suspension, and interior modifications.

Despite their relative rarity, you can still purchase a first-generation Toyota MR2 for fair money. The most expensive one sold at auction went for $51k, and that was a supercharged five-speed with just 31,000 miles. Most first-generation MR2s sell for much less than $20,000 today.