About three weeks ago I bought a green MR2 spyder. I had to move some cash over from a 401k from a company I left, and because I’m over 60 I had a couple bucks I could pull out to play with. And I looked at a lot of vehicles, because I have always wanted a toy, something I did not have to rely on to get me to work the next day, and something I could have fun with. Something I could hop in with the wife for a top down day trip, even if we just went somewhere to eat lunch. And so I looked around.

For the budget I had, I looked at beemers, at jags, at a maserati or two, I looked at a couple of nice older cars, at a couple of nice newer cars. I settled on the Mr2 for a couple of reasons.

Mid engine! What could be more cool than mid engine!

Carvy. These fuckers carve up twisty roads like nothing else I have ever driven or ridden in, shy of something like an Elise or Exige.

Not so fast. My speed days are behind me, and if I had a car with a ton of power, I would use it to do- well, stupid things. Because I do stupid things a lot.

Toyota reliability. I don’t want a hobby, and any jag or beemer or merc or for god’s sake Maserati I could have afforded would basically be a hobby, something that sat in the garage and waited for me to fix it so I could think about driving it. I wanted something I could just hop in and drive.

Well, not so much hop. In fact I have to sort of sit down and lay my right leg sideways to slip it under the steering column. But it’s not that bad. And as small as it is, it’s easier to sit in than a Miata. And while there are tons of aftermarket things that can be done to it, about all I want is to get some bluetooth in the radio (Simple) and maybe some better seats (Also simple)

Anyway, I’m driving to Ann Arbor tomorrow to pick it up. Hope to have photos along the way.