Pre-Facelift/Facelift Straw Poll

[Willbott]

Hello peoples!

Just thought I'd post a quick fun straw poll, just out of interest.

What I'm interested to see is how many people out there would say AVOID the pre-facelift MR2 at all costs, and how many people would say GO FOR IT (it'll be fine - fingers crossed....!).

I've been having lots of great chats with people on this subject, and just thought it would be fun to gauge general opinion across the forum.

My financial circumstances have become a little more shaky of late, and I'm considering a very good condition 02 plate pre-facelift (with 62k miles on it) to save around £1500-£2k over the facelift cars I've been looking at. I could use that £1500! But if the overriding feeling is that a pre-facelift is a MASSIVE risk, then I'll try and find the money somewhere.

Or maybe people feel the pre-facelift's reputation to grenade itself is undeserved...?

Be interested to hear your thoughts/experiences.

Cheers

Will   s:D s:D

[Patch]

Mines a 1999 Jap import - pre-facelift, I assume.  It's done 89K, and when I bought it, had done 72K.  At that point I had to get new pistons & rings.  £1,200 immediately after dropping £6,500 on the car.

Touch wood - it seems to be running well (just got the pre-cats out to make sure!).  Gone through the MOT first time every time.

[Willbott]

Gulp!  s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

[uktotty]

Mines a 2000
118000 miles
Had a new radiator and a new clutch

[Willbott]

Not Gulp!   s:? :? s:?

[Patch]

I've had it 3 years now...

I don't want to derail your thread 0 but I have to throw this out there:

My 1999 (pre-facelift?) has a 6 speed (5xforward, 1xreverse) gearbox. (?)

[Willbott]

Yep, that's a pre-facelift Patch. 5 forward gears = pre, 6 forward gears = post facelift (2003 0n).

[AmeR]

2nd prefacelift! Only got rid of my other because of finances at the time!!!!! But I'm back and sooo happy!!

[Willbott]

 s:D s:D  That's good news AmeR. Great you've got yourself another one. Sweet. Good to hear a fan and good news story about a pre-facelift! It's good to hear they don't all go BANG!  s:( s:(  

Nice one getting an MR2 again, and have a top summer in it.   s:) s:)

[Toplesscouple]

Mines a 2000
118000 miles
Had a new radiator and a new clutch

But hasn't yours had a new short block, Russ?

[uktotty]

Well yeah but  that was before I bought it and at 48k which I am guessing most pre facelifts will be well past by now

[Toplesscouple]

Yeah but that's the problem isn' it. An engine should't have had to be changed at 48k. Some go on longer and some might go on indefinately but there are quite a lot of cars on ebay and such that say a new engine has been fitted at 60k- 80k. Personally I'm inclined towards the fact that owners don't check the oil as often as is needed once the oval bore issue has set in.

[Willbott]

Gulp again...!  s:? :? s:?  Oh crumbs....

Hi Pete!

Thought a straw poll would be interesting - see what peoples experiences have been...Not looking good for the pre-facelift so far  s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

[mrzwei]

My 1999 (pre-facelift?) has a 6 speed (5xforward, 1xreverse) gearbox. (?)

  s:lol: :lol: s:lol:   excellent!

[frogger]

I went Pre-Facelift, very early (V Reg), and very happy with it all things considered.

Purchased purely because of the ££ saving, and because the hefty saving left more than enough spare to deal with any issue and still have cash to spare.

At the time I easily saved £2k over a similar condition, similar milage, but facelift model - And even if the engine went, it would have only cost me up to £1k to drag it back up to scratch. Still a £1k saving... As it happened I did end up needing a new engine after all, cost me £900, and end result was still positive!

Having seen the recent price of some prefacelifts with known knackered blocks (under 1.5k!), I've almost been tempted to pick up another recently... but I guess the other 3 'project' cars killing the grass out back should come first   s:( s:(

I do actually prefer many (though not all) of the PRE-facelift design elements too! Rear lights for sure, and rear bumper inserts to an extent.

[2003bluecat]

Problem is the member demographic will be biased towards people who have had problems as when problems occur, people google it and end up here. There could well be many many more people happily driving around in pre-facelift cars with no problems at all, but because they have no problems they never end up on the forum.

[Toplesscouple]

Wotcha Will,   s:) s:)  

The big worry for me is not the engine going pop but finding a good replacement engine. There are plenty of allegedly refurbished engines out there but they could just be jetwashed and repainted old engines with the same problem. If somebody could fit new modified pistons and rings in my re-honed block together with a timing chain for good measure at a reasonable cost then I would have their number stored in my phone ready for the fateful day.

However Will, the flip side is that you may buy a car that already has a replacement block/engine. Preferably provided by Toyota of course.

[Willbott]

Hi Frogger!

Very interesting...Kind of what I was thinking. I could buy a nice pre-facelift now and save the ££ then cross my fingers! If it does go BANG! (hopefully not immediately...) I might have recovered a bit from the house move and be able to fix it and be about even-stevens in tems of money in my bank.

I like the simple style of the pre-FL too   s:) s:)  

Interesting tale Frogger. Thanks for sharing.

Will

[Toplesscouple]

Problem is the member demographic will be biased towards people who have had problems as when problems occur, people google it and end up here. There could well be many many more people happily driving around in pre-facelift cars with no problems at all, but because they have no problems they never end up on the forum.

Agreed Bluecat, but a quick look on Ebay has revealed that out of about 20 cars two have had replacement engines. 10% failure rate, and that's just the ones that are being honest or are aware that it's a replacement engine. I'm sure there are a high percentage of trouble free cars out there but getting one is a bit of a lucky dip.

I've decided I'm not going to get paranoid over it and let this major potential problem spoil my fun, but just keep the oil level up and change the oil perhaps every 5k instead of very 10.

[Willbott]

Good plan Pete! I don't think we should get too caught up on this. All cars have something that can go wrong, that's cars for you, we should just enjoy them. Hoping to get one very soon (as you know ) and just enjoy it! Cheers Pete.

[muffdan]

I've had two pre-facelift engines (the original and a brand new Toyota supplied/fitted long block). Both suffered pre-cat/oval bore.

[Mike_V]

Mine's a 2000 with 68.000 mls and no problems, uses no oil between services.

[Stifler]

My 02 (pre facelift) went on for 38K miles without using any oil and never had a single issue - perhaps the mileage was too low for a problem to develop?

I should mention that the pre-cats were removed when it was at about 10K miles however, so that may have helped somewhat.

I'm currently looking again and you can get higer mileage facelifted cars for the same (and sometimes less) than mid mileage pre facelift cars.  I have seen facelift cars for as little as £3,500 - £4,000.  They normally are around 70K miles but if you set your heart on a facelift there are cheap ones out there to be had.

Happy hunting what ever decision you make and I'm sure you wont be disappointed!

[Anonymous]

52 plate prefacelift....92,000 miles (91,000 done by me)........doesn't use oil or water........regularly getting 35/40mpg........don't drive like a granny and going to Tuscany in May     s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

[aaronjb]

'02 PFL, bought with 26k on the clock (original engine) now on ~90k with the same engine and 20-30k of that with a dirty great turbo strapped to the block.

My advice would be the same as always, though - go for the newest, lowest mileage car you can afford (whatever you're buying)