Considering Roadster Or Mr-s

[philip27]

Hi i am thinking about getting a new shape Roadster, But have a few questions and was hoping for some advice.

Firstly i have noticed you can get hard top's and soft top's, Is it possible to swap between a softop and hard top roof and how hard is it to change between them??

Secondly what is the actually differance between a Uk MR2 Roadster, and The MR-S versions. I know the MR-S are all imports, but is there any differance in terms of spec, performance, parts and insurance??

Finally what are the main things to be looking out for on these, i would probably have around £7500 to spend and have seen a few on auto trader on 99 - 00 plates that look pretty nice cars.

Sorry if these are basic questions but have never really looked at this version Of MR2 before only the Older MK2 AND Mk1

Many thanks.

[GIDDLEPIN]

Hi and welcome to the club Phil

Hard top soft top

If you are a reasonable size, swapping these by yourself is no problem and is a doddle if there are two of you. The soft top just stays in the folded position when the hard top is on and the only thing you have to be careful about is to make sure it is absolutely dry or you might have mould patches when using it after a long period.

MR2 MR-S

You are right the “MR-S is what it is usually called outside the UK and usually have aircon as standard but you would have to check on this as well as finding out if it has LSD fitted, I’m not sure if this is standard on imported models. You are also right about the insurance, as with most if not all imported vehicles this can cost you a bit more, get some quotes in to confirm this.

Things to look for

Apart from the obvious you should check the service history on UK models, if it has been dealer serviced this is a definite plus factor.

Your best bet would be to read through the posts in this section and you will get some idea what can and can’t go wrong, some of the seemingly serious problems are relatively easy to fix.

As far as prices go, now is a good time to be buying, when it’s warm and sunny everybody wants a soft top and the prices rise with the temperature.

I would have thought for £7500 you should be looking at cars nearer to the “02-52” plate, check THIS out.

Hope this helps and if you want to know anything else just ask

Les