Every week, we’re tracking the values of the most popular classic cars on the UK market. Thanks to our friends at Classic Car Weekly, we can focus on one car and compare its values from 2005 to today – and then anticipate where they will be in 2025. This week, we’re casting a watching eye over the brilliant Toyota MR2, one of the surprise sporting hits of the 1980s. Classic Car Weekly’s editor David Simister tells the market story of this enduring classic’s future growth.
Toyota MR2 – The current situation
You’d think this one would be going interstellar by now, what with its Ferrari-alike looks, scalpel-sharp dynamics and a generation of 1980s teenagers having grown up lusting after one. But values it’s actually still very much an affordable modern classic, with values that have only really picked up for the very best examples.
Think we’re kidding? Even now you can pick up a decent runner for well under £4000, barely more than they were fetching some 15 years ago. That’s food for thought, for something this good.
Toyota MR2 values – steady growth
We’re tracking Condition 2 examples here, and although modern classics like this have started to sell in decent numbers at classic car auctions, examples of the Toyota MR2 seem to be missing this boat. So, they are rare, and ones that do sell seem to remain within the confines of the Japanese enthusiast scene. It won’t always be like that. but give how they rust, and the attrition rate being higher for lower-valued classics, stellar growth will only happen once they’re all but extinct.
Toyota MR2 price tracker
The bigger picture here concerns the high number of survivors and the law of averages. Some have sold for upwards of £8000, but overall values are being dragged down because there are still plenty of less-than-pristine runners out there – some for as little as £1000. The wider market hasn’t yet woken up to what a cracking car this is – and prices will start to pick up when the bad ones either disappear or get restored.
In short, they are great value, and the MR2 represents all you want for an enthusiast’s classic car – great to drive, and inexpensive to buy.
Below are the typical prices for a Condition 2 example between 2005-2025.
2005 £2500
2010 £2750
2015 £3000
2020 £3600
2025 £4250 (anticipated)
ABOUT CLASSIC CAR WEEKLY
Classic Car Weekly is the UK’s biggest-selling weekly classic car publication. It’s at the heart of the classic car scene, packed with cars for sale, news, reviews, nostalgia and advice.