Quick little addition: The precat was specifically made for it to be sold in the US...but only in California since their emission regulations were more strict than other states.

Nobody hates the car. On the contrary, it's getting more and more attention and prices are going up!

In the Netherlands where every road is flat and straight you don't understand how good this car really is. It's in a " touge" situation that this car really shines

I believe this car would have done a lot better in the market if Toyota named it something different

It's sad because it's such a good chassis. I'm glad they are a trade secret. I would never trade my '05 k24/6speed tuned MRS for anything.

i think the difference between this and others "muscle jdm cars" is that they are faster in acceleration with their big turbo engines,but once they are launched and have to cornering,man this is on another level

Love me some ZZW30 MR2’s! From owning one brand new from Toyota dealer in 2002 to my current one

I've been a aw11 owner and enthusiast since April 1995, I still own the aw11 I bought then.  I used to have 5 3/4 aw11's in my collection at one time, now I just have the 2 of them.  
I owned a mr-s spyder for a while in the past few years, unfortunately had to move it on.  I must say, as much as I love my aw11's, the spyder is a awesome vehicle!  Out of the box handled very well and the 1zz had enough power to punt it along prity damn good.  
The only mods I would have done other than the manual conversion I did on it is turbo the 1zz and put coilovers on it.  Very underrated car.

Bought my first one last week and it is the special edition of the last 300 ever made......
it is a 2006 Toyota MR2 TF300 6 Speed Manual...only 300 in the world made, this one is number 57, comes with factory soft and hard top also a chromed roll bar.

FrankensteinMotorworks has done significant 2AR (I4) & 2GR (V6) development for 3rd gen MR2 swaps

Just purchased an ‘02 with 31k miles. Immediately did the precats and she hasn’t burned a drop of oil Y E T. Super fun car!!!! Honestly I was trying to talk my gf into a Miata because they would be easy to get parts for….she didn’t like the interior of the Miata so she ended up getting the yellow mr2 instead. Oh mannnn is it fun! We’ve gotten a lot of looks in it already. Two teens flagged us down on the highway and wanted me to “hit it” lol. They had never seen a car like it. Soo fun soo far! ❤️

Had my 2002 for a little over a year now, had to put in another engine bc the old one had knock but its worth the trouble. Extremely fun cars and gets noticed and appreciated by everyone.

I owned a yellow and black (just like yours) 2001 MR2 for a decade, and I loved every second of it! Purchased with 40K, sold with 85K, changed oil, tires, brakes, battery, coolant and that was it, the thing was bullet proof. My wife and I loved to cruise it all over southern Arizona on day trips! I've owned MGB's, TR6's, Porsche 914's and I put the MR2 right up there for pure fun factor driving. As stated, it's a bit underpowered with very little cargo space, but if you understand that, one drive and you will be hooked, cause its worth it!

Drove an '02 for for years. One amazing car. No storage. And that covers any complaints. Test drove the first and second gens. Respect them,  but prefer the third overall.

What you said about not liking it until your drive it is so true. After I got to drive one I sold my 350Z and bought one. It's the nearest thing to a 1960 Porsche 356 I owned 50 years ago.

Having mine for more than a year, it was the biggest financial mistake in my life considering that I was stupid enough not to check compression before buying it (forums told me facelift cars are safe, so I didn't bother that much), so I've overpaid for it and had to put a new engine (I did put a 2006 short block with revised pistons to be safe that I'm not swapping one oil burner for another), and later I did crash it not long after breaking the engine in, and decided to fix it instead of selling it (either option would have put me in a huge loss).  So I'm like twice the purchase price into it. And to add insult to injury I was in the process of moving to another country due to the war and stuff (talk about financial mistakes: burning your cash on a car while your country is being invaded and you dunno what's gonna happen to you tomorrow, but maybe not knowing if you get to live another day does play a role in such kind of irrational and emotional decisions). So that car did happen to put me through some troubles (though it was me at fault, not the car), but every time I drove it after weeks or months without it I could totally feel that it was still worth it, that vehicle never stopped putting a smile on my face, and the kind of emotional attachment I have to it never happened with my previous cars, at least not to that extent: be it a Skoda Octavia that has been 9 years in my family and was my first car, or Focus ST that was my first fast car.

It's not a fast vehicle, and not the best one in any regard, not even the best for it's price, but the wind blowing in your face, the low seating position, that rough 4-pot screaming (mine's got TTE exhaust, which adds a bit of drama to it) while linearly building up power, the analogue feel of it, the lightness, especially of its front end, the mid-engine feel, the weighting and feel of all the controls, the heaps of steering feedback, it all comes together so nicely, it all just feels so right. And on top of that it's really easy to drive unless you're dancing on the limit (it can rear its mid-engine head on ya if you're extremely uncareful, and good luck catching it, so some respect is still required), you can still commute in it like in any normal car, I'd even go as far as saying it's easier to drive in a city than a lot of them, due to great visibility (unless with the top on), small size, relatively large engine for its weight and just having what is in fact a commuter engine and drivetrain, with just a little bit of spice added to it, so gearshift and clutch are nice and easy to operate. The only thing it lacks driver-experience wise is a shorter final drive with better-spaced ratios (euro 6-speed feels more like 5-speed with 6th added to it, which what it essentially is, it's a shame they didn't put euro 1zz celica gearbox in it) and a lighter crankshaft/flywheel, it doesn't rev as fast as miatas of the day which is a bit sad for a sportscar, higher rev limit would be also nice but 7k is still okay considering it's just an engine from Avensis with a great torque band for a small N/A from the 00s.

I hear people talk bad about the Spyder. The main complaint is its not fast. It isn't fast but its like driving a Go Cart..its fun to drive. To me the best thing about the cat is it has the same engine as the Toyota Corolla and the same manual transmission so it will be super reliable and will have great longevity. The parts are inexpensive and its pretty easy to repair. The looks and handling are just icing on the cake

Those black accents are a nice touch

I remember when these were able to be bought for $3000. Oh how I miss those days

Nice compact semi sports car. Too bad you hardly see this car on the road in the Netherlands. Nice car to make nice tours on back roads on a summer day. 👍 Greetings Jos 👋🍀