# Toyota MR2
Source: https://fullysorted.com/research/models/toyota/mr2-sw20
Publisher: Fully Sorted (fullysorted.com), collector car research
Last updated: 2026-09-24

## Key facts
- Make: Toyota
- Model: MR2
- Factory code: SW20 (US VIN prefixes SW21 and SW22)
- Years: 1991 to 1995
- Body styles: 2-door, 2-seat mid-engine coupe with removable glass T-bar roof panels (optional on base and Turbo 1991-1992; standard on the Turbo from 1993), 2-door, 2-seat mid-engine coupe with pop-up removable moonroof (optional alternative to the T-bar roof), 2-door, 2-seat mid-engine coupe with fixed steel roof (hardtop), a minority of US sales
- Engines: 2.2-liter (132 cu in) 5S-FE DOHC 16-valve inline-four, naturally aspirated, transverse mid-mounted, 130 hp and 140 lb-ft (1991-1992); 135 hp and 145 lb-ft later, with sources split on whether the increase came for 1993 or for 1994 (base car, five-speed manual or four-speed automatic); 2.0-liter (122 cu in) 3S-GTE DOHC 16-valve inline-four, turbocharged and intercooled, transverse mid-mounted, 200 hp and 200 lb-ft (Turbo, 1991-1995, five-speed manual only)
- Production notes: Toyota has not published a US production or sales figure for the SW20 in any source fetched for this page, and the owner-assembled figures disagree. Worldwide, The JDM Registry and a production table reposted on the MR2 Owners Club forum both give 130,732 SW-series cars built from 1989 to 1999. The same forum post splits the total into 66,761 for Japan, 30,660 for other overseas markets and 33,111 for the United States and Canada, which add to 130,532, and The JDM Registry's own year-by-year rows for 1990 to 1999 add to 130,197. Neither page reconciles its rows with its headline, so productionTotal is null. US figures: the MR2 Wiki, an owner-run reference, gives US sales of 11,211 for 1991, 6,188 for 1992, 2,917 for 1993 (approximately 10 of them hardtop Turbos), 908 for the following period and about 356 in the last year, 21,580 in all by this page's arithmetic. The forum's calendar-year row for the United States and Canada together reads 17,606 for 1990, 9,505 for 1991, 3,740 for 1992, 1,742 for 1993, 625 for 1994 and 933 for 1995; the poster warns these are calendar-year sales, not model years, and that the 1990 figure includes leftover first-generation cars. The two sets cannot be reconciled from what is published; the final-year figures alone read 356 against 933. Hagerty Media states that only about 19 percent of US cars were post-revision (1993-1995) models, and the MR2 Wiki's model-year figures also work out to about 19 percent. A forum member working from ToyoDIY chassis data counts 125 black non-T-bar Turbos sold in North America for 1991 and notes that the data do not separate hardtops from sunroof cars. US list prices rest on JD Power alone: $14,898 for a 1991 base coupe, $18,228 for a 1991 Turbo and $28,668 for a 1995 Turbo. No second source for any of them was found, and no price for the 1992-1994 cars or for a base car after 1991 was fetched.

## Summary
The second-generation MR2, chassis SW20, was Toyota's answer to a question almost nobody else was still asking by 1990: whether a mid-engined two-seater could be sold at a mainstream price. It reached US showrooms in spring 1990 as an early 1991 model and was sold here for the 1991 through 1995 model years, although Toyota kept building it for Japan and Europe through 1999. US cars came two ways: a base car with a 2.2-liter four rated at 130 hp, later 135 hp, with a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic, and a Turbo with the 2.0-liter 3S-GTE making 200 hp and 200 lb-ft, manual only. A T-bar roof was offered on both and became standard on the Turbo from 1993, the year a revised chassis tamed a car known for snap oversteer. Sales fell away as prices rose: by either published count, fewer than a thousand US cars a year found buyers at the end, and a 1995 Turbo listed at $28,668 against $18,228 for a 1991 Turbo, per JD Power.

## Specifications
- roof: T-bar roof optional on both cars 1991-1992, standard on the Turbo from 1993 (with a disputed handful of 1993 hardtop Turbos); pop-up removable moonroof as an alternative
- cargo: About 1 cu ft in the nose around the spare and 5.5 cu ft in the trunk behind the engine (Consumer Guide); 6.5 cu ft total (Hagerty Media)
- power: 130 hp base (1991-1992), 135 hp base later (year of change disputed, 1993 or 1994); 200 hp Turbo
- engine: 2.2-liter 5S-FE naturally aspirated (base); 2.0-liter 3S-GTE turbocharged and intercooled (Turbo); both DOHC 16-valve inline-fours
- layout: Transverse mid-mounted inline-four, rear-wheel drive, two seats
- torque: 140-145 lb-ft base per Consumer Guide; 200 lb-ft Turbo per Consumer Guide and Hagerty Media
- weight: Turbo: 2,758 lb as weighed by Grassroots Motorsports in 1991, nearly 2,900 lb per Hagerty Media (disputed); no fetched US source gives a base-car weight
- airbags: Driver airbag from 1991 (subject of NHTSA recall 91V223000); passenger airbag added for 1994
- chassis: Steel unibody coupe; US VIN prefixes SW21 and SW22 appear in the 1991 recall ranges, with SW21 the 5S-FE car per MR2 Bible; suspension revised for 1993 with lower ride height, stiffer springs and longer rear toe-control arms
- us_msrp: $14,898 (1991 base coupe); $18,228 (1991 Turbo); $28,668 (1995 Turbo); JD Power only
- acceleration: 0-60 mph, Turbo: 6.1 sec (Hagerty Media), 6.9 sec (Consumer Guide), about 6 sec (Grassroots Motorsports); base manual 8.5 sec (Consumer Guide)
- quarter_mile: 14.7 sec, Turbo (Hagerty Media; single source)
- transmission: Five-speed manual standard; four-speed automatic optional on the base car only; Turbo gearbox synchronizers revised for 1993
- epa_fuel_economy: fueleconomy.gov: base 19 mpg city, 26 highway, manual or automatic; Turbo 18 city, 24 highway (1991) and 18, 25 (1995). Consumer Guide prints 22/29 manual, 21/28 automatic and 20/27 Turbo; Consumer Guide averaged 19.6 mpg in a Turbo
- wheels_and_tires: 1991-1992: 195/60 on 6-inch wheels front, 205/60 on 7-inch rear, 14-inch; 1993-1995: 15-inch, 195/55 front and 225/50 rear

## Notable variants
- 1991-1992 Turbo (T-bar, sunroof or hardtop): The pre-revision car: 200 hp 3S-GTE, 14-inch wheels and the original, livelier suspension tuning. The T-bar roof was an option, so sunroof and fixed-roof Turbos exist; a forum count from ToyoDIY data finds 125 black non-T-bar Turbos for 1991 in North America. $18,228 new for a 1991 Turbo, per JD Power.
- 1991-1992 base (manual or automatic): The 130 hp 2.2-liter 5S-FE, a displacement used only in the US MR2, and the only SW20 offered with an automatic here. Grassroots Motorsports argues the S54 gearbox suits the lower output. $14,898 new for a 1991 coupe, per JD Power.
- 1993 Turbo: First year of the revision: 15-inch wheels, bigger brakes, an available viscous limited-slip differential and revised synchronizers. Two sources call the T-bar roof standard; the MR2 Wiki counts approximately 10 US hardtop Turbos among 2,917 US sales of all 1993 MR2s.
- 1994-1995 Turbo: Passenger airbag, redesigned taillights, one-piece spoiler and a T-bar roof on every car. Fewer than a thousand US MR2s a year were sold in this period by either published count. $28,668 new for a 1995 Turbo per JD Power. The MR2 Wiki says the Turbo was not offered in California-emissions states at the end.
- 1993-1995 base: 135 hp, the revised chassis, standard air conditioning from 1994 and a standard Power Package on the 1995 T-bar car. Hagerty Media reported a 4 percent premium for post-revision naturally aspirated cars in #2 condition.
- Japanese and European SW20s (not sold here): Japan built the car through 1999 and got a 242 hp 3S-GTE from 1994, an engine MR2 Bible says the US never received. Europe got no Turbo at all. Hagerty says fewer than 50 TRD2000GT widebody cars were built for Japan from 1998.

## History

### Why it exists

By the time Toyota replaced the first MR2, the affordable mid-engined car was close to extinct. Grassroots Motorsports points out that the Pontiac Fiero and the Fiat X1/9 had both failed to reach the 1990s, which left the MR2 alone in its price class. Toyota answered with a bigger, heavier and more grown-up car rather than a lighter one. Consumer Guide measured about 1 cubic foot of space in the nose and 5.5 in the trunk, and Hagerty Media puts the Turbo at nearly 2,900 lb, 400 lb more than the heaviest first-generation trim. The supercharger of the late first-generation car was dropped in favor of a turbocharger. Hagerty credits Dan Gurney with helping Toyota's engineers tune the handling of the first two generations. The MR2 Wiki, an owner-run reference, repeats a claim that Yamaha assembled the cars for Toyota at about 2,000 a month; it hedges with "apparently," and no manufacturer source fetched here confirms it.

### The US car, 1991-1992

Consumer Guide says the SW20 skipped the 1990 model year and arrived in spring 1990 as an early 1991 model; a member of the MR2 Owners Club forum working through Toyota-derived sales data dates the start to March 1990. The base car used the 2.2-liter four from the Celica GT and GT-S, rated at 130 hp; MR2 Bible identifies it as the 5S-FE, used in the MR2 only in the US. The Turbo used the 3S-GTE from the Celica All-Trac Turbo, turbocharged and intercooled, at 200 hp and 200 lb-ft. A five-speed manual was standard, and the four-speed automatic came only without the turbo. The T-bar roof was optional on either car, with a pop-up removable moonroof as the alternative, and Europe never got the Turbo at all, Hagerty notes. Grassroots Motorsports ran its own test in its March/April 1991 issue, weighed the Turbo at 2,758 lb, and rated its throttle response among the best of any turbo engine it had driven.

### The 1993 revision

The early cars earned a reputation for snap oversteer: lift mid-corner and the tail comes around, and an overcorrection sends it the other way. Toyota's answer arrived in March 1992 as an early 1993 model, per Consumer Guide: lower ride height, higher-rate springs and shock absorbers, stiffer bushings, longer rear toe-control arms and wider 15-inch tires. Hagerty adds bigger brakes and a viscous limited-slip differential, which the MR2 Wiki lists as a Turbo option alongside revised second- and third-gear synchronizers; Grassroots Motorsports calls the new Turbo synchronizers dual-cone. Consumer Guide and Grassroots Motorsports both say every 1993 Turbo came with the T-bar roof, while the MR2 Wiki counts approximately 10 hardtop Turbos among 2,917 US sales that year. Some journalists thought the fix neutered the car; Toyota said the changes were for drivers whose reflexes were not those of Formula 1 drivers, as Hagerty quotes it.

### The last two years

A passenger airbag joined the driver airbag for 1994, and the base car gained standard air conditioning and a one-piece rear spoiler. The 1995 base T-bar car added power windows and locks as standard. Japan got a 242 hp 3S-GTE from 1994, and MR2 Bible is emphatic that the US Turbo never did. Prices kept climbing: JD Power records an original MSRP of $18,228 for a 1991 Turbo and $28,668 for a 1995 Turbo, and Consumer Guide blames escalating prices and insurance premiums for the collapse in sales. The MR2 Wiki counts 908 US sales in the penultimate period and about 356 in the last, and says the Turbo was not offered in California-emissions states at the end. Toyota withdrew the car from the US after 1995.

### Before and after: AW11 and Spyder

The first-generation AW11 was smaller, lighter, offered with a supercharger in 1989, and far more numerous: the calendar-year table reposted on the MR2 Owners Club forum puts AW-series production for the United States and Canada at 96,666, against 33,111 for the SW series. The third-generation car, which Consumer Guide notes revived the name as a midengine Spyder convertible as the new century began, weighed about 700 lb less than an SW20 Turbo, per Hagerty, and has its own page.

## What to look for

Rust starts where it cannot be seen. Grassroots Motorsports reports that a foam sound insulator low in the body pocket behind the seats holds water and rots the sills and rockers from the inside; reproduction rockers exist because this is the most common rust area. T-bar cars leak, and a dry one is the exception, per Grassroots Motorsports; MR2 Bible calls drips at the seals very common as the rubber ages. On a Turbo, the coolant hoses buried in the engine bay, known to owners as the Hoses from Hell, are essentially an engine-out job according to Hagerty Media, so a record of their replacement carries weight. Transaxle synchronizers crunch on the 2-3 shift, and the 1993 dual-cone upgrade did not end it; Red Line MT-90 fluid is the usual first remedy before a rebuild. Hagerty calls the car extremely reliable and the engines bulletproof, but says a clean, unmodified example is hard to find and many were spun by inexperienced owners, so accident history and originality separate cars more than mileage does. Colors and paint codes, from the MR2 Wiki alone: Aquamarine Pearl (742) for 1991-1992 only; Nautical Blue (8H3), Black (202), Super White I (043), Crimson Red (3J6), Signal Yellow (567) and Steel Mist Gray (187) from launch; Blue (8J2) and Turquoise Pearl (746) for 1993 only; Super Red (3E5) and Super White (040) from 1993; Solar Yellow (576), Dark Green Pearl (6M1) and Tropical Blue (8B6) later. Maintenance and restoration costs: no US source fetched publishes a repair or restoration price. Grassroots Motorsports says mechanical parts remain available, colored interior trim has long been discontinued, and body panels are hard to source.

## Common problems

The problems cluster around age, packaging and the chassis rather than the engines. Water: T-bar seals leak, and the foam insulator behind the seats rusts the sills from within. Cooling: on the Turbo the buried coolant hoses are an engine-out job, and MR2 Bible flags the copper coolant pipes above the fuel tank as a critical item because they crack and leak onto the tank. Transaxle: synchronizer wear on the 2-3 shift, improved but not cured by the 1993 Turbo gearbox. Steering: Consumer Guide lists a power steering pump relay fault on 1991-1995 cars that can make assist excessive, and MR2 Bible describes the relay cutting assist intermittently. Idle and oil: TVIS actuator and vacuum line leaks cause rough idle, and the distributor base O-ring weeps oil, per MR2 Bible. Electrical: Consumer Guide records 1991 cars with water in the wiring harness corroding terminals and killing the dome light, door speakers or radio. Recalls: NHTSA lists one campaign for the 1991 model year, 91V223000, replacing a steering wheel and airbag that exceeded the 60g thorax criterion in crash tests, and returns none for the 1993 or 1995 model years; the MR2 Wiki also lists a 1991 air conditioning expansion valve campaign that the NHTSA query does not return. Handling: snap oversteer is the leading cause of attrition, per Hagerty Media, softened rather than removed by the 1993 revision.

## Market notes

As of September 2026, the most specific US values fetched for the SW20 come from JD Power, which lists a 1991 Turbo coupe at $15,100 low retail, $27,100 average retail and $33,200 high retail; a 1995 Turbo at $14,550, $25,400 and $31,300; and a 1991 base coupe at $9,600, $18,400 and $23,300. classic.com's all-generation MR2 page gives an average price of $17,406 as of September 2026 across the AW11, SW20 and Spyder combined; its SW20 submarket page was not retrieved, so no classic.com figure specific to this car appears here. Hagerty Media's SW20 market article, written after January 2020 and not current, put a #3 non-turbo at about $8,000 and a concours Turbo at up to $35,000, a #2 1993 Turbo at $22,500 against $12,300 for a #2 base car, and a #2 post-revision Turbo at $23,800 against $18,800 for a pre-revision car. Consumer Guide's used-car page still prints an undated good-condition range of $1,200 to $4,200, which no other source fetched comes near. Modified cars trade in their own market: The Truth About Cars featured a 156,000-mile 1991 Turbo with turbo, intercooler and suspension upgrades at an $18,000 asking price, undated. The sources agree on direction if not on numbers: Turbo over base, and an unmodified car over a modified one.

## Value trajectory

The SW20 spent two decades as a cheap used car, which is how so many ended up modified or crashed. Hagerty Media reported that #2-condition Turbo values rose 25 percent in its price guide after January 2020, with price lookups up 55 percent and insurance quotes up 22 percent over a year, and millennials accounting for 55 percent of quotes. As of September 2026, JD Power's average retail for a 1991 Turbo coupe is $27,100 against an original MSRP of $18,228, while the 1995 Turbo, $28,668 new, averages $25,400, below its original sticker in nominal dollars. That ordering runs against the post-revision premium Hagerty reported earlier, and no fetched source explains it. classic.com's all-generation average of $17,406 as of September 2026 blends in the cheaper first- and third-generation cars and says little about the SW20 alone. Where the sources agree: Turbos over base cars, and unmodified cars over the rest.

## Sources

- [1991-95 Toyota MR2](https://consumerguide.com/used/1991-95-toyota-mr2/) (Consumer Guide Auto)
- [Fuel Economy of 1991 - 1995 Toyota MR2](https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSearch.do?action=noform&path=1&year1=1991&year2=1995&make=Toyota&baseModel=MR2&srchtyp=ymm&pageno=1&rowLimit=50) (US Department of Energy and EPA)
- [NHTSA recalls by vehicle: 1991 Toyota MR2](https://api.nhtsa.gov/recalls/recallsByVehicle?make=toyota&model=mr2&modelYear=1991) (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
- [NHTSA recalls by vehicle: 1993 Toyota MR2](https://api.nhtsa.gov/recalls/recallsByVehicle?make=toyota&model=mr2&modelYear=1993) (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
- [NHTSA recalls by vehicle: 1995 Toyota MR2](https://api.nhtsa.gov/recalls/recallsByVehicle?make=toyota&model=mr2&modelYear=1995) (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
- [Used 1991 Toyota MR2 2 Door Coupe Turbo Ratings, Values, Reviews & Awards](https://www.jdpower.com/cars/1991/toyota/mr2/2-door-coupe-turbo) (J.D. Power)
- [Used 1995 Toyota MR2 2 Door Coupe Turbo Ratings, Values, Reviews & Awards](https://www.jdpower.com/cars/1995/toyota/mr2/2-door-coupe-turbo) (J.D. Power)
- [Used 1991 Toyota MR2 2 Door Coupe Ratings, Values, Reviews & Awards](https://www.jdpower.com/cars/1991/toyota/mr2/2-door-coupe) (J.D. Power)
- [Toyota's 1990-99 MR2 (SW20) packs a supercar punch on a Camry budget](https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/toyotas-1990-99-mr2-sw20-packs-a-supercar-punch-on-a-camry-budget/) (Hagerty Media)
- [SW20-Chassis Toyota MR2 | Classic Cool](https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/classic-cool-toyota-mr2/) (Grassroots Motorsports)
- [Changes By Year - MR2 Wiki](https://mr2wiki.com/MKII/ChangesByYear/) (MR2 Wiki (owner-run))
- [Production Numbers by Year, Color, Turbo/NA, and Roof](https://www.mr2oc.com/threads/production-numbers-by-year-color-turbo-na-and-roof.693538/) (MR2 Owners Club Forum)
- [SW20 Production Data | The JDM Registry](https://thejdmregistry.com/mr2-sw20/production) (The JDM Registry)
- [SW20 - MR2 Bible](https://mr2bible.com/generations/sw20/) (MR2 Bible)
- [Toyota MR2 Market](https://www.classic.com/m/toyota/mr2/) (classic.com)
- [Used Car of the Day: 1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo](https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/used-cars/used-car-of-the-day-1991-toyota-mr2-turbo-44507215) (The Truth About Cars)

Cite as: Fully Sorted, "Toyota MR2", https://fullysorted.com/research/models/toyota/mr2-sw20, updated 2026-09-24.