94-95 MR2 pricing guide

Let me preface this article by saying the pricing guides such as Kelly Blue Book or NADA are grossly inaccurate when it comes to assessing value for MR2s in general, and especially for the 94 and 95 models. Since I am so fanatical about the 94+ MR2s, I typically get asked what they are worth by sellers and prospective buyers. Out of the 19 MR2s that I've owned, 7 of them were 94 or 95. Generally speaking, there are several factors that will affect the price:

Vehicle location
The hottest market for MR2s is undoubtedly Northern California from what I've seen. They sell very quickly there and bring a premium. If the car has lived in a northern "snow state" where they use a lot of salt in the winter, that will hurt the value considerably. If you ever have to work on one, you'll understand why. Less dense populations in the mid-west don't seem to fare well either.

Mods
Mods will generally hurt the value of a car, but particularly so with 94+ MR2s. You want the car to be as stock as possible. Often people will say "Well, I spent such and such on this or that for the car" and have the impression that will add to the value. It doesn't to the collectors who can afford to pay the premium for the newer models. Put it back to stock and sell the mods separately. A possible exception to that rule is OEM mods from the newer 96-99 MR2s in Japan. I have seen a few cases where that helped the price.

Season
Sales are affected greatly by the season. Right now, the MR2 market is down due to the winter season and the gas price increase last year. Spring time (and tax refunds) bring out new buyers.

Mileage
The desirable cars are the ones with the fewest miles. Even though we have seen several with over 300k miles, higher mileage will hurt the final sale price no matter how clean it is. The cleaner ones will sell for more than others with comparable mileage, but a 200k mile MR2 won't touch a 50k mile MR2 when it comes to the selling price.

Color
Certain colors are more rare and desirable. Tropical Blue, Steel Mist Grey, and Yellow are extremely rare and will warrant a premium, and Black sells well. Red is the most common color for the 94+ MR2 and generally doesn't sell as well, although it seems to do better than Dark Emerald Green. A car that has been repainted a non-OEM color is a deal killer, to the sum several thousand dollars generally speaking. There are very few exceptions to this rule, and on if they were so meticulous in repainting that you can't tell it ever was repainted and with the assumption it's not some off-the-wall (non OEM style) color. I've often seen 94 Turbo models sell for less than the non-turbo simply due to the paint alone.

Price Comparisons
I watch the ads almost daily and try to keep up with sellers to see what the 94+ MR2s actually sell for. The 94+ models are rare and you generally won't see more than 5 - 7 for sale at any one time in the entire U.S. The most I've seen (including turbo models) in the last 3 years is 11, if I recall correctly, and that's citing all sources that I check such as MR2Trader.com, Autotrader, eBay, craigslist for various cities, and Oodle (a classifieds search engine).

Price comparisons - Non Turbo
For comparison, the highest priced NA I picked up was $9500 for a black 95 with a sunroof with 81,000 miles from Norcal. I was the first of over 30 offers he got in one day when it was listed for $8500, so it ended up selling for more than it was listed for.

The lowest price was $3000 for a black 94 T-Top with 149,000 miles that someone posted as a 1 day sale before trading it in just to see if someone would buy it that fast. I bought it sight unseen that very day. That was one of those rare, exceptional deals and are not very common as of this writing.

I paid $4200 for a Steel Mist Grey 94 Hardtop with 119,000 miles that had a previous flood title. I picked that car up immediately with only pictures to go by and there was no shortage of other buyers trying to get it after I did. That was another exceptional deal.

I've seen two 30k mile 94's that sold for $10k and $11k. There was a 5k mile MR2 approximately a year ago. The seller wouldn't tell me how much it sold for, but he had it listed at $17k.

In very general terms, the price ranges I've seen for typical sales for non-turbo 94-95 MR2s are as follows:

Less than 50k miles - $9000 to $11500
50k to 100k miles - $7500 to $9500
100k to 150k miles - $5500 to $9500
150k to 200k miles - $4000 to $6000
200k and up - $2500 to $5000

Price Comparisons - Turbo
Under Construction

The assumptions with those prices are for MR2s (Turbo and NA) I've tracked that are:

• 90% stock
• Stock color
• No major accidents
• Generally well maintained

Written by Ncturnal, March 2, 2007.