Advice on selling my V6 MR2

[Sinful]

Hi everyone,
I want to sell my 1991 MR2 MK2 Rev1 which has had a professional V6 3VZFE conversion done. I've been in and out of the country a lot lately and the car has been sitting at a friend's house for about a year and a half now. Just don't have the space or time to appreciate it anymore, which is a shame.
The conversion was done by Drift Limits Performance - the mechanic was Victor who later went on to become a race mechanic for a team in the British Touring Car Championship, so the work is top quality. The car has 154,718km (96,137 miles) on the clock, and the 3VZFE engine has about 100,000 miles on it and runs well when it's being used regularly.
During the conversion they did loads of work: I can attach the invoice if anyone is interested.


The car recently failed its MOT due to emissions and a missing rear fog lamp. No catalytic converter fitted but it's passed previous MOTs under the 1991 regs without any issues. There are also some advisories on the rear tires and two of the brake discs that would need addressing. There is also slight corrosion of the front coil springs and fuel pump. So my question is: what do you guys think would be a fair price to ask? I haven't sold a car privately before so any advice would be really appreciated.

[jimi]

My advice would be to get it MOT'd before trying to sell it, not having an MOT is going to devalue it a lot.
No fog light has been a MOT failure for a very long time can't see how it could have passed before without one. What emission test was carried out and what was the actual failure ?

[Sinful]

Ye I think the fog light may have been removed to be replaced and then my mechanic never replaced it. Not exactly sure why it is missing. I could find out the exact emission test (as I'm in and out the country, I got my mechanic to take it for the MOT) - I've added the MOT major defects below.

[ayresyboy]

Normally you would say mot it. Not sure it's going to make much difference in this situation. It's a very niche market. You can clearly display a long history with the car which folk will love. I would think some members here and in the wider mr2 community will look past those failures as they are common ones for these cars when they are modified and not difficult for them to get a pass with their own tester. Contact Lewis and Dan at Midlands MR2. I reckon they could find you a buyer at a fair price. You'd think it would fetch £4k at least. Andy

[oddshoes]

If that was victor at Drift limits that did the conversion if it was 5 or 6 years ago its probably my old 3VZ-FE lump and box from first done by Chris Woods from Bodgeworks

[Sinful]

Wow, small world huh it definitely is your 3VZ-FE then . I've been reading up on the emission laws and it seems my MOT centre has been testing the car under the catalytic converter emission standards even though its a pre 1992 car. Going to ask the forum if they have any ideas on how I can provide proof of manufacturing date.

[TonyleFrog]

Something isn't adding up here. See this thread.
https://www.mr2oc.co.uk/forum/topic/toy ... 0#p1789050

The VIN comes back to a JDM turbo. Swapping out a 3S-GTE for a 3VZ-FE seems a bit odd. Why?
How come a 1990 Rev 1 has a K prefix registration which runs from August 1st 1992 to July 31st 1993?
What is the Date of First Registration in Section B of the V5C?

The applicable test can be found by reference to the Charts here.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspect ... tion-8-2-1

However the engine swap moves the goalposts. It means that the vehicle isn't listed in the Annex to the In Service Exhuast Emissions Standards 19th Edition. See page 174.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... dition.pdf

It would help if we had the actual figures as recorded on the test.

[oddshoes]

If I remember correctly the engine came out of a 1990 car and the emissions should be based on the engine not the car. If they wanted to go on the basis of a rev1 turbo then emissions shouldn't even play a part in it iirc

[peteV6R5]

lot of mot testers dont know the rules on engine swapped cars.
1999 rev5 with 92 3VZfe so no cat test needed.
1 tester was revving the nuts off it trying to get it to drop that extra few % until I pointed out it didnt need one.
he went away and looked it up and came back apologetically, mine was so close to a cat test output he didnt even check.

would try and get it through a MOT before advertising though.