I recently (read: earlier today) arrived at my father's house for family Thanksgiving. My father is the current custodian of many family treasures, including our bought-new 1987 Mk. 1
Toyota MR2. I didn't see it in the garage, and asked about it.
Apparently, my father didn't bother to tell me when back in July or August, it apparently threw a rod through the block.
Now, I'm already a bit suspicious. Okay, that car and engine had approximately a quarter of a million miles on them, but damn it, engines don't throw rods without something else being fairly badly wrong. I mean, I just have trouble buying metal fatigue. It was a goddamn 4AGE, for fuck's sake.
So where is the car? Dad tells me it's 'still at the garage because they're still trying to find an engine.'
What?
The 4AGE is probably one of the most numerous engines Toyota ever produced, given that it ran practically every. Single. Toyota made in the 1980s and early 1990s that had 4 cylinders. And, brother, that was most of them.
I am horribly suspicious that the garage is holding on the car hoping he loses interest so that they can grab it for a song. I don't care if the only place most people see Mk. 1 MR2s these days is in The 24 Hours of Lemons, fuck that. That's my car. Dad and I traded it back and forth a couple times since he bought it new in 1987, damn it. It can vote. Other than this engine problem, it's in awesome frigging shape. The headlight motors still work, even. It's got some metal creasing and some paint scrapes, but damn it, they cannot have it.
Looks like I'm gonna have to go prowl suspiciously down to the local garage some time this weekend. :-/ I hope they're just obsessively trying to find him a good low-miles engine. If so, I'll happily thank them profusely.