{"id":213996,"date":"2025-12-28T05:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T05:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/213996\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T05:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T05:25:11","slug":"the-toyota-mr2-once-got-a-sequential-manual-transmission-that-made-it-slower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/213996\/","title":{"rendered":"The Toyota MR2 Once Got A Sequential Manual Transmission That Made It Slower"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third-generation Toyota MR2<\/a>, which launched in 1999, had all the ingredients to be called a baby Ferrari: a mid-engine layout, rear-wheel drive, and a sporty exterior. Another aspect that added to that comparison is the sequential manual gearbox (also called the SMT) that was offered on the MR2 \u2014 something previously seen in cars like the Ferrari 360. But, unlike the Ferrari, this wasn’t a fast-shifting transmission. In fact, it was slower than the regular manual gearbox. Road tests from that period show that the non-sequential offering completed the 0\u201360 mph sprint in 7 seconds. The sequential took an additional 1.7 seconds to reach the same speed, while the quarter-mile was 1.2 seconds slower.<\/p>\n

Toyota seemingly kept durability and reliability in mind when developing the transmission. Launches and shifts are slow, particularly upshifts, but\u00a0downshifts are smooth and seamless. Shifts could be made either using the buttons behind the steering wheel \u2014 unlike the commonly-used paddles \u2014 or via the floor-mounted gear lever. The transmission did away with a clutch pedal, instead relying on a hydraulic actuator and sensors to determine when the driver wanted to change gears and to engage or disengage the clutch, similar to how AMTs function<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The SMT on the MR2 has been criticized by some Toyota master technicians as unnecessarily complicated and not very reliable. It was initially launched with a five-speed SMT gearbox, while a six-speed variant was introduced later \u2014 which some claim was slightly more reliable than the five-speed unit.<\/p>\n

Read more: 5 Nearly Indestructible Transmissions (And The Cars That Use Them)<\/a><\/p>\n

Racing tech gone wrong\"A<\/p>\n

A Toyota MR2 Spyder parked outside – Juanhdez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Toyota SMT drew its inspiration from racing and rallying.\u00a0 There, sequential gearboxes are more common and enable quick shifts. However, it didn’t quite work in the MR2, as shift speeds fell short of expectations. Many owners also complained about reliability issues with the gearbox. Common problems include the transmission not going into gear,\u00a0faulty pressure sensors, and \u2014 as a $4,500 2002 Toyota MR2 listing<\/a> shared \u2014 a poor hydraulic pump. And since Toyota used the SMT only in the MR2 \u2014 which was not much of a big seller compared to the Camry or Corolla \u2014 there are very few technicians experienced in working with the gearbox.<\/p>\n

But even if the SMT fails or the shifts aren’t satisfactory, MR2 owners always have the option of a manual swap. A few companies offer manual transmission conversion kits that include some OEM Toyota parts, providing the peace of mind associated with Toyota reliability. The SMT was a novel attempt by Toyota to bring racing-bred technology to the masses, but slow shifts and reliability issues ultimately led to its demise.<\/p>\n

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Read the original article on Jalopnik<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The third-generation Toyota MR2, which launched in 1999, had all the ingredients to be called a baby Ferrari:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15485,61,60,111171,111170,80,111169],"class_list":["post-213996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ferrari","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-manual-gearbox","tag-sequential-manual-gearbox","tag-technology","tag-toyota-mr2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}