In an effort to try improving their fun car image, Toyota may be reviving the MR2.

This is only a rumour as of now, and details are quite scarce, but apparently the car will be a two-seat, two-door coupe with a mid-mounted engine. It may adopt the MR-S nameplate in Japan while using the MR2 name over in North America.

Sounds wonderful doesn’t it? A return of a brilliant car, and it looks like it’ll be a worthy successor. Yet again there’s an issue though. The car will be a hybrid. Yes, a hybrid. The engine will be coupled to an electric motor in a more performance oriented version of the Toyota Synergy Drive system, the same system used in the god awful Prius.

Maybe I shouldn’t base what it will be like on what the Prius is like. After all, the system will be more performance-oriented. The car itself will be as well. So maybe it’ll work fine in the MR2. But no. The last MR2 was a proper driver’s car. A proper driver’s car cannot have an eco-compromise, that would be just wrong. A driver’s car should have everything done to improve the driving experience, there’s no room for tree-hugging technology. Even if it were any fun, it would still come with the other hybrid downsides: High starting price, high price in the long run, and not as eco-friendly as it claims to be.

So if this is true, Toyota has messed up yet another chance to redeem themselves. Maybe the details aren’t true though. Perhaps a proper MR2 is on the way. In the same way though, a new MR2 may not be on the way at all. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Source: Autoblog