The reliability thing was one of the reasons why I went for an MR2, having spent mucho dinero on European cars of all persuasions in my 20's and 30's.
A friend had an early Alfa Sud (Italian for moving rust) and the boot lid when hinged back actually rested on the top lip of the boot. This caused the back panel under the rear window to flex so much that the window seal popped out. They were soooooo tinny!! I closed the driver's door once and the window fell out. A great handling car, provided you rung its neck, but the driving position suited a gorilla with hugely long arms and very short legs, plus the gear change was like stirring a rice custard.
On one of our Club runs this year we were following a group of people my age driving their MGB's in the rain. We had the heater going and were nice and snug in the Adub's cockpit (no leaks!), but when we passed them and looked at their faces through their extremely small windscreen wipers and the condensation plus the flapping soft tops you could see that they just weren't enjoying it.
I think the 2's of all models are great machines and their reliability in standard form is excellent. When folks start to play around with them and add on chrome plated twin overhead foxtails that might be another story

, but I have never had a problem with my Adub. Despite the power of the S/C I can get 7lt/100km with normal running - a really top result with a car that is over 20 years old and a lot of fun.
The new 86 is an appealing piece of machinery, but having just added to my collection with an SW20 that has only done 78k km and cost me less than $6k I can do a lot of fun miles for the $30k difference in price.
Can you tell I'm a fan??

