I have an 85 MR2 and I like it a lot, but I won't drive it when there's salt on the roads because it'll turn into dust pretty quickly if I do. That's a significant portion of the year where I live and I've conducted this experiment with an embarrassing number of now-irreparably-rusty 80s and 90s cars.
So, the last generation of the MR2 comes to mind as a potential replacement. They're fun to drive, use a newer and more available generation of Toyota parts bin stuff than my current one, and most importantly the values are low enough that I can probably directly exchange my pretty nice 85 model for one without dumping any additional funds in.
But do they rust? Am I going to run into exactly the same issue where it flakes apart after one or two winters? Input appreciated.
My understanding from when I researched it was the body is pretty good but the rear crossmember will rust. But that is a bolt in replacement so not so bad other than getting those rusty bolts out.
They don't rust as bad as the old AW11 MR2s but they do rust just as bad as the Celicas of the same vintage. I saw a couple of them in rough shape when I was still living in Wisconsin.
The only older cars I would reasonably expect to survive regular rust exposure would be stuff like Audis and Volvos that were fully galvanized.
These are both good data points- VA says crossmember will rust, WI says everything does. PA is probably in the middle, still much better than the AW11 answer of "you want to drive it in SALT??"
A big downside is the MRS's have jumped on the cars are expensive bandwagon AND the anything remotely cool and moderately old is more expensive bandwagon. Seriously, there are quite a few that are asking s2k prices 
. Heck, even the ones that would have been throw away cheap a few years ago are still a meaningful amounts of money. An upside is AWII's are on that bandwagon too.
In reply to MrJoshua :
That, and the "it would be nice if my daily driver was actually something I'll drive year round" are sort of why I'm looking. The day AW11 prices pass Elise/Exige/Evora prices the choice will get easier.
You just need a 944. Galvanized body, mostly aluminum suspension components, handles great, tons of space to haul stuff, etc. Since you dislike ze German drivetrain, buy one that's just a shell and put something Toyota in it. Win win.
One of my friends picked up an MRS for basically free as a damaged trade-in. He liked it more than his RX-8s, plus 40mpg.
Another friend lunched the engine in his at a rallycross when the catalytic converter turned into an active cylinder honing device.
