A rather good lady friend of mine will soon be in the market to better her car. She's been to the likes of JAE, JAPS etc, and is quite taken with an MX 5.

 

She's no petrol head for starters so won't be looking at huge power outputs etc, but does like a nicely turned out car, if you know what I mean.

Now why she wants a full convertible is beyond me, as she's never even liked me having the T-Tops off of my Zed, as it ruffles her hair up!! :rolleyes:

 

Anyway, if anyone could give me any buying advice, tips and things to look out for, it would be appreciated, as I have no idea as to what to look for in these cars.

 

Now she's currently selling her house, and should come out with enough profit to obtain a decent model, but we're probably talking of about a couple of months before she's actually ready yet............ but pre-warned is pre-armed!! :D

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Dave

I own and maintain my MX5 Mk 2 and work on my friends Mk1 so i know a bit about them.

 

Pretty much bombproof. Very early models had crank problems, but your talking the 1990 models and the rest are fine. Make sure the cambelt has been done at around 50k. The clutch should bite nice and sharp but still be very light and have a good feel. The brakes are fantstic and you will have to be hammering it to get them to fade, although there are problems with the handbrake mechanisn seazing up which means you have to either get your calipers reconned or buy new ones, aswell as a new handbrake cable.

The rear diff oil should be changed twice as much as the gearbox oil, i would say do it every 10k. The gearbox's are fine, obviously watch out for usual struggling to get a gear etc etc. But if you are slowly rolling forward at a junction then 1st can take a few go's but thats normal.

The plugs and leads dont last long, i did mine 8k ago and they need changing again, its poinless upgrading them though as the genuine mazda ones are best.

Parts are pretty cheap, 1.6 you will find very sluggish, 1.8's have just enough poke in a straight line. If you can afford a 1.8sport model with the 6speed box, get it! The slightly shorter ratios help acceleration and 6th is fantastic for motorway driving.

 

Generally the cars are fantastic and dont require much maintanance, but as with any car watch out for usual every day things.

 

Tuning wise, supercharger kits will give you around the 200bhp mark for 2k and are easy to fit. Turbo conversions are also easily available and fairly easy to fit, you can see 250bhp on standard pistons, rods, head easily.

 

Interiors dont rattle much, the roof can be a bit noisy at high speed, mainly above 75.

Boot is not big at all.

 

Most examples out there are in pretty good nic.

 

Try http://www.mx5nutz.com/ or http://www.mx5ocforum.co.uk/ for some buying tips and some nice examples for sale.

 

Hope this helps!

Thanks for all of that Dan, much appreciated mate :bow:

 

I'll pass all that on to her, although i can see that I'll end up going to view any with her anyway ;)

No problem matey!

 

Also if she gets a Mk2 you can fit 8inch speakers in the front doors :D :D :D

 

Oh also the batterys a tiny gell jobbie in the boot and are expensive to replace so make sure it starts ok! Normally take a few turns anyway.

My wifes may be up for sale soon and its a cracker, there pretty much as reliable as your gonna get for a car :) my wife loves hers but we have some money spare after the house move so i have told her she can get something a bit newer so she fancies a mini cooper convertible now ;)

 

Cant really go wrong with one tbh

 

Mike

forgot to say, a big issue with the mx5 is the boot, for some reason it tends to collect water and rusts just inside the boot so if you look at one just pop the boot and look at the edge, my wifes was just starting to go so we have just had it done

 

Mike

Thanks Mike for that, I'll pass all this info onto her. But, like I say, she's gota sell the house first :D