Fun Cheap Convertible for the summer?

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

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Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
As a slight change of summer plans me and the wife are thinking of driving down to France in the summer and visiting a few vinyards etc. Our current car is an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Diesel.

I had thought of hiring a convertible (there was a prior thread), however due to the silly costs involved I decided it was a dreadful idea. Since the romantic part of me loves the notion of cruising round French countryside with the top down I wondered about other options.

This led me to the idea of buying a fun older convertible for about £1500-£2000 running around in it for the summer and then looking to sell it on which in theory wouldn’t lose too much money in a couple months given it's age anyway.

I was looking at something like the Mazda MX5 like this for about £1500 (assume this could be knocked down further). It ticks most of the boxes on my list

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif.../postcode/pr72dp/page/2/radius/1500?logcode=p

The car looks tidy enough and having done some quick quotes online insurance would be around £280 a year. Providing the car runs and seems like it's mechanically sound to run for about 1500 miles it shouldn’t cost much other than fuel costs.

I vaguely recall others doing something similar so does anyone have any experience or is this an idiotic idea? The only downsides I can think of is that obviously come September time it might be trickier to sell a convertible than at the beginning of the year, but given the MX5 is pretty well known and becoming a reasonable classic I figure there’s always a market there!
 
You might lose a little more than you think given the seasonal demand for convertibles, but it's still probably a good course of action. :)
 
Cheers guys, these are all positive posts I can pass onto the wife to help me justify it. Wasn’t sure if I was just using "man math" to try and make it sound like a sensible idea!

I considered something like an older Alfa but wasn't sure how reliable it would be and the last thing would be to break down somewhere in France. I know this is a risk with all used cars at this age but i figured an MX5 was a safer bet.

Joe T said:
You might lose a little more than you think given the seasonal demand for convertibles, but it's still probably a good course of action. :)
Click to expand...

Agreed and its something i considered. But i figured if i could buy an MX5 for £1500, its still likely to be worth £1200ish or so in September as the demand for them seems fairly high as they're known as fairly iconic exciting driving cars. Plus the other option would be to keep it then till the next Summer in a garage but that would attract additional insurance/MOT/Tax costs.

£300 loss plus £100 insurance (roughly) means its still a fairly cheap way to have some fun over the summer months.


For MX5 owners, how is the boot space (especially with the top down), enough for just a weekend overnight bag or a bit extra?
 
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The roof doesn't affect the boot space at all.

You'll fit more in smaller bags (or just stuffing clothes in) than you will big bags.

You could always get a boot rack to put a bag or two onto as well.
 
Cheers fella, just spotted about the boot space after looking at some photos. The boot doesn't seem too bad either.

Other thoughts are potentially a Toyota celica or MR2 T bar. Always loved the MR2 shape.

This looks good and being 4 seats would accommodate the kids for any trips with them (although it is a little over budget), along with being a little older and higher mileage.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif.../postcode/pr72dp/radius/1500/page/1?logcode=p
 
£2k mk3 mr2 is generally to be avoided (though I had one) due to the potential engine issues. Fine if you don't mind dropping £1k on it should the worst happen, not so much if you only want it for a few months. Boot space is a bit more awkward than the mx-5 too as most of it is in behind your seats. There's about the same overall amount of room mind you.

Could consider a £1k mk2 mr2 t bar - but it's not really the same as a proper drop top

Z3 could be worth looking at as above, but a lot of them are rough rough rough, they aren't really as fun as the others and the arches at the front are a bit deceptive if anyone without great parking skills wants to drive it
 
Was going to suggest Z3's as well. I've been tinkering with the idea of picking up a cheap soft top purely as a fun weekender too.

Curveball options - Saab 93 or Volvo C70?. I was surprised at the prices of a few C70's on AT at the moment although they really are big ungainly barges there is a certain understated elegance about them.
 
The only option here is an MX5.
Your budget will get a good one.

I prefer MK1s, but then I am heavily biased. The MK1 and MK2 are very similar.
The MK1 is the original and has the retro popup headlights, whilst the MK2 has a few more modern items such as ABS (some MK1s have this), an airbag, variable valve timing. The chassis are 99% the same between the cars.
 
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