Insuring an MX-5

Scottland

Scottland

Scottland

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Joined
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North Wales
I've been looking aroung at MX-5's recently (MK1's).

I see a lot more Eunos' that are nice, than I do UK cars; only problem being that the insurance on the Eunos' is about double that of a UK car.

Does anyone know where the best place to insure an import would be?

Admiral group and NUD are the best so far, at about £650-700 FC (23, 18months license, 1yr NCB)

Lots of places don't seem to quote me for a Eunos, and Admiral was £1300+


Anywhere that will insure cheaply on a Eunos? Bearing in mind it will be a second car so mileage should be <5,000.


Cheers
 
is thee an MX5 owners club?, that may have a deal with some brokers, you will have 0 NCB on the second car through
 
Bill101 said:
is thee an MX5 owners club?, that may have a deal with some brokers, you will have 0 NCB on the second car through
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unfortunatly the place mx5oc use is only good for 25 year olds plus, need to give them a ring in a bit actually :D

greenlight did me proud, or try tesco (although they might not do imports anymore?) and the evil boy racery ones like flux... basically just ring around as many as possible. The mx-5 isn't a cheap car to insure, and imports are always silly money more unfortunatly :(
 
You know it depends what you want. Sure the Eunos often has a nicer interior but that's about where the fun ends.. There are very few Eunos with the 1.8 engine- they are mostly the 1.6 which if it has a CAT is not very powerful at all, Eunos is unlikely to have service history, much more likely to have been clocked (for obvious reasons), much more to insure.

Ok the UK cars do not have the nice interior but many benefit from the nice 130bhp engine and are likely to have more transparent history. There are several levels of trim for the UK cars. Really basic ones do not have ABS, power steering, aircon or electric windows. So what? It's a sports car not a cruiser. If you are worried about not having these features then just buy a higher spec one.
 
Cheers for the replies.

I'd always thought (I'm sure I've read it somewhere) the 1.6 in the Eunos was quicker than the UK 1.6 or am I mistaken? I'm not really fussed for toys, but I do like the Eunos' with the tan interior, are there any UK ones with a similarly nice interior? A lot of the ones I've seen (UK cars) look quite tatty inside.
 
Scottland said:
Cheers for the replies.

I'd always thought (I'm sure I've read it somewhere) the 1.6 in the Eunos was quicker than the UK 1.6 or am I mistaken? I'm not really fussed for toys, but I do like the Eunos' with the tan interior, are there any UK ones with a similarly nice interior? A lot of the ones I've seen (UK cars) look quite tatty inside.
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The big issue is that after 1992? or thereabouts the 1.6 had a catalytic convertor this reduced power from 115 to 100 or thereabouts which is a bit pants really. There was also a really pants 88bhp detuned version. If possible you want the 130bhp 1.8 in my opinion or a pre CAT 1.6 The interiors on the UK ones can get tatty but so can the Eunos ones of course. Nobody likes cracked leather etc.. If you are serious about buying one of these cars I would think that you will be able to get OK insurance from Elephant or similar for a UK car or use a specialist broker for a Eunos or similar. A further problem with the Eunos is that apparently they are prone to rust because they don't use Salt on Jap roads, therefore they don't bother protecting them as well as they do the UK cars (this may be a bit of an urban myth tho).

Oh and by the way there was a 1.6 Turbo model as well which was about 150bhp. These are quite rare and this is reflected in the cost of buying and maintaining one..
 
Scottland said:
Cheers for the replies.

I'd always thought (I'm sure I've read it somewhere) the 1.6 in the Eunos was quicker than the UK 1.6 or am I mistaken? I'm not really fussed for toys, but I do like the Eunos' with the tan interior, are there any UK ones with a similarly nice interior? A lot of the ones I've seen (UK cars) look quite tatty inside.
Click to expand...

I think my girlfriend was with Tesco for her eunos but you have to be 21 to insure and import with them But there was no price difference between a uk one and a jap one.

As for performance wise the very original mk1s and jap spec mk1s came with 116bhp straight out the box and were slightly lighter than the 130bhp 1.8s. Tbh, theres not much between the 2 performance wise. I personally prefer the "peppier" 1.6. However, in the uk after the cat was introduced they redesigned the cylinder head and the 1.6 was brought down to only have 90bhp which is not great at all and hence why most people have the assumptions that all the 1.6s are slow. If I recall the 116bhp will hit 60 in 8 seconds.
 
The additional money you'll spend on an import to insure it is basically money down the pan, whilst a UK is likely to hold most of the additional cost to buy.
It should be more than possible to find one in good condition with a full service history that you can read in English.
Personally I would avoid any import, unless it's a car that's simply not available in the UK.
 
Thanks Vipernet, thought it was something like that!!

There are some UK editions with great interiors. The limited editions are the best. Check out the MX-5 Gleneagles for example. These are stunning cars. 1.8, power steering, leather, special edition dark blue colour- gorgeous..
 
Cheers for all the info guys it's much appreciated. I think I'm going to ditch the Eunos idea, and stick to UK models.

I've been looking around on Atrader this weekend, I was originally looking to spend about £3000, but from what I can see for about £4000 I could get an early MK2. Are these ones to avoid, or could a decent MK2 be had for this sort of money? £4000 is going to really stretch the bugdet - what advantages does the MK2 bode, other than a facelift and nicer interior?

Also, mattpc - I've just read in another thread, you've just acquired one for a 2nd car. What did you get? Pics?

Cheers
 
sent you an email about mine mate. As for Mk2 Don't really know much about them as I love the shape of the Mk1. It might be false economy to buy a dog of a Mk2 rather than a mint mk1 but you never know what deals might turn up.
 
The thing is with convertible sports cars like the MX5 is that some companies will give you a fantastic quote on them as they specialise or deal more with that end of the market. However some companies don't really like dealing with them and it ends up being really expensive. When I was hunting around (and that's the only thing you can do really - there is no 1 answer solution to this problem) I was given quotes from £370 to £1200 fully comp! So there really is no hard and fast rule out there.

Personally I'd keep away from an import if you have the chance. :)
 
Spec wise you can always have a poke around on mx5oc.co.uk and see which models come with which. Be prepared for the Mk1 vs mk2 vs mk3 crowd though. :p
 
Thanks for the email Matt, very useful.

I'm still undecided whether I am going to get one or not, I've decided I need to drive some to make my mind up ;)

Insurance wise, one option I have is only insuring it part the way of the year, even a 10month policy would be cheaper and have it uninsured Dec/Jan when it's too cold to drive it hard, and it'd also accumilate my NCB a little quicker. Anyway, I'll have to have a think, and another look around insurance companies.

I'll have a look at mx5oc.co.uk too, cheers.
 
my dads just bought the 130bhp one, paid 5k for it and its immacualte (Not sure on age, may not be mk1)

he's already opted to have a aftermarket turbo bolted on, increase of 40% power apparently
 
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