Just Curious- MX5 Running Costs

I'm looking at getting an mx5 in the next month or so and have been researching for the best part of 3 months now.

UK mk1 1.6's tend to be cheapest on insurance. Admiral have been giving me the best quotes by far with quotes of £850 when everyone else was quoting upwards of £1500 (this is as a 21 year old with no NCB. License held for 2 years with mum as a named driver).

Do try and get a UK car though as I've generally found that imports are about £400 more to insure than their UK counterparts.

But as everyone has been saying, they're cheap as chips to run and probably the most fun you can have on the road for the least amount of money.

Can't wait to get mine :D
 
wohoo said:
MK1 billies are widely regarded as being a bit crashy, i tried em for a month and had to get rid, i got a decent 4 wheel alignment from A line and it it didnt really help.

Ive been impressed with mine, all ive needed in 12 months is a new rad and waterpump, other than that the car hasnt cost me any more wonga, I've even broke even on all the mods, its currently sporting a tan leather interior, i sold my old interior for more than what i paid for the leathers!

I love this car!!!! Its just such a breath of fresh air to have something so simple and soo much fun.
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The reason why they are regarded as crashy is due to the standard bump stops on the mk1 being useless for the setup. The shocks infact have low damping compared to a lot of other shocks out there for the mx5. This means they just ride on the bump stops all the time, hense why you would find them crashy.

First of all I would say is don't use Bilstein shocks if you want to slam your mx5, don't go below 320mm front and 330mm rear. You then need to use some good bump stops on it, like the FCM ones which are much smaller, giving you at least 30mm more travel. 30mm travel may not sound like a lot but remember the movement ratio of the shock to wheel, thats more like 50mm for the wheel movement which is a good amount. You can also make the move to mk2 top mounts which also helps, I haven't done this but if I was to do so it gets you ~12mm extra shock travel.

Finally the shocks need to be paired with the correct springs to control them. For a track car you can use 500/300lbs area springs and that makes for a cheap track setup. For the road you do not want to go above 300lbs otherwise it won't work well on a bumpy road. I have opted to not use the rear arb too to allow the rear suspension to be totally independent, improving on traction out of corners. So I am using 300lbs at the front and 220lbs at the rear, which if you were to run a rear arb you would have to drop the rears to around 180 off the top of my head.

Doing this is like I have totally new shocks fitted. It may seem like a lot of effort but the Bilsteins are very high quality and are said to be good for 100,000 miles before being replaced. Like I said there is a lot of misinformation about the Bilsteins, if you setup the suspension to suit it then they are good.
 
My mate has one of these (well, a Eunos Roadster L-reg, whatever year that comes in at) and he loves it. It's fairly cheap to run, although he's lowered his and now it can't get over speed bumps faster than 2mph.

After he pointed out how cheap it was, I was almost tempted, except I'm 6'3 and don't fit in the drivers side. :(
 
Pretty cheap to run, had mine a year now and had to have new front calipers, damn road salt, I would have repaired them myself but my arm was still busted at the time so I forked out around £300 I think for new ones and for them to be fitted, and I had a coolant hose go but I replaced all the hoses myself I think they were around £40-50 for decent ones.
Insurance was just over £600 I think, 23 1 years no claims, should have checked Aviva now after reading this thread :p
Mine seems to drink fuel though, but its my first car from riding bikes for years so not sure if thats good or not but I get average 210-220 miles to a tank and around £40 to fill up.
 
The other nice thing about em is that the engine is a non interference engine, so it doesnt screw itself if the timing belt goes!
 
No they dont, not in my experience anyway, but more import models have them than the UK cars.

LSD's arent a must anyway unless you are tracking them.
 
Tinders said:
The other nice thing about em is that the engine is a non interference engine, so it doesnt screw itself if the timing belt goes!
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And they accept pretty much a 100% increase in power without batting an eyelid :cool:


Can't say I've been left wanting for an LSD either, but I'll probably upgrade to a 1.8 LSD anyway, in case my 1.6 diff explodes.
 
Today my mother gave me the MX5 (mk1, 1.8 litre) as a birthday present (she recently bought a brand new Astra for work and general toodling about) - I'm absolutely ecstatic and also relieved that they are cheap as chips to run - relatively!

Any specific tips for a new owner?
 
KNiVES said:
Today my mother gave me the MX5 (mk1, 1.8 litre) as a birthday present (she recently bought a brand new Astra for work and general toodling about) - I'm absolutely ecstatic and also relieved that they are cheap as chips to run - relatively!

Any specific tips for a new owner?
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Have the scissors sharpened.
 
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