MX-5 Buying Advice

[Puzzled]

MX-5 Buying Advice - Advice Taken Car Is Now Mine!

Right, you must be sick of the questions but as we have quite a few mx-5 owners on here it's a great place to ask for advice.

The car in question: Mazda MX5 1.8iS (1999)

64,000 miles, Full Service-history,Metallic British Racing Green/black cloth/walnut-effect trim, rear (Mazda) fin, front grille, alloys, garaged, just serviced, double airbags, C/L, E/W, E/M, Nardi s/wheel, great drive, lovely condition. UK Car

I had a look at it today and was impressed. It does have a few nicks but the current owner has touched it up. The only real issue is the roof (pic below) is starting to go a bit funny on one side, and as I don't have a garage I don't want a leaky car. So does this look bad to you:

Also the owner before him had the radiator changed, now I've looked up on this and it seems a blocked rad is quite common on the mk2. Driving temps all seemed fine, but there was a warm smell in the car. Now this might of just of been because I had the heaters on full for a second and the owner is a smoker, but do any of you get a warm smell?

I gave the car a general check over today, but are there any specific things that I should really be looking for? There were no obvious leaks, and it all looked in good condition. Service history all checks out, and had a MOT done on monday.

I'll be going back in a day or so to buy as long as the HPI check is all ok (Anyone recommend a decent cheap site, best so far is RAC at £25). But this being the first time I've considered buying private I don't want to make any stupid expensive mistakes.

I've offered him £5,600 for it which he's accepted, I tried to get down to £5,500 but he wouldn't budge. I'm happy with that though, especially as it has front fogs and the small rear spoiler. (Never seen front fogs on a mx-5 before )

Thanks for any help, and I shall hopefully be the owner by the end of the week.

 

[Puzzled]

Thanks guys, now I just need to sort the insurance out so I can collect it.

I had a look at the options sheet for the 1.8iS and sure enough spoiler and front fogs are on there, so it's possible they are genuine mazda parts.

Also you can just about see it on the 1st pic, but the owner has fitted a metal grille to protect the rad. I never noticed that they didn't come with them as standard, seems a bit risky.

I already have a few mods in mind to get done, mainly replacing the walnut interior as it's a bit worn. But I'm also tempted to get a new exhaust as I was a bit disappointed with the sound from this one. The 1.8 I drove the other week sounded much cleaner, so I guess that was an aftermarket one.

I can see this car being a big drain on the wallet.

 

[Puzzled]

Thanks guys.

I picked the car up yesterday, after giving it another good check over. It looks to be in great condition, and has a long service history (nothing major).

Cheers for the advice Malc, I read it a bit too late but I can tell you from the driving I did yesterday that temps were fine. I also have the invoice for the Rad and it was changed in 2004 so any problems should have shown up by now. (I hope )

I've got a few pics, I need to upload. Plus it rained last night so I'm about to find out if the roof is still ok.