MX-5 help & advice

I'm 22 and owned a mk1 Eunos Roadster 1.6 earlier this year. Insurance was around 600 everywhere but 320 with Aviva as they see it as a Classic Car, definitely worth trying them.
Great little car, you'll be able to get a really good one for 2.5k.
 
As for rust, they all rust!
Make sure it has been looked after underneath, around the sills, water drain areas in particular - They can get clogged up and the water eats away at the metal from the inside. A well looked after Eunos (import) is what you're after as they generally came with more bits (lsd, air con etc)
 
spoogle said:
I'm 22 and owned a mk1 Eunos Roadster 1.6 earlier this year. Insurance was around 600 everywhere but 320 with Aviva as they see it as a Classic Car, definitely worth trying them.
Great little car, you'll be able to get a really good one for 2.5k.
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Do you still get ncb with Aviva on a classic policy?
 
My motor also rusts in exactly the same places, it's quite annoying but apparently they all get that.

My insurance seems higher than the others on here, it's 850 a year fully compliant. I'm 23 with an NA 1.8. I suppose that'll command a higher sum than 1.6 litre?

edit: now that this is the MX5 help thread, you guys mind sharing tips on cleaning? I've got all the usual things like turtle wax shampoo, cotton mitts, chamois, etc and I follow this guide religiously, but it's really hard to get it done perfectly. Apparently the colour of my motor - British racing green - is one of the hardest colors to clean and get to show-room level. If there's any secrets to maintaining a clean and shiny look on this particular colour I'm all ears. It's mostly things like beading, watermarks, bits of dust and such.
 
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UPDATE

She's travelled all the way from Aryshire, Scotland now I finally have my MX-5 Berkeley :cool:. Too dark to upload photos but I'll put some on tomorrow :).
 
More info

She's sitting on the drive waiting for my 21st birthday!

Mazda MX-5 Berkeley build 16/400 1998 1.8i,
75k miles
4 owners - Passed between friends from new
FSH - Loads of work recently done inc. brake pads & disks, undersealing

Travelled all the way from Scotland. The car is very good condition, even down to the leather seats! The gentlemen that sold it to me was emigrating and needed to get rid of fairly pronto. The seller was obviously upset to be passing it on. It's been owned and passed around a group of friends from new. The current owner was going to pass it down to a previous owner's son however he couldn't get insurance (I know that feeling!) It's obviously been maintained to a high standard; Yokohama tyres on all corners, original mats were covered to keep them mint etc.
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I can't wait to put my stamp on it and give it a real good clean inside. First job will be replacing the wood trim, keeping it of course so it can be put back on if desired :).
 
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Looks a tidy example for a 16 year old car. Congratulations. :)

I'm looking for an MX-5 myself and have found a potential bargain of a Mk2 for sale. It's only done 53,000 miles but the most recent stamp in the service book was in 2003 at 26,000 miles. Seller says it was serviced this time last year when all brakes were done and was MOT'd in September. On the face of it, the car looks in excellent condition but I'm wary about the lack of FSH.

The seller is looking for £1,500 but I'm not sure he's likely to achieve that figure. If I could get it for a bargain price and had it serviced immediately and rigorously, would I be likely to run into problems in the future or should it be relatively trouble free?
 
Ant84 said:
Looks a tidy example for a 16 year old car. Congratulations. :)

I'm looking for an MX-5 myself and have found a potential bargain of a Mk2 for sale. It's only done 53,000 miles but the most recent stamp in the service book was in 2003 at 26,000 miles. Seller says it was serviced this time last year when all brakes were done and was MOT'd in September. On the face of it, the car looks in excellent condition but I'm wary about the lack of FSH.

The seller is looking for £1,500 but I'm not sure he's likely to achieve that figure. If I could get it for a bargain price and had it serviced immediately and rigorously, would I be likely to run into problems in the future or should it be relatively trouble free?
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It will always be hard to know for sure. Mine is an import, it has no service history in the way of stamps, but is serviced yearly and the cambelt / gearbox oil etc has all been done to schedule (mostly by myself). Too be honest you would have to really abuse the mechanics of an MX5 for them to cause problems. So long as the car is in good condtion you should be ok.

Are there no reciepts for anything?
 
Capt Doufos said:
It will always be hard to know for sure. Mine is an import, it has no service history in the way of stamps, but is serviced yearly and the cambelt / gearbox oil etc has all been done to schedule (mostly by myself). Too be honest you would have to really abuse the mechanics of an MX5 for them to cause problems. So long as the car is in good condtion you should be ok.

Are there no reciepts for anything?
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Not as far as I know.

The seller seems honest enough and says that there is a notebook detailing oil and plug changes up until 2007, but nothing further than that was mentioned other than the service 12 months ago.

It's also a two hour drive from me, so if I get there and all isn't well with the car, it's a long trip to waste time and money on.
 
Ant84 said:
Looks a tidy example for a 16 year old car. Congratulations. :)

I'm looking for an MX-5 myself and have found a potential bargain of a Mk2 for sale. It's only done 53,000 miles but the most recent stamp in the service book was in 2003 at 26,000 miles. Seller says it was serviced this time last year when all brakes were done and was MOT'd in September. On the face of it, the car looks in excellent condition but I'm wary about the lack of FSH.

The seller is looking for £1,500 but I'm not sure he's likely to achieve that figure.
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He will get £1500 all day, every day.

In the summer i would imagine he could sell it for more.

26k miles is a lot, but they are strong engines. Personally i would see if the oil low (i.e. using any if it is old) and check the compression as well as signs of smoke etc.

In all likely hood, it will rot before the engine goes.
 
aproctor said:
He will get £1500 all day, every day.

In the summer i would imagine he could sell it for more.

26k miles is a lot, but they are strong engines. Personally i would see if the oil low (i.e. using any if it is old) and check the compression as well as signs of smoke etc.

In all likely hood, it will rot before the engine goes.
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Agreed. There was a local dealer had a black mk2 up for £1400 local to me about 3 weeks ago. I saw it on autotrader the day it went up for sale and went to see it the following afternoon.

8 people had already been to see it before I got there! Only the fact it was a complete shed meant it hadnt sold yet. When I say shed, it had rust on every arch, both sills, boot lid edge, laquer peeled from the front bumper, 2 huge holes in the soft top.

Its sold now though!!
 
Just an update! The car received a good clean out 3 days ago, look what I was greeted with when removing the interior:

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Lovely eh! Items found include a mouldy humbug sweet, £1.81 in change (every little helps!) and a motorbike key ring. The leather seats were removed, cleaned & conditioned using Meguiar's with a leather brush. I can only describe the seats as looking 'healthier'.

My insurance kicked in yesterday on my 21st birthday (Finally!) I'm absolutely loving it, chuffed to bits with the purchase. I drove to DVLA and got the old keepers private plate removed (K222 DGE) and my cherished plate off retention and onto the MX-5 (N19 WMH) The interior has changed just a bit:
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Excuse the smears and finger prints on gloss black parts!

The best bit is the new head unit, an IDA-X305s. The iPod USB cable plugs into into the rear of the head units and trails down the centre console and into the arm rest storage compartment that houses the petrol cap release and boot release switches.
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I'm going to get chrome surrounds for the air vents & hazard switches, apart from that I'm a happy bunny. Next on my list to do is replace the dreadful OEM speakers & de-tango the repeaters :).
 
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Meatball said:
The best bit is the new head unit, an IDA-X305s. The iPod USB cable plugs into into the rear of the head units and trails down the centre console and into the arm rest storage compartment that houses the petrol cap and boot release switches.
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You have the same headunit set up as me, it owns. Congrats.
 
Meatball said:
I drove to DVLA and got the old keepers private plate removed (K222 DGE) and my cherished plate off retention and onto the MX-5 (N19 WMH)
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Does not compute. I thought you couldn't use a personalised plate that made the car look younger than it actually is?
 
That looks like a lovely clean example. Nice job on the interior too, looks much, much nicer!
 
SlyReaper said:
Does not compute. I thought you couldn't use a personalised plate that made the car look younger than it actually is?
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He's not, the car itself is from 1998 but the previous personalised plate was a 1992(?) K reg, his personalised plate is a 1995(?) N reg so he's replacing an older personalised plate with a newer one but it's still older than the car itself so no problem.

And back on topic, the car looks a lot better after a clean.
 
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