MX5 Owners in here....bring your curling tongs

Thanks for the info guys, maybe i might be better off spending nearer 2 grand for a MK1 which has had the sills done rather than the 3-3.5k i was going to spend on a bottom of the market MK3.. There's never an easy answer :(

Still thinking about just getting a MK3 MR2 and then doing a 2ZZ swap as they don't appear to have the same issues with rust as the Mazda's do.
 
MR2 is Japanese, it will have rust issues, google mr2 rust, mk3s will be like Mazda mk3 just getting to that age.

2k on mk1/mk2 is also bottom of the market.
 
Really i thought there were plenty of MK1 and MK2's for a grand when i looked about a year or so ago, have they all gone up in value like a lot of the other interesting cars?
 
All older cars have rust issues, some worse than others. My '05 Corolla is a bit crusty but nothing I'm particularly worried about. Mostly just surface flaking in bit fat bits of steel, and heatshields and little metal brackets could do with replacing. The MK3 MR2 isn't that old. Same era, same general materials and structure. I'd think they would mostly be OK.
 
sovietspybob said:
Really i thought there were plenty of MK1 and MK2's for a grand when i looked about a year or so ago, have they all gone up in value like a lot of the other interesting cars?
Click to expand...
they have! I luckily managed to my S Special mk1 jap import for 2k at the end of 2017 :)

you can still find them but you gotta look for one and make sure you get one without rust! mk1's do better than mk2's but prices of mk1's are going up. You'd want an special or something that has LSD too as in my opinion that is essential.
 
I could just look for the cleanest Mk1 or Mk2 i could find regardless of engine, a mate of mine has a 54 plate 1.8 rusting away at his farm and im sure i could get that for not very much at all to have a 1.8 vvt engine, gearbox, diff and brakes etc as spares/upgrades to whatever i got. So many options!
 
Bought a pretty tidy (i.e. few bits of surface rust, nothing too bad in sig below) MK2.5 Sport last year for £2k. I would rather have a tidy 2-4k MK2.5 over a MK3.
 
Clean mk1/2/2.5s can go for strong money. I sold my Mk2 1.8 import last year for £4000 although it was nicely modified (no proper engine mods but rs-ltd kevlar Recaro seats, roll bar, Bilstein B14 colliers and so on) The front chassis rails and inside the sills were checked with an endoscope before being filled with underseal and they were spotless.

Really want in back :(

DSC_0533.jpg

f5df2hhcp
 
I bought my nearly mint MK2 1.8S for £750 a couple of years ago. Chassis rails were going scabby but it would have been fine for a few years before they needed chopping. New paint and sills etc. But it was bought non running!

You can get a good one for £2000 if you know where to look, but also you get lots of crap ones in that price range from dreamers too.
 
There are lots of cheap 5s but my experience when I was looking for a 1/2 was that unless you were spending 3k+ you had a lot of remedial work to do, that was the price of low end mk3s, no brainer for me, I was buying to compete/track and the mk3 is better in everyway for that (engine, chassis, tyres and brakes etc)

It's always fair to say of course that price does not reflect condition always, you wil get some undervalued and some overvalued, like in every other market.

I had no mx5 love then though so could look at it objectively, I was actually shopping for an RX8 as a learning tool and a club championship for MX5s swayed me into one to join my club mates.
 
Last edited:
I'd prefer a MK3 to a MK1/2 as we've owned both and the MK3 really did feel 15 years newer in design so maybe i'll swing all the way round and get the least scabby example of one of them!

Our MK3 just had lowering springs and an alignment and that really did transform it as the stock ride height and geometry was sketchy to say the least. I wish we'd never sold it as it was such a nice car and i'd ideally be looking for the exact same car again especially as i think we got £6400 for it when it was 6 years old and i bet i'd be paying £4500 for something similar spec/condition now 5 years on assuming it would have been kept as well as we had it.
 
Rich1988 said:
Just to say all the Mk3 soft tops had aluminum boot lids so its only an issue potentially on the hard tops.
Click to expand...
Learn something new every day!

The boot on my PRHT nc2 is starting to go a bit, and although it's not metal the 'decking' paint has started to react strangely. Mazda paintwork/bodywork really is shocking!
 
I only found it out by accident because of a chip in the paint on mine! I spent a fair bit of money (circa £500 ) having it undersealed so checked the bodywork over and noticed it.
 
I did a thing today.

Rather than get the chassis rails and arches sorted, I'm removing them and put a deposit down on the Exocet kit.

Excited about 400bhp per ton but nervous about having to build a car with no experience!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom