Over the weekend, took my MX sightseeing around the Lake District, great place for a drive though rather a long way from London to get there.
Tonight I'll post some pics whilst up there. I thought it might be worth dropping a few lines on ownership after the first 3 months.
Have to say that I probably get more smiles from this car than anything else I've ever owned. It's just such a great combination of genuine sports car ability, mixed in with relatively cheap running costs.
The actual costs since purchase have been:
- x2 new front tyres, £45 each all in for Goodyear Hydragrips. I couldn't find F1s for the size of my wheels (14") and didn't want to swap for wider/bigger wheels due to the potential impact on tramlining and loss of tyre compliance, thus ride quality
- new Alpine CD tuner as the old unit was broken. As a car, the MX is noisy on the move, so I bought a cheapo unit (£100) as I didn't expect to get the benefit from spending more cash
- Mazda serviced for it's 81,000 mile (£215 at a London dealer)
- New front disks, EBC Green stuff pads on the front and standard pads on the rear. Certainly does stop now. (£160 including fitting)
- Fuel consumption between 29 (sat in traffic jams in central London) to 38 on a long run. Usually averaging around 34mpg.
Bearing in mind that I knew it needed tyres, stereo and servicing when I bought it and was part of the price negotiations, can't say I'm too worried. As expected nothing has gone wrong.
The good points are:
- Great handling. Much better than I expected and a good deal faster down a bendy road. I kind of expected it to be fun with the roof down, but a bit "soft" as a drivers car. Nothing of the sort, it really does work. Even with 185 tyres it's a match for most cars (see later for example)
- Adequate straight line speed. My travels through the lakes were really the first time I thought that more power would have been useful as it was simply not fast going up some of the hills there. Still, ring it's neck (which it encourages) and it's a match for a "warm" hatch
- Relatively lightweight. Comes in at 1065kg, making it 200kg lighter than say an S2000, Z4 or similar. Yes it's heavier than a Caterham or Elise, but is a MUCH more hospitable place to be for long periods of time.
- They're reliable and pretty cheap to run, including group 12 insurance.
- Masses of add on bits if that takes your fancy. Fancy aluminium interior trim, someone will have done it and usually at reasonable prices. Not that it's my thing, but at least there's the option.
- Comfortable on long journeys with a great heater.
- It's fun at almost any speed, unlike so many fast cars now. e.g. I've driven the CTR and think it's a brilliant car, IMO the best fwd hatch on the market. The problem is that you really need to gun it to break a smile, by which time your facing points on your license.
The bad points are:
- Not much space. For a sports car, it's not bad, better than an Elise and much better than the MR2, which is the closest competitor that is worth taking seriously. Being fair, only been one occasion where it's genuinly been an issue, which was whilst trying to collect a new pair of speakers for my home, and lets just say they weren't small.
- Bland interior. Well built it may be, but it's definitely underwhelmingly Japanese. The mk3 is a big improvement.
- Nasty steering wheel. This will be changed at some point.
- Doesn't sound anything like as good as the more expensive roadster options, e.g. S2000, Z3 (6 cylinder versions) or any TVR.
- Tendency to love it and want to spend money on it. I've found that there's an IL front strut brace that can be bought for just £30 which apparently makes a big difference, it's just going to have to be bought and fitted. Now what's next...
- Noisy on long motorway journeys. Nothing like as bad as the VX220 turbo that I've been in, but clearly far worse than a normal tin top. Imagine an 80s hot hatch with less sound proofing.
Back to journey, the MX was brilliant through the Lakes and was definitely roof down time, despite the weather.
More interesting was my jaunt from the M6 via the A50/606 to the A1 trying to avoid some roadworks. Along the way I ended up having 20 miles of fun with an (03 plate) Boxster. Last time I had quite so much fun was years ago. Neither of us could get away from each other (not much traffic around), though we did respect speed limits in towns/villages and were circumspect about road conditions. Have to say that it was obvious that he had another 100hp though whilst he was following me and it was good to be able to say thanks when we stopped at a level crossing part way.
So, overall a big thumbs up for a car that is relatively cheap to buy, insure and run, yet can still mix it with bigger motors and gives masses of smiles per miles.
Tonight I'll post some pics whilst up there. I thought it might be worth dropping a few lines on ownership after the first 3 months.
Have to say that I probably get more smiles from this car than anything else I've ever owned. It's just such a great combination of genuine sports car ability, mixed in with relatively cheap running costs.
The actual costs since purchase have been:
- x2 new front tyres, £45 each all in for Goodyear Hydragrips. I couldn't find F1s for the size of my wheels (14") and didn't want to swap for wider/bigger wheels due to the potential impact on tramlining and loss of tyre compliance, thus ride quality
- new Alpine CD tuner as the old unit was broken. As a car, the MX is noisy on the move, so I bought a cheapo unit (£100) as I didn't expect to get the benefit from spending more cash
- Mazda serviced for it's 81,000 mile (£215 at a London dealer)
- New front disks, EBC Green stuff pads on the front and standard pads on the rear. Certainly does stop now. (£160 including fitting)
- Fuel consumption between 29 (sat in traffic jams in central London) to 38 on a long run. Usually averaging around 34mpg.
Bearing in mind that I knew it needed tyres, stereo and servicing when I bought it and was part of the price negotiations, can't say I'm too worried. As expected nothing has gone wrong.
The good points are:
- Great handling. Much better than I expected and a good deal faster down a bendy road. I kind of expected it to be fun with the roof down, but a bit "soft" as a drivers car. Nothing of the sort, it really does work. Even with 185 tyres it's a match for most cars (see later for example)
- Adequate straight line speed. My travels through the lakes were really the first time I thought that more power would have been useful as it was simply not fast going up some of the hills there. Still, ring it's neck (which it encourages) and it's a match for a "warm" hatch
- Relatively lightweight. Comes in at 1065kg, making it 200kg lighter than say an S2000, Z4 or similar. Yes it's heavier than a Caterham or Elise, but is a MUCH more hospitable place to be for long periods of time.
- They're reliable and pretty cheap to run, including group 12 insurance.
- Masses of add on bits if that takes your fancy. Fancy aluminium interior trim, someone will have done it and usually at reasonable prices. Not that it's my thing, but at least there's the option.
- Comfortable on long journeys with a great heater.
- It's fun at almost any speed, unlike so many fast cars now. e.g. I've driven the CTR and think it's a brilliant car, IMO the best fwd hatch on the market. The problem is that you really need to gun it to break a smile, by which time your facing points on your license.
The bad points are:
- Not much space. For a sports car, it's not bad, better than an Elise and much better than the MR2, which is the closest competitor that is worth taking seriously. Being fair, only been one occasion where it's genuinly been an issue, which was whilst trying to collect a new pair of speakers for my home, and lets just say they weren't small.
- Bland interior. Well built it may be, but it's definitely underwhelmingly Japanese. The mk3 is a big improvement.
- Nasty steering wheel. This will be changed at some point.
- Doesn't sound anything like as good as the more expensive roadster options, e.g. S2000, Z3 (6 cylinder versions) or any TVR.
- Tendency to love it and want to spend money on it. I've found that there's an IL front strut brace that can be bought for just £30 which apparently makes a big difference, it's just going to have to be bought and fitted. Now what's next...
- Noisy on long motorway journeys. Nothing like as bad as the VX220 turbo that I've been in, but clearly far worse than a normal tin top. Imagine an 80s hot hatch with less sound proofing.
Back to journey, the MX was brilliant through the Lakes and was definitely roof down time, despite the weather.
More interesting was my jaunt from the M6 via the A50/606 to the A1 trying to avoid some roadworks. Along the way I ended up having 20 miles of fun with an (03 plate) Boxster. Last time I had quite so much fun was years ago. Neither of us could get away from each other (not much traffic around), though we did respect speed limits in towns/villages and were circumspect about road conditions. Have to say that it was obvious that he had another 100hp though whilst he was following me and it was good to be able to say thanks when we stopped at a level crossing part way.
So, overall a big thumbs up for a car that is relatively cheap to buy, insure and run, yet can still mix it with bigger motors and gives masses of smiles per miles.
