MX5

[Oldfentiger]

We had a Mk2 for 3 years then traded it in for a Mk3 in 2011. Still got it.
It's a 2L Sport Tech Coupe. As well as the usual bimbling around on sunny dry days, all year round, we've driven to Italy 3 times, and we're doing it again this year.
I think they shifted the engine back a bit in the Mk3, which gives 50:50 weight distribution, and more neutral handling. It's quicker in the corners but doesn't feel as much fun as the Mk2.
It's been 100% reliable as well as being ridiculously cheap to own.
Funnily enough we were motorcyclists until we got the MX5, soon to sell the bikes through lack of use.

 

[Markymark]

I'm sure you'll love it. The boot is a perfect size to keep your makeup bag in

 

[Racing roadkill]

The Fiat 124 spider is the car I'd go for over the Mazda.

That's the Abarth. It's an MX5, with style.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I wanted to like it, but it looks awkward in the flesh though, and is not as sharp a drive, more of a cruiser. Now the original...

 

[Vapin' Joe]

The Fiat 124 spider is the car I'd go for over the Mazda.

View attachment 362977

That's the Abarth. It's an MX5, with style.

But it is not comparing like with like, the Fiat is at least eight grand dearer.

 

[Drago]

8 grand to impress people you don't like, who couldn't care less anyway. I'd have the Mazda and get a few tidy bicycles with the change.

In fact, I'd have the little 1.5. More power kind of misses the point, which was to emulate the British sports car experience, with Japanese reliability.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Surely any attempt to cite an MX5 as mid-life crisis is trumped by an XK-R convertible? Now that's a crisis I'd like to have, though I'd settle for an MX5 if I had a garage. Tried to persuade tlh to buy one but she went for the bread van (Roomster) instead.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Style if you like the "I had to replace the bonnet and wing mirrors at a breaker's yard because I couldn't afford proper matched ones" look.

That's typical of Abarth.

That's the Fiat next to the Mazda ( which it pretty much is)

 

[Racing roadkill]

But it is not comparing like with like, the Fiat is at least eight grand dearer.

You can't get too much more of a like for like, seeing as though they are the same car.

 

[Dan B]

8 grand to impress people you don't like, who couldn't care less anyway. I'd have the Mazda and get a few tidy bicycles with the change.

In fact, I'd have the little 1.5. More power kind of misses the point, which was to emulate the British sports car experience, with Japanese reliability.

"the British sports car experience", lit: "the sills have rotted"

But seriously: if I could justify the cost and had the time to drive it, I'd get one too.

 

[Proto]

A few years ago, after giving up on fast motorcycles, and needing another car in the household (we already had a SAAB 9-5 estate, a Golf GTD and a 2CV(!)), I went and bought a car for myself. Thought about an GTi/R32 Golf, even considered an elderly Porsche 911, but ended up buying an Audi TT Mk1 for a song. £2500. My thinking was along the lines of: fairly practical (bike in boot easily), plenty of them about and easy to fix, fastish, cheap to run, tax and insure. Had it two years, but there were a few things about it that bothered me, just not a good enough example.
So I looked around and bought a newer and better one, still a Mk1 but a Quattro Sport. Bit more power (240hp), bit less weight (down 75kg), few extra bits (bucket 'race' seats, wider wheels, bigger spoiler) and some bits missing (no heated seats, no cruise control, no rear seats, no spare wheel, no front fog lights). It's great and I love it. They only made 800 or so, and by all accounts is now an appreciating asset (possibly!).

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-germancars/audi-tt-quattro-sport-catch-it-while-you-can/30815

 

[Yellow Saddle]

"the British sports car experience", lit: "the sills have rotted"

But seriously: if I could justify the cost and had the time to drive it, I'd get one too.

I was more lie thinkiig "the British sports car experience" - what, oil all over my driveway and garage floor? No thank you.

 

[Tim Hall]

I've never got the fast car thing. My car is a tool for my job. It has a big boot into which I can put other tools for my job, but I can also fit bikes in when I'm not at work.

However, The Girl has an MX5 (or maybe two), and I went for a ride in it the other day. It's a Mk1 (I think) Eunos (I think). The top was down, it was a sunny day and she made good progress. I kind of understood it (but winced when the bodywork grounded on the bumpy roads).

 

[TheDoctor]

I was more lie thinkiig "the British sports car experience" - what, oil all over my driveway and garage floor? No thank you.

The MX5 is how the MGB ought to have been.
If there was ever an MG that didn't let water in and oil out, handled properly, didn't break down or dissolve into a rusty heap...

 

[Drago]

Fastest you can go is 70...

I'm not a car nut, speed doesn't excite me, but I do like a car that handles well. By pure fluke the Fusion of Elderliness is pretty good, grippy with good steering, but a touch more stability than the slightly lighter and smaller Fester upon which it is based.

Going to the Physio Monday morning I had an Audi of some description up my arriss on the B526. I was already doing 55 in a 60 limit, so screw him.

Turn off at Gayhurst onto the twisties and I briefly revert to Class 1 mode and he can't keep anywhere near me on the bends in my ickle 1400 with its tarmac rippling 79 horsepower. Having made my point I lift off after half a mile and matey clearly understood the lesson, and held back a more sensible distance.

The speed limit is seventy, and most people who buy fast cars don't know how to drive them properly anyway, which leaves only one remaining reason for acquiring them...willy waving! This is where the MX5 fits in so well - you can have fun without having to go to licence risking velocities, and it doesn't make any pretence of trying to look expensive or racy. There is no pretence, it is what it is.