1990-1998 Mazda MX5

CianRyan

Well, I have always loved the look of these cars, both inside and out and they sound pretty great too, IMO.

Lately i've been thinking of buying one, would be look at €4000-€6500 for one, by the looks of things, and i just wanted to know if anyone had any experience with these cars?

Not overly interested in major performance, and im not a "boy racer" so i wont be pushing it to its limits and wrecking the engine.
How does it feel to drive, be in, how does it handle; all that kinda stuff, and just an over all view of the car.

Only thing putting me off right now is the insurance, a 1.6/1.8 for an 18 year old, is gonna be pretty high, but hey, if i really want the car...

Any feedback is muchly aprechiated(sp?)

Thanks in advance,
Cian.

B00MSTICK

Pretty sure they tack on a loading because its a convertible/roadster too.

Check the quinn website so you get a ballpark figure and factor it into your budget.

Nice car though

CianRyan

Yeah i was afraid of that being a factor, could you link me to the website by any chance?

R.O.R

Probably the best handling car I've ever driven.

Had one as a rental car a good few years ago (they'd run out of Focus sized vehicles - shame). Think it was only the 1.6 but it's not really about the out and out performance.

My car at the time was an Impreza WRX, and it kicked the arse off that for cornering!

Henry Ford III

Lovely cars. Reliable and great fun to drive.

Insurance will be a big problem for an 18 y.o. however.

homer90

The design is 18 years old.. However this car is still the 'yard stick' by which everything else is measured in this sector / class.(IMO)

Cracking little car.

Have thought about getting on myself on a ocassion or two

RobAMerc

Had a 97 1.8is mk1 model.

I can only say its truely been one of if not the finest handling cars I have owned - ( around 35 of them by now).

Mine had huge tyres on it which made me think it was "over shod" in that it had a bit too much grip but thats a tribute to the chassis itself in that it didn't need it.

Some thoughts:

If I am honest I think the 1.8 is the nicer engine ( I drove both )- its just got a bit more low end grunt which makes it a joy to drive about town and out of the slower corners too. But it will be harder to insure and wont be any faster really than the 1.6.

Mk2 is slightly more comfortable a good bit more refined - has bigger boot handles as well as the mk1 - so is worth a look.

Try get leather too - in older cars they will leak a small bit get damp and the seats will end up musty.

Earlier Jap cars have very low bhp - try get a nice clean Irish or UK import ( Check for rust )

Alun

I had a 1995 MX-5 1.8 for a few years. Marvellous little car, and mechanically virtually unbreakable. I believe the gearbox is the same one as once fitted to a small Mazda truck in Japan. The engine, even the 1.8, does need to be worked hard to get it's true performance out of it, it's not a low rev torquey engine by any stretch, but again it's pretty bullet proof, so don't be afraid to rev it much higher than you might be used to doing .. you'll have to try pretty hard to wreck that engine.

CianRyan

Thanks for all the feed back lads.
Great stuff.

I think now its just a matter of gettin all the money together and seein about the insurance.

Test drive or two just to get the feel and all that. :rolleyes:

2 Espressi

I've been torturing myself over these for the last couple of weeks, checking out the selection on CZ and over the pond on Pistonheads. Rust and dampness and badly repaired crash damage seems to be the big things to watch out for.

There's a nice bit of info @ http://octane.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=21344

galwaytt

We've had one for..........9 years? now, and, tbh, it's faultless. It's a '90 Mk1 1.6

Apart from eating batteries (due to lack of use...), it has now gone through 3 (or 4?) NCT's, and I've yet to fix anything.

Bought a new hood on the internet for USD$199 a few years ago - still keeps out everything.

Power is very, very modest - 100kph feels like..............200kph, which is a good thing, and top-down driving is addictive.

We were trying to sell it lately, but tbh, offers were way, way too low, and as part of the sale process I decided to NCT and service it, to allay anyone's doubts. Driving it to/from NCT, I had a eureka movement and thought, hey, this drives so well, why the hell am I selling it ? So, I didn't ! Bought a hardtop for it on Saturday, and have booked to respray it now too.

One thing though - at 18, you haven't a snowball's chance in hell of getting affordable insurance. Once you tell them it's a convertible, well, you might as well tell them you have DB9, or Gallardo. Such is the complete moron-icism of insurance in this country.

p.s. if mine ends up anything like this

$lash

I have imported quite a few of these from the UK and japan... being a mazda they are relatively bullet proof however - you need to watch for all the usual things, plus leaks in the roof, headgasket problems on the 1.8 and crunching going into gears.

The 1.8 has a notable dollop of extra torque as you would expect however don't be put off a mint 1.6 as its still a nice eager revvy engine.

If it was my money I would get one out of the UK - it will save you money and you will have a great choice - if you need any assistance or advice feel free to drop me a line.