I’m thinking about buying Mrs. R a Miata as a summer fun car; she seems to miss her old Datsun roadster. (The Datsun is out of the question, mostly for parts availability reasons; I’d also like something newer and more reliable)
I can only afford a used car. I’m not a complete ignoramus mechanically, but forewarned is forearmed, so I appeal to you all.
What sorts of things should I look out for? What kinds of things go wrong with Miatas?
My sister owned one for about 4 years, and then sold it to my girlfriend. It’s been remarkably reliable mechanically, although it has had some minor electrical problems (power to the AC/radio in the dash has been flaky). But it’s at 140,000 miles with no signs of slowing down.
Although, I do worry about the lady driving around in crazy Atlanta traffic in such a small car.
I’m curious about Miatas myself. After my employer consolidates all its offices, I intend to buy some small commuter vehicle and these are what I’d be most interested in. We currently own a Dodge hatchback (Shadow), but it’s an automatic and I’m more comfortable with a stick. Thus, I want my own little car with a manual transmission for commuting. Once my office moves, my commute will be in the opposite direction of most everyone else, so continuing to take public transportation won’t be very convenient.
I thought about buying a Miata for a long time. The styling is nice and the handling is absolutely unmatched.
OTOH, they are way overpriced. My supercharged MR2 is much faster, more reliable, rarer, and its targa top is much better suited to daily driving than the Mazda’s convertible.
Longtime lurker finally de-cloaking.
I’ve been a Miata owner for 11 years, currently on my second (a silver '99). My current one has nearly 50,000 miles on it, and my first had about 160,000 miles when I sold it.
It used to be that if you wanted to drive a little two seat convertible you had to put up with constant tinkering and repairs. The Miata is a modern, reliable version of the MGB/Triumph/Alfa Romeo Spider. There are loads of them still running great with over 200k and even 300k miles on them.
There have been over 600,000 sold (around half came to the U.S.). It’s not really worth picking up one that need a bunch of work, since there are so many near-mint low milage ones around (lots of people use them as weekend cars).
There aren’t a lot of major problem areas (Consumer Reports rates them very highly), the handling is incredible, and they kick butt on the race track and autocross course. They’re loads of fun to drive.
There’s also a great collection of clubs and on-line communities that have evolved among Miata owners. If you check out http://www.miata.net you can find pretty much anything you could want to know about the Miata.
Eric
I have been inside a miata once…it felt very “thin” to me…its hard to describe, i didn’t feel safe inside it.
I personally would throw the MR2 into the hat again. the 86-89 MR2 are wonderful and inexpensive. I had an 86 that was an absolute blast to drive. my 86 was not supercharged and I loved it. I can only dream about having another 40 hp in that car. It is as small as the miata, is dead reliable (I had it 1 year, it had 168,000 miles, only 1 failed sparkplug wire) – only reasion I dont have it now is it got into a fight with a 91 camero and lost, but it did keep me alive and well.
I have a 1991 MR2 now – they are a bit more expensive (2-4K depending) and feels more like a sports car than a gocart like the 86. my 91 is the non-turbo version so its just a hair underpowered, but I still love it.
in short, before dead deciding on the miata, dont count out the MR2…its every much a small runabout as the miata is, if not better.
Our Miata was one of the more reliable cars we’ve ever had. When we traded it in at about 100K miles and 9+ years of use, the only major problem was that the A/C went out. There was also a safety issue (for some reason, drunk truckers find Miatas hard to see at stoplights), but hey, everybody’s got to die some way.
My 2 Cents’…
I’ve got an MX-5 (UK name for Miata). I wouldn’t swap it for anything, and I’m pretty sure that (winning the lottery excepted) my next car will be an MX-5 too. I bought mine as a Japanese import about 3 years ago. Since then I’ve had no problems with it (it gets serviced regularly).
Just a thought; if this isn’t a surprise for your better half, have you thought about you and her test-driving one?
Bear one thing in mind; the engine is designed to rev up to or near the rev-limiter. If you’re not used to this, you won’t get anywhere near the kick out of it (that’s not to say that you have to run it to redline every minute of every day, but at certain times, it’s useful to know you can).
Oh, BTW, you might want to check out the miata newsgroup. Lurking there for a few days you’ll pick up not only the FAQ but a whole bunch of useful sites/links.
It’s: rec.autos.makers.mazda.miata
Thanks to everyone. I had stumbled over the miata.net site (using Google, search engine of the gods) and it looks like there’re only a couple problems to look out for: the broken crankshaft nose thing on '90-'91s and a humidity-sensitive power connector on the radio.
I appreciate the MR2 suggestions, and I know Toyotas have the reliability of stones, but it’s gotta be a convertible; to me it just doesn’t say “sports car” unless it’s a convertible. Character flaw, no doubt.
The Miata was known as the MGB that works.
You should check edmunds.com cause that’s where you find owners of this car by year & it really depends on the year of it.
Also, carfax.com to check on the previous condition of the exact car by its VIN number.