How To Upset The Hairdressers :-)
Discussion
Nice pics and another one saved.
What I didn't say in my earlier post is that I am also a long term MX5 owner.
350i 9 years ownership at about the same time as 7 years ownership of a NA mx5.
Then Griff 13 years ownership (still have) along side ten years ownership of another NA mx5 (still own).
A few years ago I spent nearly as much having the corrosion cut out of the mx5 (new floor, rear arches, front wings, sills and more) as I have just spent doing a body off on the Griff.
I do feel well placed to comment.
They are both great cars. They are very very different. Two seats. RWD. Convertible. Then all other comparisons go out the window as they are completely opposite on every level (possible other than wanting to dissolve and becoming more valuable as a result of becoming more rare).
I love them both. My wife loves them both. Not a chance of me saying which is best as they are so different.
edited for stupit gelling / spammer
What I didn't say in my earlier post is that I am also a long term MX5 owner.
350i 9 years ownership at about the same time as 7 years ownership of a NA mx5.
Then Griff 13 years ownership (still have) along side ten years ownership of another NA mx5 (still own).
A few years ago I spent nearly as much having the corrosion cut out of the mx5 (new floor, rear arches, front wings, sills and more) as I have just spent doing a body off on the Griff.
I do feel well placed to comment.
They are both great cars. They are very very different. Two seats. RWD. Convertible. Then all other comparisons go out the window as they are completely opposite on every level (possible other than wanting to dissolve and becoming more valuable as a result of becoming more rare).
I love them both. My wife loves them both. Not a chance of me saying which is best as they are so different.
edited for stupit gelling / spammer
Edited by BIG DUNC on Sunday 2nd September 20:52
I agree I love both, we`ve had MX5s for 18 years now. However the MX5 will be sold shortly, The Mrs is retiring early and wants a Morgan !! Im sure we will buy another after she gets the Morgan out of her system, in the mean time my 75 year old mum has a Mk1 Berkeley thats mint and needs a good thrashing every now and again.
wuckfitracing said:
Mine so Im qualified to say ,It was funny though.
With a full roll cage the Mazda makes a mean little racer of that there’s no doubt.
I like both, if Mazda hadn’t brought out the MX our Tvr would be worth millions
In round terms the first MX5's were just before the first Griffs.
But the MX5s were fully up to date modern technology. As Chimp on Gas regularly points outs, that was not the case with a TVR.
The MX5 bought a real sports car feeling to millions who couldn't afford an Elan, or who couldn't have tolerated the Lotus reliability issues.
In fact, they came with built in perfect Japanese reliability and hence a totally different ownership prospect to a TVR.
The TVR is different kettle of fish. It has a lazy old school V8. It has oodles of character and a sound track to die for. Compared to its contemporaries, it wasn't even that slow.
The MX5 makes no noise and is lacking half the cylinders hence having almost enough power to pull half the skin off a rice pudding. If my Griff is slower than my every day car, the MX5 is shed load slower, in a straight line that is. In a corner it is subline. On a roundabout you can choose whether to poodle round, take the racing line on the limit of grip, or simply hang the back end out on opposite lock, all controlled, and all within the speed limit. I wouldn't dare drive the Griff like that or I would be wearing a road sign round my neck and explaining to a copper why I thought it was a good idea.
They really are at the opposite ends of the 2 seat sports car spectrum.
The Griff was built in low numbers, came from a British company and is now worth something.
The MX5 was built in its millions, but most have dissolved. & the downside of being built in huge numbers and being cheap is that no one spent money on them. Not many NAs left now and not many of those are sound. Watch the value of good cars increase. Not that they will ever be worth a fortune. Too many built, probably just too many survive and not quite enough competition pedigree. Just like the MGB all over again.
But the MX5s were fully up to date modern technology. As Chimp on Gas regularly points outs, that was not the case with a TVR.
The MX5 bought a real sports car feeling to millions who couldn't afford an Elan, or who couldn't have tolerated the Lotus reliability issues.
In fact, they came with built in perfect Japanese reliability and hence a totally different ownership prospect to a TVR.
The TVR is different kettle of fish. It has a lazy old school V8. It has oodles of character and a sound track to die for. Compared to its contemporaries, it wasn't even that slow.
The MX5 makes no noise and is lacking half the cylinders hence having almost enough power to pull half the skin off a rice pudding. If my Griff is slower than my every day car, the MX5 is shed load slower, in a straight line that is. In a corner it is subline. On a roundabout you can choose whether to poodle round, take the racing line on the limit of grip, or simply hang the back end out on opposite lock, all controlled, and all within the speed limit. I wouldn't dare drive the Griff like that or I would be wearing a road sign round my neck and explaining to a copper why I thought it was a good idea.
They really are at the opposite ends of the 2 seat sports car spectrum.
The Griff was built in low numbers, came from a British company and is now worth something.
The MX5 was built in its millions, but most have dissolved. & the downside of being built in huge numbers and being cheap is that no one spent money on them. Not many NAs left now and not many of those are sound. Watch the value of good cars increase. Not that they will ever be worth a fortune. Too many built, probably just too many survive and not quite enough competition pedigree. Just like the MGB all over again.
[quote=Trevor450]Amusing.
I really like my wife's 2007 NC MX-5. So much so, I have just spent £3k having the subframes off to be refurbished along with a repainting and underseal of the underneath. It seems they like to rot as much as TVRs. I got this one in just in time though.
OMG!...The above MX5 is a full 11 years younger than my 1996 silver/grey chassis Chimaera that's still on it's original outriggers
Like the reliability stigma our cars suffer from Chimaera's also suffer a reputation for chassis corrosion, to be fair in the case of the peeling white powder coat that arrived in early 1997 it's often justified, but my silver/grey chassis Chimaera is 22 years old now and has required no chassis welding at all.
Show me any other car that's 22 years old and had similar use and there will be chassis corrosion present, indeed the above photos show us a car much younger can fair far worse than a TVR, so it seems a unfair our cars get such a bad press in this respect. When I bought my Chimaera nine years ago PH was rife with warnings for prospective buyers to check the chassis carefully, all good advice but it's really no different from buying any other 13 year old car, you'd be mad not to check it's chassis for corrosion.
So back in 2009 I bought a 13 year old TVR and nine years later my chassis is still going strong, to be frank if I'd bought any other 13 year old car back then and used it for nine full years it's highly likely it would have needed some chassis corrosion resolving by now, and if I'd bought a 1996 MX5 back in 2009 instead of my Chimaera it seems clear I definitely would have suffered a lot more chassis corrosion troubles than the no issues I've had with my TVR....
https://www.google.com/search?q=Mk1+MX5+chassis+co...
And to really show how shrewd it was to choose a TVR over a Mazda, back in 2009 low mileage Mk1 MX5s were going for £6k and that car would be worth £1,000 now. On the other hand my 30,000 mile Chimaera cost me £8k in 2009 so just £2k more than buying an MX5, but it's now worth £14k. So instead of losing £5k as I would have done if I'd bought the rust prone Mazda my 'no welding required' TVR has increased in value by £6k, while the Mazda lost £5k the TVR's increased by £6k which basically means I'm now £11k better off for choosing to buy my Chimaera instead of an MX5.
Just like my house I don't resent spending money maintaining my TVR because both are appreciating assets,
I really like my wife's 2007 NC MX-5. So much so, I have just spent £3k having the subframes off to be refurbished along with a repainting and underseal of the underneath. It seems they like to rot as much as TVRs. I got this one in just in time though.
OMG!...The above MX5 is a full 11 years younger than my 1996 silver/grey chassis Chimaera that's still on it's original outriggers
Like the reliability stigma our cars suffer from Chimaera's also suffer a reputation for chassis corrosion, to be fair in the case of the peeling white powder coat that arrived in early 1997 it's often justified, but my silver/grey chassis Chimaera is 22 years old now and has required no chassis welding at all.
Show me any other car that's 22 years old and had similar use and there will be chassis corrosion present, indeed the above photos show us a car much younger can fair far worse than a TVR, so it seems a unfair our cars get such a bad press in this respect. When I bought my Chimaera nine years ago PH was rife with warnings for prospective buyers to check the chassis carefully, all good advice but it's really no different from buying any other 13 year old car, you'd be mad not to check it's chassis for corrosion.
So back in 2009 I bought a 13 year old TVR and nine years later my chassis is still going strong, to be frank if I'd bought any other 13 year old car back then and used it for nine full years it's highly likely it would have needed some chassis corrosion resolving by now, and if I'd bought a 1996 MX5 back in 2009 instead of my Chimaera it seems clear I definitely would have suffered a lot more chassis corrosion troubles than the no issues I've had with my TVR....
https://www.google.com/search?q=Mk1+MX5+chassis+co...
And to really show how shrewd it was to choose a TVR over a Mazda, back in 2009 low mileage Mk1 MX5s were going for £6k and that car would be worth £1,000 now. On the other hand my 30,000 mile Chimaera cost me £8k in 2009 so just £2k more than buying an MX5, but it's now worth £14k. So instead of losing £5k as I would have done if I'd bought the rust prone Mazda my 'no welding required' TVR has increased in value by £6k, while the Mazda lost £5k the TVR's increased by £6k which basically means I'm now £11k better off for choosing to buy my Chimaera instead of an MX5.
Just like my house I don't resent spending money maintaining my TVR because both are appreciating assets,
I think a lot of it is down to use. My Chimaera was more rotten than the Mazda.
Values of MX-5s are all over the place. Trade has ours at £3.5-£4.5k. It’s a 2.0 Sport with Bose and climate. Try and find one in Copper Red with low miles at a dealer for less than £7-8k. I paid £9k for it in 2011. That’s cheap motoring.
I bought my 2000 Chimaera from a well respected reputable dealer in 2012 and in 2014 it required a major body off restoration. There is a part of me that resents the money spent on the TVR every time I look at it and I can’t say the same about the Mazda as it hasn’t cost me a penny up until now.
Don’t get me wrong, I do love my Chimaera, but it is a challenging at times.
Edited by Trevor450 on Sunday 2nd September 22:09
My Griff has an early silver chassis. One of the ones that is meant to be better.
I bought it in 2005 and it had been off the road for a few years at that time. However, the last few MOTs it did have before it came off the road all had advice for chassis corrosion. When I bought it, there was no way it should have had an MOT. The chassis was terrible. I nursed it along as long as I could, but ultimately could not afford the time or money for a body off job. Getting divorced didn't help, hence why the car was only recently finished. Back to the point, I believe that chassis was rotten when the car was ten years old.
My MX5 was bought as a low mileage one owner genuine UK car with full service history in 2008 for £2,000 and at the time I was thinking I was paying too much for it. it was, after all, a 1995 car, so 13 years old at the time. Now, it is worth more than what I paid, plus the cost of a major welding project a couple of years ago, plus the cost of the servicing / repairs for ten years use.
The Griff, even though it was laid up for a long time, cost a lot more to buy and more for the body off project and has had a higher ownership cost.
I am not saying that one cost more than the other or that one is better value. As my last post, they are very different and we love them both.
As an aside, I am also a great range rover lover (we do a lot of off roading) and after a few bad ownership experiences I am not exactly over the moon about LPG. When you quote your Chim as doing 48 mpg, what fuel costs are you basing it on? Why cannot you quote actual mpg? I found my range rovers were about 20% less mpg on gas than petrol and also that the price of gas varied considerably, so sometimes it was as much as 2/3 the price of petrol rather than the half the price of petrol which is often quoted (not checked recently as a while since I ran a car with LPG). This meant that while there was a significant saving over running a petrol car, it was no where near the headline figures that you quote. I am sure that this can be overcome with a modern engine management system, but that would add significantly to the instillation cost and I also like to keep my cars as original as possible. Change the engine management system? Why not add an LS7, or turbo charge the rover V8? Many people do, but I like to keep the originality. Personal preference I know. Logic may say otherwise, but then going down that route and logic would end up with buy something Korean, or, one step further, take the bus.
I bought it in 2005 and it had been off the road for a few years at that time. However, the last few MOTs it did have before it came off the road all had advice for chassis corrosion. When I bought it, there was no way it should have had an MOT. The chassis was terrible. I nursed it along as long as I could, but ultimately could not afford the time or money for a body off job. Getting divorced didn't help, hence why the car was only recently finished. Back to the point, I believe that chassis was rotten when the car was ten years old.
My MX5 was bought as a low mileage one owner genuine UK car with full service history in 2008 for £2,000 and at the time I was thinking I was paying too much for it. it was, after all, a 1995 car, so 13 years old at the time. Now, it is worth more than what I paid, plus the cost of a major welding project a couple of years ago, plus the cost of the servicing / repairs for ten years use.
The Griff, even though it was laid up for a long time, cost a lot more to buy and more for the body off project and has had a higher ownership cost.
I am not saying that one cost more than the other or that one is better value. As my last post, they are very different and we love them both.
As an aside, I am also a great range rover lover (we do a lot of off roading) and after a few bad ownership experiences I am not exactly over the moon about LPG. When you quote your Chim as doing 48 mpg, what fuel costs are you basing it on? Why cannot you quote actual mpg? I found my range rovers were about 20% less mpg on gas than petrol and also that the price of gas varied considerably, so sometimes it was as much as 2/3 the price of petrol rather than the half the price of petrol which is often quoted (not checked recently as a while since I ran a car with LPG). This meant that while there was a significant saving over running a petrol car, it was no where near the headline figures that you quote. I am sure that this can be overcome with a modern engine management system, but that would add significantly to the instillation cost and I also like to keep my cars as original as possible. Change the engine management system? Why not add an LS7, or turbo charge the rover V8? Many people do, but I like to keep the originality. Personal preference I know. Logic may say otherwise, but then going down that route and logic would end up with buy something Korean, or, one step further, take the bus.
That corrosion is because he is North East we dan saff in the know avoid buying/owning anything behond the midlands for the reasons in the pic above or you may as well buy a car from the coast another No No 
this knowledge is gained over a very very long period of being under mainstream motor cars
this knowledge is gained over a very very long period of being under mainstream motor cars 
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