mk1 mx5, tell me it makes sense

[brt900]

hi,
i currently have a arosa tdi 1.4 which recently has become a bit of a pain, it's low and it's slow and sounds generally like a tractor, but gets 50-60 mpg regularly, i'm currently 18 and am studying in university and have a part time job which gets be about £40-70 a week, I've found out i can insure a mk1 mx5 1.6 import for a smidge over £2k (my policy, no fronting) only issues i have with not going ahead are:

On average how much fuel will a mx5 take driving like miss daisy, should i expect high 30's low 40's cruising at 50-60?

Are the engines pretty bulletproof?

Will i look a bit like a puff driving a bright red convertible :P ?

[Eighteeteewhy]

Great cars but fuel efficiency isn't their strong point. You might get just over 30mpg if you really try.

[TNTom]

i'll give you a quick answer, i get about 80/90 miles out of 20 quid of the standard stuff. I've got a heavy right foot when i drive it, as my other car is a motorway cruiser, mine is also red, with 151,000 miles still going strong, just watch out for the usual rust on the seals.

[Sbloxxy]

Utterly bulletproof engines - my track car (Eunos 1.8) has covered a good 220,000 kilometres and regularly gets mercilessly thrashed with no problems.

As for fuel consumption, I've seen 40+mpg on long sensible motorway journeys, but if you drive an MX5 the way you're supposed to (lots of 4000rpm+), its more likely to be into the 20's. I think an average of high 20's is reasonable.

[brt900]

Sbloxxy said:

Utterly bulletproof engines - my track car (Eunos 1.8) has covered a good 220,000 kilometres and regularly gets mercilessly thrashed with no problems.

As for fuel consumption, I've seen 40+mpg on long sensible motorway journeys, but if you drive an MX5 the way you're supposed to (lots of 4000rpm+), its more likely to be into the 20's. I think an average of high 20's is reasonable.

for purely insurance reasons it would be the 1.6 i'd get, with about £1k to spend i should be able to get a reasonably nice one, i don't mind getting my hands dirty doing work myself. My commute to university is a 50 mile motorway drive so if i could push driving it boring i'd be happy as the cost difference shouldn't be too much

[Eighteeteewhy]

I honestly wouldn't want to do regular 50mile Mway commutes in mine.

[JB434]

Eighteeteewhy said:

I honestly wouldn't want to do regular 50mile Mway commutes in mine.

This. At 70mph in mine I'm sitting at a constant 3.5K RPM.
Would get annoying quite rapidly I think.

[bbob]

I never got less than 35+ mpg out of mine on my 60 my round trip commute. That was on a mixture of A roads, B roads and the motorway. It was a UK 1.6 1992 car. Great cars and one of the few cars I've owned where I've said I will have another one day.

[LukeSi]

Try not to crash into a roundabout with it...

[gowmonster]

i've done 82 mile commute to/from work in motorway mixed traffic and got 30-35mpg at 50mph. tbh. not a car that likes traffic nor going slowly.

[brt900]

doing insurance quotes i actually found it's cheaper to insure a 1.8 than 1.6 is there much difference between them fuel wise/reliabilty ?

[gowmonster]

1.8 is thirstier, bar that not much. some say the 1.6 is revvier

[LukeSi]

1.8 has more power, 134 as opposed to 116 I believe. But is obviously heavier, in a straight line a 1.8 is quicker.

[brt900]

no matter which engine i get the insurance only changes +-10% so now it's just do i get an import/uk car/early/late or any special models, which would be the best in a price range of £900-1200

[sl350z]

brt900 said:

no matter which engine i get the insurance only changes +-10% so now it's just do i get an import/uk car/early/late or any special models, which would be the best in a price range of £900-1200

Eunos 1.8 for LSD if possilb if it was me

[gowmonster]

avoid the 1.6 98bhp version.

[gdaybruce]

JB434 said:

This. At 70mph in mine I'm sitting at a constant 3.5K RPM.
Would get annoying quite rapidly I think.

Sign of how times change! When I ran Minis and MG Midgets 70mph = well over 4,000rpm and it never struck me as a problem. Of course, only exotics like Ferraris, Alfas and the Autin Maxi(!) had 5 speed gearboxes in those days. Notwithstanding the low gearing, my usual cruising speed was around 85mph. Certainly, at age 18 (like the OP) I would have thought of noise when cruising as the lowest of my priorities! Plus, in the interest of economy he says he plans to cruise at less than 70mph so I'd have thought 40mpg was achievable. Of course, he might find it hard to stick to 55/60 ...

[brt900]

Got my eye on a 93 1.8 resprayed in a mk2 gold colour, i could afford to run it if on my commute i can stick to motorways doing 50-70 mph, the main clincher for me so far is the pop up lights, they're just so damn awesome

[brt900]

been to look at 2 so far, a red 1.6 which the sills had gone and was generally tatty, and a 1.6 vspec which had rusted A-pillars, rear sills and chassis rails.

If anyone knows of a mk1 for sale for under a grand with minimal rust please let me know

[sl350z]

brt900 said:

been to look at 2 so far, a red 1.6 which the sills had gone and was generally tatty, and a 1.6 vspec which had rusted A-pillars, rear sills and chassis rails.

If anyone knows of a mk1 for sale for under a grand with minimal rust please let me know

They all rust.Everyone looking for same thing!