I dont know what to think, did I win, or lose?

[carscarscars123]

Story so far.

Purchased an 04 1.8i with 85k which needed some work. Everything is now fixed, total spend so far is £2460.

However, turns out one of the sills needs doing, adding £250-£300 to the cost, bringing the grand total for a sorted car to £2710-£2760.

I can't work out if Ive got myself a bargain, or if I should have bought another car entirely.

[randlemarcus]

carscarscars123 said:

Story so far.

Purchased an 04 1.8i with 85k which needed some work. Everything is now fixed , total spend so far is £2460.

However, turns out one of the sills needs doing, adding £250-£300 to the cost, bringing the grand total for a sorted car to £2710-£2760.

I can't work out if Ive got myself a bargain, or if I should have bought another car entirely.

Important bit of your post in bold. Another car could quite easily have been hiding some issues of it's own.

[vrsmxtb]

Don't think about it is the answer!

If you like the car, do what you can to bring it to where you want it and then enjoy it!

[HaylingJag]

never mind what we think, the important thing here is, are YOU happy?

d

[ronime]

Sounds like a bargain. My '92 Mk1 owes me over £8K and I still haven't finished ...

[NRS]

randlemarcus said:

carscarscars123 said:

Story so far.

Purchased an 04 1.8i with 85k which needed some work. Everything is now fixed , total spend so far is £2460.

However, turns out one of the sills needs doing, adding £250-£300 to the cost, bringing the grand total for a sorted car to £2710-£2760.

I can't work out if Ive got myself a bargain, or if I should have bought another car entirely.

Important bit of your post in bold. Another car could quite easily have been hiding some issues of it's own.

I would agree - if you've put so much money into it already then it's best to keep it for the long term. It is always one of the hard questions - spend a lot and getting it fixed properly, or take a risk and buy different but with unknown issues.

[em177]

ronime said:

Sounds like a bargain. My '92 Mk1 owes me over £8K and I still haven't finished ...

Spec most certainly required!

[Wilburo]

Ha! I'm in the same position as the OP!

I grabbed a '95 1.8 G-Limited w/ hardtop from a friend, with no serious issues, just over a year ago. My total spend is about £3,300. That has given me the car, new arches and sills from the TheMX5Restorer (both sides), a major service, new cam-cover gasket, cambelt, waterpump and battery.

I'm currently contending with a couple of new issues... That "I had an MX-5 for five years and it never cost me a penny" stuff is a bit guff, really.

I was thinking yesterday, this is probably the last 'raw' car I will own - cars are so much more solid, manageable and detached now, that I just can't imagine being this much 'in on the action' this side of a Caterham. For that reason, the car justifies staying with me for the next year or two.

[NRS]

Wilburo said:

I'm currently contending with a couple of new issues... That "I had an MX-5 for five years and it never cost me a penny" stuff is a bit guff, really.

I think we're getting to the point where there are a lot less good cars out there. So they're getting to the point where they require big jobs which cost a lot of money to keep them alive (sills, perhaps engine etc). Once these are done the car should be good for a long time after, but since it costs more than the car is worth most people just sell them instead, which means the work doesn't get done.

[moebiusuk]

I'm in the same position. I stupidly bought an MX5 for £1000 that I thought was good but needed some work. I'm not a car expert but I thought it was OK. Turns out, the rust is crazy and it'll be £1500+ to fix :/