What does £299 buy you these days?
Discussion
Potentially a lot of fun!
Recently and friend and I were talking at a mutual friend's child's birthday party. We both love cars, both have young families and both hankered after a fun car which was cheap. Obviously the answer to which cheap car is fun is mx5! Both of us wanted one, neither has a massive disposable income, so what do you do in this situation? Pool resources is the answer!
We started the search for a cheap mx5 that wasn't totally shagged, We looked at loads, bid on lots on fleabay but were never successful. One evening I was walking the hound and flicked the autotrader app on to be confronted by this -
She's a 1.6 1989 Eunos. Only two previous owners and apparently 123000 miles on the clock (we've subsequently realised that this should be 123000km, so only 80k miles, result!)
I was instantly on the phone, discussed the car with the trader selling her. He said she was straight, so I checked with my friend, paid a deposit then tried to work out how to tell the missus!
We drove down to collect the car, I was positive, he was worried! The sale was bizarre, as the trader was doing a car boot and had accidentally taken the key with him. As a result we collected the key without paying the full amount and went to meet his partner. On arrival there was noone there, so we had a poke around, and liked what we saw.
There isn't a straight panel on her, or much laquer tbh, but the sills were strong, and she fired up first time (once we had disabled the immobiliser!). The drive home was utterly unremarkable. She went, stopped and turned as and when she should. The only issue was when my friend put the drivers' window down and it wouldn't go back up again! (might need a new switch, or motor! Will wind down, but won't wind up - anyone got any advice?!) meant he got a headache from the wind buffeting.
She went straight in for an MOT (we did have to change one wheel onto a steelie as the tyre was low, and replace a headlight as one had gone), and she failed. However she only failed on needing matching headlight patterns (we'd only changed one!), a non-functioning number plate light, windscreen wipers not clearing properly and track rod ends having excessive play! In other words about 50 quid in parts and a few hours labour should give us a legal little toy! To say we were delighted with the result would be an understatement!
The plans for the future are to repair, respray, redo the interior and generally play! I'm very fortunate as my friend runs a chipsaway franchise, giving me access to lots of knowledge and experience with this sort of thing!
We've since replaced the wipers, track rod ends and bulb in the rear number plate holder. We have grand plans, and I will update as and when we fulfil them (or when we spectacularly fail!)
Recently and friend and I were talking at a mutual friend's child's birthday party. We both love cars, both have young families and both hankered after a fun car which was cheap. Obviously the answer to which cheap car is fun is mx5! Both of us wanted one, neither has a massive disposable income, so what do you do in this situation? Pool resources is the answer!
We started the search for a cheap mx5 that wasn't totally shagged, We looked at loads, bid on lots on fleabay but were never successful. One evening I was walking the hound and flicked the autotrader app on to be confronted by this -
She's a 1.6 1989 Eunos. Only two previous owners and apparently 123000 miles on the clock (we've subsequently realised that this should be 123000km, so only 80k miles, result!)
I was instantly on the phone, discussed the car with the trader selling her. He said she was straight, so I checked with my friend, paid a deposit then tried to work out how to tell the missus!
We drove down to collect the car, I was positive, he was worried! The sale was bizarre, as the trader was doing a car boot and had accidentally taken the key with him. As a result we collected the key without paying the full amount and went to meet his partner. On arrival there was noone there, so we had a poke around, and liked what we saw.
There isn't a straight panel on her, or much laquer tbh, but the sills were strong, and she fired up first time (once we had disabled the immobiliser!). The drive home was utterly unremarkable. She went, stopped and turned as and when she should. The only issue was when my friend put the drivers' window down and it wouldn't go back up again! (might need a new switch, or motor! Will wind down, but won't wind up - anyone got any advice?!) meant he got a headache from the wind buffeting.
She went straight in for an MOT (we did have to change one wheel onto a steelie as the tyre was low, and replace a headlight as one had gone), and she failed. However she only failed on needing matching headlight patterns (we'd only changed one!), a non-functioning number plate light, windscreen wipers not clearing properly and track rod ends having excessive play! In other words about 50 quid in parts and a few hours labour should give us a legal little toy! To say we were delighted with the result would be an understatement!
The plans for the future are to repair, respray, redo the interior and generally play! I'm very fortunate as my friend runs a chipsaway franchise, giving me access to lots of knowledge and experience with this sort of thing!
We've since replaced the wipers, track rod ends and bulb in the rear number plate holder. We have grand plans, and I will update as and when we fulfil them (or when we spectacularly fail!)
Looks an awesome bargain, I would watch the following videos for some inspiration as to what I would do next...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUKgKtMXec8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0M-Bs3mDI
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUKgKtMXec8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0M-Bs3mDI
Enjoy!
Since the paint is already ruined, I'd be sorely tempted to hand paint some sort of racing livery on it. Or even go with a simple black painted on with a roller. If it looks awful you can always call in the pros to fix it 
A scaled down version of this could look quite cool, but make the stripe lime green
Oh the joys of a cheap car. Congrats and good luck
A scaled down version of this could look quite cool, but make the stripe lime green
Oh the joys of a cheap car. Congrats and good luck
curlie467 said:
The window may be just sticking in the runners. Try silicone spray or even furniture polish in the runners.
Hi CurlieThanks for the advice. We've discovered that its actually the switch which isn't working. We flipped the connections and now the window goes up but not down! We'll be modifying the dash and putting the window switches below the stereo instead I think (just big stanard on off on switch will work!)
Usget said:
That Nardi wheel is worth £100 on eBay, so really, you've got the car for £199...!!
I know! That was the main reason we put a deposit down without seeing it! With that wheel I knew we'd be able to make our money back on her even of rotten to the core!They can actually go for even more than 100. I watched one on fleabay today that went to 200, simply because it was shipping to the us. Apparently the miata was never offered with the nardi wooden wheel, and they're mad for them over there!
Usget said:
That Nardi wheel is worth £100 on eBay, so really, you've got the car for £199...!!
I know! That was the main reason we put a deposit down without seeing it! With that wheel I knew we'd be able to make our money back on her even of rotten to the core!They can actually go for even more than 100. I watched one on fleabay today that went to 200, simply because it was shipping to the us. Apparently the miata was never offered with the nardi wooden wheel, and they're mad for them over there!
nadger said:
Certainly seems to be. Goes well and stops well! It's only done about 80k miles, which for those engines is nothing (there are loads that make it to double that!)
All in all, well happy with the purchase.
Check for bottom pulley wobble, well known issue on the early 1.6 engines (mine suffered with it)All in all, well happy with the purchase.
Fantastic buy,
I think half the fun of buying a shed is if you have a long drive home after buying and trying all the buttons to see what works.
Also I find great satisfaction when doing easy repairs from using the Internet for advice or buying a cheap 50p second hand part on ebay and repairing it in minutes knowing if you took the car into a main dealer you wouldn't get change from £200.
I think half the fun of buying a shed is if you have a long drive home after buying and trying all the buttons to see what works.
Also I find great satisfaction when doing easy repairs from using the Internet for advice or buying a cheap 50p second hand part on ebay and repairing it in minutes knowing if you took the car into a main dealer you wouldn't get change from £200.
Chongwong said:
Or a deposit on a set of testicles 
We did discuss painting it pink as an attempt to use irony to overcome the obvious, how can I put this, hairdresseriness of the car!However we decided that that definately wouldn't work! Therefore we're looking at ways of 'butching' the car up, and feeling smug in how little we paid!
Many thanks for all the kind comments. We're working on her again on Thursday, so updates to follow then!
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff