Pistonheads Cliche - Bought an MX5 and didn't tell my wife
Discussion
Today I picked up my first MX5 and having had a bit of a blast in it I'm smitten already!
I'd been toying with the idea of getting one of these for a while, I was running a Mk5 Golf R32 (still have it at the moment but will be selling ASAP) but having only done 4k miles in it in a year it seemed a lot of money to be forking out for a car that mostly sits on my drive.
So an MX5 seemed perfect, relatively cheap to buy and run with scope to work on it myself.
I was lucky enough to be able to pick this 2 owner from new 1998 R plate 1.8 UK Model MX5, it only has 67k on the clock and the last MOT had NO advisories! Considering the dogs I was watching on Ebay this is in fantastic original condition. A few pictures below.
Flipping LOVE the pop up lights! Even better that there is a button to pop the lights up without having to have them on! Genius!
My mate brought along his Dad's Eunos to collect it
Billy Basic interior - Keep fit windows and no air con
67k genuine miles from new!
Nelson the cat giving it the once over
In true Pistonheads style I didn't tell my wife until it was sitting in the garage! It was a bit of an impulse buy but I'm so pleased with it. She's just put it down to a mid life crisis and we're both happy
It has a couple of issues, the exhaust is blowing a bit and the paint is faded. Also a couple of areas that need dents and scrapes taken out but there's really very little wrong with it, it runs brilliantly and is mechanically sound.
How much for all this loveliness? £400, that's £95 less that the VED on the Golf!
I'd been toying with the idea of getting one of these for a while, I was running a Mk5 Golf R32 (still have it at the moment but will be selling ASAP) but having only done 4k miles in it in a year it seemed a lot of money to be forking out for a car that mostly sits on my drive.
So an MX5 seemed perfect, relatively cheap to buy and run with scope to work on it myself.
I was lucky enough to be able to pick this 2 owner from new 1998 R plate 1.8 UK Model MX5, it only has 67k on the clock and the last MOT had NO advisories! Considering the dogs I was watching on Ebay this is in fantastic original condition. A few pictures below.
Flipping LOVE the pop up lights! Even better that there is a button to pop the lights up without having to have them on! Genius!
My mate brought along his Dad's Eunos to collect it
Billy Basic interior - Keep fit windows and no air con
67k genuine miles from new!
Nelson the cat giving it the once over
In true Pistonheads style I didn't tell my wife until it was sitting in the garage! It was a bit of an impulse buy but I'm so pleased with it. She's just put it down to a mid life crisis and we're both happy
It has a couple of issues, the exhaust is blowing a bit and the paint is faded. Also a couple of areas that need dents and scrapes taken out but there's really very little wrong with it, it runs brilliantly and is mechanically sound.
How much for all this loveliness? £400, that's £95 less that the VED on the Golf!
k sake! 
Thanks for the kind comments all.
I'm definitely keeping it as standard as possible, before I got this one I was planning to get more of a fixer upper and mod it to taste, I was even considering a supercharger! But the standard car is so well balanced and fantastic to drive I really don't want to mess with that at all.
So the plans for it are:
Give it a flipping good clean inside and out
Give it a good polish to bring the paintwork back
Replace the rear screen in the roof which is shot
Get the exhaust sorted, do a service and get it through the MOT
That's it!
I'm definitely keeping it as standard as possible, before I got this one I was planning to get more of a fixer upper and mod it to taste, I was even considering a supercharger! But the standard car is so well balanced and fantastic to drive I really don't want to mess with that at all.
So the plans for it are:
Give it a flipping good clean inside and out
Give it a good polish to bring the paintwork back
Replace the rear screen in the roof which is shot
Get the exhaust sorted, do a service and get it through the MOT
That's it!
Well done. What a cracking deal.
Good man for planning to keep it looking stock. There are some shockingly awful looking modified Mk1s around. How are the sills? I gather they are prone to some pretty nasty tin-worm.
I've had two Mk1s in the past and would have another at the drop of a hat if I could find a decent sound one for a bargain price like yours.
PS - know what you mean about the pop-up lights. Great aren't they!
Good man for planning to keep it looking stock. There are some shockingly awful looking modified Mk1s around. How are the sills? I gather they are prone to some pretty nasty tin-worm.
I've had two Mk1s in the past and would have another at the drop of a hat if I could find a decent sound one for a bargain price like yours.
PS - know what you mean about the pop-up lights. Great aren't they!
I had a spare evening last night so I got the '5 out of the garage to give it a good going over and clean the interior.
Ably assisted by Nelson once again
Some not so nice bits:
Rear screen is shot
Faded paint everywhere
Bit of a bump here
Faded light cluster
Filthy interior! I don't know when it was last vacuumed but I found a Snickers wrapper under the seat and I half expected it to say 'Marathon'
Ever so slightly scabby rear sill, but it's not too bad at all and is the only sign of rust
First thing was to de-luggage rack it
Much better!
But with another cosmetic issue to sort
All in all it's really not too bad, it's all just cosmetic stuff that's easily fixed.
I also discovered a couple of interesting things
Tonneau cover in the boot looks like it's never been used
Complete bugger to fit but it looks absolutely mint!
Quality period pioneer speakers fitted behind the seats, don't know what to do about them as they do actually sound pretty good even if they look a bit poo!
I got my wife to take it for a drive with me, I think she's fallen for it a bit as well woohoo!
We're doing up the house a bit at the moment so I'm not going to have much time for the MX5 for a while but it needs an MOT next week so we'll see how that goes. Still bloody love the thing!
Ably assisted by Nelson once again
Some not so nice bits:
Rear screen is shot
Faded paint everywhere
Bit of a bump here
Faded light cluster
Filthy interior! I don't know when it was last vacuumed but I found a Snickers wrapper under the seat and I half expected it to say 'Marathon'
Ever so slightly scabby rear sill, but it's not too bad at all and is the only sign of rust
First thing was to de-luggage rack it
Much better!
But with another cosmetic issue to sort
All in all it's really not too bad, it's all just cosmetic stuff that's easily fixed.
I also discovered a couple of interesting things
Tonneau cover in the boot looks like it's never been used
Complete bugger to fit but it looks absolutely mint!
Quality period pioneer speakers fitted behind the seats, don't know what to do about them as they do actually sound pretty good even if they look a bit poo!
I got my wife to take it for a drive with me, I think she's fallen for it a bit as well woohoo!
We're doing up the house a bit at the moment so I'm not going to have much time for the MX5 for a while but it needs an MOT next week so we'll see how that goes. Still bloody love the thing!
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