Winter Roadster
Discussion
Anyone driven a mx5 in winter and enjoyed it?
Id love to buy one now but ive only just spent money on my current car and would be a waste to swap now, plus i have heard its cheaper to buy one in winter?
Whats it like? I can just imagine it being amazing, driving in the cool air with heated seats on, being low slung to the ground and hearing an exhaust in each ear (id put a aftermarket exhaust straight on it)
Or is it just not that good? Ive had a string of hot hatches lately and they are getting a bit dull if im honest - too capable, too fast to enjoy, just fancy a change.
I was thinking of a mx5 with a folding hardtop ideally, mk3. Budget of 10k hopefully less.
Id love to buy one now but ive only just spent money on my current car and would be a waste to swap now, plus i have heard its cheaper to buy one in winter?
Whats it like? I can just imagine it being amazing, driving in the cool air with heated seats on, being low slung to the ground and hearing an exhaust in each ear (id put a aftermarket exhaust straight on it)
Or is it just not that good? Ive had a string of hot hatches lately and they are getting a bit dull if im honest - too capable, too fast to enjoy, just fancy a change.
I was thinking of a mx5 with a folding hardtop ideally, mk3. Budget of 10k hopefully less.
Ran a MK1 as a daily through 2 winters, it was great.
My commute was 35 miles of county roads each way, so the speeds were relatively high. For that you need some warm clothes, including trousers, as the wind tends to whip around the windows and blows into the footwell.
Other than that it's great, the only caveat is that the hood needs warming before you put it down for vinyl tops.
My commute was 35 miles of county roads each way, so the speeds were relatively high. For that you need some warm clothes, including trousers, as the wind tends to whip around the windows and blows into the footwell.
Other than that it's great, the only caveat is that the hood needs warming before you put it down for vinyl tops.
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
dieseluser07 said:
I dont even use my car for commuting so it would literally be purely for enjoyment.
Then a Mk3 is not necessarily the answer...... A M1 or Mk 2 with a Ford Focus type car as a snotter / shed and you'd be well under 10k.
I mean pah. Heated seats ? in a sports car ? what is the world coming to !
Is the mx5 still fun to drive without the top down?
I can concur with previous posters about just how good they are in the winter - it's ace being 'out in the open' when it's a crisp but sunny morning, or it's slightly drizzly and you can hear the tyres interacting with the water on the road surface, or even when it's snowed and everything is that muffled and quiet background against which you can hear the sounds of the snow as it compacts and moves around under the tyres 
(and when it all goes quiet and you realise it's ice... lol)
The roof does need to warm up before the rubbers are soft enough to fold down in my experience, which seems to agree with previous comments, but the heater is excellent, warms up quickly and seems happy to sit on 3 or 4 for hours. I don't think heated seats are 100% necessary if your route choices keep you active and moving, but sitting sedentary on the motorway in one gear for half an hour means the cold can set in, so heated seats would help in that situation. A heated steering wheel would be awesome but would have to be a custom retrofit item AFAIK.
I hate driving with the roof up because it feels somewhat claustrophobic and massively reduces visibility to the rear three quarters (and I don't really fit lol) and there is no reason to have it up unless it's heavy rain IMHO. The 360 visibility is very useful in avoiding the morons on the road, although you might have to deal with the occasional comment from said morons - apparently driving a convertible with the roof down automatically means you are a t
t who's showing off, even if it's a classless classic car worth a whole grand... 
You will need a very warm and windproof coat, which seals well around the neck and wrists, because wind down the back and up the arms stops you keeping warm. Layering thinner coats can work well and offer opportunity to remove layers as required, but the outer layers may need to be larger than your normal size to account for the bulk of the underlayers. Gloves that are thin enough to allow full movement but also thick enough to keep your hands warm are essential - I found those wool/polyester gloves with the rubbery 'bobbles' on the palm and fingers were great in ensuring grip of the wheel and were acceptable in warmth terms, and they can be warmed up on the heater vents quickly on very cold days. I found a good scarf helped seal well around the neck, although those 'snood' things might be an option. I don't think a hat is needed, even if your head sticks out into the breeze, although I do feel a bit spaced out when parking up, presumably because of blood flow returning or something... lol. Thick trousers are advisable, even just thick jeans, I reckon, but you could consider longjohns or those lined walking trousers you can buy from Mountain Warehouse or similar.
I would also recommend winter tyres - I can attest from personal experience that they can snap oversteer on unexpected and unseen black ice (like most RWD cars, I imagine), and summer tyres do not help the situation... I don't think summer tyre tread patterns facilitate traction on snow either - it was a slightly squeaky-bum trip home through Storm Emma last year, wondering if I'd make it back or get stuck and have to dig myself out with the snow continuing to fall, so winter tyres would reduce that fear.
Probably the main thing you'll have to keep on top of is rinsing off salt from the wheel arches, sills and underneath - all mk1 and mk2 versions have rust, and running them through a salt-laden winter merely hastens work needed! If you buy soon, you should be able to clean, de-rust if required, and underseal while it's still warm.
(and when it all goes quiet and you realise it's ice... lol)The roof does need to warm up before the rubbers are soft enough to fold down in my experience, which seems to agree with previous comments, but the heater is excellent, warms up quickly and seems happy to sit on 3 or 4 for hours. I don't think heated seats are 100% necessary if your route choices keep you active and moving, but sitting sedentary on the motorway in one gear for half an hour means the cold can set in, so heated seats would help in that situation. A heated steering wheel would be awesome but would have to be a custom retrofit item AFAIK.
I hate driving with the roof up because it feels somewhat claustrophobic and massively reduces visibility to the rear three quarters (and I don't really fit lol) and there is no reason to have it up unless it's heavy rain IMHO. The 360 visibility is very useful in avoiding the morons on the road, although you might have to deal with the occasional comment from said morons - apparently driving a convertible with the roof down automatically means you are a t
t who's showing off, even if it's a classless classic car worth a whole grand... You will need a very warm and windproof coat, which seals well around the neck and wrists, because wind down the back and up the arms stops you keeping warm. Layering thinner coats can work well and offer opportunity to remove layers as required, but the outer layers may need to be larger than your normal size to account for the bulk of the underlayers. Gloves that are thin enough to allow full movement but also thick enough to keep your hands warm are essential - I found those wool/polyester gloves with the rubbery 'bobbles' on the palm and fingers were great in ensuring grip of the wheel and were acceptable in warmth terms, and they can be warmed up on the heater vents quickly on very cold days. I found a good scarf helped seal well around the neck, although those 'snood' things might be an option. I don't think a hat is needed, even if your head sticks out into the breeze, although I do feel a bit spaced out when parking up, presumably because of blood flow returning or something... lol. Thick trousers are advisable, even just thick jeans, I reckon, but you could consider longjohns or those lined walking trousers you can buy from Mountain Warehouse or similar.
I would also recommend winter tyres - I can attest from personal experience that they can snap oversteer on unexpected and unseen black ice (like most RWD cars, I imagine), and summer tyres do not help the situation... I don't think summer tyre tread patterns facilitate traction on snow either - it was a slightly squeaky-bum trip home through Storm Emma last year, wondering if I'd make it back or get stuck and have to dig myself out with the snow continuing to fall, so winter tyres would reduce that fear.
Probably the main thing you'll have to keep on top of is rinsing off salt from the wheel arches, sills and underneath - all mk1 and mk2 versions have rust, and running them through a salt-laden winter merely hastens work needed! If you buy soon, you should be able to clean, de-rust if required, and underseal while it's still warm.
Edited by RSTurboPaul on Wednesday 15th August 09:43
I know you said you wouldn’t be using it to commute, but for anyone else considering this I used my old mk1 over winter commuting on the motorway and it was a ball ache - because you sit so low everything dazzles you, and pretty much the entire car is below the spray line from lorries so visibility can be very poor. Coupled with a claustrophobic cabin in the dark and risk of steaming if the cabin isn’t sealed well it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable experience.
On the other side of the coin the heater is belting, on a dry day with the (carefully folded) roof down it’s as much fun as the summer, and it’s an easy car to control in low grip conditions. Rust is the only main worry. I’d also recommend a wind deflector between or behind the headrests - it made a huge difference to wind buffeting.
On the other side of the coin the heater is belting, on a dry day with the (carefully folded) roof down it’s as much fun as the summer, and it’s an easy car to control in low grip conditions. Rust is the only main worry. I’d also recommend a wind deflector between or behind the headrests - it made a huge difference to wind buffeting.
luckystrike said:
I know you said you wouldn’t be using it to commute, but for anyone else considering this I used my old mk1 over winter commuting on the motorway and it was a ball ache - because you sit so low everything dazzles you, and pretty much the entire car is below the spray line from lorries so visibility can be very poor. Coupled with a claustrophobic cabin in the dark and risk of steaming if the cabin isn’t sealed well it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable experience.
On the other side of the coin the heater is belting, on a dry day with the (carefully folded) roof down it’s as much fun as the summer, and it’s an easy car to control in low grip conditions. Rust is the only main worry. I’d also recommend a wind deflector between or behind the headrests - it made a huge difference to wind buffeting.
Ah yes - I had forgotten about the joy that is these new LED headlights, they are literally fOn the other side of the coin the heater is belting, on a dry day with the (carefully folded) roof down it’s as much fun as the summer, and it’s an easy car to control in low grip conditions. Rust is the only main worry. I’d also recommend a wind deflector between or behind the headrests - it made a huge difference to wind buffeting.
king blinding and complete blot out anything else in the mirrors An absolute benefit to road safety, I'm sure.
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