MX5 NB2 ‘Bucket of rust’
Discussion
The deal.
Saw the car advertised on gumtree in Devon, it was located at a used car dealer/garage about an hour and a quarters drive from where I’m based in Cornwall at a reasonable price considering it would come with a fresh years MOT after a deposit of £200 was put down (all stated in advert). Sounds great so far.
I made a call to the garage and arranged a viewing. Set off on Friday afternoon with the deposit cash and arrived at the dealers exactly at the time arranged. I had to wait 45 minutes for them to retrieve the car from a secure compound... it was starting to get dark and just as the car turned up it started pissing it down. Was annoyed thinking that if the car had been at the time arranged I could of given it the once over and done the test drive already before the light and weather deteriorated. Couldn’t rearrange it as somebody was coming to view it Saturday morning so I proceeded.
The car eventually turned up and straight away I knew I was going to buy it no matter what, I had entered straight into that warm fuzzy feeling of excitement.... a lethal state of mind to be in when checking over a new car, my vision was tunnelled because of this and was instantly blind to anything negative that was right in front of me, my internal alarms had been disabled and was fully open to being ripped off.
Gave the exterior a quick once over, the paintwork looked good in the wet and dark and the arches didn’t feel rusty. Had a peek underneath with phone torch, didn’t seem too bad and had some kind of rust protection on it. Popped the bonnet, all looked ok and sounded good. The test drive was around the block at 30mph as he said they were about to close, drove ok. Made the deal and put a down deposit and arranged to collect the following Friday, also talked them into taking my backup car (2006 Civic Sport) as a trade in for £400.
A week passed and I made the journey in the Civic over to the next county (a great drive on some nice roads) to finish the deal and collect the car.
Arrived and waited 45 mins whilst the dealer dealt with another customer, no problem as I was excited to drive back home in the winter sun on a couple of epic roads. Sat down with the dealer and filled out loads of paperwork, he then handed me a large stack of history and started gushing how nice the car was and how well it had been looked after, great I thought.
The last bit of paper he proudly handed me was a 200 point checklist that his in-house mechanic had performed earlier in the day. All boxes ticked, brilliant. Not so.
As I was handing the remaining balance over in cash I asked how the MOT went and he said ‘The MOT runs out in May mate!’ To which I replied ‘’The advert states in the title ‘12 months MOT on deposit?’ . I was starting to feel a bit of red mist building but remained calm. His reply to me was ‘But you didn’t mention it on the test drive!’, I told him I had a copy of the advert and had just paid in full and signed my car over (the tax and insurance on the civic had been set to expire at the handover time).
The manager had obviously been listening to the conversation from his office as he suddenly appeared like Mr Ben the shopkeeper. I decided to take a more assertive tone without swearing as there was a couple standing behind me waiting to be served. As if by magic the car was now being taken for an MOT the next morning and they were giving me a courtesy car to go home in. At this point my state of mind was ‘Slightly miffed but whatever it takes to get this car bring it on!’.
I though it was a minor problem and it was dealt with, I said I need to logbook to tax it blah blah and he shouted up the office on the mezzanine above for someone to bring it down.....the reply was ‘there isn’t one for it’, the lad looked at me and reached down to the stack of money I had handed over and gave me £25 back and said if you walk down the road to the shopping centre there’s a post office you can go apply for one. I was so angry but just laughed and said ok.
Went post office (10 minute walk away) and applied for logbook.
I stood out the front of the dealership wondering what I would be loaned....then it pulled up.
A 2003 Corsa 1.2! The car was at least a thousand times more terrible than the Civic I turned up in. I set off down the road, the car was pulling wildly to the left and there was a cleaning noise, the steering wheel had a quarter of turn of play before it actually started to turn, an energy drink can was wedged under the break pedal and the car stank of piss. It also had no petrol.
After going back to the dealer and asking them to fill the car at the garage around the corner because it was empty I set off, I managed to avoid certain death for 75 minutes on the way home, after having a beer and food at mates we decided to check the MOT history on the car again online,............
The car was taken to the MOT station straight after I had left the dealership at what must have been the last slot of the day and it FAILED on dangerous worn breaks on the front! I checked the billion point checklist and the breaks were ticked, SWEARWORD. Advisory’s to.
Then it passed. I made the journey back to Devon in the death trap Corsa and arrived at the garage. Got the keys off the lad and he said it was ready to go.
Got the SWEARWORD out of doge and had an amazing stress free drive home.
Next instalment coming soon Is......
‘I think that’s had a dodgy MOT mate!!’ aka the findings.
Saw the car advertised on gumtree in Devon, it was located at a used car dealer/garage about an hour and a quarters drive from where I’m based in Cornwall at a reasonable price considering it would come with a fresh years MOT after a deposit of £200 was put down (all stated in advert). Sounds great so far.
I made a call to the garage and arranged a viewing. Set off on Friday afternoon with the deposit cash and arrived at the dealers exactly at the time arranged. I had to wait 45 minutes for them to retrieve the car from a secure compound... it was starting to get dark and just as the car turned up it started pissing it down. Was annoyed thinking that if the car had been at the time arranged I could of given it the once over and done the test drive already before the light and weather deteriorated. Couldn’t rearrange it as somebody was coming to view it Saturday morning so I proceeded.
The car eventually turned up and straight away I knew I was going to buy it no matter what, I had entered straight into that warm fuzzy feeling of excitement.... a lethal state of mind to be in when checking over a new car, my vision was tunnelled because of this and was instantly blind to anything negative that was right in front of me, my internal alarms had been disabled and was fully open to being ripped off.
Gave the exterior a quick once over, the paintwork looked good in the wet and dark and the arches didn’t feel rusty. Had a peek underneath with phone torch, didn’t seem too bad and had some kind of rust protection on it. Popped the bonnet, all looked ok and sounded good. The test drive was around the block at 30mph as he said they were about to close, drove ok. Made the deal and put a down deposit and arranged to collect the following Friday, also talked them into taking my backup car (2006 Civic Sport) as a trade in for £400.
A week passed and I made the journey in the Civic over to the next county (a great drive on some nice roads) to finish the deal and collect the car.
Arrived and waited 45 mins whilst the dealer dealt with another customer, no problem as I was excited to drive back home in the winter sun on a couple of epic roads. Sat down with the dealer and filled out loads of paperwork, he then handed me a large stack of history and started gushing how nice the car was and how well it had been looked after, great I thought.
The last bit of paper he proudly handed me was a 200 point checklist that his in-house mechanic had performed earlier in the day. All boxes ticked, brilliant. Not so.
As I was handing the remaining balance over in cash I asked how the MOT went and he said ‘The MOT runs out in May mate!’ To which I replied ‘’The advert states in the title ‘12 months MOT on deposit?’ . I was starting to feel a bit of red mist building but remained calm. His reply to me was ‘But you didn’t mention it on the test drive!’, I told him I had a copy of the advert and had just paid in full and signed my car over (the tax and insurance on the civic had been set to expire at the handover time).
The manager had obviously been listening to the conversation from his office as he suddenly appeared like Mr Ben the shopkeeper. I decided to take a more assertive tone without swearing as there was a couple standing behind me waiting to be served. As if by magic the car was now being taken for an MOT the next morning and they were giving me a courtesy car to go home in. At this point my state of mind was ‘Slightly miffed but whatever it takes to get this car bring it on!’.
I though it was a minor problem and it was dealt with, I said I need to logbook to tax it blah blah and he shouted up the office on the mezzanine above for someone to bring it down.....the reply was ‘there isn’t one for it’, the lad looked at me and reached down to the stack of money I had handed over and gave me £25 back and said if you walk down the road to the shopping centre there’s a post office you can go apply for one. I was so angry but just laughed and said ok.
Went post office (10 minute walk away) and applied for logbook.
I stood out the front of the dealership wondering what I would be loaned....then it pulled up.
A 2003 Corsa 1.2! The car was at least a thousand times more terrible than the Civic I turned up in. I set off down the road, the car was pulling wildly to the left and there was a cleaning noise, the steering wheel had a quarter of turn of play before it actually started to turn, an energy drink can was wedged under the break pedal and the car stank of piss. It also had no petrol.
After going back to the dealer and asking them to fill the car at the garage around the corner because it was empty I set off, I managed to avoid certain death for 75 minutes on the way home, after having a beer and food at mates we decided to check the MOT history on the car again online,............
The car was taken to the MOT station straight after I had left the dealership at what must have been the last slot of the day and it FAILED on dangerous worn breaks on the front! I checked the billion point checklist and the breaks were ticked, SWEARWORD. Advisory’s to.
Then it passed. I made the journey back to Devon in the death trap Corsa and arrived at the garage. Got the keys off the lad and he said it was ready to go.
Got the SWEARWORD out of doge and had an amazing stress free drive home.
Next instalment coming soon Is......
‘I think that’s had a dodgy MOT mate!!’ aka the findings.
Edited by MightyBadger on Monday 6th April 20:19
Edited by MightyBadger on Monday 6th April 20:21
thrillseeker2020 said:
This looks good, do tell us more about the deal .. Considering one of these for myself as the Mk1’s seem rusty in my price range. Keep us posted!
Unless you are spending decent money it’s hard to find a rot free mk1,2,3. I would like a mk1 to run along with this one, I’m after one that has rust but won’t need any welding for 6 months, time to stash pennies away for incoming repairs then. As long as you can factor the repairs into your plan and be prepared you should be fine. Alternatively buy a cheap one with twelve months MOT and run it until it’s dead and have fun then do it again a year later.Below are the places to check if your after a mk2
thrillseeker2020 said:
This looks good, do tell us more about the deal .. Considering one of these for myself as the Mk1’s seem rusty in my price range. Keep us posted!
Mk2s rust even worse than Mk1s. They are the worst of the lot.Pretty much everything is interchangeable from a 1989 basic NA through to the very last 2005 1.8 S-VT sport models.
Buy the best shell you can find, that's the mot important bit!
They are spectacular fun to drive once sorted though, bargains to be had if you can work or weld yourself.
Edited by snotrag on Monday 6th April 20:21
snotrag said:
Mk2s rust even worse than Mk1s. They are the worst of the lot.
Pretty much everything is interchangeable from a 1989 basic NA through to the very last 2005 1.8 S-VT sport models.
Buy the best shell you can find, that's the mot important bit!
They are spectacular fun to drive once sorted though, bargains to be had if you can work or weld yourself.
Wholeheartedly agree with all of that.Pretty much everything is interchangeable from a 1989 basic NA through to the very last 2005 1.8 S-VT sport models.
Buy the best shell you can find, that's the mot important bit!
They are spectacular fun to drive once sorted though, bargains to be had if you can work or weld yourself.
Edited by snotrag on Monday 6th April 20:21
JeremyH5 said:
You’ve got the right attitude, just fix the rust then it’s yours for as long as you like. And you will like. We’ve got a much modified Mk 1 track car and a much modified Mk 3 road car here.
Its funny how similar these are to the mk1/2 escorts. Originally under powered, then to much rust, then classics. 
M4CK 1 said:
JeremyH5 said:
You’ve got the right attitude, just fix the rust then it’s yours for as long as you like. And you will like. We’ve got a much modified Mk 1 track car and a much modified Mk 3 road car here.
Its funny how similar these are to the mk1/2 escorts. Originally under powered, then to much rust, then classics. 
JeremyH5 said:
You’ve got the right attitude, just fix the rust then it’s yours for as long as you like. And you will like. We’ve got a much modified Mk 1 track car and a much modified Mk 3 road car here.
Yeah I think that’s the plan, throw whatever it takes at it. I love the way it drives and sounds, perfect for my needs on these roads. With just over 140bhp it’s just the right amount of power, the gearbox and engine get a good workout everyday which is most enjoyable. Cherry on the cake is the handling.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff