What to do with the Mazdaspeed?
 

Our fleet is pretty satisfactorily full right now. Marisa is enjoying the CX-5 (and I'm learning to be OK with it... though I still hate the transmission). The truck is effing awesome. The Boxster is, well, it's a Boxster. I love it. And the race car is doing what it should do. My Silverado is gone to its new owner, who is enjoying it.

So where does that leave the Mazdaspeed? Our original plans were to sell it once I had time to clean it up. I did that a couple of weekends ago, and have been commuting in it on days that are too hot or too rainy or otherwise crappy for taking a two-seat convertible that I try to keep in nice shape. And... I kind of like it. It gets reasonably good fuel economy, is peppy, has really good A/C and has a ton of space. It's got great seats. It handles pretty well. It's fast enough to be entertaining. And I already have winter tires for it.

The other thing is that I don't think it's worth much. Retail blue book value is something like $4k on it. I can't see parting with it for $4k, or even $5k. Maybe not even $6k. I'm not sure what they reasonably sell for. Ones that are in not nearly as nice of shape as ours have been listed for $7k on autotrader, but that's asking price. I don't know what they realistically trade hands for in this condition.

The car is really nice (paint and interior are like new.. it's been garage kept and well detailed and it got a new windscreen last year) but it does have 180k on it. It will need a clutch soon. It really should get the timing chain tensioner and guides replaced (common problem with these engines). And it has a light clunk and a little on-center vagueness in the front end that I suspect is tie rod ends but could be ball joints. So, doing all the work myself, about $1k in parts and a solid weekend's worth of work to do.

Options:

1) Sell it, and do what I did last year which is drive the truck on really nasty winter days and drive the Boxster as much as I can during the winter (last winter was very mild ... I drove it a lot). The money would just go into investments.
2) Keep it, fix the issues, and use it as a winter beater and crappy-weather daily driver.

I was going to include another option: Keep it and don't fix any of the issues, just drive it until it stops running. But I know myself, and I can't / won't do that.

So what say ye?

I guess I'd vote for running it into the ground first, then fixing the issues if you still want to keep it around at that point. Selling it for $4k probably won't recoup the hit to the Porsche if you put the miles on it instead. And who really wants to commute in a pickup all the time?

Seems like it makes the perfect beater car for bad weather and messy errands. Or parking someplace sketchy.

That's very logical. I won't do that. It's either fix it and keep it, or ditch it.

Keep it.

:lol:

Ditch it and use the funds to buy AF's RX8 and fix that instead. :)

But then what would I do with the rest of the money? :lol:

No, as much as I'd like an RX-8 to play with, it would have to be a series 2 car, it would have to not be a grand touring (aka leather and sunroof) car, and either way I don't have time for another project for the foreseeable future.

The Fix it and drive it option sounds reasonable to me.

When you find it sitting for long periods of time then you can look into selling it knowing that everything is in top shape. It's not like a few thousand in profit and/or parts is going to impact your bottom line. :dunno:

Maybe this is something you have never considered, and I have no idea what type of tax returns you have to file, but . . . When we left our home in NJ to hit the road RV'ing, I had a ford taurus winter beater. I donated it to a local church group that provided "stuff" for needy people. (for all I know, they used it for their own use, who cares)

They gave me a very official tax receipt, and told me to fill in the blanks. Saved me a lot on my 2006 tax filing (but you can't be ridiculous on the value you asign to it) I also figured it gave me some positive karma points

If you've got the space, keep it. It's a nice in-between car, and since you have the time and talent to keep it running, the benefit from keeping miles off the Porsche on shitty days probably far outweighs what you'll spend maintaining it.

Alternately, fix it up, do a thread like you did for Matt's car, and list it for (relatively) big $$$. I suspect you could get top-of-market for the car, given the way you take care of and document things, and if you don't, keep it.

Sheesh the sunroof thing again .. I totally forgot to look and see if it has one ...

I'd keep your mazdaspeed and put the maintenance into it ... I kind of know what you're going through ... I still have my sons white A3 and I just can't get myself to give it back to Audi. I drive it and it feels good but more importantly it was his first car and I think that gets me right in the heart.

Fix it and keep it. Or sell it at book value to a teenager in need :eeps:

Yes, I think the value of it as a "shitty day" car is greater than the book value or likely market value.

I hear what you're saying about fixing everything and putting it up for sale with a big number on it, but I don't sense that the market would bear that for this car. One reason being the mileage is too high - when we're talking about a low mileage example (like my buddy's '04 STi) I think that approach works. But when mileage approaches 200k I sense people shy away no matter how well the car drives and looks. I can understand because I have the same psychological block when I'm car shopping.

: ohsnap: :lol:


Forget the money you'd get by selling. How often would one of you drive it? Do you care about the extra car sitting clogging things up?

Personally, I don't like having only the two ends of the spectrum (boxster + truck, Cayman + wagon, etc). I value having that middle-ground car.

But keeping a car you don't use is a pain in the ass and isn't worth it. So... will you drive it?

It sounds like he already is driving it pretty frequently.

Funny to consider that our M240i is the middle ground car of the fleet. But coupe/sedan platforms are great for that purpose. It's really their strength.

No, it's exactly perfect for that!

Keep it.

The backstory is how (over a decade / decade and a half) many on this forum moved from a one car solution (zhp/m3/something like it) to a two car solution (2-seater + big) to now a three-car solutions with a "middle ground" car which ends up being like the first car in the one-car solution after all.

How are the secondary expenses, such as insurance, etc? If the cost to keep it is low and there's not something that's ~$6k in value (like a motorcyle) you'd rather have, then keep it and minimize the wear and tear on the boxster.

:lol:

So true. :ack:

What will you get out of it that you need right now vs. a few months/year from now?

If it were me, I'd keep it for at least another few months or until the next registration bill comes. By then, you will have an idea if you can go without it and just get a gauge on how much you're actually driving it.

I'm in the same predicament with my old '99 CR-V, but your MS3 is a lot cooler and has at least some value and doesn't need check engine lights cleared every month or so... My wife got her new CR-V in November, and we kept the old one as a winter beater. It's now mid summer and can't bring ourselves to get rid of it for those odd times we might need it. I felt like we've used it a lot for hauling random crap and my father-in-law borrowed it a couple times. When I looked at the odometer, the reality is that we've put less than 500 miles on it since Christmas... but it's a third car and it doesn't hurt to have alternatives. I'd say keep an eye on the odometer to see how much you are actually driving it. If it's more than a couple thousand miles per year, there's no way I'd get rid of it.

Don't forget the 8 car solution. :p

:lol:

I have an architect friend who built a mid-rise building for his own house, just so he could use several underground levels for his car collection. His firm in on one floor. And his dwelling is the top two levels. Retail (wine bar) on the street level.

He hosts design lectures in the garage with the collection, followed by receptions/socializing in the penthouse.

Nice life!

Yes, exactly.

Not to get too nerdy with a bicycle analogy.. but it's relevant if you squint enough. A while back most bikes had a triple chainring on the front. Then it got trendy to simplify to a double. It is lighter and simpler and has nearly the same range. The problem is that you spend most
of the time in that awkward gap between gears, where you're cross chaining and need to shift every time the terrain changes slightly. You're rarely in the sweet spot.

The triple was simple: leave it in the middle ring most of the time, and you have a nice straight chainline. Come to a big hill and you shift down. Downhill or want to go super fast you shift up. Couldn't be simpler.

Conclusion: clearly you need 3 (or more) of everything in life to be happy. :lol::speechle:

I love my 1x bike drivetrain, never going back to multiple, guess that is why I only have one car :lol:

Both my road bikes are triples and I agree about usage. Probably faster folks can get away with doubles.

It's been a month and a couple weeks and I've been using the Mazdaspeed a lot. Like, drive it to work pretty much every day. I drove the Boxster today because well, it's not supposed to rain and it was gorgeous this morning and I'm not going to be hopping between facilities (I have a garage to park in at my office, but at our other buildings parking is pretty cramped so I park far away and have a long walk if I take the Boxster).

I priced out a clutch, flywheel, timing chain, guides and tensioners and came to about $1k. I figure I can knock that work out in a weekend once I have a weekend to actually work on something. $1k and a weekend's worth of work to have a reliable car that I'll use regularly seems like a bargain. If I'm sick of it next spring I'll let it go. But for now it stays.

Makes total sense to me

Hard to believe it's been three years since I posted this. I still have the Mazdaspeed, I drive it pretty much every day and it's about 300 miles away from rolling over 200,000 on the odometer. I replaced the clutch, the timing chain and all of the variable valve-timing parts, adjusted the valves, put new tires on it and fixed a couple of other niggling things. Oh, and added Bluetooth, which I should have done a long time ago.

We keep talking about selling the CX-5. We originally bought it because Marisa was always shuttling clients around. Well, those days are done, and she's WFH 100% of the time and probably will be for the foreseeable future. It's the only car payment we have left at this point and just seems to make no sense to keep around. So we'll see what happens there.

Awesome that the MS3 is still chugging along. What year is the Cx-5? My daughter may be looking for her first car in a few months.

It's a 2017 AWD Grand Touring (first year of the new body style). It's a pretty great vehicle and has been typical Mazda - dead nuts reliable, quiet, comfortable.

Not sure Marisa is ready to give it up and it's not my call but I'll keep you posted if she decides to.

What would she want to replace it with?

Sounds good, my daughter is in no hurry. She is starting a new job at Penn Hospital and moving into Philly this week. She'll be walking/biking distance to work, but I think she'll quickly tire of not having transportation. What do you think it would be worth? Feel free to send me a PM if you want to keep the conversation off the main board.

Probably around $24k private party

Immediately? Nothing.

Eventually, once things get back to "normal" and she's making work trips up and down the east coast? Maybe a turbo 3? GTI? She really, really likes the CX-5 but is annoyed with the "up high" ness of it. Initially she liked it and I hated it. Over time she's much less enamored with it and I am just "meh" on it.

It's a great trucklet, IMO better than anything else in its price range (and better than some more expensive stuff) but I really think small SUVs like this are just dumb.

I've probably mentioned it before, but I drove a rental stick-shift CX-5 in Holland for a week and I loved it.

Great to hear the mileage on the MS3...

Hire clyde to do his Carvana thing for the CX-5? I would think you would get good money for it now?

I think GTI, Golf R, Veloster N, Civic Si, Mini would be your usual ones to consider and test drive?

I think if it were up to me, we'd just invest the cash and wait for the 2022 GTI to come out. C+D did a little teaser on that car and Marisa was really into it. As much as I don't want another VW that constantly needs fixing, I'd much rather have that than an automatic SUV. But it's her car so who knows.

I can say for sure that the Golf R isn't on the list - way too expensive. The only car on the list I'd personally veto is the Mini - way too unrealiable and too much of a pain to work on. Neither of us think much of the Veloster and the Civic is just too ugly. If Honda ever brings the styling back out of insta-vomit territory I'd consider one. The Mazda 3 with a stick is definitely on the list. As is the 3 2.5 turbo, maybe?

2022 S3?

https://youtu.be/JanfHehJQTg

If the Golf R is too expensive, it's hard to see how the S3 would work. Plus, presumably no chance of a stick.

Right. Sorry.