MX-5 Shopping

[lupinsea]

Now that the BMW has been sold I'm in the market again for a Miata.

I'm not too sure why I'm posting this in Perseverators Anonymous as I've largely figured out what I want.

It'll be an '06-'07 MX-5 with about 60-70k on the clock (in our price range, sort of).

Must haves:
- 6 spd manual
- 17" rims
- soft top

Wants worth waiting for:
- LSD

Lower priority wants:
- Canvas roof
- Bose stereo

Must NOT haves:
- no white or black

Prefer NOT to have:
- silver or gray


Prices right now are about $1500-2000 more than we want to spend. If push comes to shove we could buy the car cash now but we want to wait for prices to drop a little more. I'll be shopping in ernest January - March once the calendar year ticks over to 2012 but before decent spring weather mucks with prices. But if we stumble across a good deal we're ready to jump on it. Time is on our side.

Basically, I'm looking for a Sport or GT w/ the suspension package and preferably the GT to get the canvas roof. Anything else is gravy. There are a lot of complaints on the Miata forums at how crappy the Bose stereo is but it seemed fine to me. As long as it's "decent" to my ear I'll be good with it. I'm not a huge audio guy and long ago decided it's not worth dumping money into car audio. So, I'll live with the factory stereo.

As for the colors. . . The silver and gray cars are ok but we've had two silver cars for several years now. I'd prefer something more fun. But I'll pick up a silver or gray if it's the right car at the right price. Prefer the gray over the silver, though, again just because we've had silver cars for the last several years.

And I'll be looking for a car with the Suspension Package, which is a bit of a misnomer. Consensus on the Miata boards is that the Bilstein shocks are crap and there isn't much other suspension changes. . . but it comes with the LSD, and the Suspension Package is worth it for that.

Plans from the other thread haven't changed. I still won't be tracking or autocrossing this car. So I'm interested in just driving it as-is. Maybe with a swaybar upgrade, the RX-8 sways are said to work wonders. In any case, I've had a chance to take three MX-5's out on test drives so I've had some time to get a feel for the cars.

I know most here don't like the softness in the NCs but I liked the cars I test drove: A standard GT, a GT w/ Suspension Package, and a Sport with Suspension Package. They seemed to ride nice to me, handle good. The power seemed decent and the engine sounded good when on the throttle. The 6spd shifter felt great, especially after coming from the ZHP. And the rest of the car felt well put together. The soft tops were great to operate. Love the one-handed center latch. And it felt good sitting in the car. Never felt too snug or anything, a concern I had coming from the more spacious ZHP.

In short, all three seemed like good, solid, roadsters. And I was ok with the car as-is. I think they'll be fine for my anticipated uses: daily driver with the occasional (very occasional) in-state day trip through the mountains. No track days, no autocross.

Hmph, the next few months are going to go by slowly.

To help pass the time I'll be doing a few more home improvement projects. Look for the Kitchen v1.1 thread to start soon-ish.