carmudgeons.com  

Go Back   carmudgeons.com > Automotive Forums > Car Talk > Perseverators Anonymous

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-12-2017, 01:33 PM   #1
John V
No more BMWs
 
John V's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
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?
John V is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2017, 01:42 PM   #2
wdc330i
dogged
 
wdc330i's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: '22 M440 xDrive GC
Posts: 13,246
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.
wdc330i is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2017, 01:49 PM   #3
John V
No more BMWs
 
John V's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
That's very logical. I won't do that. It's either fix it and keep it, or ditch it.
John V is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2017, 01:57 PM   #4
wdc330i
dogged
 
wdc330i's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: '22 M440 xDrive GC
Posts: 13,246
Quote:
Originally Posted by John V View Post
That's very logical. I won't do that. It's either fix it and keep it, or ditch it.


Ditch it and use the funds to buy AF's RX8 and fix that instead.
wdc330i is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2017, 02:01 PM   #5
John V
No more BMWs
 
John V's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
Quote:
Originally Posted by wdc330i View Post


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?

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.
John V is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2017, 05:42 PM   #6
Alan
Carmudgeon
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 4,646
Quote:
Originally Posted by John V View Post
But then what would I do with the rest of the money?

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.
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.
Alan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-13-2017, 08:38 AM   #7
rumatt
Mugwump
 
rumatt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: E46 330i, Chevy Colorado, Tesla Model 3
Location: NY
Posts: 17,475
Quote:
Originally Posted by John V View Post
But then what would I do with the rest of the money?



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?
rumatt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-13-2017, 09:30 AM   #8
wdc330i
dogged
 
wdc330i's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: '22 M440 xDrive GC
Posts: 13,246
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.
wdc330i is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2017, 01:54 PM   #9
Nick M3
Relic
 
Nick M3's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Bethesda, MD
Posts: 12,438
Keep it.
__________________
2011 M3
2006 Sierra 2500HD 4WD LBZ/Allison
2004 X5 3.0i 6MT
1995 M3 S50B32
1990 325is
1989 M3 S54B32

Hers:
1989 325iX
1996 911 Turbo


Nick M3 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2017, 02:09 PM   #10
bren
lawn boy
 
bren's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: e46m3, f25x3,C5 Z06, C4 Vette, 06 CTD Ram, and a trailer
Location: Maryland
Posts: 14,029
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.
bren is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
VW GTI vs Mazdaspeed 3 ed328ci Car Talk 10 06-12-2007 08:50 PM
Mazdaspeed 3=not sane JST Car Talk 8 02-15-2006 11:44 AM
preview of new Mazdaspeed MX5. lemming Car Talk 7 01-31-2006 10:08 PM
mazdaspeed Rx8 really soon? lemming Car Talk 0 09-25-2004 10:42 PM
Mazdaspeed MX-5 Roadstergal Car Talk 7 04-29-2004 05:16 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:37 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Forums © 2003-2008, 'Mudgeon Enterprises - Site hosting by AYN & Associates, LLC