The Roadster


Following the departure of the Z, I find myself in search of the next "fun" car. I'm not saying the next project car, as I'm not sure I want to take on another restoration project. Not that I did such an extensive job with the 300zx but it was quite a bit of work.

I was pretty sure a while back that the next one after the Z would be an E46 M3, but I'm not so sure now. The convertible is not really admissible in several track day organizations and the coupe doesn't appeal to me that much. I've also been tempted with another one of my bucket list cars, an air cooled 911.

In any case, I knew it would be a while and I still needed a car for normal driving, while I made up my mind and managed to save enough cash. So I needed something in between. And of course I wouldn't get a Prius or an Accord; I have a soul and want to keep it. Back to my bucket list, I knew I wanted to have a convertible at some point, and I love pop-up headlights. Also I'm kind of done with turbos for a while so I wanted a naturally aspirated engine. For this next transition car I set aside around 3 grand. So that pretty much narrowed down the candidates to one: the Mazda Miata.

Designed in California and first produced in 1990, it's a 2 seater roadster with front engine and rear wheel drive. As simple as they come, it's a lightweight car that's inspired in the traditional British roadster. The first generation (codenamed NA) ran from 1990 to 1997 and they can be had for $2,000 to $4,000 depending on mileage and condition. It has a twin cam four cylinder engine (1.6 at first and then 1.8 for the 1994 model). If you want to get what the Miata is about in literally 5 minutes, look at this hilarious video review.

The hunt was on, then. At first I wanted to get one as cheap as I could get it and that meant high mileage and probably faded paint and worn out interior. Not to mention tears and possibly leaks in the soft top. I convinced myself that I could live with that, without the urge to fix everything. This is a transition car, just put up with it. So I took a look at a few and of course that's what I found. Well, by now I can say that I know a bit about myself, so deep inside I knew I wouldn't just put up with it. I would constantly struggle and eventually I would have to fix things. Oh well.

So I started to look for nicer ones. There's this email list at work about cars and I sent a message to the list asking for Miata owners, knowing how most members there are people who love cars and this being California there are several Miata owners, even though many of those are track day cars, or even Spec Miatas. I got a response from a Googler that apparently had one that he didn't drive; he had a newer car and this one had been just sitting there in a parking lot for some months, so he was willing to part with it. I went to see it and this is what I found:

Ok, so definitely not an eyesore. It's a 1997 M-edition Miata. Compared to the base model, the M-edition was offered (in that year) with green metallic paint, tan soft top and matching leather seats, 16-inch chrome wheels and a limited slip differential. It also has power steering, which it doesn't really need, seeing as it weighs less than a ton. For a 17 year old car, the paint is in surprisingly good condition (virtually flawless from 5m away but it does show its age), the seats have no tears (although there are some cracks in the leather), and the engine runs pretty good.
The owner was willing to let it go for 3 grand so in two days I picked it up (this was around mid April 2014). I didn't even want to wait for him to get the smog certificate (it's the seller's responsibility technically), so I took a small leap of faith there.

Interior's pretty good. Notice the headrest speakers, useful for top-down motoring. The gearshift knob is aftermarket Nardi wood, quite nice, and the handbrake handle is some aluminum add-on. They don't quite match. But who cares.  That cushion in the armrest is hideous though.
The leather-wrapped steering wheel is in bad shape.

Ron Paul 2012. How quaint.

Faded tail lights.

The top is new; the owner had the car broken into and the insurance replaced the top with a new one that has a glass window. A little more cumbersome to take the top down (you have to undo a zipper) but it's still a nice option.


The paint on the hood and trunk are the only parts really faded. Not immediately evident but you can still notice up close. Not here with all the dirt, though.


Of course the first thing to do was to get it clean. It had been sitting in the parking lot for a while and was pretty dirty and had tree leaves all over the place.
With my trusty assistant, we got it nice and clean.
So with the car cleaned up, I made an assessment of the car's imperfections. Here's a non exhaustive list:

  • chrome is peeling from the rims and there's some significant rust on them;
  • hood and trunk paint is fading; hard to spot from a distance but it appears as if there were water spots on it, and it doesn't shine like the rest of the panels;
  • leather in steering wheel is torn
  • something's loose in the steering; probably a worn out tie rod end;
  • the area around the rear license plate holder has the paint worn out to the base coat;
  • various dents here and there, but surprisingly no scratches whatsoever;
  • small oil leak, appears to be from the top, probably valve cover gasket;
  • front brake pads have very little left;

That's pretty much it. For its 130k+ miles and 17 years of service, it's in very, very good condition. I'm pretty happy about my purchase!

Now, I don't have much information about the service history (the seller couldn't locate the info he had on it), so I'll be doing some preventive maintenance as well as fixing some of the problems it has. But I swear I won't be spending as much time as on the Z! Then again, I have broken my promises before. So in the upcoming weeks I'll be posting about the work I do on the car. This presents a nice opportunity for me to do a bit of mechanical work, with not that much financial risk involved, and with the added convenience of an engine bay where you can actually fit a wrench.

So until then, here's a link to the full album for the first pics: G+ photos.

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