1990 MAZDA MX .
Russ looks back at his best – and worst – classic car buys. This time, an MX-5 that was his daily driver for six years
WHY DID YOU WANT ONE?
I knew that I’d have to own one as soon as they became aordable from the moment I sat in one at the 1989 Motor Show. It tted like a glove and was my kind of car. I had to wait 13 years until I bagged one for a then ridiculously cheap £3000.
But then it was a horribly neglected 94,000-miler in need of a new hood, and the owner was about to leave for a job in Japan. I was walking away from his already low £3500 asking price when he called me back and said, rather desperately: ‘If it’s the money, just give me three grand.’ Rude not to, in the circumstances – especially as it was in my preferred Mariner Blue – so I nally became an MX-5 owner. It will be a familiar car to longer-term CCW readers because I was editor at the time and it appeared on the paper’s cover at least three times.
WAS IT A JOY OR A NIGHTMARE TO LIVE WITH?
At rst a right pain – literally! Fitting a new hood with no experience involved two long days of nger-numbing torture, the tar-like oil had to be changed three times in the rst month and it took hours with Wonder Wheels and a sti toothbrush to make the alloys silver again. Oh, and there was the time when it red a spark plug out of the engine thanks to a previously mangled thread, which a local garage cured with a Helicoil. But once all that was out of the way it was simply a joy to own. Especially after I had all the suspension bushes replaced with Polybush items. As a driver’s car it actually exceeded my high expectations yet it ran with the unfailing clockwork e¦ciency of a Honda Civic. The digits on the mileometer whizzed all the way to 175,000 and beyond with just regular servicing over the next six years and it still drove as well as ever.
WHAT’S YOUR ABIDING MEMORY OF IT?
It could be one of the many crosscountry dashes, like a north-east to south-west sprint across the breadth of Lincolnshire when it looked like I would be late for an appointment (I wasn’t). But really it’s the many emotions around the car’s sad demise in 2008. The now former Mrs Smith (for unconnected reasons, I hasten to add) had won the battle for the keys again and was heading for work one damp morning. Going around a Peterborough roundabout, an expletive in a fourby-four shot onto it without stopping, right in front of her. She avoided a collision but lost the back-end and went sideways into a signpost. A cracked vertebra left her with lasting issues; the Mazda was a banana-shaped write-o. Unfortunately none of the witnesses got the other car’s number plate as it sped o. A sad and untimely end – we’d hoped to get it to the 200k mark. Today only its rear wind de¬ector lives on in my Alfa Spider.
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP TIPS FOR BUYING ONE?
Rust has become an issue 20 years on from buying mine, particularly anywhere within a foot of the rear end of the sills; a complex meeting of panels here takes a lot to sort out properly. Look for bubbles and evidence of substandard repair work. It can also break out beneath the sill-top kick plates so look for it creeping out from either end. Suspension bushes will start to need replacing around the 80-100k mark so see if any have been done and budget for some work in that area if not; MOT testers don't alway pick this up but it makes a big dierence. And remember that full four-wheel alignment is needed after any suspension work. Engines go on forever as long as the oil is changed every 6000 miles. Values of good early examples are really starting to ¬y now.
ENGINE 1597cc/4-cyl/dohc POWER 114bhp@6500rpm TORQUE 100lb ft@5500rpm MAXIMUM SPEED 114mph MPH 9.1sec FUEL CONSUMPTION 32-35mpg TRANSMISSION RWD, ve-speed manual