Collecting S-Special next weekend - excited!

[Mannginger]

So after 3 years in the wilderness I decided I wanted a car I can at least have fun in on the weekends (I work in London and have no real need for a car) So have gone back to the MX5 route but staying nice and cheap as I do still need to save for sensible things in life!

Put a deposit on this this week: http://www.goodwoodsportscars.co.uk/gallery_652124...




Very excited and looking forward to collecting her on Saturday. I know she's not perfect but given I'm coming from an £800 Fiesta I reckon I'm going to enjoy having a fun car again and to be honest the price isn't too daft IMO and the things that Steve says are wrong with the car are things that I have with the Fiesta and have stopped worrying about (dodgy paint, the odd minor dent etc)

If I wanted a garage queen I'd have been tempted by his 2.5 RS though!

[lilwashu]

I would be worried about a repaired mohair hood and "scruffy" sills at that money to be honest as that's a potential £800 to spend fairly quickly - has he sent you any pics of these areas?

[Mannginger]

Yup, there's one small area of rust on one rear sill rest looks ok. The roof had been damaged and repaired when he last sold it 3 years ago and hasn't leaked since according to him.

He has a good rep as a dealer and my deposit is fully refundable so if I get there and it's a lemon then it's only the trip that's wasted but his reputation of honesty and checking the cars thoroughly does precede him so I'm hopeful

[GibsonSG]

Hope it goes well for you. I bought a car from Steve and while I know I paid over the odds it's been flawless

[rpm1969]

So anything to report? Was the car as you expected? I'm quite interested in buying one from there myself. Opportunity for a great drive home South too!

[Mannginger]

OK got back around 6 or so last night The car's great, pretty much exactly as described and dealing with Steve was a pleasure. There was one issue caused by the nbew tax system which wouldn't allow me to tax the car online or over the phone so I had to leg it to Metro Centre and tax it before setting home properly. Steve's not had that happen before so I'm guessing I was unlucky with where the paperwork was.

Other than that the tyres needed replacing, they'd passed the MOT but grip levels were poor, even acknowledging the weather! Having said that when I got new boots on it yesterday it was transformed and a real pleasure to drive so I'm very happy.

£1,600 for this level of fun seems fair to me!

[rpm1969]

What's the ride quality like on those Bilsteins? I like the lowered look but have read mixed reports about the resultant compromise on ride quality.

[chasdad]

I've a 1.8 s special on the Bilstein and I think the rides not a lot different than the other 4 I've had on standard shocks. A little harder over speed ramps. But the handling is better. First thing I'd do if I were the op is to have 4 wheel alignment done

[Mannginger]

Yup I will be taking it for alignment, it needed doing when I had the tyres replaced but I want to be confident that the ATS folks didn't mess anything up too badly although it did feel better having been done so fair play to them so far.

I think the Bilsteins are actually pretty decent, I've always preferred stiffer cars and these are actually nicely damped as well. Podie was thinking it'd shake me to bits but I was very pleasantly surprised on the long run home.

I'll take her out this coming weekend for a proper drive and see what they feel like on a B-Road though so watch this space!

[chasdad]

Personally I wouldn't have any firmer suspension than it is now. Remember these are old cars and they can't rattle a bit

[Tom W]

Congrats on you new purchase, that look great on those deep dish 15's. A huge amount of top down fun for relatively little money. Good timing too with Summer on its way...eventually!

[Mannginger]

Took the car out for a proper shake down today after doing a few little jobs, tightening the odd bolt here and there especially on the wind-blocker.

The car's great, everything's working as it should. I had some auxiliary belt-squeal mid-week when I started her up during the bloody cold weather to get some charge into the battery. Only for a few mins so my guess is alternator belt. No repeat performance today but I'll probably replace both alternator and Power-steering belts anyway over the next few weeks.

There's a slight "rumbling" from the brake pedal when braking hard, any clues as to what that could be? Maybe pad surfaces not true or something? Certainly didn't seem to impact the brake effectiveness, I could just feel it transfered into my foot from the pedal?

Also I was googling today to find a new seat-belt as the drivers side kept slackening off. Glad I didn't buy one now as, later in the day I suddenly noticed that when I turned the ignition off, the belt tightened on me. I replicated it a couple of times and realised it couldn't be a mechanical issue.

Doing a bit more googling and I discovered that evidently the Japanese folks don't like wearing belts, so the MX5 has an electrically operated tension-release system to slacken the belt when the ignition is on. Yanked the fuse and the belt's behaving perfectly normally now and also means I can wear my CH-Lock so very happy with that!

Also managed to get a full week's food shopping in her today, with the space-saver in the boot still so that's really all bases covered - cheap fun blatting car that can also get the shopping!

She needs a damn good clean now but that's tomorrow's job!

[GibsonSG]

I actually drove mine hood up for the first time yesterday (I've had the car since August). Quite a different experience, I was prepping myself for a trip to Chassis Clean for a thorough Dinitrol treatment on the 9th Feb. I drove from Berwick to Ledbury roof down when I picked it up from Steve but I bet it will be peeing it down when I take it to Altrincham so I thought I ought to try it roof up!

Glad you're enjoying yours, bloody great little cars. I've got a Golf 6 GTD and a 2010 WRX and the MX is the nicest driving and best fun of the three of them. I try and find any excuse to use it.