Cheap '5 as a daily driver?

[pedantlewis]

Afternoon all,

I'm about to start looking into buying a cheap, early MX5. It will be my only car, so will need to be reasonably reliable. What can I expect from a really early example (90/91 vintage or thereabouts)?

I don't have a long commute at the moment, and in a few months I'm being relocated to a different office which is easier by public transport, so it will probably end up being a toy mostly.

I'll be doing the check for rust on the sills and arches, is there anything which the buyer's guides don't mention which might be worth checking?

Any tales of joy or woe to help sway me one way or the other?

Any advice at all will be gratefully received!

[dg45]

had a 94 roadster for 5 years now ,only laid a spanner on it for routine matainance or cosmetic add ons ,used daily for school/work by 'er indoors .
sills can fill with water if the drain holes underneath get blocked (drained two gallon out of left side the other day )
all in all can't fault it , plus you have excuse to take the twisty lane way to work every day .

[Dan_1981]

Had a 94 plate since last october only paid 1400 quid for it, only things its needed were leads and plugs - it was still on the orgional ones.

Used daily to work, been on a few country wide runs, and regualr back lane hoonage.

MOT is next month.

Fingers crossed.

[cheshire_cat]

I use my 1990 MX5 for my daily (60 mile round trip) commute. Had it around 4 months now, and in that time I've had to fix/replace:

Cooling fan
Leaking cooling hose
Squealing fan belt
Misfire (plus/leads)

So it has not been perfect, the cooling issue meant it would empty the radiator expansion tank every couple of days and it took a little while to find the source of the leak. Once the leaking hose was found though some replacement hose was bought from Halfords for £3 or so which sorted it quite nicely.

Car also uses a small amount of oil, so worth keeping your eye on that.

I'm in a similar situation to yourself (relocating to London in a few weeks so car will be stored at parents house) and if I had to continue my daily commute I would most likely replace the car for something more modern, as I find myself having to fix little things on the car every other week which I don't have time for!

It is good fun to drive given a twisty road, but not the best car to commute in.

Edited by cheshire_cat on Thursday 9th July 21:27

[TwistingMyMelon]

I have the opposite experience, I only commute about 35-40 miles a day, but I keep my Mazda as its so reliable and nothing ever goes wrong and when it does need parts they are cheap and easy to fit. mines a 94' Mk1. Very cheap easy and fun, great commuting cars, esp if you have a b road commute!

[e11nos]

Had my 1990 1.6 for 8 years and driven daily for commuting. Now at 150k miles and just turbo'd it. Only problems i've ever had have been the rear calipers sticking, a broken belt, and various other trivial things. Change the oil every 3k miles - honestly, it's reliable as a car could be, and for nearly 20 years old...

[OllieWinchester]

My Eunos was well >£1k and has been by far the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned, and the most fun. Only negative is that it does like a drink.

[ironictwist]

I bought my '5 around March time & have used it as my daily clocking up 70-75 a day, 500~ average a week (350 of that is commuting) with the occasional week where I've hit 1000 miles due to hooning around over the weekend all over the place.

I bought it at 102k, it's now at 112k & the only thing that's needed attention is wheel balancing, a service, & as of today, a new passenger window mechanism.

Total cost of everything so far has been sub £100, although having said, the tyres are due soon & I'm sure the disks are too. But it's stupidly reliable & such a hard wearing little car, beats my last 2 hands down in terms of reliability/fun for my commute.

I still look at it & smile each day when I walk out to it