£475 / £880 Copart MX-5 NC - Cat N
Discussion
So, the ongoing rounds of redundancies at Mrs. Limpet's employer eventually caught up with her, and she found herself out of a job a month or so ago. With the job came a company car, so we also lost a much-used mode of transport with it.
We needed another car, but given the uncertainty around future employment, we wanted to keep it cheap and cheerful. We have an XC90 for sensible stuff, so apart from needing something that wasn't going to break the bank to run, we had a fairly free remit. Thoughts turned to MX5s, as we are both big fans of, having owned them previously.
I am quite handy with the spanners, so I found myself browsing Copart, and came across a lightly damaged grey Cat N NC. Although the lesser 1.8 version, the mileage was sensible at 73,000, it was described as running and driving, came with 2 keys and a V5 and apart from fairly light damage to both front wings and bumper corners, it looked like a clean, straight car. After stalking the MOT history (mileage checks out, nothing scary, but likely to need some suspension bushes and tyres this time around), I chucked a £500 max bid on it, and we buggered off to Lanzarote for a week on holiday.
Whilst we were standing on top of the Timanfaya volcano in Lanzarote (and I'm not making that up), I got a message to say I'd won it provisionally at £475. However, the seller had an £800 reserve on it, and they were waiting on a response from them. I reconfirmed the £475 bid, and we continued our holiday. Later that day, I was surprised, and a little shocked to receive notification that the seller accepted the bid. Due to being on holiday, I couldn't collect it, so I paid a reasonable £158+VAT for delivery. With the delivery, the various Copart fees, and VAT, the car was mine for £880.
Late flight home Tuesday evening, and got in the door at 2am. About 5 1/2 hours later, it turned up. Filthy, and covered in only knows what, but pretty much exactly what I'd hoped for.
I'd already removed the battery before I took this pic:
The battery was flat as a pancake, but the engine started instantly off a jump pack, and sounded very sweet indeed. A trundle up the road (1st, 2nd and reverse only) showed the clutch to be in good order, no whines from the transmission, no clonks or rattles. Hood has a couple of "bubbles" in it, but operates smoothly and as it should. Air con compressor clicks in and out as it should, windows, locks etc all work, and as a bonus it has heated seats. The lights come on anyway
First things first and checked for further damage or any evidence of tampering, starting with the wing bolts. They are original and undisturbed, which means nobody has attempted to repair it, or "doctored" it, as happens sometimes with Copart. I've heard of people buying stuff, finding more serious issues, then "tarting" up the car and putting it back through. The paint on the wing bolts and the front bumper bolts hasn't been disturbed, and the wings have the Mazda holograms intact.
After running the engine for about 30 mins, I switched off, and attempted to restart. No juice in the battery beyond a few relays clicking and the instrument needles dancing about. Battery off, and onto the CTEK, but I'm not holding out much hope. A new battery is only £50 from Tayna so not the end of the world.
The car is absolutely filthy inside and out, which is doing it no favours, but looking down the flanks, it is a very straight (and fundamentally clean) car.
No visible rust anywhere (and no corrosion anywhere in the MOT history). There are no tears in the leather, just the usual slight scuffing on the driver's side bolster. I think it will clean up lovely.
I am pretty confident it simply needs two wings and a bumper. Going rate seems to be £120-£150 for the bumper and £80-100 for the wings. They simply bolt on, so this is not going to be a massive undertaking. I reckon a day's work including the fiddling about getting the alignment right. The bonnet is unmarked, and closes/lines up perfectly. The only other notable marks on the car are a scratch along the bottom of the drivers door, and one on the rear bumper. The door one isn't "finger nail" deep, and I am confident will polish out. The bumper one I'm less confident about, but I think a proper wash and machine polish, plus an interior valet and leather clean/feed will reveal a car that is fundamentally in lovely condition.
We intend to fix it and keep it, so the Cat N status and value don't bother us at all. The aim is to end up with a tidy, useable (and low mileage) MX5 NC for under £1,500. Very little nice stuff out there under £2k from what I can make out, certainly with five figures on the odometer not six.
Keeper change went through today. Now the hunt for parts. Will update as we go through, but I think this is going to be a very rewarding project.
We needed another car, but given the uncertainty around future employment, we wanted to keep it cheap and cheerful. We have an XC90 for sensible stuff, so apart from needing something that wasn't going to break the bank to run, we had a fairly free remit. Thoughts turned to MX5s, as we are both big fans of, having owned them previously.
I am quite handy with the spanners, so I found myself browsing Copart, and came across a lightly damaged grey Cat N NC. Although the lesser 1.8 version, the mileage was sensible at 73,000, it was described as running and driving, came with 2 keys and a V5 and apart from fairly light damage to both front wings and bumper corners, it looked like a clean, straight car. After stalking the MOT history (mileage checks out, nothing scary, but likely to need some suspension bushes and tyres this time around), I chucked a £500 max bid on it, and we buggered off to Lanzarote for a week on holiday.
Whilst we were standing on top of the Timanfaya volcano in Lanzarote (and I'm not making that up), I got a message to say I'd won it provisionally at £475. However, the seller had an £800 reserve on it, and they were waiting on a response from them. I reconfirmed the £475 bid, and we continued our holiday. Later that day, I was surprised, and a little shocked to receive notification that the seller accepted the bid. Due to being on holiday, I couldn't collect it, so I paid a reasonable £158+VAT for delivery. With the delivery, the various Copart fees, and VAT, the car was mine for £880.
Late flight home Tuesday evening, and got in the door at 2am. About 5 1/2 hours later, it turned up. Filthy, and covered in only knows what, but pretty much exactly what I'd hoped for.
I'd already removed the battery before I took this pic:
The battery was flat as a pancake, but the engine started instantly off a jump pack, and sounded very sweet indeed. A trundle up the road (1st, 2nd and reverse only) showed the clutch to be in good order, no whines from the transmission, no clonks or rattles. Hood has a couple of "bubbles" in it, but operates smoothly and as it should. Air con compressor clicks in and out as it should, windows, locks etc all work, and as a bonus it has heated seats. The lights come on anyway
First things first and checked for further damage or any evidence of tampering, starting with the wing bolts. They are original and undisturbed, which means nobody has attempted to repair it, or "doctored" it, as happens sometimes with Copart. I've heard of people buying stuff, finding more serious issues, then "tarting" up the car and putting it back through. The paint on the wing bolts and the front bumper bolts hasn't been disturbed, and the wings have the Mazda holograms intact.
After running the engine for about 30 mins, I switched off, and attempted to restart. No juice in the battery beyond a few relays clicking and the instrument needles dancing about. Battery off, and onto the CTEK, but I'm not holding out much hope. A new battery is only £50 from Tayna so not the end of the world.
The car is absolutely filthy inside and out, which is doing it no favours, but looking down the flanks, it is a very straight (and fundamentally clean) car.
No visible rust anywhere (and no corrosion anywhere in the MOT history). There are no tears in the leather, just the usual slight scuffing on the driver's side bolster. I think it will clean up lovely.
I am pretty confident it simply needs two wings and a bumper. Going rate seems to be £120-£150 for the bumper and £80-100 for the wings. They simply bolt on, so this is not going to be a massive undertaking. I reckon a day's work including the fiddling about getting the alignment right. The bonnet is unmarked, and closes/lines up perfectly. The only other notable marks on the car are a scratch along the bottom of the drivers door, and one on the rear bumper. The door one isn't "finger nail" deep, and I am confident will polish out. The bumper one I'm less confident about, but I think a proper wash and machine polish, plus an interior valet and leather clean/feed will reveal a car that is fundamentally in lovely condition.
We intend to fix it and keep it, so the Cat N status and value don't bother us at all. The aim is to end up with a tidy, useable (and low mileage) MX5 NC for under £1,500. Very little nice stuff out there under £2k from what I can make out, certainly with five figures on the odometer not six.
Keeper change went through today. Now the hunt for parts. Will update as we go through, but I think this is going to be a very rewarding project.
Edited by Limpet on Tuesday 2nd July 11:32
Thanks all.
There was an underside photo on Copart that wasn’t amazing, But from what I could see, there was nothing immediately obvious. I’ll get it up on stands and have a crawl about as part of the repair process.
My CTEK charger couldn’t recover the battery, so I popped to Halfords (where my youngest daughter handily works part time around A-levels) and the staff discount extends to immediate family. £55.01p later, Walked out with a Halfords replacement. Fitted it, and the car cranked for half a second before firing into life. Oil pressure gauge moved quickly and smoothly to about the 2/3 point (cold oil), falling back to about 1/4 as the oil warmed up. It really does sound sweet, revs cleanly and idles nicely. No hint of smoke, no rattles or knocks, and no obvious leaks.
The car will get a full service as part of the process anyway, but all the fluid levels are where they should be. The dash warning lights (ABS, MIL etc) all come on and go out as they should.
Back to work tomorrow, so I’m thinking I’m going to spend a couple of hours cleaning it now just to see how it comes up while I wait for the various breakers I’ve contacted to come back regarding the panels.
There was an underside photo on Copart that wasn’t amazing, But from what I could see, there was nothing immediately obvious. I’ll get it up on stands and have a crawl about as part of the repair process.
My CTEK charger couldn’t recover the battery, so I popped to Halfords (where my youngest daughter handily works part time around A-levels) and the staff discount extends to immediate family. £55.01p later, Walked out with a Halfords replacement. Fitted it, and the car cranked for half a second before firing into life. Oil pressure gauge moved quickly and smoothly to about the 2/3 point (cold oil), falling back to about 1/4 as the oil warmed up. It really does sound sweet, revs cleanly and idles nicely. No hint of smoke, no rattles or knocks, and no obvious leaks.
The car will get a full service as part of the process anyway, but all the fluid levels are where they should be. The dash warning lights (ABS, MIL etc) all come on and go out as they should.
Back to work tomorrow, so I’m thinking I’m going to spend a couple of hours cleaning it now just to see how it comes up while I wait for the various breakers I’ve contacted to come back regarding the panels.
Thanks all for the comments.
I gave it a quick snow foam and bucket wash last night, as much to see what the paint was like and also get a closer look at the general condition as anything else. There was an element of consideration for the neighbours as well, given the car looked like it had been abandoned!
The rear arch on the drivers side has one small bubble inside the lip which hasn't broken the paint yet and which I will deal with. Otherwise there's not a speck of rust anywhere visible with the car on the ground. I'll relax a bit more when I get it up in the air and get underneath
As is typical of Copart, the car came with nothing apart from the V5 and the keys, so no idea about service history (at this money, I'm not too upset), but all the levels are bob on, the oil isn't filthy and it generally gives the appearance of something that's been cared for, especially now it's clean. I am a little nervous about underside rust, but buying stuff like this is always a gamble. And at least the NCs are easy to repair in this respect, although I'd prefer not to get into annual welding.
To say it was a relatively quick wash and dry, and no polishing or detailing was involved, it cleaned up very nicely. The paint has a lovely shine to it, and is remarkably tidy. There are a few light scratches here and there as you'd expect on an 18 year old car, but the machine polisher will remove all of them without any issues. There are no dents apart from the bits that are being replaced. Panel gaps are all good. Wheels are a bit scruffy, but I'm not too bothered about that at this stage, and that's a quick / easy fix in future if needed. Tyres are completely shot. Tread is good, but the sidewalls have definitely seen better days.
I've ordered wings and bumper in colour today, which should arrive Friday. £380 including delivery. I've also noticed one of the headlight dipped beams is out, so will attend to that when I've got the front end apart. Then four new tyres, chuck it in for test and see what happens.
A few post-wash pics. Will be a really presentable little car, I think. Colour is far nicer in the metal than in pictures. There's an almost orange metallic flake to it that makes it really pop when it catches the light.
Panels should arrive Friday, so assuming all is well I will be starting the strip down on Saturday morning.
Thanks for reading, and for the comments.
I gave it a quick snow foam and bucket wash last night, as much to see what the paint was like and also get a closer look at the general condition as anything else. There was an element of consideration for the neighbours as well, given the car looked like it had been abandoned!
The rear arch on the drivers side has one small bubble inside the lip which hasn't broken the paint yet and which I will deal with. Otherwise there's not a speck of rust anywhere visible with the car on the ground. I'll relax a bit more when I get it up in the air and get underneath
As is typical of Copart, the car came with nothing apart from the V5 and the keys, so no idea about service history (at this money, I'm not too upset), but all the levels are bob on, the oil isn't filthy and it generally gives the appearance of something that's been cared for, especially now it's clean. I am a little nervous about underside rust, but buying stuff like this is always a gamble. And at least the NCs are easy to repair in this respect, although I'd prefer not to get into annual welding.
To say it was a relatively quick wash and dry, and no polishing or detailing was involved, it cleaned up very nicely. The paint has a lovely shine to it, and is remarkably tidy. There are a few light scratches here and there as you'd expect on an 18 year old car, but the machine polisher will remove all of them without any issues. There are no dents apart from the bits that are being replaced. Panel gaps are all good. Wheels are a bit scruffy, but I'm not too bothered about that at this stage, and that's a quick / easy fix in future if needed. Tyres are completely shot. Tread is good, but the sidewalls have definitely seen better days.
I've ordered wings and bumper in colour today, which should arrive Friday. £380 including delivery. I've also noticed one of the headlight dipped beams is out, so will attend to that when I've got the front end apart. Then four new tyres, chuck it in for test and see what happens.
A few post-wash pics. Will be a really presentable little car, I think. Colour is far nicer in the metal than in pictures. There's an almost orange metallic flake to it that makes it really pop when it catches the light.
Panels should arrive Friday, so assuming all is well I will be starting the strip down on Saturday morning.
Thanks for reading, and for the comments.
Replacement panels arrived Friday, so cracked on this weekend.
The offside front wing was a little disappointing. It has a couple of small dents on the wheelarch, and the paint has a number of marks in it. To be fair, the breaker was very clear that the panels should be bought on the assumption they need paint, but the damage was annoying. After pondering for a while, I decided to fit them anyway, firstly because we want the car on the road, and secondly because the location should make it easy for a PDR guy to deal with in situ if we decide it bothers us.
It's very easy to strip down generally. There are two difficult bits. The first is dealing with the ridiculous amount of plastic (and number of flimsy plastic fasteners) in the wheel arches and the undertray. The main part of the arch liner is one piece, but there is also a separate, smaller front inner section which links up to the undertray. It was one of those where you undo stuff, it won't move, then you find another fastener hidden away, you undo that, rinse and repeat. The other is the side skirts, which attach by means of plastic clips that pop into holes in the sill, and then slide into tabs in the skirt itself. The problem is some tabs are directed in one orientation, and a handful in the other. So you are left with little choice but to carefully lever the skirt out, and "pop" it off the clips, which breaks most of them. I then discovered that most of the lower clips on the drivers side are missing, but have some more coming tomorrow.
Anyway, after undoing a lot of 10mm bolts, the sideskirts, bumper and the drivers side wing were off.
The good news was no structural damage behind the panels. Inner wings, chassis legs and bumper crash bar straight as dies. Also a relief to find solid outer sills behind the skirts. They are a little scruffy towards the rear, particularly on the drivers side, but solid, and nothing that should worry the MOT man. Underneath the back of the car is quite crusty generally, but I can't see any holes or crunchy bits, and will clean up and coat with something as best I can.
Driver's side outer sill (the worst of the two)
So set about fitting the replacement panels. They are genuine Mazda bits (hologram sticker on the wings) and fitted very easily. After a bit of test fitting, leaving bolts loose, moving things about, and opening and closing the bonnet a dozen times, we ended up here. Not perfect, but doing this on a budget, and the goal is presentable and useable rather than concours
Next steps: refit the side skirts when the new clips arrive, and reassemble the plastic jigsaw in the front arches.
I want to get the rear of the car in the air next, and try and tidy up the underside at the back a little as well, as well as properly look for any obvious MOT showstoppers.
It's booked in for tyres on Wednesday and then MOT, and fingers crossed.
Thanks for reading.
The offside front wing was a little disappointing. It has a couple of small dents on the wheelarch, and the paint has a number of marks in it. To be fair, the breaker was very clear that the panels should be bought on the assumption they need paint, but the damage was annoying. After pondering for a while, I decided to fit them anyway, firstly because we want the car on the road, and secondly because the location should make it easy for a PDR guy to deal with in situ if we decide it bothers us.
It's very easy to strip down generally. There are two difficult bits. The first is dealing with the ridiculous amount of plastic (and number of flimsy plastic fasteners) in the wheel arches and the undertray. The main part of the arch liner is one piece, but there is also a separate, smaller front inner section which links up to the undertray. It was one of those where you undo stuff, it won't move, then you find another fastener hidden away, you undo that, rinse and repeat. The other is the side skirts, which attach by means of plastic clips that pop into holes in the sill, and then slide into tabs in the skirt itself. The problem is some tabs are directed in one orientation, and a handful in the other. So you are left with little choice but to carefully lever the skirt out, and "pop" it off the clips, which breaks most of them. I then discovered that most of the lower clips on the drivers side are missing, but have some more coming tomorrow.
Anyway, after undoing a lot of 10mm bolts, the sideskirts, bumper and the drivers side wing were off.
The good news was no structural damage behind the panels. Inner wings, chassis legs and bumper crash bar straight as dies. Also a relief to find solid outer sills behind the skirts. They are a little scruffy towards the rear, particularly on the drivers side, but solid, and nothing that should worry the MOT man. Underneath the back of the car is quite crusty generally, but I can't see any holes or crunchy bits, and will clean up and coat with something as best I can.
Driver's side outer sill (the worst of the two)
So set about fitting the replacement panels. They are genuine Mazda bits (hologram sticker on the wings) and fitted very easily. After a bit of test fitting, leaving bolts loose, moving things about, and opening and closing the bonnet a dozen times, we ended up here. Not perfect, but doing this on a budget, and the goal is presentable and useable rather than concours
Next steps: refit the side skirts when the new clips arrive, and reassemble the plastic jigsaw in the front arches.
I want to get the rear of the car in the air next, and try and tidy up the underside at the back a little as well, as well as properly look for any obvious MOT showstoppers.
It's booked in for tyres on Wednesday and then MOT, and fingers crossed.
Thanks for reading.
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