91 Miata... survivor? Concours car?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda-MX-5-Miata-1991-MAZDA-MIATA-13-362-MILES-1-OWNER-ALL-ORIGINAL_W0QQitemZ200266201162QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item200266201162&_trkparms=72%3A727%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

It looks like a very clean '91, with 13k miles. Buy it now of just under $11k. What was the sticker price in 1991?

Thoughts on a preservation-category Miata?

Miatas don't seem like a numbers-matching, original-factory-stickers type of crowd... but maybe that's just because I hang out on the GRM boards.

Matt

I can't think of one good reason to buy that car for $11,000. As much as we like miatas here, I don't think they are really that special, Mazda made tons of them.

I am not sure of the sticker price in '91 but in '90 the MSRP started at $13.5. From there options made another $1-$2k and then there was the BS "dealer mark up" that was popular during the first years.

One of my customers spent over $8k with us restoring his 1990 Miata.

Why?

It was his first convertible.

We told him it'd be cheaper to buy a decent example, but it had to be THAT car. Okay, he's writing the checks, that makes him da boss...

I know someone who's looking for a 1990 Mariner Blue with under 10k on the clock. But this one? It's going to need tires :)

That interior looks awfully bleached out to be garage kept. The seats and carpet look gray.

Joey

You see these from time to time. My ex-gf's father owned a BRG that he bought from the original owner in 2000 with 6k miles. He put another 6k on it before selling it four years later. It was ridiculous. But they aren't really worth any more than book value, which might be $8k or so on the very high end.

I think its worth whatever people are willing to pay? Where else are you going to find a clean, almost-new NA Miata?

For a reference point, I paid $6300 for my car in 2005. It is a '92, red, B-package, no hardtop, that had 31k miles and was completely freaking immaculate.

psteav wrote: . I think its worth whatever people are willing to pay? Where else are you going to find a clean, almost-new NA Miata?

This statement pretty much sums up the entire collector car business. How else can you explain the crazy prices that the Barrett-Jackson auctions command?

As another data point, I just today paid $4k for an immaculate '90 Mariner Blue with Hardtop and 21k on the odometer. It's biggest issues are needing new tires and a passenger side window that has jumped off the track.

I may have overpaid a little, but it was a coworker I've been trying to talk into selling to me for a year and a half now, so I didn't beat her up too badly. (In fact, I paid what she was asking.)

Now I need to scrape together some pennies for a trip to Grand Junction and a dose of turbo goodness.

that mean you have two now? would you be selling the other?

Nah, I'm starting a collection. I'm going to keep my existing one ('96) as my street car (which it is now). I've not driven it in anger since June 2005.

The '90 is going to be my track car, and my current plan is to smack on a roll bar, a set of RA1s (or R888s), some decent brake pads, a Spec Miata suspension kit, and a turbo. I'm trying to decide whether I want to trailer it or not. I've got a little tire trailer I could pull behind the track car, but I'm seriously thinking of getting an inexpensive wood-decked car hauler and dragging it behind my Ranger.

billy3esq wrote: As another data point, I just today paid $4k for an immaculate '90 Mariner Blue with Hardtop and 21k on the odometer. It's biggest issues are needing new tires and a passenger side window that has jumped off the track. I may have overpaid a little, but it was a coworker I've been trying to talk into selling to me for a year and a half now, so I didn't beat her up too badly. (In fact, I paid what she was asking.) Now I need to scrape together some pennies for a trip to Grand Junction and a dose of turbo goodness.

A 1990 with 21k miles, a hardtop, and for 4k? I dont think you overpaid at all, thats like a 3100 dollar, 21k mile car without the hardtop.... Not bad!

Joey

billy, if you're willing to flip that car instead of turning it into a track toy, I have someone who would probably be interested in making you a bit of money. I can even find you a 1990 with a turbo already on it for a good price...

thatsnowinnebago wrote: I can't think of one good reason to buy that car for $11,000. As much as we like miatas here, I don't think they are really that special, Mazda made tons of them.

Just think of how much people pay for immaculate Mustangs from the 60's... and those sold around a half million for a few years, right?

Keith wrote: billy, if you're willing to flip that car instead of turning it into a track toy, I have someone who would probably be interested in making you a bit of money. I can even find you a 1990 with a turbo already on it for a good price...

I'll have to think about it. I've been wanting an unmolested '90-'93 to play around with and see how different things affect it. I'm actually thinking of building it up in stages just to keep me entertained over the next year or so.

I also sort of implied that I'd give it a good home. (She made me promise not to tell her if I balled it up.) Even though I'm going to make a track car out of it, It's going to be a pretty sympathetic conversion--no gutting, no full cages, AC stays, etc. I don't need it to be the fastest car out there, I just don't want to be a chicane.

joey48442 wrote: A 1990 with 21k miles, a hardtop, and for 4k? I dont think you overpaid at all, thats like a 3100 dollar, 21k mile car without the hardtop.... Not bad!

That's exactly how I rationalized it.

billy3esq wrote:

joey48442 wrote: A 1990 with 21k miles, a hardtop, and for 4k? I dont think you overpaid at all, thats like a 3100 dollar, 21k mile car without the hardtop.... Not bad!

That's exactly how I rationalized it.

I paid 4200 for a very nice 90, with 84k miles on it, and NO hardtop! But, that was also in the spring time, 1.5 years ago. I think you got a very good deal.

Joey

There was a 10AE locally a few months ago that had 6000 miles on it. 14K was the asking price. I know the seller (she bought it second hand, thinking that it could replace her 92 Sunburst, and then had buyers remorse, so she sold it again). Her big worry was that there was some corrosion on the rotors. I pointed out that her partners Boxster had similar corrosion. As did her Subaru. Car had all of the maintenance receipts, and the people that had owned it before did it by the book or better. Oil twice a year, once when it went into winter storage, again when it came out (I've never understood that). I think that it had even had the timing belt and water pump changed. Only thing that it could have used was tires, as they were original, and after 9 years, likely hardened.

Strangely enough, this is what some have said was going to happen with the early cars. I have two '90's, a May of '89 car and a November '89. These cars are both approaching 20 years in age, and even though there were and still are zillions of the things, once upon a time the world was littered with Model T's too. Just look to what has happened with the price of MGB's in the last few years - once cheap and plentiful, now not so much. Given the Miata's mystique some appreciation will be inevitable as time marches on.

Too bad the May car (the Primary Miata) has been hacked into a racecar, but the November car is clean enough to consider leaving unmolested.

Not likely, however, but I'll consider it!