Don’t be, the benefits far outweigh the negatives. It’s a great fun car. I worked for Mercedes and the MX5 makes the SLC look, feel boring to drive.
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At least you are better informed and armed to avoid pitfalls though.
Buy rotting lemon, it’ll squeeze you dry not you it.
I feel doomed to do this by accident. At least I know why people appear to sell immaculate looking low mileage cars quite cheap! LOL Its all about what lies beneath!
What a load of rubbish. In the eighties cars had rust on them within 3 years, and your comparing that to 15 year old MX-5s??
Folks, I’m not trying to cause any offence to anyone - just sharing my own personal experience and hoping to gain some insight.
As mentioned earlier every time I see a car that I am interested in the first thing I do before getting too excited is to check the MOT history for previous failures or advisories. In doing so I would say approx. 95% of the cars I’ve checked mention rust issues I’ve also noticed quite a few cars that look great on the outside but turn out to be MOT failures because of corrosion and people just want to sell rather than repair.
I’d just like to add that although I’m a newbie to MX5s I’m not a newbie to classic cars. My own first car was a 1978 Triumph Spitfire 1500 which I was besotted with despite the fact it kept me poor! LOL
Thankfully ziebarted from new the chassis remained in tact throughout my 10+ years of ownership (which started when it was already 10 years old) and the only real problems I had were the front footwells that rusted due to all the water that used to leak in from the gaps in the hood etc. Either way the rust underneath and sills was nothing like what I’m seeing now on MX5s.
I’ve also owned 5 MR2s and a Ferrari and again the rust was negligible compared with what I’m seeing now. Please understand I’m not trying to rub anyone up the wrong way I’m just trying to find a good car at a reasonable price.
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Ziebart was an aftermarket rust proofing
The original post was about MK3’s, as I recall.
My daily is a 2006 Yaris Mk 2. Bought 18 months ago. First thing I did was change the oil, and all the filters. Next, I went underneath. Some light surface rust in and around the rear, underboot. Everywhere else, virtually none. I gave the underboot a quick brushsplash around with Waxoyl, that’s all. This is a car with 98,000 on the clock, not some pampered thing.
Previous daily was a 2002 Golf TDI. 240,000+ miles. Only real rust was front driver’s wing, due to a (now) well known water trap.
Prior to that, daily was a 2000 Peugeot 406 HDI, with 160,000 + miles. Went to the recyclers when the high pressure fuel system failed. Never any mention of rust on the MOT’s.
Mazdas rust.
Far more quickly than contemporaries.
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All cars rust but some in worse places than others , ive seen subframes and axle beams with rotten holes in them when doing mots . I also worked for many years on an accident repair jig and wouldn’t buy a mk2 with patched up chassis legs
There’s a name from the past! Back in the 70s and 80s my Dad would always get his new cars ‘ziebarted’. He was very pee’d off when they went bust. I can only think their treatment was too good; you only ever needed to do it once, which is not a good business model - no repeat business 
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- It was expensive.
- Generally speaking, manufacturers upped their game in terms of rust protection. ( And some, er, didn’t. )
The combination of the two doesn’t produce a great long term business model.
The 10 year old Porsche 911 SC I owned in 1988 had barely a speck of underbody rust. Heavily galvanised at the factory when new.
Unlike the 9 year old Triumph TR5 I bought in 1976 . Rusty sills, rusting wings, rust at the bottom of the B pillars inside, rust in the floorpan. There had been some basic rubber underseal at the factory, but when that degraded, the water would get in behind it, and…
So, yes, mostly, things have moved on over the years.
In the 1960s and 1970s and even later, British manufacturers thought that cars had to rust otherwise nobody would buy new ones. It was part of planned obsolescence the pervaded much of industry at the time.
We now have cars that do not rust because they are built better with galvanising, etc. People still replace their cars at stupidly rapid intervals - like two or three years from new, but not because of rust.
Modern cars are safer, better built with much better features, and the new model is even better - so I must look at getting one - I can even buy it on a very favourable terms, so I can afford it. Funny, these new cars are getting much more expensive than the older models they replace.
Strange that.
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My 2013 car did one winter (2013-14) during which it was regularly hosed clean and has neen SORNed every winter since. It still looks like new underneath and the brake discs aren’t even rusted. I almost never take it out in the wet and don’t ever wash it underneath unless it has been on wet or salted roads. I should look under the side skirts sometime, but I’d be surprised if there was any rust. I am about as far ftom the sea as you can get in the UK
If the car is kept dry underneath and away from salt, it should last until you can no longer buy petrol conveniently.
Hi, After much searching I finally tracked down an early (07) NC in excellent condition with only 26k on the clock. Body work all over and chassis are rust free. It’s been garaged for most of its life and used as the summer “fun” run around. As highlighted earlier in the above conversation and in most cases you do end up paying a slight premium to own such a lovely steed. They are out there. I will be getting the full underbody treated to ensure a long rust free life ahead for my NC and to enjoy my pending retirement with a permanent smile on my face driving such a wonderful car and being part of the owners club community.
Gets things into perspective, a video on a 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid (a rebadged Mazda) in the US, in for some other issues, which are interesting in themselves; shiney on top, complete junk underneath.
MOTs are not a foolproof way. My 1996 Roadster has never had a rust advisory, nor failed on rust. But nevertheless, the sills and arches fell off. Just part of the cost of ownership of an old car.
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