Any help please. Last one came from Dandy cars a few years ago. Where to go now?
Ebay, Pistonheads, Autotrader
Depends on what you are looking for exactly and your budget…
There are a few folks dotted around who import from Japan - so ensuring a more rust free example but at a price premium.
Then you can buy a good UK one, prices are also on the up for decent rust free shells these days.
I bought my first Mk1 about 5 weeks ago. I looked at about 25 or so. They all had “issues” mostly body in the usual places but knowing what I know now most were going to need brakes or suspension or cooling or a combination thereof. I think the Mk1 MX5 is at a tipping point. Owners of good cars keep them good (mod or original - it does not really matter) as they like them but not many of those type of car are for sale. As far as I can tell, many other cars have been in the hands of folks who’ve bought one for a grand for a bit of fun and not maintained the car when they need it. These cars seem to be dying quickly.
I enquired about freshly imported Eunos but apparently the supply of those are starting to dry up and if you are buying one of those you are competing with people who will buy unseen so you are forced to buy unseen if a fresh import and wait a month or two for it to arrive from Japan. Plus you’ll have no history when you get it - you may well land a gem and there are some lovely cars but a third of what you pay is shipping cost.
I eventually bought a car in the exact spec I wanted that had a great history up to about 2 years ago. At which point it seems to have fallen into the hands of a kid who ragged it about without spending the money and it showed. I bought it for not very much but budgeted to fix quite a lot - and am having quite a lot of fun fixing it / getting it fixed.
I fear MK1 will go the same way as Alfasuds - suds were cheap and plentiful and not even welcome in some parts of the AROC (cos FWD) and then in the space of 2 years (2001 - 2003) they all disappeared, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth that there were no suds and now the survivors command strong money.
There are a lot more MX5’s about than Alfa Suds though mate. That’s the difference.
A million + Alfasuds were sold, much more than the Mk1 MX5.
Attrition amongst Alfasuds was high because they epitomised the very problems Alfa had; AlfaSub means Alfa South. They built a factory just for that model, in a region that had no tradition of car building (I think the move was due to government incentives). To compound that, these Alfas were built from a poor quality steel.
Good Mk1s in Japan apparently dried up (at least at the auctions) 5-6 years ago; thats not to say you can’t get a good Mk1 in Japan, but the values of retail cars there have always been significantly higher than auction prices, and unconomic to import for profit.
Shipping I think has increased a bit due to the exchange rate, but the shipping cost still around £500-600. If shipping is one third of your costs, then you really are scraping the barrel in Japan.
Starting price for a freshly landed Mk1 is about £3-3500; thats probably going to rise just due to exchange rates.
If any MX5 will “go the way of the Alfasud”, it will be the NB, due to rust. The NC won’t be a collectible; not because of any opinion of the car, but its a much newer design, that will likely suffer serviceability issues once Mazda stops supporting it. It never sold in the volumes of the earlier models, and is significantly more complex, and is subject to a much tigheter MOT standard (emissions). With the NA, Mazda was rather quick to start pulling parts off the lists (lip spoiler was the first, with the moulds being destroyed in 1999, 2 years after the Mk1 was obsoleted). Then there is the uncertainty of the lifespan of printed circuit boards; when do they start delaminating, and unsolvable electrical issues emere.
There are a lot more MX5’s about than Alfa Suds though mate. That’s the difference.
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Production volume for the Sud was actually greater than the MX5 NA - plus I don’t think the sud was ever sold in America which is where a lot of the MX5 population lives. Point is the number of MX5 NAs appears to be in decline in the same way the sud did - even the time frames are the same - sud production ended 1984 and they really started disappearing 2001. The MX5 NA ended 97. Anecdotally I could not find a good MX5 to buy - I saw a few tarted up ones but I’ve been around old cars long enough to see through a bit of tarting up. I saw a lot of dying ones. The sud was light weight, handled on rails (for a FWD) due to the weight, boxer engine and inboard brakes, relatively simple and robust mechanically - was loved by people who loved driving - all to familiar.
For Sale section of this forum.
My Mk1 is up for sale and was bought from a well known MX5 specialist. It was professionally de rusted, resprayed and is up there with the best available examples.
Big money limited edition (the GTA of MX5s, if Alfa metaphors are being used) for sale in Sussex;
http://www.sussexsportscars.co.uk/cars/eunos-mazda-limited-racer/
Some of us have known of this car for a few years now; a few years back, in unrestored condition, it was on a forecourt for around £1000!
To a certain extent, you are comparing apples and oranges; Alfasud sales in the UK were always tiny. It never sold well here. In contrast, the UK was one of the largest markets for the MX5.
Most of the Alfasuds on sale now are imports; Italian LHDs or South African cars.
There are more than enough Mk1 MX5s for sale to satisfy UK demand; they’re not all here though. At any one time, in Japan, there are 200-300 Mk1s for sale via Carsensor (Japanese Autotrader); these are all dealer sales of cars in generally very good condition. Entry level price is about 40,000 yen (age of car doesn’t impact value; that will be for a 1990 or 1997). Companies like Autolinkuk do have agents in country, who can go and inspect a car for you, so it doesn’t have to be risky decisions made in the middle of the night (and Autolink’s method seems to take a lot of the risk out of it). And we’ve not even tapped the Miata market yet.
You can look on howmanyleft to compare decline in Alfasud and and MX5 populations. Its fair to say, there is no comparison. Alfasuds have disappeared because there is no demand for Alfasuds. Its an interesting footnote in history, thats all, but barely remembered. Not so for the MX5/ Miata, which is firmly embedded in popular culture.
The Alfasud disappeared because everyone forgot it existed. Ain’t going to happen to the MX5.
Better to compare to MGB availability circa 1995-2000. Back then, there were a lot of pups available; they weren’t all immaculate Heritage recreations.
I’d debate how popular they were / are. Popular on the track and frequently the enthusiasts choice. I’ve got a sud sprint Trofeo and I’ve lost track of the number of people who come up to me and tell me how much they loved the one they had, most charismatic car ever owned etc - but the rust. Someone reminded me the other day the black ones survived better due to something in the pigment of the black paint - which tells you all you need to know about how much std rust protection they got from Alfa.
I do agree the comparison of the MX5 with the MGB as well though - mind a good MGB is quite a lot now. A lot of the ones making strong money often have heritage shells.
I’m not happy about the prices going up by the way. Its a pain with the sud as all the parts have become dear and everyone charges you a premium for stuff cos its expensive.
The enthusiasts being Alfa Romeo owners, rather than anyone else. The use of the Alfasud in competition doesn’t come close to the Miata MX5.
Holy moly! £22K. I know its an M2, but that’s a staggering price, especially as its not mint with a number of non standard bits (just read some of the previous posts on this car). Mind you, some fairly cheeky prices on their website. That said, as numbers diminish, then simple supply and demand will push up prices. The old rusting sub £1.5k ebay specials will gradually disappear over the next few years, and good quality cars will rise in price, with some of the more sort after limited editions jumping quite quickly. You can see that in the prices of the RS. Classic car prices are still rising, and what is classed as a classic is changing. Look at Ford Capri’s, Escorts and even Lada’s…
If only I had kept my FS1E, Honda 400/4, RD350LC, GPZ900R, Mini 1275, 2CV, Golf Mk1 GTI, 205GTI
Whatever the condition was of the car when I saw in in 2005 (and nearly brought then…). In 2005, I was offered this very same car for £6,000. I would have brought it, faults and all. But what put me off was that the dealer offered me £400 for my 1991 Roadster, which was looking immaculate with fresh paint, new hood, new wheels (and no rust whatsoever).
There are some photos of this car on display at a recent London classic car show, plus on Facebook, video of it being machine cut. It looks like it was a decent restoration; poor paint would have stood out at an indoor car display.
Interesting thread this – how I remember the Alfasud, I passed my driving test in my dad’s. They were brilliant handling and quick for the day, with a fabulous exhaust note – a sort of rasping sound. A real thing of beauty in the late 70s when compared to my usual mode of transport – an Austin 1100, which in itself was far better than most of my mates cars – a motley collection of Pseudo Mini-Coopers. I also lived next door to a guy who had the Sprint version of the Alfasud, a real enthusiast – he visited the plant where they made them on his travels, and reported that it was no wonder they rusted as they were left outside unpainted on a dock. Hey-ho - so none left now, no surprise I suppose cos there’s not even any mk1 or 2 Escorts left either ( hence the sky-high prices for the survivors).
With regard to the mk1 Mx5, my take on it is – if there weren’t any Eunos imports in the uk then prices would be a lot different, but these imports have just delayed things by a few years. The inevitable will happen and we’ll soon be in mk1 Escort land– not a lot about, what is left will be sorted , cherished, taken to shows, and while some will commendably used and raced there will be a lot not driven, just stored. So I’m looking out for a mk1 to use on the track whilst they’re still cheap and plentiful – it’s not going to be long before things change. The mk2 doesn’t seem to be a good alternative either as the cheese chassis rails seem to have condemned them to an early grave – awkward, potentially expensive repair which if added to the sill problem makes them just not economically viable.
Gone way off tangent here I suppose and getting back to the OP s question – there are still some good mk1s at reasonable prices out there but you have to know what you’re doing and maybe have to spend a lot of time and effort looking. The source I will probably use myself is this very forum – I’ve known more than one member being forced to sell a well looked- after MX5 due to no longer being able to drive – and they really want their pride and joy to go to a good home. Sorry to have rambled a bit - happy searching - Colin
My Mk1 Eunos was freshly imported in Aug 2016 and I purchased from MX5 specialists Supercar Classics based in Neston in Oct 2016. The owner of the business strongly implied that he was pretty much selling at a loss given the poor exchange rate and that importing was becoming economically unviable and that he had continued in order to maintain a business relationship with the Japanese. I paid £4190 for this rust free “unmolested” example but it has taken another £1000 or so to get near to where I want it including professional rust proofing (superficial mods only e.g. mk2 heated seats, chrome gearknob etc. ). I love the car, have really enjoyed the process of sorting her out and have no regrets at all but this clearly cost a lot more than the majority being advertised. I was fortunate enough to be in a position to pay this amount but have generally adopted the policy buying second hand cars of paying the most I can afford for the peace of mind of less costs down the line.
Was it Clarkson who said that all car enthusiasts should own an Alfa at some stage in their life - I haven’t managed it yet but have always loved the look of the original Alpha Romeo Spider in red even if the handling might be poor compared to the more modern MX5.
Matt
Alfa’s are a joy - the sum of the parts just seems to really gel together and for 10 minutes a year when its all working they are wonderful. The rest of the time you find yourself optimistically sucking your teeth while staring at a lump of shapeless rusty metal that may fit your car and better still might even fix it.
The MX5 has big character too, at least you can still get the bits and getting more performance won’t require a remortgage.
Interesting I see Short Shift paid about £5k as that is roughly the budget I put together when going a different route and buying a tired UK car - 1k for the car, up to 2k for bodywork, a bit for fixing the worn drivers seat and lost/worn trim bits and everything else into mechanical stuff which is new pads, discs, dampers and boots, a new calliper as one was sticking, sort out the manifold, replace the entire clutch hydraulics, some bushes some cooling bits including the rad, belts, full fluids change etc. I need to pull the window mechanisms out to clean them properly but hopefully the “only” price I will pay for that is Mrs Bear’s wrath that I’ve left her with the cubs again.
I came to the conclusion before I bought that getting a reliable, solid body MX5 NA without obvious problems is £4.5k - £5k. Mine is a red 1.8 with PAS and ABS. It could do with the subframes and arms being restored at some point (when I feel strong/brave/can afford £500 for more bushes). I am very pleased with my MX5 though.