Aach You’re alright, Donald1. I’ve used your link and have reached out to a dealer in … wait for it … Wiltshire!!! FURTHER away than Compton Verney 
but they’ve got a smart 2015 Sport Venture PRHT with just over 32,000 miles; will have a chat tomorrow. SO thanks to you & your link!
Funny old world!
I live in Wiltshire and flew to Inverness to get mine. 
Good luck. 
Yes, love the colour and as well as having a satnav, and more importantly, it’s got botty warmers!
Funny ol’ world! You betcha. How did you vet the car enough to do a ‘go see’? Just spoke to a chap at the garage and they are too small to organise transporter. SO looks like I’ll be exploring flying/driving or getting out my magic wand!! You don’t live near Malmesbury by any chance? 
Cheers
I’ll try not to bore you, but you did ask!
Likewise, its not my intention to put you off either.
Remember, plenty out there and choose with you head and not your heart.
I think my last 8 or so cars, bikes and motorhomes have been distance buying.
Mine came from Macrai and ■■■■ Mazda dealer as it was then.
He told me about the front bumper chips and he had it resprayed and also a couple of wheel refurbished, (as good as new).
That one is the 1.8 as opposed to the 2.0?
Basically, as many pictures and video’s as possible.
“SERVICE HISTORY” would be high on my list.
Paperwork?
Owners?
Does the price fit well with the market with everything taken into consideration?
I would demand (nicely of course) 12 months MOT.
(Checked the current MOT on it and runs out 6th August 2025).
Few advisories for negotiation too.
Tyres, wheel condition…
Can’t be 100% sure, but it looks like 3 different brand of tyres on it, (they need putting in the bin perhaps).
A bargaining point and don’t let them put cheap tyres on it. 
Body work, condition is high on the list inside and out.
Aircon works fine (as most warranties won’t cover the gas etc).
The roof opens and closes fine with no nasty noises.
There comes a point in life where your gut feeling comes into play and a matter of trust with the seller.
Distance selling comes into play too.
So IF this is the one you want, pay the deposit by CC (even if you don’t it’s fully refundable) and will be fully refundable too if not described properly.
Once you make the “initial” decision get a full HPI check.
What warranty are they going to give, is it upgradable.
I also negotiated a tank of fuel to drive home.
Best to get everything confirmed in an email.
Not a million miles from Malmesbury.
BUT, I would strongly urge you to get an independent inspection if you are unsure.
As even though I was (in a previous life/s) qualified mechanically and also to inspect vehicles “you never know”.
It was glorious journey home.
Good luck.
And … take a look underneath it, if possible?
I find that the ‘sat nav’ generation have no idea about local geography. A sat nav tells you where to go (if you have set it up correctly) but it doesn’t tell you where you are in the landscape. That is how some folk manage to set up their sat nav incorrectly and don’t even realise it’s taking them in the opposite direction of where they need to be heading to reach their intended destination. Some have even gone hundreds of miles in completely the wrong direction before they realis ‘something aint right’.
I like to use both. A map for the overall view of the entire journey, and the sat nav for stuff like finding a particular address while driving through a city.
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Well. That 2015 1.8 car has a better-looking MOT than mine! (And we’ve both got the same mileage - 7,700 miles under norm!) I’ve assiduously fixed everything as I went along; wee Mazdas are fiends at getting rusty and snacking on discs, calipers etc., esp as mine has had to be kept outside. I think I’ve got a good grasp of what needs to be done - and I really appreciate your time to remind me of it all - but I am puzzled: why a picture of the petrol cap area? Have seen a lot of this type of pic in my search but I do not know what to look for on that one! Thnx again 
If the drain has blocked - the fuel cap area holds water and corrodes.
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Hi, I’ve just seen this thread in the Forum Update email. I thought I should speak up in defence of the TomTom /Sanyo NVA-SD8110 fitted to NC models c. 2012. I bought a 2012 NC Venture about a year ago with this unit fitted. It worked fine but the map was wildly out of date. As mentioned above the SD card is way too small (4gb) for modern maps (which are still produced by TomTom) and the TomTom website says the unit won’t work with a larger one. This isn’t true.
I bought a 32gb SD card from Tesco for under a tenner and cloned the content of the original card on to it and then updated it through the TomTom update app. It worked fine although I had to do a hard reset to get the Live Services working again.
I did this in April and have used it without problem all year, including a 2000 mile tour of nothern Italy and southern France in July.
I did this to keep the car original and I have always used after market TomTom’s on my other cars for many years and I find the operating system very familiar.
Happy to give more detailed advice if anyone it is interested
Suzy02
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Thanks for that Suzy02. I appreciate knowing that I could replace radio, etc with a new satnav (or do it your way ) but I just got a brand new mobile phone and judging from the ease of use to travel around California with same android, I’ve taken the item off my ‘must have’ list. Seems finding a low mileage blue PRHT sport tech with white seats is enough of a challenge. Keep the car original works for me
I have a blue Sport Venture the audio/sat-nav is rubbish I usually just use google maps on my phone for sat-nav, I have a list of things I want to do to this car a new head is high on the list.
The blue is a beautiful colour on a sunny day it looks almost black unless you are standing next to it and then you notice the blue in the contours of the bodywork
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Aaw Thanks for that, MXgriff. It is hard to see in photographs but I shall stay on the alert for my RIGHT one. Planned to buy a ‘previously cherished’ Mk 4 but I am so happy with everything about my Kendo, I finally figured out I just need a wee honey with a hard top. All the best in getting your list whittled down! This is certainly the best forum to look for help from all the amazing pro-MX5 folk. Cheers
Called off the hunt on this one! Too many contentious issues. The end came when bankers draft was required; head & heart agreed. I’ve always had an ‘angst vs ease’ philosophy and this became far too complicated and arduous to obtain a car over 500 miles away. That element of trust is always the edge of the coin, int’it. Oh btw, I found my list of things to use whist purchasing my Kendo - what a match! Thanks again for your interest. 
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Thanks for the update.
A “Bankers Draft”!
Thought they went out with the ark… and you have to pay to use it. 
Good luck on whatever you decide to do, something will always pop up.
Edit- Another reason to give a wide berth.
“A £99 admin fee is applicable to selected vehicles and includes a Safety sales check, Service and HPI check. An alternative £180 admin fee is payable where 3rd party finance is taken out and when it is not arranged directly through Hyams Autos”.
I’ve never understood why they do this. (It’s BS in my opinion). A good business will factor all this in with the sales price.
Includes a safety check, really……
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Completely agree.
If they can’t post the final price up front - what else are they hiding ?
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Bought a Škoda Yeti from a garage which had a £99 “admin fee”.
Told them to remove it or the deal was off. It was taken off the invoice.
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this sounds interesting being able to update the old maps as we have a 2014 25th Anniversary Edition. Did you update it via the TomTom app on a windows pc???
I can tell this, (From a 2013 2.0 Sport Tech Nav with NVA-SD8110)
When I last updated which was around 2019, TomTom were not that helpful.
In fact they actually stopped answering my questions to get it sorted.
I have a sneaky suspicion that because the unit is now quite old they maybe/may have stopped the map updates.
Because I was going to Spain, I tried very hard to get UK etc and Portugal and Spain onto a card.
That failed miserably because the maps were too large.
I bought a second SD card of the same capacity.
After a lot of fiddling I worked out that formatting the second card via the TomTom website achieved nothing.
What you have to do is Format the additional card in your Unit.
Rather many menu’s from memory…
That way it puts all the codes (or whatever it does) onto the new card for your unit.
Then eject it and go to the computer and was able to load the Portugal/Spain maps onto that.
So I was using TWO cards for the maps I needed.
Now whether or not the unit will take a larger capacity card to put all that on I don’t know.
I still found myself in fields, (before making a second card) instead of roads and the positioning was rather random to say the least.
Hence, I binned it for a Kenwood unit in the end.
I sold all mine to a good bloke .
He previously bought one which didn’t work for him and thought he bought a duff one.
He later messaged me and said he still couldn’t get it all to work and just gave up!!
Good luck.
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I have a 2008 PRDT NC and wonder if such a unit would fit?