Just for fun and estimating for your current MX-5, have you reached the point where you’ve spent more on repairs, mods and general bling than you originally paid for the car? (It’s anonymous, so your significant other won’t know 
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I’m in a good place ATM with my ND. Although it’s 10 years old I’ve only spent (unnecessarily) £30 on parts for it since I’ve owned it, that’s over about 4 months.
But, I’ve had to spend (necessary) around £330 on new tyres and a set of alloys £100.
Don’t need anything else until service time next year.
Rebuilding Listerine from a pile of rust cost as much as the original sales invoice
I’ve spent more on my ND than i paid for it, about half its value at BBR alone.
Spent many times the initial 2k that was paid for Madge eight years ago, like Goodj most of it grappling with runaway rust.
Thankfully the person who owned my ND before me spent more on it with BBR than I paid him for it. Which seems the right way to do it if you can.
I spent about six times more on my NA than I paid for it, but luckily got 2/3 of that back when I sold it - which isn’t always the case.
I got my NC cheap on a trade sale because it needed a wing and a few other bits done but since then I’ve gotten totally carried away. Including 3 sets of wheels!!
The car was £1,800 and I’ve spent at least £3,800 on it although half of that was a hardtop and paint to make it match the car. I don’t regret any of the things I’ve bought. You can’t take it with you!
I’m glad the Mk3 Yesses are coming up. I was beginning to think I was the only one 
I think the results are very much as you’d expect. The Mk1 and Mk2 needing a lot more TLC then the newer models. The Mk4s are still pretty pricy and many still under warranty so you’d have to go quite a way with mods to reach that point; engine replacements, turbos etc.
I voted No on my NB, but only had it a few weeks, ask me again in another few weeks and the answer may be different 
On my Niseko the total expense including all consumables, extras, servicing and tax etc came to more than I paid for the car.
But that was for nine years happy motoring, until it failed an impossible brake test and then the insurance gave me back 7,617 so the car only cost 1,783 to buy…
So the Lifetime Cost Cradle to Grave was then 15,089.72
I bought my ‘91 V Special NA on a whim from the bloke in the garden centre next to where I work six years ago. As follows…. He’d bought into the yard a couple of times but never caught him with it. I caught up with and asked him (Racing Green good bodywork from what I could see) how much it was worth. £600 but he’d paid £1000 for it. I offered him £700 on the spot and we shook hands. So, it needed a few things doing. Alarm as it kept on cutting in. Radiator. Clutch slave cylinder. Shocks and most of the suspension as the springs had gone. Seats refaced and refurbished. Battery. A full and complete service. Replacement radio. Central locking linked to the alarm. Four new tyres. Bodywork was good. No noticeable rust.
All this in the first year and then a full service each year. Only doing about 1-2500 Kms (Japanese import). The first year was very expensive. My ex-wife couldn’t understand why I bought it. Well. It made me grin when I drove it.
Now? I thought I’d futureproof it. I took it to Garath at The MX-5 Restorer. First shock was that the bodywork was very good. I suspected as much. Probably garaged most of its life and in very good condition. Probably worth about £7000 so technically I’ve broken even. Its now undergoing a full respray, new mohair roof with glass insert, track rod ends, clutch slave cylinder, electric aerial, new speedo cowling, resprayed dash, full cavity wax. Mulling over new rims and new carpets. Well over what it’s worth but if I get another fifteen years then it’s worth it. See
That’s the way to do it!
After 28 years of MX-5 ownership and seven different MX-5s, I don’t want to even start adding up costs!! 
Just get in, drive and enjoy……….. 
Of course.
Ok Car was free and needed rebuilding, but I am quite deep now but I simply do not care. I love it.
I’ve just about spent the same, in servicing, repairs etc, as I paid for my mk2 new; but that’s not bad for 25years.
So, lets see.
Spent probably as much as I paid for it at MX-5 Restorers.
Spent 3.5 times as much as I paid for it at BBR……and more to come.
Madness really.
Not on my MX-5, but I did spend significantly more on my previous fun car, with repair and modification costs approximately running at more than 2x the cost of the car itself.
Having said that, the car only cost £1,799, and my spreadsheet suggests total spent (including the purchase price) was a little over £6,000 so it wasn’t a ton of money spent on it, but it was significant comparatively to the cost of the car.
Bringing a £900 MX-3 back to the road cost about £5k 
I bought my 1998 1.8S NB for £600 in January 2014 and sold it for £650 in December 2024. Nearly 11 years and 34,000 miles motoring cost me £4840 in repairs and oils of which £2100 was for welding of the rear sills and chassis legs. The rear wheel arches were blistering but it passed its next MOT in May 2025. Mechanically it was still spot on. I carried out my own maintenance apart from the cambelt and water pump replacement. Petrol was £5600. I kept a note of costs on a spreadsheet.
It was replaced by a Cat N 2016 1.5 Sport Nav that has cost about £6000 to buy and put back on the road . In the first 15 months and 8500 miles this has cost me £1060 in routine maintenance and repairs which included rear discs, front and rear pads, rebuilding the front calipers, rear spherical bushes and a window regulator. I expect the first year of ownership to have higher maintenance costs as bringing a car up to an excellent standard results in lower costs in later years. Again I carry out the maintenance and find the ND easy to work on. I treated the underside and box sections with Dynax S50 so hopefully rust will not be a problem for some years.
The secret is to buy well and carry out one’s own servicing and maintenance.
My thinking says that £6k would be a couple of years depreciation on a new car, and frankly there is not that much on a new or even older ND I could get that excited about compared to my 23 yo NBFL.