Hi; I’ve had a Mk 1 for about 18 months, having had two others in former years. It is a lovely little car , and obviously I am very fond of it. It has a hard top, and although it is Category D after ( I assume ) a prang in 2012, it sails through MOTs. But; I am in my 70s, and do a lot of driving, often at night, and I’ve had a scare or two, especially on wet dark nights. I can’t see what is going on around and behind me as well as I once did. Absence of a built in sat nav and the noise making it hard to hear Sophie Sat Mav anyway, means that I am not enjoying it, and use my other car now for longer journeys. It’s insurance value is minimal ; made in 1997 I think, , but it IS a Mk 1 and is pretty sound. Any advice would be appreciated.
Couldn’t you keep it for warm sunny days
Probably need to better define “pretty sound”, which could be “a bit rusty”. I’m not sure, given its age, being a Cat D makes a great deal of difference to the value. And if you are finding it more difficult to see at night, its not going to get any better. Consider changing your driving habits and maybe getting a NHS referral to get your eyes checked out. There are a number of conditions that can now be at least arrested if diagnosed early enough.
Thanks; for pretty sound read no visible rust or MOT warnings. The info about Cat D is as I hoped.
I had intended to use it as my main car, as I used to do with other MX5s I had, but the years have gone on, my age is showing, and using the motorway service stations on long night-time journeys is not nice for a solo female driver,and the characteristics of the car do not suit my age and declining confidence in the dark and the rain… it just isn’t working, and is not the fun it used to be.
But the options? I struggle with this forum, and don’t know how to show photos . We Buy Any Car is useless for 1997 cars ( I tried them) as there is no " but it is REALLY nice" aspect to their valuing. Are there any meets I could drive to and park it with a" buy me" sign?
What do people do?
Sell it here; posting an image is exactly the same as any other website if you upload photos to Photobucket, Flickr, Imgur etc… There are numerous guides on this forum.
But it won’t sell quickly if that’s what you want.
Take out an ad in Autotrader, Gumtree etc. It will sell quicker, but you probably have to put up with tyrekickers and timewasters. Not to say that doesn’t happen here; I had several timewasters here when I sold one of my Mk1s here.
Cat D value is only my opinion. Others will disagree. It helps if you know the nature of the repair.
You use We buy any car to get rid of a car quickly and painlessly, not because you hope to get a good price for it. https://www.wewantanycar.com will give a value for older cars. It won’t be much, but its convenient.
Value would be anywhere from £1000 to 3000, depending on condition, mileage, and to an extent, specification. 1.8 or the poverty spec (less desirable) detuned 1.6? Hood condition (any splits in the vinyl, damage to the window)? Seat condition; wear or fraying to the bolsters (UK cars very prone). Recent service history; what work has been done? Matching tyres? Budget tyres? Any previous repairs to the sills? MOT history previous fails?
My S-Special never had any rust warnings on the MOT, nevertheless it ended up looking like this after a session with a wire brush.
I would not take absence of comment on a MOT certificate as evidence of body condition.
Thank you for taking so much trouble, and for being so helpful. Genuinely helpful. I’ll look into this.
I have also sent off an email to the garage I bought it from, who are a local family run firm who I have found very honest and straightforward. They did say they would buy it back, and asked me what I wanted for it. I paid 2500, and would be happy with 1000 to 1250 ish, tbh. With insurance and road tax refunds it would not be too bad. It is a shame. We all tend to ignore the aging issue, thinking it does not apply to us. Even getting in and out, which is simple enough to do if you do it right, is becoming a bit more of an effort. I just got older than I thought I had!
One thing I find is that people think that an MX5 would be uncomfortable to drive for long periods. It isn’t so, is it? A very comfy driving position.
I’ll not be posting a picture, not because the car doesn’t look OK, but because I do not know how to get a photo out of my camera and onto a forum. My son and daughter have tried to show me, but I always fail. I have dyscalculia, which does not help ( sequence issues) Just posting anything on here is unreliable. I tried to post the original post three times, and lost it twice. 
Thanks for the pm, pm-ing person, but no thanks.
It is a 1997 Mk 1. 1.8. Basic equipment, racing green black interior trim, 85000ish, hard cover which needs a respray. Soft top was good when I bought the car 18 months ago. No visible rust as far as I can see. Sounds OK to me. radio is useless, clock does not work.
I’ve emailed the garage I bought it from to see if they will sell it for me. They did say they would a while ago.
Actually ,not a bad idea, though the expense of keeping the car just for those " special days" is more than I fancy. It might come to that yet. Being sensible is all very well and good…… but it’s an MX5… Roadster actually…they have pop up lights… so cool.
So its a Eunos Roadster, not a Mazda MX5
When I bought my first one in @ 1999, there was much talk and tutting about " grey imports". Since then the talk and tuts have more or less faded away. In practice, I and many other " Eunos Roadster" owners call them MX5s because ( a) they are Mazdas and the general public has not heard of the name Eunos ,and (b) no-one much cares. No problems with spares, no problems with the usual Mazda reliability. because it is a Mazda, innit? I have had two. Both were wonderful. I also had a Mk2 " Mazda MX5" for a short time. It was a rustbucket, as it happens, which is why I swopped it for my Mk 1 Roadster.
No intention to defraud is involved. Like many another MX5 that stand in lines outside dealers or at MX5 meets, mine is a Eunos Roadster.
1997 Eunos Roadsters are quite rare in this country, but there are a lot of Eunos Roadsters described at 1997, because that was the date of importation, not first use. You logbook will indicate the year of first UK registration. Thats quite important, because its a fair indicator if there is rust lurking or not. Rust starts to show about 10-12 years after importation.
And, as a 1997 Roadster, getting parts from Mazda UK is still not entirely straightforward; these late cars accumulated a number of mechanical and trim differences not present in equivalent UK cars, necessitating special orders from Mazda (provided the dealer has access to the worldwide EPC), eg seatbelt assemblies, exhausts, catalytic converter, radio surround.
Also, dealers can still get funny about imports, even MX5 specialists. One MX5 Specialist offered me £300 for my restored 1996 Roadster (I have owned nothing but Roadsters since 1998, so seen it all) because it was an import. Don’t be surprised if a dealer low balls you because the car is an import, despite your protestations.
Quite; I have never thought that the logbook 1997 date was of much use. It is now 2019 and what matters is the car as it is. And it seems to be OK. It was a category D in 2012. Since then, money has been spent on it. No further bodywork or underneath work has been needed at any MOT since then. I had a wing done earlier this year because I scraped my stone gatepost reversing out. Nothing untoward cropped up apart from the damage I did.Sorry to sound grumpy…… this is getting a bit silly.
It is just a nice little old car, with a current MOT, and no obvious issues, and someone will buy it for well under 2000 and be glad to have it.
As the OP is not advertising the car here, moved to advice.
jeez… I did post in the hope that some MX5 fan might be interested, and for info on possible ways to sell, and have had some sensible advice, but it seems I am being treated as a nuisance. So bye for now.
I did actually say in my pm id be happy to go give you advice or maybe buy it but you turned me down.
But now i find out you want 2k for a cat d basic eunos im glad you turned me down
Honestly buddy, get some decent photos of the car, make a good advert and throw it on ebay with a reserve price you are happy with.
Or just do a classified ad which is £20 or so, and allow ‘best offers’
The car will sell for what it’s worth in no time. Likely more than what a garage will give you, anyway.
Unfortunately I just had to sell my Mk1 also (dead engine / various bits wrong with it) and I made a HUGE listing on ebay with all the parts / modifications it had on it (S special) and I got a very good amount of money from the first viewer.
Good luck.
Oh, good heavens;
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I do not want or expect 2000 for it. That is why I said " well under 2000". The clue is in the " well under". " well under" clearly includes a quite a lot of sums that are less than 2000. The point was, it is an old car that has to be taken on it’s merits. I mentioned 1000 to 1250 earlier in the thread; pity you did not read that.
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I turned you down as " someone who might buy it" because, frankly, the wording in your PM sounded a bit offputting. I am a woman in my 70s, and I have to be cautious.
This is all a bit too blokey for me. I’m sorry I made the original post, as it has resulted in a very little good advice and quite a lot of patronising comments.
( Tommysport excepted; good advice)
Im sorry if my offer to give you some advice or even buy it was off putting.
Having just sold my vspec today id have bought it as a little project.
I think youll be better off letting the garage sell it as you do seem like You would be hard work to deal with.
Good luck with the sale
Hard to deal with? Others must be the judge of that, not you.