Hello!
I’m thrilled to be the new owner of a 2003 NB 2.5 Nevada, which I purchased off an older friend of mine (who was 3rd owner from new, and has kept the car for 13 years). They have owned and enjoyed many of the British favourites, MGB’s, Triumphs etc, but most enjoyed this Nevada. Having lovingly cared for it for over a decade, they wanted to see it used and enjoyed more by somebody else, and felt it was time to part ways.
Not only is the car in wonderful shape (garaged, serviced annually, polished to an inch of its life and has only 50k on the clock), it’s been an even greater pleasure to purchase it off a friend. I think this is going to be an exercise in preservation and writing the car’s next chapter, as much as it will be about just enjoying the drive.
I live in York, without off-street (covered) parking, so my dad has generously offered to house this in his garage (he didn’t hesitate!) for the foreseeable future. As my dad lives in Suffolk, he’ll be the one predominantly enjoying this for the time being, with me using it on visiting weekends etc, until my wife and I find suitable off street parking closer to home. My wife thinks I’m mad (which is of course entirely true), though I’m hopeful that we’ll sort something out long term.
The opportunity arose and I (and my friend) didn’t want to see it go elsewhere, so housing it so far away was a happy compromise to make it work. We’re over the moon that we’ve got it (my dad and I), whilst my wife still requires some convincing…
I’ll be the first to admit that Cerion Silver (with a navy roof and all navy leather interior) isn’t the MX5 I’d immediately jump at (I’d likely stay well clear if I saw it on paper), though we’ve all been pleasantly surprised with how fantastic it looks on a sunny day, especially with the car still looking so fresh. Having heavily researched as much as we could in preparation for buying the car, we feel reassured in the quality and condition above all else, so the perfect paint colour became secondary to that.
Nevertheless, we feel fortunate to have now fallen for this configuration anyway!
The car is much unchanged since manufacture, bar a newer stainless exhaust, which “burbles along”, as my friend said. Nothing too lively though (which suits me, as I’ll likely lean into the originality of the car, as opposed to venturing down a heavy road of modifications). I’ve personally very little mechanical know-how, though my dad has owned various enthusiast cars in his lifetime, so his prior knowledge and experience is already proving invaluable. We’ve a Haynes manual on its way - for some light reading! - and have already found reading this forum as a non-member over the last few months to be incredibly useful.
My dad and I drove down to Wiltshire to collect the car a few weeks back and enjoyed a wonderful weekend slowly working our way back up the country. The timing was ideal, as we had clear skies and the top down the entire weekend. Seemingly the last of the summer weekends.
Already, we’ve memories to last a lifetime and we can’t wait to meet up more frequently when we can, enjoy more driving weekends and time just working on the car together.
Suffolk is satisfyingly dry (at least compared to York!), so we should enjoy plenty of great drives before deeper winter yet.
We’ll likely utilise the Eastern Area for possible meetups and local MX5 recommendations, though hope to participate in Yorkshire Ridings events in the future too. (I’ll drop a line into the Eastern Area feed for now, to get the ball rolling).
If you see us in either region, please give us a wave! (We’ve already been pleasantly surprised with like-minded '5 owners waving across at us!).
Best,
Isaac and Robert.
Son and father.
