Underside condition was paramount for me. I looked at spanking cars with full history for much more money - but underneath was no good on many.
Few buyers will look underneath a car. I bought a Suzuki Jimny (an even worse rotter than an MX-5) last month from a dealer. Turned up with a torch and overalls and spent 20 minutes under the car, to the dealer’s tolerant bemusement. They are high enough that you can shimmy right underneath and see everything. I wasn’t bothered about the mechanicals - they are always fine on a Jinny auto (the manual boxes are a bit fragile). It needs new hard brake lines at the front but the bodywork is as good as it gets.
Well the way I see it a scuffed bumper or marked wheels is easily remedied but rot is rot and not so easy to deal with…
Yes but those jimnys… Missus chose a swift, showed her the jimny shortly after and she fell in love but it was too late. We then found out that they’d discontinued them in the UK due to emissions standards and all remaining ones in the UK had been sold. Now they fetch up to 10k more than new on the secondhand market 
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