Hi all,
having been looking for a mk2/.5 mx5 recently I’ve been surprised by how cheap many people, including forum members say these cars should be. Having looked for several months I’ve seen that you really will be paying a minimum of £2000 for a good condition, mechanically sound and very low rust car on the private market. However I keep seeing on here that these cars should really be priced nearer the £1500 to £1750 mark. Is there anything I’m missing here? Also, out of interest, what is peoples opinion on the mk2’s value? Would you say it is beginning to appreciate in value similarly to the mk1 or are they still depreciating, even for good low rust examples?
You are not really missing anything Eddie.
There’s no solid " Glasses Price Guide" to refer to bar perhaps checking specialist retailers to see what they are getting.
Old school Mx5/Roadster prices are all over the place. Some sellers & buyers are plain daft, some are screwing the bobbin on and being sensible.
Some sellers’s heads are in the clouds with Mk1’s in particular. Equally, there was a truly mint & boxed Racing Bronze on this forum a while back went for around 3k. I should have snapped it instead of spending 4k refurbing my Mk1.
The only “benchmark” I can suggest to you is to repeat the now cliche mantra of " Condition, condition, condition."…plus an intensive as possible research into your proposed car as…with multiple owners…you need to assume it’s been misused & ragged stupid at some point in it’s career. Possibly…
And ignore values of so called Ltd’s…most 5’s seem to have been Ltds…it means nowt really. Unless…it’s a real rocking horse pooh rarety eg a genuine original pukka RS…which some folks want 4 figures for.
1 Like
its got to be all about condition. Good, proper mint 2.5s can go for £5,000.00, but those cars are very scarce. The really rusty ones, scrap value maybe. So their’s your price range. I think they are on the cusp of some reasonable appreciation, because people will pay £5,000.00 for that rare proper mint car now as so rare.
1 Like
You can pick them up for £1,000-1,750 but they’ll be low spec and rusty or have lower quality, older rust repairs. Some good condition ones slip into this price bracket occasionally because people price their good one against the rougher ones which flood the market.
A good one in my opinion will be at least £2,000, probably closer to £3,000.
Unfortunately, MX5s are one of those cars where you’re probably going to have to look at a lot of cars before you walk away with one.
Funnily enough I’ve noticed the Facebook groups all say they’re sub £1,500 cars, and all they post is pictures of filler they’ve pulled out of their sill or their rotted away chassis rails 
I sold this for £2900 2yrs ago
I’d be asking similar price for this too if / when I sell
I hope that gives you an idea on price 
1 Like
I was only thinking to myself this morning when perusing a few MX-5 adverts, prices seem to be on the up. As one post above sort of relates to what is happening, some put a price tag on their cars thinking they have something special whilst others live in the real world.
I noted a seller wanted top whack for a car, yep maybe worth it I thought, until you clock the rusty sill/arch then check the MOT history, dreaming that someone may bite their hand off.
Thanks for the advice, puts my mind at rest. As for appreciation I’ve seen some near perfect Arctic’s and other desirable cars going for well over £4000. No doubt they’ll go for more in the years to come if looked after.
But those Arctics will probably not go for £4k in 12 months time.
Here’s how my MX5 purchasing history has gone:
1997: £8500 for a 1992 Eunos Roadster, fresh off the boat
2000: Said Roadster stolen and burnt out. I was very happy with the settlement of £6500
2000: 1991 Roadster, a 1997 import, brought for £6000. Needed a new roof and treated to goodies
2004: Repainted the 1991 car (paint was thin)
2005: Sold 1991 car, with 140k miles on it for £3500, strong money at the time
2005: Brought 1996 S-Special II, 2000 import, £4500, bit rough around the gills
2007: Added a 1993 M2-1002, £2700
2008: Sold M2-1002 back to the trade for £1700, plus services, after uncovering the truth behind that car (needed skills and money I didn’t have).
2013: Brought S-Limited ex-Show car (Hail damage) £2500, including unfitted supercharger. Didn’t want the Supercharger.
2016: MX5 specialist offered me £500 for my S-Special 2. Told him where to go
2019. Finally shot of the S-Limited. It was perfect. Best I could get was £3500, after starting at £5500. Ah well. I had hardly driven it in 6 years.
Since 1997, there have been 2 resprays, 4 sills and arches, 4 hoods, 1 engine, 2 clutches, 2 rollbars, seats galore, 1 wheel set restored, 1 set of new wheels, only 6 brake calipers. Here’s to the investment! Its frightening.
The people making money are the ones buying for £1000 and flipping it for 2.
On the other hand, with some wierd bangernomics, I think I have a free car now. Albeit one that eats catalytic converters on an annaul basis (the 270k km S-Special)
3 Likes
I’m on the look out too for a mk2. The prices vary a lot Gumtree and EBay seem rife between £1000-2000 but a lot of sellers don’t seem to know what a front chassis rail is that’s for sure.
I’ve seen a Jasper in good order sell for £1100 and a racing green go for £1200 on eBay so far.
I’ve looked at a Jasper Platinum with no MOT, 2 x rotting sills and rotten front chassis rails and in need of a new cam belt which couldn’t be changed 6 years ago and a full service so well into £2k to sort all of that out.
I’ve seen a mk2 with a mx5 owners sticker on the side panel which I’m interested to see if anyone here has any history on, can anyone help if I provide the reg number?
post your location , someone may have just what your looking for 
Hi
Thanks Hertfordshire
Looking for a 1.8 mk2/2.5. Can’t seem to comment on the Nevada for sale for £2100 in East London so if the seller sees this then please pm me
Car I’ve also seen online is Y751 HHK. If anyone was the owner on here please pm me also
Thank you
2 Likes
Spoke to the owner, Emma three weeks ago, I haven’t seen it but she told me it had the original sills and it drives really well. Not too far from you. If I hadn’t committed on my mk2 I would have had a look at this.
Thank you. I did see this and did message Emma. She said there’s no rust and i did ask a few further questions regarding front chassis rails and I’ve heard nothing back at all sadly. Low mileage for sure. MOT history seems fairly decent too. Let’s hope she responds.z
Later 2.5s can be a much much nicer place to be in than the earlier cars which were all very basic spec with much blackness. Later ones have air, con, heated seat, mirrors and a bit of colour inside. There are some really bad cars out there for a few hundred quid and a few for a few thousand that are mint. And loads in between. Pays your money & you get what you pay for generally. I would say £2500 or so would get a nice one that needs some work.
Thank you. Makes a lot of sense to what I’m seeing the two examples that eBay auction finished for just over £1k May still have needed front chassis rail repairs so looking at £2k overall then and also some fettling with brakes, maybe a sill repair.
I think I’m going to see what I can find for around this price and factor in some future rust repairs at least that way I know it will have been sorted out
Thank you
It is easy to overpay on something tarted up to conceal work that is needed, so it is not that case that £2500 GETS a good one, more of a case that £2500 CAN get you a good one. Big clue is in MOT history, whenever you see corrosion mentioned you know the car has cancer. That can be cured so you are then asking for receipts for the work to help you assess whether a skilled putty and rattle-can artist has hidden the issue, or if good long lasting repairs have been done.
Personally, I like to buy an ‘honest’ car, one with a list of faults you can make reasonable estimates on time and cost to fix and factor this into the buying price. Starting with one of the ‘mint’ examples advertised by dodgy back street sellers is unlikely to end well. That is why sales on forums such as this for well cared for cars are a good option as there is much higher chance of honesty, and also a good chance to read candid history about the specific car.
I’m with you on this. I’ve messaged probably 10-15 sellers on eBay. A lot of “mint” and “no rust” replies and yet some don’t even know what a front chassis rail is. It took me all of 10mins research to look up common rust areas on an mx5.
Also it seems trade sellers are less helpful than private by a long shot. Not sure why when it’s their livelihood and also beneficial to back up claims with pictures. After all they can be added to the listing pictures.
One big minefield.
I’ve seen another up for auction il probably visit this weekend. A very good starting price and MOT history, I just need to see the rails and check for rust to factor that in
There’s a Jasper Conran just gone up for sale on here.
There’s no mention of anything untoward in the description, check the MOT history of course, make your own mind up.
You read my mind. I was just looking at this and the MOT history. Last entry seems to have corrosion near to the sills on both sides.
So possible £800-1000 future rust repair job
All MX5s (more or less) will have a future rust repair job. It depends how far away that is.
One that’s never had a recorded repair; assume imminent. Rust is from the inside out. Boroscope inspections can give some measure of confident, but not 100%, because the source of corrosion is inaccessible (in the sills), and requires significant dismantling (in the front chassis legs.
One that has had a repair. Difficult to say. MX5restorers gives a 3 year warranty against a repair failing a MOT. That’s not the same as 3 year warranty against rust. Many other specialists are carrying out repairs to a similar standard. My 1996 Roadster, imported 2000, got a full respray in 2009, with a “minor” repair to the passenger sill (2p sized hole, no other bubbling). The garage that did the work, unbeknownst to me at the time, just plated over the sill. That lasted 18 months, befor I noticed the horror. The coachworks then repaired that, FOC, in 2011. To be fair, in 2017, when the sill and arch was repaired, the 2011 repair was absolutely sound from the outside (little bled, no crunchiness). But when cutaway, there was damage to the inner sill. I know in 2011, that was perfectly fine, because I had opened up the old bad repair. In 2017, you see the patch repair that had to be done, but not too bad.
But the arch (which was all original), while in 2017 looked fine, when cut away, it was found that the inner wing lip was in a pretty bad way.
So, repairing just a sill doesn’t halt rusting elsewhere, and when you repair that arch, you’re going to be doing the sill again.
When assessing repairs, its important to understand how the repair was done; is it going to last till next month, or is it going to last 3 years. I don’t think anyone should assume a repair will last more than 3 years., and so the repairs should be figured into the cost of ownership. £1000 over 3 years, is only £333 per year.
Mk1 prices are rising by more than £333 a year, so, in a way, future costs of rust repairs can be largely discounted.