I have been searching for a good used ND Soft Top for four months with a max budget of £15k.
Happy to consider a 1.5 or 2.0 litre car.
There are so many uncared for cars out there, patchy service history, very dirty under the bonnet, scuffed inside and multiple owners. However Mazda Dealers and independent dealers are still asking top money for the cars.
I have come to the conclusion that MX5 enthusiasts are hanging onto their well cared for cars.
Some ND’s are turning ten this year. There are good cars around and they should be well within reach for that money. A good detail would take care of a lot of cosmetics but you’d want a nearly complete service history for sure.
The last 4 months have also been the quietest period of the year I’d say, for sales. Some may have been hibernating for the winter, to have the covers taken off and then some examples put up for sale come springtime.
With your budget, what are you aiming for in terms of max mileage and number of owners?
Keep the faith, there’ll be a suitable example out there for you 
Stands to reason the garage queens and Sunday cars, many of which will be underserviced as owners wait to clock up the requisit miles often taking several years, before getting scheduled service work done, are going to be few and far between, just got to keep your eyes peeled and be patient. GLWYP
Have you had a look on Auto Trader. There are some nice cars there to look at.
Yes monitoring Autotrader and Cargurus on a regular basis within a 50 mile radius of my home.
Ideally looking for a car from a Mazda dealership to get one years Mazda used car warranty and one years AA cover.
Max mileage around 30k max and 2 owners 2016 to 2019 car.
A lot of cars seem to have 3 to 4 owners over a 5 to 7 year period.
When i was looking for my ND, i was checking Auto trader sometimes twice a day. It paid off because when i found my car and called the dealer they said it had been uploaded only minutes before. It’s definitely worth paying top money from a main dealer because of the year warranty thing, and regarding your 50 mile radius limit…i was prepared to travel to Scotland or Cornwall for the right car. Good luck with your search.
I’m doing exactly that today; travelling from Southwest London to the borders of Scotland so hope it’s as advertised.
Best of luck. 
That’s the thing when seeking used cars- turning up and finding they’re minging. Curbed alloys, shed loads of swirls etc, which might be hard to make out properly from a ‘selectively photoed’ AutoTrader pic. Pre reg I’ll travel, but used cars I’ll do even less than the 50 miles mentioned above. When I was looking for my up! gti runabout, I also had a Swift Sport on my either/or list. I couldn’t tell you the howlers I saw, and 2 years old, sub 20K miles too. One even had diamond cuts ‘polished’ smooth when the owner must have eaten the rims of the alloys. Minging rusted callipers, swirls like they’d had broom brush washes. I though good job they were on,y 15-20 miles away. Imagine I’d travelled 150. Being into car detailing is a curse sometimes, as when you view cars and how they’ve been ‘looked after’, it makes buying used 10X harder.
Me and the Mrs went to Motorpoint on one occasion to see a few candidates. When we walked away i said ‘out of all the cars we saw today, all of them, (as in shed loads window shopping), how many actually look in better nic than our 7 year old one we’re driving back in?!’
A very nice 2018 1.5ltr Sport soft top. With just under 40k miles on the clock. But the Mazda dealer wouldn’t budge on the price of just under £14k for a cash purchase.
Prices are high - £14k for a 7 year old car just makes me reluctant, or am I expecting too much?
Agree with most of what you said, except the travelling thing…i see it as a day out with a possible bonus at the end. 
Seen plenty of wrecks described as good condition though.
I once went to look at a MK1 Mini with a view to “doing it up” It looked more than a bit rough and the driver’s door handle was missing, so i leaned across from the passenger side and as i pushed the driver’s door it literally fell off the hinges! The woman said “It’s got lots of character”
I should have been a car detailer, lost count of the number of times people have said “cleaning it again!” They just don’t understand. 
Sounds a lot.
If you got the reg plate, bung it into webuyanycar and see what price comes up. All things being equal this would have been the ‘ballpark’ which they probably paid the person who traded it in. Then see the excess up to £14K. They will pay ‘VAT on the margin’ though. They pay 1/6th of the difference between the eventual selling price (£14K say) and what they got it for when they got it as a trade in (that difference is called the margin). So, for eg, say they got it as a trade in for £10K, and sell it for £14K, they ‘make’ £4K, but of that pay (1/6th of £4K) £667 in VAT, so make a ‘profit’ of £3,333 etc. You got to take that into consideration as if you wanted to sell it, the webuy price will give you an indication of how much you’d then lose. Who knows, for whatever reason, if you sold it in a year time, it might only fetch £9-9.5K (won’t depreciate that much annually at that age), which would mean a then £5K or so loss if you got it for £14K a year earlier. Negative sounding granted, but sometimes it’s best to factor in as many ‘unknown’ variables as possible.
I agree £14K sounds a bit of that. I wouldn’t expect that for my '18 2L (albeit Sel-Nav), with 16.7K miles and looked after to the point of illness.
As expected, the used car market has crashed for how much they will give for yours…but miraculously, not when you want to buy one.
Edit: I stuck a ceramic one on AutoTrader, into webuy, same age/spec/miles (is this the one?) into webuy and it came back as £9,895. So just under a £4K mark up! And 4 keepers!
Yes that sounds like the same car, it is in excellent condition.
However the price, the mileage, and number of owners put me off purchasing the car. It is a Mazda dealership so there would be a 12 month warranty and 12 months AA cover.
If it had been a one owner car with 20k miles on the clock it would have been ideal, but no doubt a higher asking price!!
Personally I’d pass on it. Even Autotrader reckon it’s over a grand above the market average. 4 owners is a bit. ‘One’ owner could have been the original garage pre reging it. Mine had that. So technically ‘two’ owners, but one ‘owner’ was the dealership pre regging it, and I had it from 3 miles, and it was an in-the- showroom car! If ever the phrase patience is a virtue is ion requirement of an example, the car buying game is it.
Yes, I have passed on this one.
I will just keep searching for the right one to come along, I’m in no rush.
I wouldn’t be put off my multiple owners necessarily. Enthusiastic buyers tend to lavish loads of care on their cars when they get them. Often people who keep a car for a lot longer lose interest and just do the minimum. Condition and history are much more important to me.
Agreed. I don’t really understand the ‘low owner’ stipulation personally. As ever, I’d buy on condition. So that would speak for itself, no matter whether the car is still with its first owner or it’s 4th.
For example, the original owner who doesn’t drive it very much, but hasn’t really looked after it. 1 owner, low miles. Versus several owners who have cared for it and used it as intended, so it has more miles and a higher number on the front of the V5. I know which one I’d buy…
Try prestige vehicle consultants near bishops stortford. I bought my RF there. Only sells low mileage low owner cars ( although I agree few owners does not always translate to well cared for ) also possibly Chris stocks (too far from me to have personal experience of him )
I notice he has just received a low mileage one lady owner recaro sport which no doubt will fly out the door if condition is as described, but would probably fit your budget and requirements. Also a good place to see lots of NDs at once rather than traipsing round dealerships
Like you I also visited dealers and was disappointed. I am having same problem hunting lotuses now…main dealers don’t give a s**t by and large, presentation and quality is shocking compared with handful of mx5 / lotus specialists I visited and am visiting
Good luck