32000 miles 67 plate. The best presented one I have looked at on top. Five owners which surprised me.
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It’s always the same when buying a used car. Understandably we want to cover all bases, like you said, avoid buying a lemon/money pit. We generally never know how it was driven/looked after in it’s X amount of prior miles.
There hasn’t been any advisory or anything for the hub carrier bushings in its MOT history, which is good. I presume the missed (some of the missed) servic(es) were when one of the owners was doing sub 1K miles per year.
I agree, 5 owners is naturally going to raise an eyebrow. It’s not too stretch of an imagination to surmise that the first 3 years may have been a PCPer, the other 4 over the last 5 years or so. MX-5s are a bit of an emotional purchase though, some of the owners might have tried one to scratch an itch and binned it when the novelty wore off, another might have realised what he/she really knew all along- that maybe it was too impractical as a daily and got on his or her nerves eventually. Who knows. The last V5C change was only very late last September though. If it’s been at the dealership for a bit (maybe it has, maybe it just come in?), then it raises an eyebrow to why the 5th owner had it for hardly any time at all. Again, all guesswork though.
Patience is a virtue though. If something don’t feel right, walk away. A car isn’t like a house, which there is only one in a particular spot with a particular view in a particular street in a particular area. There’s always another ND out there.
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Plus your comments about oil would suggest that you are getting some ‘miss information’ from somewhere.
The underside is typical for the age of a car that is used during winter by the average MX5 owner. It is not serious and could be recovered with some time and elbow grease.
I hope you can broker a deal that you feel happy with and can get some wind in your hair sooner rather than later. But remember it is your money, so if you feel any doubts about a car leave it and move on as there is no shortage of cars on the market. The right one for you is out there somewhere.
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First full day in Denmark. Very relaxing atmosphere here - people are friendly and pretty easy going. Though there are no real twisty MX5 type roads, the traffic is light (such a contrast to yesterday round Hamburg), the roads are mostly excellent and, as the speed limit off motorways is only 50mph, it’s actually pretty therapeutic just wafting along enjoying life. Pics are - ready for the off from the first B&B then the lovely town of Ribe and a nice church as a good photo op with the car. Now staying near Faaborg an the island of Funen (Fyn) for a few days.
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Just a thought…If that car is on a Mazda main dealer site, do they not provide the one year warranty thing?
It does come with a Mazda warranty (12 months) which is a positive.
Effectively, that will “restore” the service history (sort of) as it’s presumed that a main dealer will be confident enough about the car to put a one year warranty on it, and it will have had a main dealer service when (if) you buy it.
All things considered, i wouldn’t be too worried about it.
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More tales from our Denmark daunder - Very wet day today, though the sun is out now as I’m posting this. Visited Egeskov Castle - pretty expensive but at least you can get out of the rain. As well as the castle itself, they have a very impressive collection of vehicles and other items, including toys beautifully displayed in half dome cases. Loads of motorcycles from 1900 up to 1990s all hung from the wooden beams so it’s very easy to see the bikes from all angles - lots of memories here from my motorcycling days. The ND really needs a wash as it’s pretty grubby but at least the weather is to be good tomorrow so top down again - today is the only day since we left last Monday that it wasn’t down at some point so not bad really. Tomorrow, the plan is to get a ferry from Langeland to Lolland (about 45 minutes) then take a leisurely drive up through Zealand and across the Great Belt Bridge back to where we are staying. All the B&Bs have been excellent so far - the owner at this one is making diner for us tonight so that’s a really nice touch.
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I so neeeeeed that Gt750!!!
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Made it to Ashford travelodge today. Good day with roof down the whole way. Very short run to the shuttle tomorrow morning, then a long run across France to Basel for our last stop before Italia!
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There was an immaculate RE5 there as well which must be pretty rare.
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Yes very!
Hope your travels go well and hopefully see some updates from you.
Thanks. You too. 
Went to the Lamport Vehicle Festival today. The field for parking had surprisingly long grass, so we had to do some grass cutting in Mob to get to parking spot…
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A quick visit to Lady Milford’s Bridge at Erwood (just south of Builth Wells). Then a splendid drive from Rhayader along the “mountain road” to Devil’s Bridge - which to my mind is every bit as splendid as the “Skyfall” road in Scotland. Then fish and chips in Aberystwyth, before a top-down drive homewards over the Plynlimon pass (or Pumlumon). The sort of driving that the MX5 was truly made for!
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Love reading about these road trips as they unfold. Enjoy
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Fuel and ice cream stop south of Luxembourg. Next stop Basel!
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