As some of you will know I drive a serviced, 109,000 mile, 2008 NC 2.0 Sport, but the opportunity to buy another MX-5 rests just on the horizon, with possibly around £25,000 available, plus whatever I might get for mine, which I appreciate will not break anyone’s bank balance.
With that in mind, whilst accepting my NC still performs exceedingly well, would a 1.5 (132) ND leave me wanting, or would I be better opting for the 2.0 (184) ND?
I have not personally driven either yet, although I have found a local’ish 23 plate 1.5 G Sport for sale with only 25 miles recorded for less than £25,000. Or for similar money a two year old 2.0 with obviously more mileage.
I know some of you guys and girls will have experience on such matters, so I am open to your thoughts please, as to what you think would be the best way to proceed? Would a new, but slower 1.5 be a better option than an older 2.0? Or would I be left wanting in performance terms?
What do you want?
I got a 2.0 RF as it was going to be a daily driver with plenty of motorway mileage. That was just pre-pandemonium (sic) so it isn’t quite so daily a daily-driver as expected.
But I’ve driven and followed 1.5s and if I was looking for a weekend warrior fun car that might be my choice. 1.5s need a bit more revving and gear changing but isn’t that the point? Personally I don’t particularly like the weird shimmy from the LSD when it operates so I found a 1.5 more progressive in the wet.
For similar money I might try the best of both worlds, by keeping the NC, and buying the Hyundai i20N. It gives the performance with better fuel economy (and four seats, which can occasionally be useful), AND I still keep the NC for my fun days…?
Cars like the i20N are disappearing so if that scratches your itch then why not while they are still around.
The NC probably doesn’t owe you much and you know it well, potential maintenance issues should be well known too.
If we bought cars logically then we wouldn’t be here… if you can get a proper trial of an ND 1.5 under suitable conditions, dry twisty road, upper reaches of the rev range, 3rd/4th gear (ideally a known good alignment and decent tyres) I’d say it’s worth doing, even if not for now, just to know.
I have to say the first few weeks have been quite eye opening. In the NC I usually got 33/34mpg when driving briskly, with 39/40mpg on a longer, steadier drive. The ND on the other hand is showing 52/53mpg when driving briskly, with 56/57 when taking it on a longer run, as I did for over 200 miles down the A1/M11/M25, and across the Dartford Bridge last weekend, roof down all the way - it was showing 33degC on the dash!
To be honest the ND is proving to be far more economical than expected, on a like for like journey, and is still just as much fun, with hardly any noticeable difference in engine performance.
The other point of interest was finding my old NC advertised on the Auto Trader web-site a few days ago, at a price more than double I received in part-exchange. Maybe I should have bargained for more? Described as having only two owners (?) from new, and with the last owner (me) having had it since 2011 - I bought it in 2018. At least it showed the correct mileage.
