Where are we in the Miata curve?

I have been watching Miatas over the years and I have been wondering when we are going to hit the up tick in the curve. What I mean is that Mazda made a lot of them and they have been around for quite a while. At the moment parts seem to be cheep and there still a plentiful supply of sub 2K cars out there. However This has me worried that this is going to change. As good used early 90's cars start to dry up are the prices for these going to start to rise? Are we at the sweet spot for both buying in as well as ownership and maintenance costs? Or will the market continue to evolve (as it seems to have) with the new designs just replacing the old and thus the market holding a good balance of supply and demand for both used complete cars as well as parts cars.

Dunno, you would think the price would start going up at some point. But then again, there are still lots of MGs, Fiat Spiders, Alfas, etc...out there that are dirt cheap and they're older than the Miata with fewer examples around.

Yeah, $2k Miatas already don't exist around these parts. Well, at least $2k Miatas that aren't spent drift-missles or haven't sat in a field garnering a fungal collection for the past few years.

Around here you can get them. They wil be runners but need somthing.

ReverendDexter wrote: Yeah, $2k Miatas already don't exist around these parts. Well, at least $2k Miatas that aren't spent drift-missles or haven't sat in a field garnering a fungal collection for the past few years.

This.

A $2k Miata, if one pops up, is beat to crap/high miles.

When my '90 popped up 1.5 years ago for $2800 with 120k miles and all the recent maintenance, fairly clean/straight body, with a mediocre top. I jumped on it.

Decent 94-97 cars with a Torsen seem to be in the $4500-5500 range in my area. (99-00 cars are starting to get down below $7k)

I'm not willing to drive complete E36 M3 boxes like some on this forum, so these prices may seem high.

I've never seen a $2000 Miata for sale in my area.

Prices are already rising. Have been for a couple years.

I haven't seen an NA that i would be happy with for less than $3k in a while.

Around here the $2k-$3k Miatas are very secondhand and TBH I probably should have spent more money buying my NA, too. Prices for good ones are on the rise, the ones around $2k are basically on borrowed time.

I picked mine up for exactly 2k, but thats cause the AC was mediocre, the paint job was scratched and there were a few small dents, and it needed new shocks. And the massive oil leaked fixed, but that was just the dipstick tube O-ring

1990, manual, with 157k miles on it. The dents don't bug me much, since SWMBO is learning to drive manual on it and she has a thing with stationary objects in parking lots. Apparently they have their own little gravitational pull or something.

What you're really asking about is the early ones. The 20-25 year olds, and you're assuming you can find an awesome car with no needs for next to no money. That's always been a bit of a fiction - killer deals come along once in a while, but sub-$2k cars are always a bit needy. Not just sub-$2k Miatas, sub-$2k cars.

The sweet spot has moved on, I'd be looking at 1999-00 cars if I needed a car to build on. There's also little price difference between a 1990 and a 1994 now, it's mostly condition instead of specification that's driving prices.

The MGB is a great car to use as a guide. You can get them for free. You can pay $20k. Most are in between.

I searched for almost a year for a sub3k miata that would make me happy.

Then I stumbled on one.

the good:JR supercharger, koni yellows, Racingbeat header and catback, and a set of ugly rota wheels.

the bad: 141k miles, back window (glass) had come unglued on the bottom 70%, skin of steering wheel, and shift boot were worn out. 2 cuts in the backs of the seats (about 4" long each) slight bend in the font bumper (should be easy to sort out when the weather gets nice) needed a new supercharger belt, and had to replace the window switches within 2 months of purchase (made my own).

all in all not bad for 2500.. but I got lucky. it was a steal.

I spent $2500 on my 91 miata with a salvage title. It needed a new top, tires, and windshield. I probably could have waited longer and got a better one, but the buy-in price was what I wanted. (Cheap) Miata's are relatively rare in Wisconsin, and I was ready to jump when I found this one on CL; cash in hand. It's what I went through to get one.

Clean early cars are already going up. I'm most interested in the very early cars and the good ones are $3500 and up.

Time of year matters too. I got my 94 M for $2300. It needed a top, paint and rocker repair. And I bought it at the end of August from a small mom and pop dealership that was looking at having to store it if they didn't sell it. The same car in May would have been $3K or more all day long.

I think my problem is that I don't think twice about swapping a motor or trans or an interior. I see a fair number of them with needs but still drivers. I did not mean that a 2K one would be a top quality good fit and finish with "normal ware" Those are well in the 3-4K range. The other thing is that many of them have been scooped up for spec miata racing with many many more getting parted to keep the spec cars running.

I agree with Mazdeuce and Keith. I've been watching prices pretty closely here in Atlanta for a few years and the early NA cars are starting to go back up in value for examples in good shape. I think the NBs are just about in the sweet spot though (in terms of quality/$). Here, you can get a good running/driving NB for $3500-5000 any day of the week. The good NA miatas are on the way back up with nice cars going for $3000-4500.

That said, if you don't mind a little project, the deals are out there. I just picked up a '90 that needed a new crank pulley (crank itself was fine) for $740. Otherwise, it's in excellent shape. Have a buddy locally who got a '91 for $250 a year ago. Needed a radiator, not much else.

The biggest thing I think will change in the market: I don't think these deals on early cars needing minimal work will stay as abundant as they are now, so that's what I'd look for personally.

around here.. even $5000 miata are high miles and beaten up

I think the curve upward has already started. The sub-$2k cars are pretty ratty. The non-ratty NA cars are pushing ~$4k or more around me in CA

Keith Tanner wrote: What you're really asking about is the early ones. The 20-25 year olds, and you're assuming you can find an awesome car with no needs for next to no money. That's always been a bit of a fiction - killer deals come along once in a while, but sub-$2k cars are always a bit needy. Not just sub-$2k Miatas, sub-$2k cars. The sweet spot has moved on, I'd be looking at 1999-00 cars if I needed a car to build on. There's also little price difference between a 1990 and a 1994 now, it's mostly condition instead of specification that's driving prices. The MGB is a great car to use as a guide. You can get them for free. You can pay $20k. Most are in between.

What Keith says about the MGB is right on the money. There are way too many Miatas on the market for the car to ever become collector cars that appeal to the kind of money that says "I can have this and you can't"; that is the true value of any collectable item..

So what they become instead is Hobby cars. They are worth whatever spare money a buyer can afford or subsequently , is willing to put into the hobby. I know for a fact that I can get a drivealbe MGB for 5K and I also know several people that are close to 30K into the Hobby of restoring one.

I forecast that the Miata will be in the same niche. That is a good thing.

Another point - A huge percentage of the amateur road racing community is based on the Miata. They (we) are sucking up many of the good cars, all the NOS parts, and many of the low mileage junkyard parts (gearboxes, diffs & such). There are several regional parts houses that deal exclusively in Miatas, and they bid on auction wrecks regularly.

The result will soon be decreased supply and increased prices for all. I too think the sweet spot has just about ended.

Is that any different from the MGB?

You guys need to stop thinking of Miatas as only being produced for a short time. They've been around for nearly a quarter century and they're still in production. While it might be getting harder to find a 30k 1993 motor, that's not due to the racers. It's because that motor is from a 20-year-old car. The parts availability for the newer models is still very good.

Spec Miata has been around for some time, when exactly does the terrible event occur that leads to decreased supply and increased prices?

One of my guys at work just grabbed an M-edition for $2000, 106K miles. The rear window plastic looks like hell, needed plugs wires, and came with 3 17" silver wheels and one red one.

He did good.

Miata is the next Mustang as far as depreciation and collectability go.

Mine has a couple small dents and the top is pretty rough but it runs great and has 148k on it. Was a car that had the short nose crank issue but it was rebuilt and timing belt etc done 15k ago and I paid 2400 and this was in socal so rust free car. I felt like I could have paid less but it came from a guy with a vintage Porsche as well and a binder about 4 inches thick of maintenance receipts. With rollbar and star specs on daisies + NA8 front brakes I am still only into the car for 3500

Im hoping the value of my '94 eventually intersects with that of a decent rx-8.