This thread is killing my mojo to hopefully acquire an NA this year or next in running condition for $2k-ish.
This thread is killing my mojo to hopefully acquire an NA this year or next in running condition for $2k-ish.
Jerry said:This thread is killing my mojo to hopefully acquire an NA this year or next in running condition for $2k-ish.
Might still work out, just have to be ready to strike as soon as a deal comes up. Or, be willing to travel.
If you want a really, really nice NA start watching Craigslist in Michigan. NAs are either rusty junk or sub-80K cherries. The cherry ones will run you $6-8K, but will be like new because lots of people put their toys away in early November and leave them until April.
Examples
https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/d/1990-red-mazda-miata/6570918296.html
https://lansing.craigslist.org/cto/d/1991-mazda-miata-for-sale/6566435367.html
https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/d/sold-1991-miata/6562064462.html
In reply to DeadSkunk :
The white one looks sweet! I wonder about the silver being sold with snow tires. Gotta be some rust.
Jerry said:This thread is killing my mojo to hopefully acquire an NA this year or next in running condition for $2k-ish.
You can get running condition for $2k. It might have a salvage title and a busted roof or interior, and it won't necessarily be in good cosmetic shape, but it'll be running.
DeadSkunk said:If you want a really, really nice NA start watching Craigslist in Michigan. NAs are either rusty junk or sub-80K cherries. The cherry ones will run you $6-8K, but will be like new because lots of people put their toys away in early November and leave them until April.
Examples
https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/d/1990-red-mazda-miata/6570918296.htmlhttps://lansing.craigslist.org/cto/d/1991-mazda-miata-for-sale/6566435367.html
https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/d/sold-1991-miata/6562064462.html
Not just Michigan, but a lot of the snow states are like this. Also, if you can speak French, Quebec is an isolated market that is often at odds with the rest of the continent when it comes to pricing.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Caution on Quebec cars. Lots of scam artists, it is possible in Quebec to acquire a salvage title car from the US or elsewhere and resell with a clean title. The baddies know this and take advantage.
Here in the ATL, if you want a clean car in good condition, you rarely find them for less than $4000. If you want something that runs and you can rag out on a track, and can deal with reversing some stance-tard shenanigans, they can be found rust-free for $2500 pretty much any time.
Here in NC, most good NAs seem to be around the $2500-4000 range, it's only during the winter that you can find one listed for under 2K. That's probably why I bought mine from Copart 2 weeks ago. 
I'm finding a few NC Miatas around me for $8K and less, so I would get a good NC over a prisine NA.
https://wilmington.craigslist.org/cto/d/2009-mazda-mx-5-miata-low/6552236198.html
https://wilmington.craigslist.org/cto/d/mazda-miata-2006-grand/6558926495.html
I know the NC is newer/better/shinier and even though I did like my RX8, I still have a hankering for an NA. I'm even mostly ignoring NBs other than as a source of parts to retrofit to an NA.
Well, it looks like I found someone who may actually want to sell me an NA Miata, rather than your typical CL ad where the seller never bothers to respond...
Let's see how things go tomorrow.
Remind me again why you want one when you have a MINI, an ND and a formula racer?
In reply to docwyte :
Because I seem to be buying one every four-five years for no apparent good reason?
The more intellectualized reasoning is that the Mini isn't that great with my still injured heel - it's got an uprated clutch, after all (plus it's having a few Lucas moments), the ND doesn't go on track (yet) as it's my "nice" car, and I can't take the formula car on track days with the usual suspects out here outside SCCA racing and the occasional time trial.
The other reason is that I seem to just like them, and start missing having one after a while every time I sold one.
Trackmouse said:Thank “slash for Junkers”. All the Craigslist market got smashed, leaving anything that runs as “incredible quality” and “ultra rare”. Around here, the NA’s are like 2-3k in modified stance condition. Untouched examples are around 4-5. The crazy part is you can find a ‘90 with 180k for 3k, and then find a ‘99 with 150k for 5k. It’s like “wtf, man?”
Miatas never qualified for C4C and I doubt that the markets overlapped.
However, NAs are getting past the 25 year old mark, which makes them desirable for all sorts of reasons. And there have been a few one-make racing series built around them, which thins the numbers on the ground for untrashed examples. Which were rare to begin with since Miatas rusted like Mazdas.
See also: 1st generation RX-7. The rusted out ones faded away, the clean ones got turned into Pro7 or Spec 7 cars. Any decent non-hacked car is $3-5k at this point, and that is probably a depressed value since the market is so small. I have heard of people buying clean V8 conversions to restore to stock spec, since those are easier to find than stock cars.
Wow, it is a mess out there in terms of pricing. There seem to be some good reasonable priced ones on FB marketplace compared to CL. CL has quite a few rough ones for over $2k including the ones needing a motor.
Our local FB Miata group is much better than CL, but nice cars rarely go up for sale. Great for parts, though. Generally, a nice NA is $3500 and up here in AZ these days. NBs are generally better values at the moment.
I think the key part is "nice cars rarely go up for sale", which seems to have change from when I was last shopping for an NA 6-7 years ago. Beat up cars are still easy to find - my "favourite" one was advertised as "needing miner bodywork" and looked like it had been attacked with a sledge hammer - but nice, reasonably well maintained ones are getting harder to pry away from their owners.
In reply to BoxheadTim :
And its going to be your track car? So you're going to sell the MINI and the formula racer/trailer? And have an ND and an NA? Or are you going to sell the MINI, ND and the formula racer to buy an NA and a nice SUV or something?
Just seems like you have very little free time, why do you want another old, needy car to work on that the rodents are going to attack like your old RX8?
Keith Tanner said:DeadSkunk said:If you want a really, really nice NA start watching Craigslist in Michigan. NAs are either rusty junk or sub-80K cherries. The cherry ones will run you $6-8K, but will be like new because lots of people put their toys away in early November and leave them until April.
Examples
https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/d/1990-red-mazda-miata/6570918296.htmlhttps://lansing.craigslist.org/cto/d/1991-mazda-miata-for-sale/6566435367.html
https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/d/sold-1991-miata/6562064462.html
Not just Michigan, but a lot of the snow states are like this. Also, if you can speak French, Quebec is an isolated market that is often at odds with the rest of the continent when it comes to pricing.
Not in the case of NA Miata's. Over here, NA start at 4K for the half-decent ones (high mileage, little rust, salvage title) and you need to get above 6K for the nice examples. Even seen people starting to ask for five figures for the cream puffs.
In reply to docwyte :
The NA is going to be the toy/modified car that can go on the track. It's not going to be turned into a race car, though. The formula car stays, at least until I get a chance to actually run it on the track (which should happed in the next six weeks). The ND most likely stays, but will remain unmodified for now.
The Mini is on the for sale list for either this year or next, depending on if I actually sell the vehicle that I'm currently advertising. I don't really need an SUV as I have the truck when I need to do trucky things, like drag home another NA Miata.
We've managed to get the "no free time and never at home" under control for now, and the reason I did end up with a project car is to keep me away from the computer when not working.
Just going to leave this here, my gut feeling was right that it might be worth following up CL ads without pictures:
$1,250. '96. Seems like a scam but typical CL ad the pics are eight years old. 
Maybe not a scam but it sure looks like a lot of the other obvious scams out there. CL!
In reply to BoxheadTim :
I've seriously been looking at Miata's lately. I drove by one yesterday sitting outside a nice house and got the number (didn't look at it as I was technically working). A doctor in town own's it. It's a stock black 1996 5-spd with 62,000 miles soft-top. Not a special edition. Clean title and all that. Looks clean from what I saw and the way he described it on the phone. He was asking 7K but dropped it to 6k. That's way above KBB but in line with what everyone is saying. I'm thinking of looking at it closer...but 6K? Is it worth that? Or should I get that unmolested Ep3 Si for $3500 owned by an older woman. It is conveniently local...the Miata.
Miatas are kind of like Jeeps in that KBB is pretty meaningless on older examples.
A clean 60k, unmolested NA8 is easily a $5k car without a hardtop, depending on location and time of year. I would try to negotiate down on that price, but they aren't making any more NAs and sellers with low mile cars are starting to catch on.
You'll need to log in to post.
