Miata Mailing List: May 1993, Message #22
sponsored by



     


   From: (none)
Subject: Re: any good stories?
   Date: (none)

> Are there any good stories on buying Miatas in the "early days"?
> There are some articles in the MCA magazine about people getting
> on the waiting list, etc.

Early in 1989, a coworker asked if I'd seen the new sports car from Mazda.
I passed it off as no big deal, thinking he was talking about the convertible
RX7.  A couple months later I ran across an ad, I think it was in Time 
magazine, on the Miata.  It was a two page insert that said something like, 
"Coming from Mazda this July...", and if you broke the seal and opened the 
pages there was this two page photograph of the Miata.  The words inside said, 
"Now aren't you sorry you peeked?"

The car blew me away.  I can honestly say that I hadn't lusted after a car
so much since I saw my first Lotus Europa in a showroom in 1969 (I was 13).

My wife called Norcross, GA and talked to a "really nice lady" (Barbara 
Beach) who gave her the address, and the straight poop on the 
still-being-formed MCA club.

We started hitting the dealerships to figure out expected selling price, 
availability, etc.  At the time, only one of them even had a waiting list.  
Most dealers were planning on asking 1000-3000 above list, but we finally 
found one that was holding prices to $500 above list.  (List price included 
a generous dealer prep fee for undercoating, etc.)  We put our names down 
and left them a $500 deposit.  We got the call in August that a blue pkg 
B was ours if we wanted it.  We weren't interested in a pkg B, and blue was 
not our first choice so we made the REALLY tough choice to wait.  The dealer 
had no idea what cars were coming in next, though it was usually one or two 
cars per month and most of them were red with all the options.

I had magazine clippings of the Miata all over my office wall.  It was a lot
like being a kid before Christmas.  The car cost a lot more than any car we'd
purchased before, and at a time when money was fairly tight it seemed like a
frivolous purchase.  None of that mattered.

About this time we got our MCA sticker in the mail, number 308.  If I remember
correctly, the first issue of the MCA magazine came shortly thereafter.  It
was totally dogeared within a few days of it's arrival.

In September we got a call, the dealership had a white pkg A waiting for us.
No hardtop, but we decided to spring for it anyway.  We cut our vacaction short,
drove home all night from Montana to Portland, OR.  Got home at 3:00am,
dumped our luggage on the floor and fell asleep for 3-4 hours.  Got up, had
breakfast and went to the dealership.

We drove Max home, threw some clothes together and took off for the coast to
finish the last few days of our vacation.  On the way over the coast range
on some winding roads we got pulled over by a state trooper.  Although I
had a radar detector, I'd been well within the posted speed limit when I passed
him.  He gave me a feeble lecture about how "carrying a radar detector implied
that I was out to break the law, and that I should get rid of it", then he 
asked "Say, what kind of car _is_ this anyway?  Looks like it would really 
corner!" Cathy and I laughed as we drove off, little question he pulled 
us over just to get a look at the car.

These were amazing times, probably the fondest car memories I'll ever have.
We were quizzed at stoplights, gas stations and supermarkets.  You literally
couldn't drive across town without someone making a huge fuss over the car.
A Ferrari owner stopped me in a parking lot to ask me about it.  It got a
lot of attention at the local All British Field Meet, where several onlookers
yelled, "Nice Lotus!"

The courtship is long over, but each time I get behind the wheel the love
affair begins again.


-- 
================================================================================
            _
            /        Jeff Maurer, Sr. Analyst
     _  ___/ _ __   Service Applications, Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
     / /  / / / /  Uucp: ...!uunet!sequent!jdm
    / /__/_/   /  Internet: jdm@sequent.com
 __/             (503) 578-5062

"It takes a big man to cry, but it takes an even bigger man to laugh
at that man."
Jack Handey