Miata Mailing List: April 1999, Message #25

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I am on the verge of getting a Miata but would some advice from the list
before I go ahead.

Tonight I saw a blue '91 with 65,000. It's in almost perfect order. The
bodywork is gleeming and the interior shows no signs of wear and tear at all
except for a tiny rip/blemish on the driver' door. It's possible it came
from something like a stiletto heel while someone was getting in or out. I
went through what I could on the Miata.net checklist for buying used cars
and found everything to be in shape. Make no mistake, this car looks as good
as the day it was first sold...with the hood down!

There is one of the problems. The window has been ripped out due to the guy
not putting it up and down properly. I say "ripped out" but I should
actually say that it's only the top left hand corner that has come away. The
window itself looks fine. No brown spots, etc. Should I go for a new one
straight away or get a repair done. I would like to keep the cost down as
much as possible of course, so if I could get by on a repair for one year
I'd be happy to go that way.

The next thing is the timing belt. Now I know almost zero about cars and it
was the guy himself who volunteered that it may need done soon. I asked the
last time it was done and he said it had NEVER been done. I told him about
the Miata list's 30,000 mile recommendation and he said that you could do
that but why bother if Mazda recommend 90,000!! Either way he told me that
the work when done should cost about $350 and no more. He also said that
changing the timing belt that frequently would in his opinion only do more
harm than good! A little side note to this is that the engine looked great
and sounded fantastic.

Next are the brakes. I drove the car a little and there was a grinding
noise. He assures me that he has had all of them done recently (whatever
that means) and that the grinding is purely rust on the rotars. The car
hadn't been driven since November indidentaly. He told me this and sure
enough it was tagged until then.

When driving a Miata, are the pedals supposed to feel "heavy". Everything
else was smooth but the pedals are much heavier than my VW.

All in all the guy was very nice and told me straight off that he has worked
in the car industry as a service manager for a long time. He gave me some
'91 special edition brochures to look through tonight and also some 91
brochures he had hoarded away. He also gave me his special edition "Dealers
Miata Books" which are a nice set of two books. One is the history of
how/why Miata was made and the other a nice book of photos. That was without
buying the car!!!!!

He had it in the newspaper for $5300, I asked him if he would go to $5000
and he said YES. The only reason that I didn't buy there and then was the
window and the timing belt.

So, what do others think? Is it a good buy? I feel it is but more
experienced observers may feel otherwise. I would appreciate all input as
tomorrow will be decision day.

Last thing I forgot to mention were the gleaming "Miata" metallic little
panels fitted to the floor at the doors. They looked great.

So, to recap...A '91 blue Miata, 65,000, two owners, regular service,
perfect body, needs new window and possibly a timing belt..$5000

Would you?????????????


Eddie