Mazda MX5

[Screwdriver]

Friend of mine wants to buy one. 2006 or later, low mileage preferred, up £4k budget.

Anybody here have some advice on what to look for on these specific vehicles?

 

[Turbo]

They are very prone to rust.

 

[qwakers]

corrosion subframes rear control arms sills front and rear and where the rear wheel arch meets the inner sill. it can look quite bad and be nothing to worry about, the rear arms get quite scaley, but give them a good tapping with a persuader, they generally rot from inside out.


beyond that, they're reliable beasties.

 

[dobbslc]

Lipstick or quiff balm in the footwells.

 

[bricol]

You know the laughable story about Lancias rusting?

You know I've owned Lancias since I was 18 - I'm 55 now.

The rustiest, crappests, falling apartist, car I have ever owned was a 2004 Mx5. Bought with an MOT, being driven by the seller - I wanted the drivetrain for a special. I couldn't jack it up as my trolley jack simply went up, inside the sills, leaving the car on the ground. Nothing on various Mx5 facebook pages suggests that was unusual.

On pulling apart, there was rust everywhere. Suspension arms, rear subrame, underbody braces, front chassis legs, inner wings, rear inner wings, sills, boot corners.

Bonnet wasn't rusty - as it's aluminium.

Be very careful - and don't offer to go look, you'll only get blamed when it fails the next MOT

 

[Misterg]

2006 on is Mk3.

Early ones suffered from somewhat fragile engines due to oil consumption / starvation (they aren't the same engines as the Mk1/Mk2) - oil level needs to be on max at all times. They also rode really high and were a bit wallowy as a consequence. The suspension will likely have been replaced by now which resolves that issue. Facelift (Mk3.5) from 2008 were better.

They still rust (moving pictures):

Rear subframe, as well as the braces, rust through.

They suffer from leaks through grommets in the scuttle that can damage electrics under the dash.

(Looks are a personal thing, but IMHO it's the ugly sister of the MX-5 family )

 

[Screwdriver]

Lipstick or quiff balm in the footwells.

This particular friend will probably drop lipstick yes.

Otherwise good info regards rusting. I'll pass this info on though I will probably end up crawling under one at some stage.

 

[dobbslc]

A mate has one and was going to do the supercharger mod on it, I bet that would shift!
Wife's cousin had / has one and it's needed a lot of welding doing.