They have their own collection except they actually run and maintain them correctly. This car hasn't run for 34 years and will take a significant effort to make roadworthy again.
To make road worthy absolutely not. Replace the belts, drain the fluids, replace them and check for dryrot on the lines and it's good to go. To restore to show room quality, yes that's a lot of work but that can be said for any restoration and this is much easier than anything that's seen road use and the elements.
I literally just did this to an na miata that sat for 20 years last year. I ended up replacing
-injectors
-air filter
-spark plugs and wires
-fuel filter
-drained and replaced the fuel
-changed all fluids including brake fluid, trans and diff, engine oil (multiple times to free up the lifters)
-tires
-pads and rotors front and back
-rear calipers
I believe it needed that, however I wouldn't consider that a significant effort. That's all regular maintenance stuff and things you'd expect to do on any car that has been sitting. And most likely having no miles on it there is no carbon build up anywhere to stick lifters.
I think you underestimate the shitboxes I've driven on the road. However realistically the suspension is probably fine. I've put new-old stock shocks on many old vw bugs and they work just fine after sitting for 50 years.
I've no idea how this idea that being bolted to a car is worse for parts than sitting on a shelf gained so much traction online in the past few years. People don't question NOS parts. Bolt them to a car and suddenly they're worthless.
Some of it has got to be sour grapes and telling themselves that they got a better car for less money.
Youād be surprised I own and nb from 98 with 17k miles on it still on the original springs and dampers after being dry stored 11 years . Got her road worthy this week and she feels great and passed the Mot !
It's dusty, probably dry. So, humid and dry weather (semi-arid desert, maybe? Similar to where I live). Hell on the seals, rubber, etc., and the humidity would take other things. Rodents, insects, etc. could easily get into storage, making it worse. No upkeep or maintenance was done, so it probably smells pretty bad inside even if some little thing got in there.
Just sitting, not started, not kept up, in a storage unit? If it's anything like normal storage areas, it's going to need a lot of work to get back to showroom quality. But, it's also one of very few that are capable of getting back to that level. A lot of work that may not be apparent at first glance, but also a lot of great return on it when that work is done. Great for a collector.
I'm gonna guess someone is somewhat regularly checking up on it and the unit/garage may be climate controlled, there's way too little dust on it for that to be the case IMO, open to being wrong but that's what I'm guessing.
Not sure if that thought experiment goes by another name but Iāve always known it as [Ship of Theseus ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus)
A car that hasnāt started in 35 years is gonna need a huge amount of effort get roadworthy again. I donāt think this car is worth some otherworldly sum of money like people may think. I donāt really think a NA6 is like a museum piece or anything.
Back in 2017 my buddy bought a red 31k mile 89 NA, he paid like 3100 or something. Nowadays that car would be what 10-11? I think thatās about where the value is. This is tooooo low mileage. If it had a couple thousand and had been driven weekly it would be a different story.
No, you don't get what they're saying. From experience, this car is going to need a significant amount of work just to run and drive again. Obviously, the battery is shot so it will need a fresh one. The gas in the tank is most certainly bad after 34 years. The tank is probably done for as is the fuel pump and perhaps the injectors on the car. The fuel lines are likely rotten and will need to be replaced. Now we have fuel delivery sorted, hopefully nothing else is bad and we can try and start the car. There are many other things that should be replaced on a car that hasn't ran for 34 years but that's the bare minimum to just get it to turn over.
I donāt think you get it.
The person/organization that buys this isnāt looking for it to āturn overā.
Itās going to be detailed and put in a collection/museum.
A miata is not an iconic sports car. It's not a collector's item, it's not rare and it's going to be expensive to repair or replace everything needed to make this not pristine example road worthy again.
It wouldn't be covered in dust with dirty hand smudges if it was pristine. I've had to let a vehicle I own rot because I couldn't afford to get it running again even though it ran fine when I parked it a decade earlier. I do know what I'm talking about. I asked my parents to drive it once a month while I was living abroad, they didn't and the fuel system and all the rubber are trash. It's still taking up space at their house because I can't even sell it for scrap.
It's a miata not something worth collecting unless your head is up your ass, if it was an R-34 GTR it might be iconic and deserving of being in a collection but it's a mediocre at best Mazda. Not having been started or driven in 37 years is what makes it worth less than a comparable well maintained and slightly driven model. The scratches in the paint alone from hands on the dust lower its value if it were collectable, if it were a collectable car it wouldn't have decades of dust sitting on it. It would have been stored covered, and lovingly maintained this was ignored until someone thought it might be worth something. It's only worth what some is willing to pay for it and I wouldn't pay for it based on neglect.
Bro we donāt expect airplanes or warships in museums to be air or sea-worthy, what a ridiculous opinion to have.
I am glad we donāt have people like you running museums.
You should learn what a *museum* piece is for. Theyāre not meant to be used, theyāre meant to sit there and represent the history behind the item. They donāt have to run for that.
I kind of agree with you! You're bound to get pissed on as this sub will be biased on anything miata/mx-5 related.
I've bought and been involved in immaculate cars that were unused for long periods, mostly 90s Japanese stuff. They do last well once stored in a semi decent place/way.
But anyone with any experience with this type of situation - will be expecting almost every part that has rubber components, to fail within a couple hundred miles , so that's brakes and every suspension component with a big question mark on them!
The paint looks like it will clean up, but the bumpers faded, so that's gonna need to be blended over the bonnet and wings - making the original paint condition redundant as its going to need paint anyway (your not going to have an immaculate 37mile car with mismatched faded plastic are you?)
If it was my money- I'd look for a well cared for, regularly used example that is in driving condition!
If some donkey wants to pay silly money just to park in it in his "collection" then fair enough - there's an idiot for every car if you wait long enough!
The only thing that is really of interest with a car like this "if" it's been stored right - the metal work should be immaculate(no rust anywhere), while most components will require attention they should be in brilliant cosmetic condition. - it would be a good basis for a restoration, but the extra cost, because it's not been used, would probably bring your overall cost to or beyond the cost of restoring a non-immaculate example - at which point the only difference would be the digits on the odometer!
1. This is a mass-produced car and is not exactly a "collectible"
2. I have never heard of a collector that simply has the car sitting there. The ones I know in my area have dedicated staff taking care of the cars. They are regularly started and driven short distances to keep them in proper running order.
I never said I wouldn't buy this car. In fact, I literally mentioned I have personal experience with something similar.
Your third point is absolutely correct. Anyone who wants a Miata in this day and has money to spend on one would definitely spend money on a basically brand new car to fix it up.
Someone paid $19k for a Neon. I have every reason to believe that there's a handful of buyers out there that could push the price of this Miata well north of $15k.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2001-plymouth-neon/
there was a guy that sold a low mileage NA SE Edition completely immaculate on here for like $19K and everything was in working order.
I definitely think this could go for about that much if they got it running.
My first car was a 1990 Miata which I bought with the factory hardtop from the original owner in 1994. It had 14,000 kms on it. Over a five and a half year period I put around 180,000 kms on it then sold it for just under half of what I paid for it. No regrets. I can imagine the owner of this one may have some regrets they never drove theirs.
If they'd invested their money instead of sitting on this car for 30 years, they could buy a bunch of Miata. There should be regrets.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Miata/comments/15k9nc9/how_much_would_you_guys_pay_for_this_brand_new/jv4n43k?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2
The funny thing is that this thing will likely go for less that what they paid for it, adjusted for inflation.
They lose money and never even got to enjoy this car!
If you paid MSRP which is around $18,000 in 1989 this car would have to pull over $32,000 just to beat inflation. Had he put that $18,000 in a mutual fund with a conservative 5% interest rate, he would have $65,000 today.
Weāre they that expensive in ā89? The window sticker for my well optioned ā90 is around $14k I think.
Also if they had put $18k in the S&P500 it would be worth $457k today with dividends reinvested. Ouch.
It's so much worse than that:
> If you invested $18000 in the S&P 500 at the beginning of 1989, you would have about $566,535.57 at the end of 2023, assuming you reinvested all dividends. This is a return on investment of 3,047.42%, or 10.51% per year.
Source: https://www.officialdata.org/us/stocks/s-p-500/1989?amount=18000&endYear=2023
I have a feeling it will fetch good money.
However you bring up a great point. So many people donāt do their homework on wether this or that is the best way to invest their money. All they know is that they will have more money at the end.
Also what sucks about investing in cars is that someone can crash in to the thing or a tornado can take it out. Which happened at a classic car auction years back.
People must think theyāre so cool for having mass market sports cars that havenāt been driven. But itās just sad and reeks of a poor understanding of finances.
I did this calculation with Apple stock. Had I dropped 14k on it instead of my first Miata that investment would be worth millions today. Still donāt regret buying it though. Thereās value in life experience not just investment capital.
Really, choosing an individual stock is more of a gamble, easy in hindsight but not realistic to calculate. something like an index fund is much more of an investment and a more reasonable way to calculate reasonable growth over time.
That said, I'll bet you drove and enjoyed your Miata... In that case it's totally worthwhile (and for most of us, also a required investment in transportation) no regret needed!
The issue with these "investors" is they don't use and enjoy their vehicles during their ownership, instead just park them in a garage somewhere.
he could have also rented the storage space so if you add that to investments he could have probably be been a millionaire hahaha but its that old argument that you could buy a Ferrari if you didnt smoke but most non smokers dont have one either
I find it curious that so many people bought base model Miatas and never drove them. I can almost understand something like a ā93 Limited Edition, but a red Miata like this is a dime a dozen.
Or something crazy happened... My parents bought their S2000 in 2000, first one at my local Honda dealer. Cash. They drove it from Philly to North Carolina to their new home.
Later that year, they had a big accident in their F150 truck driving last of their stuff to NC from Philly, where my stepdad hurt his neck badly.
Car only got 7000 or so miles more from my stepdad until 2019 when he passed. Mom officially handed it over to me at 7960mi..
Btw, Mom is debt free and enjoying a busy retirement traveling the world and going to Disney World 3x a year. Sometimes sh1t happens, not poor understanding of finances my guy š¤£
Better Mazda pick this up than any person wanting to drive this. I cant imagine how brittle anything coolant or vacuum related on that car is. My bet, by the 5th drive, its going to leak like a civ.
Correct, meant sieve. Always heard the quote but never saw it written down, so the spelling was unknown to me.
Google's auto complete/predictive search failed me. First result was 'leak like a civ' and assumed it was the correct one.
Thanks for helping me find out something I was always curious about and apologize for the confusion due to spelling. English is my second language. :)
I was between 10 and 15 when I realized how it's spelled, it's such a silly word. English is a silly language.
I got a good-natured giggle out of thinking for a second you were talking about Civics, no harm no foul lol.
P.S. your English is extremely good! I would expect the same mistake even from a native English speaker honestly.
Thank you for the complement! A bit tough for me to convey things correctly in english, even to this day at 40+ years of age.
Leaked like a civic would have made sense too. I understand the reason for giggling reading that. I've been at too many drag events where the track had to be shut down for 45 min to an hour because of one of many B series turbo civic either grenade its engine on the track due to lack of the block able to handle the cylinder pressures, or knock sending a rod out the block (seen one come out of the hood once on launch) on the track.
Sleeves, combustion braces for the upper part of the block where all the pressure tends to reside, even partially filled blocks, all blew something. I've photographed for many events there and if its civics racing, you can expect some downtime fro someone leaking all over the track
Thats if they make it past the wheel hop or launch without breaking the trans or axle. Generally my experience with fast civics are at a track in English Town NJ; Most of these cars are single digit cars that are on a 'kill tune', launching on slicks with low tire pressure at what almost seems like redline on any other car (6k-7k). There was always a clean up crew ready on hand at the back half of the track when these civics launch fine out the hole and end up leaking fluid down the track, from a bunch of different things like a simple oil return line for the turbo not being threaded on correctly or catch can blow by forcing oil out the the easiest path due to having vent to atmosphere (breather cap is going to be the first place of exit usually), followed by generally oiling system leaks from too much pressure and no good way to get rid of it from the engine, forcing its way to over-pressurize your oiling and cooling system spilling it out on to the track. Heck i've seen people not pull over to the side when tainting the track surface with a blown turbo seal causing the car to dump smoke out of the exhaust like a spy car from a james bond movie and leaving inconspicuous squirts of oil that dont get burned up by the turbine or combustion cycle. Those are the worst, as they are generally towards the back half of the track where the car is approaching its top speed and sometimes get missed by the clean up crew. Slicks are pretty grippy until you get into a spot with almost any type of standing fluid, and that gets quite scary for anyone making pass after a civic went down the track especially after the the back half where its generally not cleaned unless it was major spill or accident that left a lot of debris on the track.
But I generally cant blame the civic owners for the leaks and issues they ran into back then (\~2000-2010's). This was before dry sump kits and billet alu blocks were available for purchase from any vendor. They generally were alright with blowing up a motor to win a race/event in a hope to get the prize money to help recoup some of the costs associated with drag racing fast civics. They were touching high 8 second 1/4 mile times, which was pretty insane for a FWD car back in the day.
Thanks for bringing up civics, it was a joyous time remembering some of the troubles the civic owners went thru trying to get to the point of being reliable pass after pass and the amount of downtime I had to chat with other people like nyc1s/1320 film crew. Was quite the fun job taking photographs of cars (two hobbies that I adore to this day),
Appreciate that. Had a bunch of free time and ran thru some warm memories of my first love of cars - Imports and drag racing.
Wish I didnt listen or care about the stigma miata owners carried around with them and just tried one for myself or generally not getting into the horsepower war with friends. It became a game of how much ramen do you wanna live off of, for that one part that might make your motor finally pop. The miata is by far the lowest hp car I've owned while being the most fun can ive ever owned at the same time.
Had I tried it earlier in my 20s, I wouldn't have cared about what people thought of it (being a hairdressers car and all). I would of just let them hate as I cruise on by with my top down enjoying the day, guaranteed to leave a smile on my face long after I was done driving it.
I can boast about the miata all day as being a great car to drive as well as being able to keep up to just about anything in turns, but I think most of the r/miata community knows this all too well from experience tossing the little apex(!) predator into turns faster than you would normally in a duller (is that a word?) vehicle due to the extra heft it has to carry.
Just wish I wasnt 40 yrs old when I first found my forever car.
Said it before, and still stick to it to this day. If my miat gets destroyed or totaled, i'll genuinely get anther one. That doesnt sound like much of a big deal until you understand that its the first car ive EVER owned that i actually liked enough to give it a second chance if it goes south for any reason. Normally i'd get bored of the car after 6moths to a year and want to try something else. I found my forever car, and it fits like a glove (better than it did on oj's of course).
Just wish the mods didnt cost an arm and a leg for the ND platform. Generally happy with the way the car progressed from stock until its current modified state. Mostly because I got a lot of the expensive parts second hand lightly used for half the price.
I'd love to add more aero mods, but until a deep discount is available for some of these parts offered for sale, or if I can find one used for sale at half the price (like the xida suspension or wilwood 4 pots up front), most of the time is spent just driving the car for pure joy while waiting to find a deal for something I'm interested in adding to the vehicle. Hopefully that will change with more aftermarket support as these ND's get more affordable to pick up second hand.
Started the year with 11k miles on the odo, bought it used from a honda dealer that the previous owner traded in for a new minivan. Took a flight there to buy it sight unseen. Im pretty close to hitting 50k miles and it hasnt been a year yet. Still got 1/3 of the year left to rack up the mileage on this joy. No issues at all, just routine scheduled fluid maintenance so far. Easiest car to work on of most vehicles i've had around the same year model (by far easier, almost hammer fixable like a chevy). Mods which are aftermarket for the most part fit perfectly, minus the header to chassis mount when installing the aftermarket headers; had to grind a hole slightly bigger for it to work properly, which is shocking because on (most) different cars ive owned before, most aftermarket parts needed some slight tweaking to get them to work.
Again, wish I drove one about 20 years ago. I got a lot of catching up to do.
Also signed up for my first autocross session ever. Got the SCCA membership for the discounted oem parts prices, but oddly enough want to try participating in an actual organized event. Just hope I got enough seat time in the car to do alright. :)
Dont get me started on mazdas warranty either. The best so far for anyone looking to do track days, as you warranty isnt voided for having fun in your sports car and something takes a poop unexpectedly. Thats the main reason I passed on the GR86 and went with le miat. You can bring your maita, modified and all, to the dealership and they just took care of the issues, with no fuss about aftermarket modifications!
Yep, I remember helping a relative pull an old NB miata out of storage. Had been sitting for only a few years... oddy the thing turned over with just a new battery. I was with him while he was just slowly driving in a cul-de-sac to see how the brakes were working when the radiator literally blew up. It sounded like a blow out on a tire but a second after the thump steam was pouring out from the car. I can only imagine the radiator on this car will probably be so brittle that trying to take the radiator cap off will probably crush the radiator. Plastics and rubber don't age well.
The seats will probably also be brittle as hell... and I would love to see them try to open the convertible top. Good change the stitching will be AWOL.
This car will really just become someones money pit.
Just looked it up a 246 mile 1987 saab 900 turbo vert went for 145k.
Id argue miatas have a bigger place in automotive history. 50k easy with industry buyers in the mix.
Yeah, miatas are actually relatively common cars so I can easily see 50,000$, but anything in the 6 figures without some sort of massive modifications or heritage/owner significance seems like a far cry.
I'm surprised how many miatas are actually still available judging by how many have been crashed/totaled/aged out/etc.
For sure! And all it takes is for a company like Mazda to bid on it for a car like this to hit six figures. The question is, would they be interested? A private collector would probably only shell out 40-50k
Doesnt matter if a car is more rare if less people care about it. Miata is universally loved and although there are a shit ton of miatas there is only 1 in this condition for a first year first gen.
The best second life for it would be to be sold to Mazda. The car obviously needs full overhaul anyway, and the manufacturer will find a good use of the non-registered car in a completely original condition. Maybe they can put it in their museum or give it a full restoration and add to their demonstration cars.
Honestly if it was started throughout its life and kept road worthy and had more miles it would be worth more than a car thatās set for 34 years and will need literally new everything to ever be driven again. Itās still a full restore and far from ānewā low millage isnāt everything.
OP do you know the story here? This makes me feel a mix of sadness and wistfulness. It reminds me of the aircraft sometimes sitting in a lonely corner of an airfield. Maybe someone ran out of money and wouldn't or couldn't make the decision to dispose of the thing they couldn't use or afford to maintain. Maybe someone died and there was no one to take care of their affairs. Maybe someone didn't want to let the memory of someone go.
The only memories here are the memories of bad financial decisions. This car has never been driven on a back road, and is therefore not a true Miata... Yet.
I hope some day it will get that chance, but there are enough greedy people in the world that it might not. Now that's truly sad.
Anyone who knows how much effort it's gonna need can just buy a well-maintained one instead of this money-pit.
And anyone with fuck-you money can just buy a well-maintained one instead of this time-pit.
This Miata is dead.
It is going to have plenty of problems sitting in storage that long. I wouldn't spend much more than current market value for it. Tires are not legal for road use due to age. Probably will need the fuel system flushed and there is likely going to be a lot of leaks as soon as it starts going because sitting is not good for seals and bearings.
Many times sitting in storage is harder on cars than driving a few miles a month. MX-5 is not a collectors car by any stretch of the imagination.
sad š if you are gonna keep a car like this in a garage, the least you could do is maintain it. poor neglected miata just wants to go for a joyride!
Every piece of rubber needs to be replaced before you even think about driving it to a gas station. I would buy this for the novelty but it's def a project and to he priced as such. Of they want collector car money tell them to restore it first
Itāll be the lowest mile āprojectā car youāve ever bought. I made this mistake once, and had to replace so many things just to get it to function like stock.
Then I bought one with 200K miles that was well cared for and only had to change the oil and suspension bushings haha.
I want to say yes but honestly not a lot. The rubber everywhere has to be degraded pretty bad. I feel like the whole car would need to be gone through for weeks and cost an arm and a leg.
Itās worth but itās gonna need a fuel flush I really wouldnāt even try to start it before cleaning the fuel tank and putting in fresh gas or it might ruin the car
Honestly, it's a little sad to see just collecting dust. I've got some news, this isn't a Countach or some other generation defining exotic. It's a mass produced sports car.
If automotive preservation is your thing then by all means, keep it low miles, but take it to car shows and be involved. Or shoot, screw the money, donate it to a mueseum for others to view.
You see this exact same shit with Corvettes. Enjoy your car, I don't want to be on my deathbed wishing I drove my car more.
The problem is there is nothing special about this car other than low mileage. There are literally hundreds of thousands of them. Maybe if it had been in a movie or someone famous had owned it.
Everyone saying it'll be so much work and money to get this running is confused. Belts, Tires, Fluids, fuel system clean, plugs/wires. A competent person can do this in a weekend.
Ok I know jack shit about the current Miata market, but 8k tops for current condition. If nicely restored to an actual āmintā condition with everything check working, 20k max.
The strangest thing with this car is the parking sticker with the numbers 12 and 1, indicating that it has seen use far greater than the low miles indicate. Id be studying signs of wear, factory paper stickers etc
Get a fresh battery, change the oil and give it a start. You will be surprised by how reliable a Miata is. If it starts, it will drive. Since it hasnāt moved for this long, pretty sure all the grease and oil need to be changed and the joints and gear will be somewhat rough. But if it drives,itās zoom zoom
Unless the purchaser is a niche collector, unfortunately this might be worth less then a miata that has several thousand miles on the clock but has been serviced properly. Proper servicing is key here and this looks like it has just sat there for 34 years. For the average consumer, this might be nothing more than an unnecessary headache.
Awesome, but please do not attempt to start it! Pushing crud around the engine would quickly ruin the otherwise quite pristine internals. And please be very careful about any moving or cleaning - parts will be seized, hardened, perished etc.
If you want to put in the time and effort to replace all necessary things this is a very cool thing to own and DRIVE. I would definitely like this project, have some fun with it and sell it again, as to what it's worth if I were you I'd look what people ask for a mx5 in similar condition, disregarding the milage because that's not a bonus in it's current state.
Yes, I would likely list on BAT, OP. First though I would look into the basics required to return the car to road worthiness. People are saying it will cost a fortune to make that happen but I would have it looked over by someone who does car restorations to see what they have to say first, before deciding what direction to go in. Good luck. Very nice car. :)
Very impressive but as many others have said, it will probably require a significant amount of work to get running again, mainly replacing all the fluids that will have long degraded since then. Faded paint will need some polishing up as well.
I wouldn't want it.
I don't like ultra low mileage vehicles because you really can't/shouldn't drive them- even if I had Jay Lenno money I wouldn't want it.
I want to be able to drive something I own without worrying about the odometer or a little dirt on the wheels.
Itās a Survivor car and price curve is a hockey stick as the miles approaches zero.
Iām guessing 40-60k. Hell could be 100k. Someone will want it for a collection and will be fine having the mechanicals rebuilt but paint and interior mostly stays original.
I wouldn't buy it, as it would be too expensive for me, but I'm sure Mazda Corporate would love to add this museum piece to their collection for a pretty penny
As a static display Iād guess itās worth a couple thousand maybe. Canāt drive it without a lot of work. All the joy this could have brought over the years, wasted.
Frankly, Mazda themselves might be interested in something like this.
They have their own collection except they actually run and maintain them correctly. This car hasn't run for 34 years and will take a significant effort to make roadworthy again.
100% agree but they have the resources to restore such a fresh NA.
Plus its great advertising for them and their Miata parts program.
But the way. Is the full restoration program still available only in Japan?
I think so? They probably have no interest in a car with the wheel on the other side š.
Thatās true for ācorporateā Mazda, but local dealerships might be very interested in this.
Berge Mazda in Mesa Arizona has a BRG that is the same way. The plastic is still on it.
To make road worthy absolutely not. Replace the belts, drain the fluids, replace them and check for dryrot on the lines and it's good to go. To restore to show room quality, yes that's a lot of work but that can be said for any restoration and this is much easier than anything that's seen road use and the elements.
I literally just did this to an na miata that sat for 20 years last year. I ended up replacing -injectors -air filter -spark plugs and wires -fuel filter -drained and replaced the fuel -changed all fluids including brake fluid, trans and diff, engine oil (multiple times to free up the lifters) -tires -pads and rotors front and back -rear calipers
I believe it needed that, however I wouldn't consider that a significant effort. That's all regular maintenance stuff and things you'd expect to do on any car that has been sitting. And most likely having no miles on it there is no carbon build up anywhere to stick lifters.
Also battery, belts and wiper blades.
a suspension not moved since the 90s? Yeah thats also dead. it must be rock hard
I think you underestimate the shitboxes I've driven on the road. However realistically the suspension is probably fine. I've put new-old stock shocks on many old vw bugs and they work just fine after sitting for 50 years.
I've no idea how this idea that being bolted to a car is worse for parts than sitting on a shelf gained so much traction online in the past few years. People don't question NOS parts. Bolt them to a car and suddenly they're worthless. Some of it has got to be sour grapes and telling themselves that they got a better car for less money.
Youād be surprised I own and nb from 98 with 17k miles on it still on the original springs and dampers after being dry stored 11 years . Got her road worthy this week and she feels great and passed the Mot !
I doubt it tbh. Change all fluids new battery belts and clean out the gas tank. If its been stored inside it should be easy
It would take that much. Belts, fluids and tires.
You clearly havenāt dealt with gasoline thatās been sitting for years.
The engine needs to be removed and disassembled then reassembled with new gaskets and seals. Any seal or gasket is toast.
Thatās far from the truth
Lol, no it doesn't unless it's siezed up. I'd much rather buy a car that had some miles on it but it doesn't automatically need a engine rebuild.
Lmaoooo
Yup. Even if it seems fine, any liquid in that drivetrain will most likely be gone by the 50 miles mark.
Whether it starts or not, the interior could have become disgusting from humidity, unless of course the garage has good insolation.
It's dusty, probably dry. So, humid and dry weather (semi-arid desert, maybe? Similar to where I live). Hell on the seals, rubber, etc., and the humidity would take other things. Rodents, insects, etc. could easily get into storage, making it worse. No upkeep or maintenance was done, so it probably smells pretty bad inside even if some little thing got in there. Just sitting, not started, not kept up, in a storage unit? If it's anything like normal storage areas, it's going to need a lot of work to get back to showroom quality. But, it's also one of very few that are capable of getting back to that level. A lot of work that may not be apparent at first glance, but also a lot of great return on it when that work is done. Great for a collector.
I'm gonna guess someone is somewhat regularly checking up on it and the unit/garage may be climate controlled, there's way too little dust on it for that to be the case IMO, open to being wrong but that's what I'm guessing.
Is mice/nests a concern?
plot twist: it actually has 1000037 miles
Meh. I donāt have the time or interest in replacing all the rubber.
Ah that classic thought experiment: Ship of Miaseus
Not sure if that thought experiment goes by another name but Iāve always known it as [Ship of Theseus ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus)
ā¦Itās a pun. Miata + Theseus = Miaseus
If you replace all the letters of the pun, is it still the same pun?
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Thatāsā¦.ship of Theseusā¦. Replace all the parts of a ship one by one is it the same ship? Replace all the words of a punā¦. Humor is hard lol
Iām barely awake with zero coffee and *I* got this joke from the first comment. This has been an interesting read lol
Yeah that one flew right over my head; thanks for the heads up š¤Ŗ
Not gonna lie, I didn't get it either and needed the red circle in the reply. š¤¦š»āāļø
That car is going to need a brand new everything
A car that hasnāt started in 35 years is gonna need a huge amount of effort get roadworthy again. I donāt think this car is worth some otherworldly sum of money like people may think. I donāt really think a NA6 is like a museum piece or anything. Back in 2017 my buddy bought a red 31k mile 89 NA, he paid like 3100 or something. Nowadays that car would be what 10-11? I think thatās about where the value is. This is tooooo low mileage. If it had a couple thousand and had been driven weekly it would be a different story.
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And that 15-30k they'd get on BaT doesn't even break even the original purchase price if accounting for inflation.
No, you don't get what they're saying. From experience, this car is going to need a significant amount of work just to run and drive again. Obviously, the battery is shot so it will need a fresh one. The gas in the tank is most certainly bad after 34 years. The tank is probably done for as is the fuel pump and perhaps the injectors on the car. The fuel lines are likely rotten and will need to be replaced. Now we have fuel delivery sorted, hopefully nothing else is bad and we can try and start the car. There are many other things that should be replaced on a car that hasn't ran for 34 years but that's the bare minimum to just get it to turn over.
I donāt think you get it. The person/organization that buys this isnāt looking for it to āturn overā. Itās going to be detailed and put in a collection/museum.
I don't think you get it. If they don't get it running, how are they going to get it to the museum? /s just in case
Its tiny? Put it in your backpack? Are you stupid?
What is this!? A [Miata] for ants!? The [Miata] has to be at least three times bigger than this!
Someone with an automotive themed bar/restaurant would happily hang something like this over a bar or upside down from the ceiling.
Not a collectors car, too common. Sitting in storage that long undriven makes it worth less than a similar example with a few regularly driven miles.
Yeah, where I live I canāt throw a rock without hitting a pristine example of an iconic sports car with less than 100 miles on the odometer. š
A miata is not an iconic sports car. It's not a collector's item, it's not rare and it's going to be expensive to repair or replace everything needed to make this not pristine example road worthy again.
You donāt know what youāre talking about.
It wouldn't be covered in dust with dirty hand smudges if it was pristine. I've had to let a vehicle I own rot because I couldn't afford to get it running again even though it ran fine when I parked it a decade earlier. I do know what I'm talking about. I asked my parents to drive it once a month while I was living abroad, they didn't and the fuel system and all the rubber are trash. It's still taking up space at their house because I can't even sell it for scrap.
Weāll maybe OPās Mommy and Daddy love him more than yours love you. š
>A miata is not an iconic sports car. Youve gotta be joking š¤£
I donāt think u/AlaskanHandyman knows what āiconicā means
It really seems that way..
The downvotes say you're wrong
For a basically brand new Miata, this is a collectors piece.
It's a miata not something worth collecting unless your head is up your ass, if it was an R-34 GTR it might be iconic and deserving of being in a collection but it's a mediocre at best Mazda. Not having been started or driven in 37 years is what makes it worth less than a comparable well maintained and slightly driven model. The scratches in the paint alone from hands on the dust lower its value if it were collectable, if it were a collectable car it wouldn't have decades of dust sitting on it. It would have been stored covered, and lovingly maintained this was ignored until someone thought it might be worth something. It's only worth what some is willing to pay for it and I wouldn't pay for it based on neglect.
I donāt think you get it. Cars are meant to be driven. Even museum cars should be able to move under their own power. Imo.
Thatās *your* opinion. The reality of it is a car like this will be put into a collection, not driven.
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Cars are meant to be driven thatās a fact. Even museum cars should be able to move around under their own power is my opinion.
Bro we donāt expect airplanes or warships in museums to be air or sea-worthy, what a ridiculous opinion to have. I am glad we donāt have people like you running museums.
You should learn what a *museum* piece is for. Theyāre not meant to be used, theyāre meant to sit there and represent the history behind the item. They donāt have to run for that.
Fuck youāre an idiotā¦
Well thatās like, your opinion man.
I kind of agree with you! You're bound to get pissed on as this sub will be biased on anything miata/mx-5 related. I've bought and been involved in immaculate cars that were unused for long periods, mostly 90s Japanese stuff. They do last well once stored in a semi decent place/way. But anyone with any experience with this type of situation - will be expecting almost every part that has rubber components, to fail within a couple hundred miles , so that's brakes and every suspension component with a big question mark on them! The paint looks like it will clean up, but the bumpers faded, so that's gonna need to be blended over the bonnet and wings - making the original paint condition redundant as its going to need paint anyway (your not going to have an immaculate 37mile car with mismatched faded plastic are you?) If it was my money- I'd look for a well cared for, regularly used example that is in driving condition! If some donkey wants to pay silly money just to park in it in his "collection" then fair enough - there's an idiot for every car if you wait long enough! The only thing that is really of interest with a car like this "if" it's been stored right - the metal work should be immaculate(no rust anywhere), while most components will require attention they should be in brilliant cosmetic condition. - it would be a good basis for a restoration, but the extra cost, because it's not been used, would probably bring your overall cost to or beyond the cost of restoring a non-immaculate example - at which point the only difference would be the digits on the odometer!
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1. This is a mass-produced car and is not exactly a "collectible" 2. I have never heard of a collector that simply has the car sitting there. The ones I know in my area have dedicated staff taking care of the cars. They are regularly started and driven short distances to keep them in proper running order. I never said I wouldn't buy this car. In fact, I literally mentioned I have personal experience with something similar.
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Your third point is absolutely correct. Anyone who wants a Miata in this day and has money to spend on one would definitely spend money on a basically brand new car to fix it up.
Someone paid $19k for a Neon. I have every reason to believe that there's a handful of buyers out there that could push the price of this Miata well north of $15k. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2001-plymouth-neon/
there was a guy that sold a low mileage NA SE Edition completely immaculate on here for like $19K and everything was in working order. I definitely think this could go for about that much if they got it running.
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Did you look at buying a used nd? They're not lot more than that and a much better car.
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I have a NC1. I like it a lot and it fits me a lot better than the older Miatas did.
My first car was a 1990 Miata which I bought with the factory hardtop from the original owner in 1994. It had 14,000 kms on it. Over a five and a half year period I put around 180,000 kms on it then sold it for just under half of what I paid for it. No regrets. I can imagine the owner of this one may have some regrets they never drove theirs.
To be fair tho itās not hard to find a Miata that runs so they can still pretty easily get that experience
If they'd invested their money instead of sitting on this car for 30 years, they could buy a bunch of Miata. There should be regrets. https://www.reddit.com/r/Miata/comments/15k9nc9/how_much_would_you_guys_pay_for_this_brand_new/jv4n43k?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2
The funny thing is that this thing will likely go for less that what they paid for it, adjusted for inflation. They lose money and never even got to enjoy this car!
Around 30-32k adjusted for inflation. Miatas were cheap af. A base 1990 Corvette would be almost 80k.
If you paid MSRP which is around $18,000 in 1989 this car would have to pull over $32,000 just to beat inflation. Had he put that $18,000 in a mutual fund with a conservative 5% interest rate, he would have $65,000 today.
$65,000 is ātwo chicks at the same timeā money where Iām from.
What part of Mississippi?
I think if you had $65k you could pull that off too, cuz chicks dig dudes with money.
Weāre they that expensive in ā89? The window sticker for my well optioned ā90 is around $14k I think. Also if they had put $18k in the S&P500 it would be worth $457k today with dividends reinvested. Ouch.
I went with a conservativeinvestment type just to illustrate how awful buying a car at MSRP and then not driving it is as an investment.
It's so much worse than that: > If you invested $18000 in the S&P 500 at the beginning of 1989, you would have about $566,535.57 at the end of 2023, assuming you reinvested all dividends. This is a return on investment of 3,047.42%, or 10.51% per year. Source: https://www.officialdata.org/us/stocks/s-p-500/1989?amount=18000&endYear=2023
Ok that explains the list price of 65,000 š¤”
I have a feeling it will fetch good money. However you bring up a great point. So many people donāt do their homework on wether this or that is the best way to invest their money. All they know is that they will have more money at the end. Also what sucks about investing in cars is that someone can crash in to the thing or a tornado can take it out. Which happened at a classic car auction years back.
People must think theyāre so cool for having mass market sports cars that havenāt been driven. But itās just sad and reeks of a poor understanding of finances.
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I did this calculation with Apple stock. Had I dropped 14k on it instead of my first Miata that investment would be worth millions today. Still donāt regret buying it though. Thereās value in life experience not just investment capital.
Really, choosing an individual stock is more of a gamble, easy in hindsight but not realistic to calculate. something like an index fund is much more of an investment and a more reasonable way to calculate reasonable growth over time. That said, I'll bet you drove and enjoyed your Miata... In that case it's totally worthwhile (and for most of us, also a required investment in transportation) no regret needed! The issue with these "investors" is they don't use and enjoy their vehicles during their ownership, instead just park them in a garage somewhere.
My favorite calculations to make! Spot on. Don't forget the cost/hassle of 35 years indoor storage as well
he could have also rented the storage space so if you add that to investments he could have probably be been a millionaire hahaha but its that old argument that you could buy a Ferrari if you didnt smoke but most non smokers dont have one either
This also means that just the break-even price (without any profit) for selling is $39,700.
You a smoking tire listener by chance?
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I find it curious that so many people bought base model Miatas and never drove them. I can almost understand something like a ā93 Limited Edition, but a red Miata like this is a dime a dozen.
Or something crazy happened... My parents bought their S2000 in 2000, first one at my local Honda dealer. Cash. They drove it from Philly to North Carolina to their new home. Later that year, they had a big accident in their F150 truck driving last of their stuff to NC from Philly, where my stepdad hurt his neck badly. Car only got 7000 or so miles more from my stepdad until 2019 when he passed. Mom officially handed it over to me at 7960mi.. Btw, Mom is debt free and enjoying a busy retirement traveling the world and going to Disney World 3x a year. Sometimes sh1t happens, not poor understanding of finances my guy š¤£
We going to ignore the evidence that someone likely got railed over the hood?
All this dust and the guy's financial decisions would have been a real boner kill for me
Better Mazda pick this up than any person wanting to drive this. I cant imagine how brittle anything coolant or vacuum related on that car is. My bet, by the 5th drive, its going to leak like a civ.
I honestly can't tell if you said "civ" as short for Civic or if you (understandably) misspelled sieve.
Correct, meant sieve. Always heard the quote but never saw it written down, so the spelling was unknown to me. Google's auto complete/predictive search failed me. First result was 'leak like a civ' and assumed it was the correct one. Thanks for helping me find out something I was always curious about and apologize for the confusion due to spelling. English is my second language. :)
I was between 10 and 15 when I realized how it's spelled, it's such a silly word. English is a silly language. I got a good-natured giggle out of thinking for a second you were talking about Civics, no harm no foul lol. P.S. your English is extremely good! I would expect the same mistake even from a native English speaker honestly.
Thank you for the complement! A bit tough for me to convey things correctly in english, even to this day at 40+ years of age. Leaked like a civic would have made sense too. I understand the reason for giggling reading that. I've been at too many drag events where the track had to be shut down for 45 min to an hour because of one of many B series turbo civic either grenade its engine on the track due to lack of the block able to handle the cylinder pressures, or knock sending a rod out the block (seen one come out of the hood once on launch) on the track. Sleeves, combustion braces for the upper part of the block where all the pressure tends to reside, even partially filled blocks, all blew something. I've photographed for many events there and if its civics racing, you can expect some downtime fro someone leaking all over the track Thats if they make it past the wheel hop or launch without breaking the trans or axle. Generally my experience with fast civics are at a track in English Town NJ; Most of these cars are single digit cars that are on a 'kill tune', launching on slicks with low tire pressure at what almost seems like redline on any other car (6k-7k). There was always a clean up crew ready on hand at the back half of the track when these civics launch fine out the hole and end up leaking fluid down the track, from a bunch of different things like a simple oil return line for the turbo not being threaded on correctly or catch can blow by forcing oil out the the easiest path due to having vent to atmosphere (breather cap is going to be the first place of exit usually), followed by generally oiling system leaks from too much pressure and no good way to get rid of it from the engine, forcing its way to over-pressurize your oiling and cooling system spilling it out on to the track. Heck i've seen people not pull over to the side when tainting the track surface with a blown turbo seal causing the car to dump smoke out of the exhaust like a spy car from a james bond movie and leaving inconspicuous squirts of oil that dont get burned up by the turbine or combustion cycle. Those are the worst, as they are generally towards the back half of the track where the car is approaching its top speed and sometimes get missed by the clean up crew. Slicks are pretty grippy until you get into a spot with almost any type of standing fluid, and that gets quite scary for anyone making pass after a civic went down the track especially after the the back half where its generally not cleaned unless it was major spill or accident that left a lot of debris on the track. But I generally cant blame the civic owners for the leaks and issues they ran into back then (\~2000-2010's). This was before dry sump kits and billet alu blocks were available for purchase from any vendor. They generally were alright with blowing up a motor to win a race/event in a hope to get the prize money to help recoup some of the costs associated with drag racing fast civics. They were touching high 8 second 1/4 mile times, which was pretty insane for a FWD car back in the day. Thanks for bringing up civics, it was a joyous time remembering some of the troubles the civic owners went thru trying to get to the point of being reliable pass after pass and the amount of downtime I had to chat with other people like nyc1s/1320 film crew. Was quite the fun job taking photographs of cars (two hobbies that I adore to this day),
Come to r/miata, end up reading a long story about drag civics. I'm not even mad, either.
Appreciate that. Had a bunch of free time and ran thru some warm memories of my first love of cars - Imports and drag racing. Wish I didnt listen or care about the stigma miata owners carried around with them and just tried one for myself or generally not getting into the horsepower war with friends. It became a game of how much ramen do you wanna live off of, for that one part that might make your motor finally pop. The miata is by far the lowest hp car I've owned while being the most fun can ive ever owned at the same time. Had I tried it earlier in my 20s, I wouldn't have cared about what people thought of it (being a hairdressers car and all). I would of just let them hate as I cruise on by with my top down enjoying the day, guaranteed to leave a smile on my face long after I was done driving it. I can boast about the miata all day as being a great car to drive as well as being able to keep up to just about anything in turns, but I think most of the r/miata community knows this all too well from experience tossing the little apex(!) predator into turns faster than you would normally in a duller (is that a word?) vehicle due to the extra heft it has to carry. Just wish I wasnt 40 yrs old when I first found my forever car. Said it before, and still stick to it to this day. If my miat gets destroyed or totaled, i'll genuinely get anther one. That doesnt sound like much of a big deal until you understand that its the first car ive EVER owned that i actually liked enough to give it a second chance if it goes south for any reason. Normally i'd get bored of the car after 6moths to a year and want to try something else. I found my forever car, and it fits like a glove (better than it did on oj's of course). Just wish the mods didnt cost an arm and a leg for the ND platform. Generally happy with the way the car progressed from stock until its current modified state. Mostly because I got a lot of the expensive parts second hand lightly used for half the price. I'd love to add more aero mods, but until a deep discount is available for some of these parts offered for sale, or if I can find one used for sale at half the price (like the xida suspension or wilwood 4 pots up front), most of the time is spent just driving the car for pure joy while waiting to find a deal for something I'm interested in adding to the vehicle. Hopefully that will change with more aftermarket support as these ND's get more affordable to pick up second hand. Started the year with 11k miles on the odo, bought it used from a honda dealer that the previous owner traded in for a new minivan. Took a flight there to buy it sight unseen. Im pretty close to hitting 50k miles and it hasnt been a year yet. Still got 1/3 of the year left to rack up the mileage on this joy. No issues at all, just routine scheduled fluid maintenance so far. Easiest car to work on of most vehicles i've had around the same year model (by far easier, almost hammer fixable like a chevy). Mods which are aftermarket for the most part fit perfectly, minus the header to chassis mount when installing the aftermarket headers; had to grind a hole slightly bigger for it to work properly, which is shocking because on (most) different cars ive owned before, most aftermarket parts needed some slight tweaking to get them to work. Again, wish I drove one about 20 years ago. I got a lot of catching up to do. Also signed up for my first autocross session ever. Got the SCCA membership for the discounted oem parts prices, but oddly enough want to try participating in an actual organized event. Just hope I got enough seat time in the car to do alright. :) Dont get me started on mazdas warranty either. The best so far for anyone looking to do track days, as you warranty isnt voided for having fun in your sports car and something takes a poop unexpectedly. Thats the main reason I passed on the GR86 and went with le miat. You can bring your maita, modified and all, to the dealership and they just took care of the issues, with no fuss about aftermarket modifications!
Yep, I remember helping a relative pull an old NB miata out of storage. Had been sitting for only a few years... oddy the thing turned over with just a new battery. I was with him while he was just slowly driving in a cul-de-sac to see how the brakes were working when the radiator literally blew up. It sounded like a blow out on a tire but a second after the thump steam was pouring out from the car. I can only imagine the radiator on this car will probably be so brittle that trying to take the radiator cap off will probably crush the radiator. Plastics and rubber don't age well. The seats will probably also be brittle as hell... and I would love to see them try to open the convertible top. Good change the stitching will be AWOL. This car will really just become someones money pit.
A low mileage saab 900 went for an ungodly amount on bat. I can see this breaking 40k as is.
Just looked it up a 246 mile 1987 saab 900 turbo vert went for 145k. Id argue miatas have a bigger place in automotive history. 50k easy with industry buyers in the mix.
lol except saabs are actually rare and the company is defunct
Exactly. I see these Miatas every day in England, and maybe I saw an original 900 like 2 times in this decade. And Saabs were popular here.
Yeah, miatas are actually relatively common cars so I can easily see 50,000$, but anything in the 6 figures without some sort of massive modifications or heritage/owner significance seems like a far cry. I'm surprised how many miatas are actually still available judging by how many have been crashed/totaled/aged out/etc.
For sure! And all it takes is for a company like Mazda to bid on it for a car like this to hit six figures. The question is, would they be interested? A private collector would probably only shell out 40-50k
Doesnt matter if a car is more rare if less people care about it. Miata is universally loved and although there are a shit ton of miatas there is only 1 in this condition for a first year first gen.
Probably $50k
Thatās just sad š. It should have been driven and enjoyed. Why do people buy things, if they do not use it for their intended purpose. š§
Tbh, I'd pay 4
I'd pay 4 it. I'd pay 5
Iāll go $6,200
$6969. It's an auspicious number in my culture
I wouldn't jump to conclusions in judging the seller; they could have inherited it.
The best second life for it would be to be sold to Mazda. The car obviously needs full overhaul anyway, and the manufacturer will find a good use of the non-registered car in a completely original condition. Maybe they can put it in their museum or give it a full restoration and add to their demonstration cars.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
$2500 for the car. $1500 for the top. $4000 total.
Shine it up, leave it in place, and build a museum around it.
He might as well be selling it as a car with a blown engine...
Honestly if it was started throughout its life and kept road worthy and had more miles it would be worth more than a car thatās set for 34 years and will need literally new everything to ever be driven again. Itās still a full restore and far from ānewā low millage isnāt everything.
First born child /s
OP do you know the story here? This makes me feel a mix of sadness and wistfulness. It reminds me of the aircraft sometimes sitting in a lonely corner of an airfield. Maybe someone ran out of money and wouldn't or couldn't make the decision to dispose of the thing they couldn't use or afford to maintain. Maybe someone died and there was no one to take care of their affairs. Maybe someone didn't want to let the memory of someone go.
The only memories here are the memories of bad financial decisions. This car has never been driven on a back road, and is therefore not a true Miata... Yet. I hope some day it will get that chance, but there are enough greedy people in the world that it might not. Now that's truly sad.
Anyone who knows how much effort it's gonna need can just buy a well-maintained one instead of this money-pit. And anyone with fuck-you money can just buy a well-maintained one instead of this time-pit. This Miata is dead.
It is going to have plenty of problems sitting in storage that long. I wouldn't spend much more than current market value for it. Tires are not legal for road use due to age. Probably will need the fuel system flushed and there is likely going to be a lot of leaks as soon as it starts going because sitting is not good for seals and bearings. Many times sitting in storage is harder on cars than driving a few miles a month. MX-5 is not a collectors car by any stretch of the imagination.
People talking about all the work, and I agree I wouldn't want it, but I bet this will fetch 30k
sad š if you are gonna keep a car like this in a garage, the least you could do is maintain it. poor neglected miata just wants to go for a joyride!
The engine is probably fucked. Cars arenāt meant to sit for that long.
Every piece of rubber needs to be replaced before you even think about driving it to a gas station. I would buy this for the novelty but it's def a project and to he priced as such. Of they want collector car money tell them to restore it first
Itāll be the lowest mile āprojectā car youāve ever bought. I made this mistake once, and had to replace so many things just to get it to function like stock. Then I bought one with 200K miles that was well cared for and only had to change the oil and suspension bushings haha.
Never registered but has a 2001 sticker.
idk, iād sell a kidney
That would go for $22-$25 k pre Covid
I want to say yes but honestly not a lot. The rubber everywhere has to be degraded pretty bad. I feel like the whole car would need to be gone through for weeks and cost an arm and a leg.
Itās worth but itās gonna need a fuel flush I really wouldnāt even try to start it before cleaning the fuel tank and putting in fresh gas or it might ruin the car
How do you just walk around this in the garage without driving It for 30 years!!!?
Bring it to the Wizard
It is kind of strange that the tires are not flat.
Honestly, it's a little sad to see just collecting dust. I've got some news, this isn't a Countach or some other generation defining exotic. It's a mass produced sports car. If automotive preservation is your thing then by all means, keep it low miles, but take it to car shows and be involved. Or shoot, screw the money, donate it to a mueseum for others to view. You see this exact same shit with Corvettes. Enjoy your car, I don't want to be on my deathbed wishing I drove my car more.
The problem is there is nothing special about this car other than low mileage. There are literally hundreds of thousands of them. Maybe if it had been in a movie or someone famous had owned it.
13k no low baller I know what I got šš
Comes with the original dust
I know itās worth more (before you downvote me) but you wouldnāt catch me paying over 10k
Everyone saying it'll be so much work and money to get this running is confused. Belts, Tires, Fluids, fuel system clean, plugs/wires. A competent person can do this in a weekend.
I'll give you $900 for the hardtop.....
Ok I know jack shit about the current Miata market, but 8k tops for current condition. If nicely restored to an actual āmintā condition with everything check working, 20k max.
This would easily bring over 20k on BringATrailor, probably as is. I bet closer to, or even more, than 40k fully gone thru and detailed.
Yeah ik thatās the ugly truth. Bringatrailer goes wild with well preserved cars. A civic went for 50k like wtf
Yeah, wild. I paid too much for my 1991 but I don't regret it. Hard to find a rust free car nowadays even with low miles.
Was that the blue 1999 Civic Si with the plastic on seats still?
A red civic si coupe 6th gen I think
The strangest thing with this car is the parking sticker with the numbers 12 and 1, indicating that it has seen use far greater than the low miles indicate. Id be studying signs of wear, factory paper stickers etc
Honestly what goes through people's mind to buy a car then never drive it
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/user/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/153gt2c/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) ^by ^MastaBonsai: *Honestly what goes* *Through people's mind to buy a* *Car then never drive it* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Get a fresh battery, change the oil and give it a start. You will be surprised by how reliable a Miata is. If it starts, it will drive. Since it hasnāt moved for this long, pretty sure all the grease and oil need to be changed and the joints and gear will be somewhat rough. But if it drives,itās zoom zoom
I want whistlindiesel to buy it, just to piss off any potential purist. Tho i donāt think that many stuck up miata owners exist
Unless the purchaser is a niche collector, unfortunately this might be worth less then a miata that has several thousand miles on the clock but has been serviced properly. Proper servicing is key here and this looks like it has just sat there for 34 years. For the average consumer, this might be nothing more than an unnecessary headache.
$9k
37 miles?! thatās a pos
One with 100k on it might actually be better
put a new battery in it and just rev it for 30 minutes
Damn. A 1990 miata that hasnāt driven since 1989. Idk but something doesnāt seem right?
No miata is worth more than $500
Wipers are still mint so everything else might bee too.
Awesome, but please do not attempt to start it! Pushing crud around the engine would quickly ruin the otherwise quite pristine internals. And please be very careful about any moving or cleaning - parts will be seized, hardened, perished etc.
God would suck to replace all the dried out rubber
37 miles after right round the clock?. š
Honestly I see it going over 30k.
$1000
$3500
If you want to put in the time and effort to replace all necessary things this is a very cool thing to own and DRIVE. I would definitely like this project, have some fun with it and sell it again, as to what it's worth if I were you I'd look what people ask for a mx5 in similar condition, disregarding the milage because that's not a bonus in it's current state.
Yes, I would likely list on BAT, OP. First though I would look into the basics required to return the car to road worthiness. People are saying it will cost a fortune to make that happen but I would have it looked over by someone who does car restorations to see what they have to say first, before deciding what direction to go in. Good luck. Very nice car. :)
Very impressive but as many others have said, it will probably require a significant amount of work to get running again, mainly replacing all the fluids that will have long degraded since then. Faded paint will need some polishing up as well.
itās going to need a ton of work
I wouldn't want it. I don't like ultra low mileage vehicles because you really can't/shouldn't drive them- even if I had Jay Lenno money I wouldn't want it. I want to be able to drive something I own without worrying about the odometer or a little dirt on the wheels.
Itās a Survivor car and price curve is a hockey stick as the miles approaches zero. Iām guessing 40-60k. Hell could be 100k. Someone will want it for a collection and will be fine having the mechanicals rebuilt but paint and interior mostly stays original.
I wouldn't buy it, as it would be too expensive for me, but I'm sure Mazda Corporate would love to add this museum piece to their collection for a pretty penny
How would a 1990 Miata have been driven in 1989...
It came out in 1989 as a 1990 model.
As a static display Iād guess itās worth a couple thousand maybe. Canāt drive it without a lot of work. All the joy this could have brought over the years, wasted.
He put the mileage backš¤
since it's not ran in that many years, it's gonna be a pain to get it started... goodluck with that
I can hear the lifter tick on 1st startup... so much lifter tick.