What to say about this car? (99' Miata 1.6 NB)
Well, it looks pretty and has a quite nice reputation as a solid roadster with a bullet proof engine and fun to drive.
And first of all that all seems to come true, and that is why I bought it around 1700 bucks, leaking some oil, seats not so nice...
...rotten side skirts...
...and oil leek from the valve cover.
I fixed those things, as you can see here, I painted the valve cover to add some more appeal under the hood. And a new seal stopped the oil from leaking on to the manifold...
I fixed the seats with some vinyl sheets you normally use to fix vinyl soft tops...
And let the side skirts weld at the workshop for around 100 bucks. Not the finest work ever, but for the cost it was ok.
Fortunately nothing had to be done to the soft top for that was already renewed by the previous owner. So it needed just a bit cleaning.
Now the car looked nice and technically was also up to scratch.
For some "final touch" I added an original carrier and put an old-school sticker on to the petrol cap cover:
So now you might ask why I am in a dilemma just as the title says!
Well, after all of the work I put in and after one year of owning and driving I have to say that the miata is slightly overvalued car related to the average reputation it has as a used car. It's often compared to other roadsters like the Z3 or the SLK and it is said that the last mentioned ones are no real roadsters whereas the miata is such.
But in my experiences with the miata and in comparison to a Z3 I owned one year before (1.9), I have to say that this is not the whole truth. Not is the Z3 as bad as a "real" roadster as the miata is not that good as many say.
Let me tell you why:
The miata seems quick on the first few miles in the city, because it has a short wheelbase (the Z3 has of the 3series) and goes around the edges quickly with it's nice stiff and hard chassis. The Z3 does not with the standard chassis, but with the M chassis you get with most of them, it's really not so much difference!
When it comes to a speed of over 40 mph the miata is showing its issues. It has no vertical elasticity (at least with the 1.6 engine), acceleration over all is poor and the chassis is very bitchy, especially on sloppy roads.
On the autobahn you really miss the 6th gear (I know they added one to the facelift models which mine is not).
What really gives you that roadster feeling is the sound when you put your foot down bringing the engine to higher rpm.
Maintaining and purchase costs and fuel consumption are very ok. But it is no race car (exactly as the Z3, not any better).
So the thing is when I sold the Z3 and bought this one, I had some more hopes to feel more difference between the two cars, expecting the miata to be more agile and more "race-car-like". But besides beeing still alot car for the money, it didn't perform my expectations in the way I thought it could do.
Perhaps it gets to there by adding a turbo (which you can do easily without changing anything else, even the brakes are allowed to remain, still beeing road legal). It is said that this way you can get the miata up to a "porsche killer". But I don't know if that is true.
Another possibility to add value to the car is to change it to an electric car which is possible due to the fact that it has got rear wheel drive and is really of light weight.
So what do you think about the miata? I would love to read your opinion in the comments.
And if you liked this post, feel free to give it your upvote and have a look on my other stuff!
Thank you for reading my post on the miata 1.6:) At last one more picture:)
