How I almost ended up with a Miata

"Kat Callahan" (kyosuke)
07/15/2014 at 05:15 • Filed to: miata

Way back in like 2005, my Honda Civic EK was stripped and I was without a car. I eventually would end up with a BMW 3-series, but there was a short period of time where I was without a car and basically willing to take anything I could get my hands on. I almost ended up with an early 90s white Mazda Miata.

I was still at the University of Texas as a student and had formed a graphics design and marketing firm with a few friends of mine. We had delusions of grandeur, and we were about to be taken for a ride—and it wasn't in a car. We made a contract with a woman to do her advertising work. I was the copy writer (this will surprise no one, given that I am now one of the paid writers on the Gawker network). In any case, she was trying to get rid of the Miata, and when I realised her asking price was near my cut of the contract fee, I offered to take the car in lieu of my salary (of course, I test drove it, and was quite pleased with it).

The checks to the firm bounced, and to this day, one of those checks is framed on the wall of the graphic designer as a warning to those of us in the creative field—be careful about doing work without Seeing The Money. I never saw the Miata either.

Lesson learned... And I didn't get stuck with a Miata.

DISCUSSION (7)

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Kat Callahan
07/15/2014 at 05:39

How much did you charge? I charge less than 100 for my drawings, I cant imagine someone with less than 100 dollars in their checking account, some banks even require a balance of 100 or less.

Kat Callahan > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
07/15/2014 at 06:00

Oh, no. This was a professional contract. We're talking thousands of dollars here.

promoted by the color red > Kat Callahan
07/15/2014 at 07:48

Yeesh. Did your group end up getting what you were owed?

Soloburrito > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
07/15/2014 at 08:24

"I cant imagine someone with less than 100 dollars in their checking account"

This made me laugh. I remember all too well the times I had to stretch $10-$20 to feed myself for a week. The times my checking account sat overdrawn for days until payday. The desperate calls to the bank pleading with them to lower my overdraft fees.

Hope I never have to go through that again.

STANDARD6SPEED > Kat Callahan
07/15/2014 at 08:26

Stuck. O.o .....sTuCK? o.O STUCK????? -_-

aaaaaaand I'm done.

fortysixand02 > Kat Callahan
07/16/2014 at 08:57

I had a 1990 white Miata that I got off my ex's sister really cheap. It had over 200,000 miles on it but still ran and drove great. She thought the clutch was shot in it but I had a sneaky feeling the clutch fluid reservoir was just extremely low. So when I went to her house to pick it up, I bought some brake fluid with me just in case. Popped the hood and sure enough the reservoir was almost empty. I poured in some brake fluid and the clutch was working good as new. I then proceeded to use the Miata, for several years, as a partial daily driver and summertime SCCA Auto Cross racer. People would walk by the Miata on the AutoX course and see it had over 265,000 miles on it and couldn't believe it could still be hammered hard in something like auto-crossing. I loved that thing, couldn't kill it and it was super simple to work on. Sadly, I left it in OK when I moved back to CT several years ago but I vowed that one day I shall own another Miata. You missed having a great little car man.

Leslie > Kat Callahan
07/16/2014 at 09:12

My mom bought pretty much that same white Miata in the early 90s, to celebrate us being out of the house and because it reminded her of her first car, a Karmann Ghia. It was her joy, her private two-seater space, for about twenty years, until she recently gifted it to my cousin and her husband, in exchange for some work he did on her house. That car was a gift, and one they are happy to be stuck with,