Looking at a Miata tomorrow 

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678) 12/08/2018 at 18:00 • Filed to: None

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If I can get this one for a low enough price and it checks out as expected, I’d maybe buy this one as early as Friday. Hoping to lock down a deal on it for between $4-4.3k. He has it listed for $5150 and based on the NADA book value of $4700 is a more realistic starting point. Then the minor interior damage, less than perfect paint (but still good), and deferred maintenance (timing belt way overdue, among other things ) is plenty to negotiate with. If he doesn’t come under $4500 I’m walking away so we shall see. It’s Craigslist though so who knows what sort of bullshit I might show up to.. Looking forward to checking it out!

Also, figured out what to do with my old Miata. Auto hobby shop on the base at work has storage for $40 a month with full access to the shop as well. So I'm gonna do that for a few months to tear it down and figure out what to do next. 

f86sabre > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/08/2018 at 18:16

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Go in wearing a Van Halen T shirt and see if you can win him over.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/08/2018 at 18:19

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Ah-HA! THERE you are!

From the seller: “It’s time for me to sell my 2003 Miata. It’s got 85k miles and isn’t in showroom condition, but it drives great and has been well maintained. It’s a top of the line LS model with 6 speed manual, leather, Bose stereo, limited-slip differential, hardtop, and ABS, which is a rare combination. Blue and tan. Asking $7k or best offer.”

I know the owner and he’s local to me. To my knowledge, it’s never seen winter. And with him, “not showroom” probably doesn’t mean much beyond the usual wear and tear. He has an insanely clean Saab 900 Turbo.

I know it’s not local, but if you want, I can take a look for you or put you in touch with the seller directly.

Chariotoflove > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/08/2018 at 18:22

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The color is certainly right. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 12/08/2018 at 18:27

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Where is this located at? Definitely interested. $7k is a bit higher than I’m trying to spend but might as well see more about that car. Seems quite clean.

Missed the hard top part though so the real starting price is $6k if that's in good shape. So yeah I'd love to get in contact for more photos. 7329489469

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Chariotoflove 12/08/2018 at 18:29

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Oh yeah for sure. I’m just glad it’s not the plain silver or black. Hoping it's got not a spec of rust! 

Chariotoflove > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/08/2018 at 18:33

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I’m hoping the mechanicals are in as good a shape as the interior. 

daender > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 12/08/2018 at 18:34

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All it needs is a Torsen swap and it’s ready to rock.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/08/2018 at 18:45

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Cleveland/Akron Ohio. And knowing the owner, it’s probably immaculate and he’s just being generous. (I mean really, look at that Saab.) And yeah, this one’s got literally everything. I’ll pass your info on right now. :)

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Chariotoflove 12/08/2018 at 18:48

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I sure hope not considering the driver seat lol. I mean it’s better than mine was when I took it out but this one is certainly not perfect. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 12/08/2018 at 18:50

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Oof Ohio. Hard if not impossible to avoid the rust there. Plus another longass cross country drive! Although being stock, I bet it would be far more comfortable. Still curious for curiosity sake though. 

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > daender 12/08/2018 at 18:55

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It’s already got the limited-slip, so I wouldn’t say it needs a Torsen swap at all. And it might already have it for that matter. 

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/08/2018 at 19:06

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Nah - it’s not hard. It’s just you don’t get to drive from about November until April, sometimes May. We just park things and don’t get it out till it’s clear again. (I mean seriously, you should see some of the immaculate PT Losers around here.)

The cross-country part, yeah, a bit rough. But shipping’s always an option. Or find my perfect Jeep out by you, buy this one, I drive it out, drive back? ;P (Not serious there... Cali’s a 5 day trip one-way. I’ve done it.)

But we do have a lot of good shippers here. I mean, we can support two large Porsche dealers, like six Mercedes dealers, two Aston Martin dealers, and a Rolls Royce dealer.

Chariotoflove > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/08/2018 at 19:46

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No but mostly. I mean I’m realistic about these things. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 12/08/2018 at 20:31

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Shipping cost becomes prohibitive generally. I did already drive from NJ to LA once. I would just have to take a different route to spice it up. It would mean having to wait until after winter in that case. And yeah driving over a week is more expensive than just shipping but at least it's an experience. Haha I love the idea of a wild jeep trade adventure, but yeah I'd never want to round trip drive that sounds terrible. 

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/08/2018 at 20:57

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I like driving and road trips, especially in anything halfway fun to drive. But with things that are going on now, I can’t do the two-three weeks. But really it depends on your route and what you’re driving. It was definitely cheaper to drive the Porsche than to ship it.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 12/08/2018 at 22:52

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Yeah but new purchase road trips have an extra sort of special flair to them, especially if it’s not for a daily driver. Unfortunately either way the Miata you sent my way though has more rust than I can deal with. Just the typical rocker rust from what he was showing me . Very clean for an east coast car though. Color matched hard top is so damn beautiful!! 

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/08/2018 at 23:07

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Ugh, sorry to hear... Mazda really is their own worst enemy when it comes to rust. “Oops, you got our car wet. It will now disintegrate.” “Oops, you didn’t get our car wet. It will now disintegrate.” It’s like they’ve never heard of this new-fangled rustproofing thing.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 12/09/2018 at 01:44

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Yeah its particularly bad in that time period. The NB is actually worse than the NA surprisingly. Newer safety standards led to some of it. Plus the whole Japanese market completely disposing of used cars pretty much leaves little incentive to put major effort into rust proofing I would think. 

Fresh-Outta-Nissans > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/10/2018 at 05:02

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ABS would definitely be good to have, my ‘92 basically wouldn’t stop thanks to that terrible awful no good proportioning valve.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Fresh-Outta-Nissans 12/10/2018 at 10:32

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Never had abs in my Miata, would definitely think it was weird on the track. It's already strange on my STi although it's very infrequently used on a street car.