Her Ladyship's Golf Mk4 GTTDI has finally expired after 225k miles with a blown turbo. Seeing as we bought it for £600 with about 180k showing, I reckon it gave us a good run! Hopefully the Recaro seats and new tyres will get us a few quid back but it's basically a write off at this point as the best quote to fix it is £1100 with no guarantee that the engine hasn't eaten significant bits of turbo and may well be compromised too.

So, hey ho. I'm looking for a daily for the Mrs - a common situation.

SWMBO is a "Spirited" driver, quite capable of hanging the tail out and getting it back again and will not be happy in anything boring. Or too big. Which is why I inherited a P38 in the first place.

Casting about on ebay I've noticed the MX-5 Mk3 are plentiful and cheap, which suggest to me that they're not shit. Has anyone tried the Mk3 version? Specifically the hard top? I'd be interested in opinions before getting too far down the track. I doubt I'd be driving it much, as I'm 6' 4". The boss is a hair under 6 feet, so cabin size could still be an issue, perhaps.

Not a Mk3, only driven a Mk1 and came to the conclusion it should only be available in Barbie pink...... Everything was just so light, steering, gearchange, clutch, brakes, I came to the conclusion it was the ultimate hairdressers car.

Yeah, 2 Mk 1s -experience of- both the smaller engine, a Eunos (has A/C and the roof basically, had a removable hard roof as well) which my brother wrote off by wrapping it round a taxi and the later slightly reduced power version (I think) of an actual UK market MX5 which was more rust prone for some reason but is still just about around. They were / are my mum's.

Tbh I don't quite 'get' them. I know they're a kind of new 'Mrs Peel' Lotus type thing, but they are quite basic and tbh I think I preferred my old ex-chicken coop (really) 1.6CTI I had back in the day, front drive or not. Neither could match a 2.8i Capri for fun, not sure what I'd make of 80s Fords nowadays.

For all the above, I don't dislike MX5s - if you wanted a small car of that sort they're quite fine.

I kind of ignored the Mk2, the Mk3 I thought looked chunkier and sturdier back when it was new, I saw one in Maryport but didn't get a go in it. A friend's fiancee had a supercharged 1.6 Mx5 I remember (Mk1) - they both loved it.

If the Mk3 is going for a good deal and drives nicely it's probably not going to be a huge mistake. Enough of the older ones are still around and they aren't going to have lost refinement as the newer versions turned up.

Mrs Garvin had a folding hard top MkIII MX-5. Initially thought we would keep it for 3 years but ended up keeping it for 8 years as a) it was a lot of fun; and b) it proved to be the most reliable car we have ever owned by a country mile. In those 8 years and £44k miles it only required, apart from annual servicing, a set of front brake pads (discs were still only slightly worn), tyres and a new battery with the latter only required cos Mrs E left the boot ajar with the boot light on when we were away for a couple of weeks. The 7 year battery never recovered from that deep discharge!

Other good points:

• Great handling with not too much grip so fun to be had at sensible speeds. Very adjustable via the throttle.
• Lovely steering feel, you know exactly what’s going on with the front wheels.
• Slick, rifle bolt gear change
• Good driving position with great relationship of steering wheel and gear shift and nicely positioned and weighted pedals but see item 1 below.
• Boot capacity not bad and not reduced when the roof is folded.
• The only drop top I have ever driven that didn’t leak even when it was chucking it down.

Not so good points:

• Tight fit for 6 footers. I’m 6’1” and it was OK to drive for up to 30 mins. Long journeys a no-no. The foot well in the passenger side is far too small and a lot smaller than the driver’s side. I thought this odd and on investigation found a removable plastic wedge under the carpet. Once removed the seating position for anyone over 5’10” became OK but still not great.
• Lack of power. Only had ~125bhp and needed just a bit more oomph.
• Engine revved well but was a bit noisy/coarse.
• Cost of spark plugs - when they were changed at service I initially thought they had made a mistake on the invoice but Googling them revealed the OEM ones were over £20 each, yes that’s right, over £80 for four of the damn things and that was back in 2012 or so.
• OEM ICE was pants. Was changed PDQ.

Would we have another one? Well, by coincidence we have a latest version on order that should be with us at end October. I tried one out for size and I fit in it a lot better than the MkIII and an extra 60 or so horses should make things more fun - after years of high powered cars that were just too fast for UK roads I fancied having something I could actually ring the neck of again and slide around.

One of the cars I've always fancied to have, but I got no time or need for :-)
Guys above have covered all the main stuff: fun & reliability.

As a side idea, there is also its less lucky cousin, the Italian-engined and restyled Fiat 124, and its wild brother the Abarth.
Engines are more powerful and plenty to mod, a bit of shape-change makes the boot a lil larger (and a classical throwback front), and there is no end of of goodies available. The Abarth version also comes with LSD, larger brakes, uprated suspension and exhaust. Sound is pretty raw and nice ...
It is already an "instant classic", as the experiment lasted little (I think only 3-4 years production run), and I am sure it will appreciate more and more in time - it already got a bit dearer in the last couple years, watching prices regularly as I really think is one of the last of its kind we will see, at least from an "Italian" perspective ...

https://mx5oc.co.uk/

A few years ago I converted a few MX5's and Euno's to LPG for private owners, I've driven them (probably early marks) but never lived with one. A more refined take on the Triumph Spitfire which is exactly what they were designed to be, great fun but cramped and uncomfortable for a long distance and more power would make them more exciting.

There was an MX5 specialist dealer that always had a few second hand ones on display in their shop window in Conisbrough not far from me, just Googled them, seems they've moved even closer to me, now on South Kirkby industrial estate.