My short-but-sweet fling with a cheap Mazda MX-5

I’ve always wanted my cars to be a bit different, which is why I bought a Fiat Coupé 20v a couple of years ago.  Above all else, it was interesting.

However, six months of ownership taught me that ‘interesting’ doesn’t mean ‘great’. I found it nose-heavy and a total pain to work on. The cost and complexity didn’t reflect the enjoyment I got out of driving it, so it had to go.

A few months after selling it, I borrowed an ND-shape, 1.5-litre Mazda MX-5 for a few weeks. The ever-popular MX-5 had always clashed with my ethos of buying cars that were different from the herd – but from the first country roads drive I did in it, I knew I had to have one.

So that’s how I ended up buying a 1999 Mazda MX-5 S. It’s a pre-facelift NB, the prettiest generation in my eyes, with the 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine sending all 140bhp through a five-speed manual gearbox and - excitingly, in the wet – a Torsen differential.

One month into ownership, I’m loving it. The handling is sublime and its tiny footprint makes threading it down country lanes a dream.

There are a few bits that need sorting – the bodywork is in a pretty poor state (although structurally sound), the wheels are grim and there are ocean-liner levels of body roll – plus lots of mechanical and visual upgrades I’d like to do. But that’s all to come once I’ve enjoyed a few more miles in it.

5 February 2025: Cheap to buy – for a reason

One of the reasons for buying my Mazda MX-5 was that I wanted something not only fun and a bit more characterful than most modern cars but also something a bit more solid-feeling than the Fiat Coupé that I had before.

It may all be there in theory (sturdy manual gearbox, simple four-cylinder engine), but in practice my MX-5 has been brought down by the little things.

I was enjoying a spirited roof-down drive when a cloud of steam began to escape from the bonnet. After pulling over as soon as possible with the temperature needle on the higher side of the range, it became apparent that it had overheated. What a shocker. The cause? The tube connecting the radiator to the coolant expansion tank had flown off, dumping all of the coolant away.

Luckily, a friend could come to rescue me, bringing some Jubilee clips and a load of coolant, and we were able to get it home. A little bit of driveway disassembly revealed that the thermostat housing was cracked, with the thermostat itself in fairly dire straits.