tell me what you think, buying a miata tomorrow.
 

there is a 96 automatic miata with 49k. the car is titled and registered in texas as a salvage title car. i double checked with the florida dmv and they said there wouldnt be a problem switching the title, it would jsut be a salvage florida title . car looks really good and no frame damage. comes with softop that has ripped window and a matching red hardtop. 3500 from 3800, just looking for some input on the price and the fact that its salvaged. since its already inspected and titled will it hold value for resale?

the car was in a front right accident, looks like the miata just went under the car, messed up the bumper, fender and hood along with the headlight but didnt crush the frame. It was painted and matches really good, they did a good job it seems.

If you plan on having a fun car, get a manual...

If you can't learn to drive a manual, go watch a youtube video and then buy a manual. No one ever taught me, I just got in and drove home after watching one video. It's not difficult, and if it's difficult for you, don't drive.

WAY too expensive. You can get a decent clean title car for that price

Without a salvaged title being key. A few years back I bought a 95 M edition for $2500. She had her dings, dents, and paint defects, but it was a solid car with the factory torsen rear end. When I sold it, it went for $3500ish

Have you driven it yet? Seriously i drove an automatic 99 miata and holy crap that thing was sooo slow compared to a manual.

sounds over priced even with the hardtop. Offer them $1500 CASH keep the hard top and sell the car

yea i drove it, car rides fine and drives straight. it is slow but i dond mind it. even tho the car is already inspected and titled you guys think that is too high? i think its good just cuz its titled already, car is in really good shape.

Sounds like you've already made up your mind. Enjoy your overpriced slow car.

POW!Never buy an automatic Miata.And It was in an accident?WTF?
(G)

Do some of you not know the difference between a gentle ribbing and being an all out prick? If this site was a true competition site, much like Competitiondiesel with peoples livelyhoods at stake, I could understand the negativity among new comers.... But face it, minus a few select sponsors/admins/mods, no one here is any higher on the food chain then anyone else.

As evident from your driver side frame rail, we've all been newbs at some point. This is not a gang, and if newcomers were supposed to succumb to a hazing, the admins would have already stepped up to the plate. :)

To the OP, please do yourself a favor and pass on the car, especially if you are worried about resale.

You've been here long enough to know this is not going to end well for you...right?

That's a fair price for a manual if the car is clean with the hard top. The auto is a head-ache.

im not a troll, thanks for the warm welcome tho :fawk:. Auto doesnt bother me, my plans are to put a ls1 in the car. ive bascially made my decision but wanted some input on the situation. tyson87 from this forum came with me to look at the car and the car is perfect except the "salvage" title. i plan on getting suspension and rims, then start looking for a motor and tranny.

Buy it and send me the throttle body. Wait, are the 1.8 throttle bodies different from the 1.6? Dammit.

What kind of rimz are you getting?

the car is red so i was thinking either black which i feel is played out on alot of cars, gold with chrome lip or bronze. roll bar is priority on my list tho. I was also considering just spray painting the stockers and getting some used coilovers or something so the car doesnt look so stock.

Is there any reason why you are buying the automatic?

I'll bet you could find something for a better price, with a clean title, and a 5-speed.

Even if you don't care about the motor or the tranny and just want the shell for a LS1 swap, you can find one cheaper. :2cents:

Another thing to think about- If the metals been twisted, it has been fatigued. The ls1 makes 3-4 times more power then the stock engine. Do you really want to use a fatigued chassis? You are also talking about one of the cheaper purchases your going to make when doing an LS1 swap. Most of us are well over 10-15k, and some of us have peaked 20-30k on our builds.

I'm guessing you live in Fl. Here's a much better option: https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/t43926/

Since you're thinking about going the LS1 route. Buy Tony's car and part it out. You'll get a lot of your money back. The engine is in really good shape. I'll be down to buying some of the parts myself! ;)

And we also know Tony. Great mechanical skills and honest dude. What more do you want?

Just my 2 cents.

I showed him that car with the first post he made inquiring advice. Personally I would buy it :dunno:

im gona daily the car untill i have all the parts needed to do the swap.

Why are we even talking about this? I think everyone in this thread is telling you that buying that particular car for the money you specified is not a good idea. Yet you are fighting everything we are telling you. You asked for advice, but already made up your mind. Just buy the damn thing already and stop asking us questions for which you don't want to know the answer.

Not worth it, hold out for a manual.

Bottom line, regardless of the condition of that car -- if I was going to invest a minimum of 10k into a car above its normal value, you can be damned sure it wouldn't have any issues with the title. Not worth it.

Obsession does strange things to people. At least the seller is getting a good deal :(

+1 to that. If you're doing a LS1 swap you're going to drop some serious money on the car. You're much better off to buy a really clean 90-93 for half the price. Once it's swapped, if you ever want to sell it nobody is going to care if it's a 90 or a 96, but you better be damn sure that salvage title is going to absolutely destroy any resale value.

+2 I dont mean to rag but I rather buy the turbo one, why:

1) Daily turbo miata > auto miata
2) NO SALVAGE TITLE
3) Good platform
4) You can resale the stuff you dont need and put some extra $$ towards your LS1

:dunno:

Maybe you can get some "phat rims" yo:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jiLsBLaOvz...hrome+Rims.jpg

That way you can get that tranny you were talking about also:
http://www.sportsmemorabilia.com/fil...9f24aef5c1.jpg

All jokes aside... an automatic? If you plan on IMMEDIATELY taking the car home and pulling out the motor and trans, then okay...go for it.

Hell, if you're fine with an auto, get this and start your LS1 build with an NB:

MAZDA MIATA 1999

Or this for $400 less:

Mazda 1995 Miata

Or dink around with a supercharger, then sell it for $1000 to put towards your LS1.

95 Mazda Miata SUPERCHARGED

h2o intercooler ??

Doesn't look intercooled at all from those pics.

who am i fighting? calm down, im looking for input and ive received it.

thats just the tranny i need! lol i dont plan on swapping everything out immediately but i wont mind driving auto for the time being untill everything falls into place.

-am i really that wrong for buying a car that is branded rebuilt title? the frame to me and my friend looks great and under the carpeting and in the trunk there is no rust and the paint + sealants looks perfect. the odometer doesnt seem bogus because the wear seems about right for the 49k miles.

- i would imagine that anyone dropping a ls1 into a miata is going to do as much reinforcing to the frame as possible. i didnt see anything visible that was crushed or bent up metal on the frame. since there is nothing visible is it safe to assume that the frame would be as good or even better than any other 100k+ miatas i see going for way more, without a hardtop? (auto vs stick shift aside). this car probably has a better frame than the 160k+ turbo miata some of you have suggested. i should have probably snapped some pics so u guys can see how clean the car is. :vash:

im not looking to start a fight with any of you or claim that i dont care and im getting the car regardless of what you say, just looking for advice good or bad.

i plan on keeping the car for a few years, even in the future if i could make a few g's or just break even selling it on the money ive invested id be happy. i just want a really fast affordable car that can do work in the streets and on the track. :drool:

that one doenst seem bad, i could jsut buy the stock parts on here and sell the sc, shit is so far tho. id hate to drive 3+hours (1 way) only to be disspointed

I have a hard time reconciling that statement with your stated purpose of swapping an LS1 in.

affordable i mean 20k or less and can be as fast as 100k cars (from what ive seen)

Why the hell would you do that? I can understand selling the SC parts to fund an LS swap, but why would you buy stock parts? Just keep the damn SC on until you do the LS swap (which from the way you're talking it sounds like is a pretty far off plan and not going to happen anytime soon, which makes more of an argument for buying a 5spd. Hell, never know, even though it's not a turbo, the SC may make you fall in love with boost and re-think the LS idea.

I think you'll find that's not going to be as easy as you think if you're going LS.

why not buy someones ls1 miata then? starting with auto is dumb especially if you are gonna swap to an LS1 that's manual, extra work of cutting holes and wiring etc...

this thread is auto-tragic

yea that makes more sense,, that was s dumb comment on my part. i basically know what parts i need, where to get them and how to do it. after the car is bought, gota start the engine/tranny search. a local friend will help me tear apart the miata and build it up in my garage.

- should i just ask a mod to ban me?

Or heck...if you're comfortable with spending $20k on a perfect, superfast Miata, buy robino's car. It's been up for sale for a while I think, he might cut you a good deal on it. It's probably the cleanest, best sorted out street turbo Miata I've seen.

EDIT:

It's even in Florida.

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/t41560/

That's not necessary around here, if you're deserving it will happen in good time on it's own...trust us. You will be fine here, have you found v8miata.net yet? It's run by the same group of people as this site is.

yea ive been directed to many sites, bossfrog, fm v8miata, have read alot of shit.

Just FYI since I inquired about this one:

Clos561. if the auto trans car is less than $300 w/o hard top, it is then an okay deal.

that is pricey, for not much more i'd sell you my 49K clean title turbo car

I agree with everybody else, keep looking for a clean titled manual. You'll really kick yourself later if you get an auto.
What ever car you get make sure and check for rust. ANY rust is bad, when I bought mine it had very little rust, but now 6 months later its starting to show up and theres really nothing you can do about it.

He'll be close, but if he skimps in a few areas or finds SUPER deals, he might make it.

If plan on doing it right, plan on having it down for 6 months to a year. My cars been down since December 3rd, and I've worked on it EASILY 1000 man hours so far. It took about a day to pull the old driveline out. Its not for the faint at heart.

As far as the chassis and being scared of the higher mile turbo car-

Do an experiment for us. Take two pieces of metal out. Take one and fold it back and fourth very slightly about 20 times. Now take the other piece of metal and fold it back and fourth 5 times slightly, then fold it all the way over (might have to use a hammer to fold it like a book). Now straighten it back out (you will have to use the same hammer). Now fold it slightly again 5 more times.

Which piece of metal has more flex? ;)

i understand what fatigue is just not why it could be such a problem if its minor, like in this case. i ended up not getting the car. i wont be able to get insurance that would cover the mods that i do, i can only get the state min liability coverage.

I've seen decent mileage NAs in my area go for around 2K. Another $1500 for a hardtop and messed up title is stupid, low mileage or not

Edit: Here's one in north east Fl that looks to be pretty decent http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/cto/1605929081.html

Because of the salvage title?

Good find, I'd go for that one. Looks pretty nice and decent miles too. 5spd, clean title and MUCH closer than Texas.

If you want insurance to cover your mods you have to arrange a special policy in which the value of whatever is it that you want to do is stipulated. I know I've heard of somone in this board that has that type of insurance, but I cant recall the name.

well the car isnt in texas, just titled in texas with a texas tag. Ive looked at several different options. that black one doesnt look bad at all. there is also one that is in fort myers that is going for 2600, 1991' and has 69k miles, i spoke with the and they said the car has minor surface rust and that is was covered most of the time or under a canopy. they are from ohio. im emailing the black miata now.


- yea i didnt buy it because the rebuilt title and the insurance compnies can only give me the min state requirement on it.