Should I?
 

So I have my 2002 SE up for sale.

Here are the facts:

1. I don't want to sell it.
   
2. It's paid off.
   
3. I love the car.
   
4. I drive it maybe once a week. But now with the 93 turbo I basically don't drive it.
   
5. Insurance is crazy if I keep it fully insured. I play $800/6 months with full coverage on both my cars. If I keep the 02' I will probably just do liability on both. Before in TX with just the 02' it was $65/mo.
   
6. Parking where I live sucks. There is no garage space left and this one douchebag keeps complaining to the HOA about my car always being parked in one of the 6 spots we have for about 8 townhouses. The rule is you have to move it once every 3 days. Which I always do. The real problem is that every townhouse has a 2 car garage. All these other betas fill their garage up with shit so they don't have parking and then park in the few spots available. If they USED their garage there would be no parking problems.
   
7. It would be nice to have a second car with a/c, radio and p/s.
   
8. I'm going to school for the next 2-3 years and bike to just about everywhere. I also don't have a job right now and living off the GI Bill. I have enough money saved where I'm not TOTALLY broke. But the extra money saved on insurance/maintenance, plus the cash from the sale, would free up some $$ for the 93' and savings.

So what do? I'm having issues with selling it for $6500, which already makes me really sad because it's an amazing car. Only getting $6500 for it I feel like I should just hold on to it.

why insurance so much?

Because full coverage and Arizona. My insurance on the 02' went from ~$375/6mo to $600/6mo when I moved from Texas. Then when I added the 93' with full coverage it jumped another $200/6mo.

I don't see the need for full coverage with 2 cars, and both worth under 7k, plus I almost never drive. So I will be changing that soon.

And I have USAA and I think they are dicking me over. I'll probably start looking around. I'm 27 and NO accidents or tickets.

I would probably sell it only because I would never drive it if I had a turbo Miata too. I am all for having more then one car but I could never have two of the same car unless one was just a track rat.

I pay about $900 every 6 months for full coverage on my Mazda2 and 94 miata, the 92 has least I can legally have in SC with USAA. My rates went up a good bit when I moved from VA to SC. What I am trying to say is that costs vary greatly location to location. It does not surprise me at all that costs went up moving from Texas to Arizona. You can check around and you might find someone with cheaper rates, but quality will probably suffer.

Calling an 93' turbo that doesn't have a stock stiffness bushing on it, no p/s no a/c no radio and a partially stripped interior the same as a bone stock 02' SE is a bit of a stretch. They don't feel remotely the same.

But I kinda get what you mean. I may trade for something larger, possibly a truck. I'd probably have more of a chance of getting a better deal than with just cash.

FWIW, USAA has new board members and are now getting into the business of fucking everyone over for profit instead of helping out like the used to be. Ever wonder why they have commercials on TV now, and will accept you as a member just because you know someone in the military instead of being a service member yourself?

I just dropped USAA as my insurance carrier after 9 years with them because in the last 2 years, they have DOUBLED my rates, with no cause. No tickets, no financial problems, nothing. Just "rising costs of business" as they put it.

Either way, I dropped them and now pay 56% less than what USAA was charging.

The days of insurance company loyalty are long over.

and here i am complaining about my rates when i pay much less than you guys, lol. I should show this thread to my wife.

Yea. I know my brother switched to something beside USAA when he moved out here and it cut his rates by A LOT. But like you said I'd be worried that quality will go down. But I have heard pretty bad things about USAA too.

I wouldn't want to rely on a turbo miata for daily driving year round with no mishaps, so...

I'd keep it.

And tell the betas who fill up their garage with trash to felch you as hard as they can.

Double post.

Hmmmm . . . . Been with USAA for 32 years. Should probably take a look.

IMHO, a turbo Miata needs to be treated as a hobby/second car. Something else (where you don't get the itch to remove the dash and start sprucing things up) needs to be primary.

When I went to law school after the Navy, I drove a beater '81 Buick that I didn't care about (it was reliable) and put my hobby car into storage at my parent's house. That also removed a study distraction.

I definitely consider the turbo miata a non-daily. Even with the goal of only keeping it off the road due to "improvements" to a week or less. That being said I live within walking/biking distance to everything I need. So even if it's out of commission it's not going to impact my well being.

The major reason I really don't want to sell is I think it's worth a lot more than it really is. By that I mean it's a insanely reliable fun to drive car that has a great drivetrain. Everything is perfect except the clutch shudder and tires. Both won't NEED to be addressed for a few more thousand miles. Which at the pace I'm going could be another year. So minus oil changes and insurance the cost of keeping it is dealing with some douchers and insurance.

Maybe I'll just keep it up for sale at what I *feel* it's worth, and if someone bites than at least I'll be happy with the money I get for it.

I had usaa on my msm and wife's mini initially and kept it for around 4 years. After making a change at work and losing around 2 bucks an hour I decided to look around for cheaper insurance. I went with Geico and pay $75 each month for better coverage... Moral of the story: Don't sell the miata, use it as an excuse to have a track rat.

Just to be clear, is this in the Phoenix area?

I've tried using a non-ac Miata as a daily and as a fun car in the valley. It's just too hot.

Yea, Phoenix. It is hot. I think I'll just put liability on both my cars and keep them.

I find it telling that you already have the 2002 removed from your sig. Like it's already gone.

If it were something rare, I'd say keep it, because finding another wouldn't be easy. But you can find early 2k models all over the place, in decent shape for a reasonable price.

If it isn't exactly what you want right now, dump it and move on. Sell it for whatever price moves it out fast, so you can put it behind you. If you dick around over a couple hundred, it might take that much longer to sell, and you'll be second guessing yourself.

There really isn't any deep meaning behind the sig. I was doing all my miatas old miatas at the same time and just decided to do the 02' because I knew I was planning to try and sell it. I knew I'd probably never update it if I didn't do it then lol.

Maybe I'm not looking hard enough but I never see other 02' SEs. I've been watching craigslist for a few months now and have yet to see anything come close. A decent yellow one came up, but it was yellow.

The car is exactly what I want right now. But it isn't exactly what I need right now.

I don't see how the situation changes. You sell the car, you have to replace it with something else.


Seems like some work just to end up in the same scenario. Fuck that.

What? I don't need any cars. If I sold the 02' there would be no replacement. At least not until after I finish up school. At which point I'll probably get something larger. Like I mentioned, I bike everywhere.