Lets say you have $8k to blow out your *** on something. You have a daily driver that is a piece of **** vw that rarely runs, and you have a maita that gets some track time.

Do you go with a v6 4-door nissan frontier and a shitty aluminum trailer to pull the track car around, or spend $4500 on making the miata fast?

When you live in a hotel for work, you have alot of time to ponder this ****.

 

the frontier ,no trailer and a diy turbo kit.

 

but then I can pull the miata to the track, 5 hours away.

 

if you get a truck, watch craigslist for a cheap trailer. every once in a while, you can find one for only a few hundred dollars. you could also just rent a dolly from u-haul when/if you need to. IIRC it's $20/day.

If it were my choice, I'd get a truck, a trailer, and the turbo kit. I'd wait for a deal to pop up on the truck and trailer though.

 

get a trailer hitch for the miata. carry tires and luggage and hookers in a trailer.

 

well, I typically chop up the hookers after I **** their corpse, so I don't necessarily need the trailer for them.

 

$8k?? I'd try to get all three, but fail miserably and go like $5k over budget.

 

a second vehicle makes modifying and racing a miata easier and gives you some piece of mind. i made sure my last car purchase could tow a miata on a trailer, convinced the wife she needed that honda pilot with all the bells and whistles for visiting clients.

 

i'd say go for the truck (no trailer) and some upgrades (or track money) for the miata.. if you REALLY need a trailer, you can rent one.

if you were going to the track every weekend i could see the use for a trailer, but otherwise i think it is better to not get one

 

Well, since you have a BRG miata and you shouldnt do anything to it cause its a classic car. Buy the truck and trailer.

 

im thinking a small truck like that will be hurting towing a miata and a car trailer

 

I'll be fine with trailer brakes.

 

but I already have the jetta for that.

 

It should be ok, a miata isn't all that heavy. My $100 Montero Sport with its 250k mile 3.0 does a fine job.

 

well a 2500 lb miata and 2500 lb trailer is pretty heavy for a 6 cyl in my view

 

I've pulled an NB on a steel trailer in a tacoma, and it was fine.

 

2500lb trailer? WTF man?

FWIW, my pos montero is rated for 5000lb, a frontier is probably about the same.

 

Anything with 200ftlbs of torque and a smallish trailer will pull a Miata w/o any problem. The first problem that always arises is stopping. No trailer brakes? Then you'd better stop for every light regardless of color! I've towed a Miata more times than I can count with my wife's RX300 using a single axle steel trailer- so an aluminum double axle would be fine. The single axle is fine for shorter trips to the track (I'm an hour away). Just need to figure out the right position for good tongue weight to prevent the "tail from wagging the dog". The nice thing about the RX is that when not towing it makes a superb DD.

Other cars that have worked well for short tows- Rodeo V6, Jeep Cheorkee and Grand Cherokee (used my double axle steel trailer with the Jeeps). I also used a shortbed 92 F150 with the big inline 6 to tow my Miata around the southeast with the dubl axle steel and it worked great with a $75 trailer brake setup. Slowed a little on hills, but also got 15mpg towing.

I'd definitely consider the compromise when buying a town vehicle that's also going to serve as a DD. What's it going to do the most? Buying a big V8 truck to tow with once a month, is going to hurt if you're driving it daily at 12mpg.

 

Famous last words? I used to tow mine with a '99 4Runner Limited and I have a fairly light trailer (1300#) and it was unsafe in my opinion. I now tow with a '04 2500 HD and all is well. Don't skimp on your tow vehicle.

 

I ran cars for a wholesaler for 3 summers. In my experience when towing with a blown xterra, I was fine to pull 6000lb with trailer brakes. (I obviously prefer the turbo diesel / 3 car hauler).