I am used to driving (let’s face it, somewhat boring) cars like Civics and Camrys. For my next car, at a similar price, I can get another 1990 Civic – or a 1990 MX-5. I’m partial to these old Japanese sedans and hatches because they never break down. But I’ve heard MX-5s are a lot of fun, and cheap, and I’m so sad that I don’t have awesome handling, a good transmission, or quick acceleration, or the convertible feature of course. On the other hand, I’ve heard talk that there is some sort of a camshaft issue or something or other that often requires an engine swap in older models of the MX-5? The one I am looking at has 140k miles on it. What do you guys think? Civic or MX-5?
Background & additional question: I’m a man in his late twenties. I’ve heard the MX-5 is a chick car. I’ve heard that about the Audi TT too. Are they chick cars, or are those people just talking s&#@?
Ooga
In the US, we call the car Miata . . . in other countries, it’s known as MX-5
Any 27 year old car is going to have its fair share of worn out parts. Even the most reliable cars have worn out parts, as they get older and rack up mileage
My sister-in-law had a 1990 Accord, and I was working on it so often, I got sick of seeing it. And it was only 12 or 13 years old, at the time.
That is a myth
As far as being chick cars . . . who cares? If you like the car, just buy it. I see plenty of guys driving Miatas, fwiw
While commonly called a Miata these were actually the mx-5/miata. A regular customer of ours got a little mad at us for calling his car a Miata insisting it was a MX-5,
Sure they do. Any 20+ year old car is going to have an issue or two.
Good ones (good condition/lower mileage) are starting to appreciate in value
yes
check
LOL, no. NA Miatas aren’t fast. You’re talking 9 second 0-60 runs when new.
I’ve never heard of that. The 1990 and early 1991 models had a crankshaft issue, but that effected less than 2% of those cars.
The Civic will be more practical, the Miata will be more fun. Both should be about as reliable as you can reasonably expect a 26 year old car to be.
Both those cars have that sort of reputation. With the MX-5 it’s largely unfounded because it’s a true sports car. With the 1st gen TT, it’s sort of earned IMHO, as the early TT’s were just Beetles with a different body, the FWD models were sheep in wolves clothing.
