miaspa
Part of things
Posts: 829
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Oct 13, 2016 16:11:57 GMT
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Not really relevant to your search, but my other half bought a StreetKA. I was surprised by how good it was, with the only letdowns being the shoddy door mechanism breaking and the soft wheels (a common Ford problem apparently, as I have the same issue with my Fiesta ST). Brilliant little car though and a lot of car for the money. Heated seats, 6 CD changer and electric everything. Been pretty reliable too. She drives it very little, but it starts straight away every time. Well worth a look if you're looking into soft tops. . I covered 70k in my streetka keep an eye on the heater control valve and the thermostat housing both made of shoddy plastic. Never had an issue with brakes or alloys. The 34 mpg was its major fault my older Megane convertible gets up to 50 mpg on same routes.
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Found my flashing Pao again.
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,201
Club RR Member Number: 170
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MGF/ MX5ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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hi all as the summers now long gone me and the good lady wife want to but a two seater sports car, I've long said I want one and now the cheapest time to get one? I've admired the early mgf models for a long time, and I think with a decent head gasket they are a good buy right?, I've looked at a couple of mx5 mazdas but they just don't do it for me, although they may be a better car? Looking at some mgf models locally, anyone had one, own one or any advice on them,? ,,I realise these aren't RR type cars but this place is always the best place to get honest opinions, cheers Dan The MX5 is a purer driving experience, both cars rot, the simple fact is that MX5s have been around an extra 5 years so there are consequently more rotten ones. I remain deeply suspicious of the "F"s on-the-limit handling, all the ones i've driven have a propensity for changing ends suddenly on wet roundabouts. the Mazda is much more predictable and is a real seat of the pants car. On the upside, i've never had to change a head gasket twice on any K powered car and "F"s ARE stupidly cheap at present (but so are TR7s, even V8 ones) Steve As much as I like MGs I'd have said the MX-5 IMO. Maybe I was lucky in the example I bought as I did pay a small fortune for it, over £2k with a hardtop and spares to be exact but mine was a doddle to work on! In terms of driving it was also superb. That said, I went in a few years ago and they just didn't do it for me! Insurance was dirt cheap too! £80 for the year! You cannot go wrong with that. Flaws? Yeah. Image is one of them but you soon get past it, and it is surprising just how many blokes like 'em. Alot of older drivers are developing a following too and the owners clubs are a very friendly and forthcoming bunch ; I honestly have not come across a bunch of peeps like that anywhere! This place and maybe another forum I know of come close . FWIW a friend had a Rover 218VVC which never saw a HG even at 100k. TR7 V8 for £2k? Where am I not looking? Most of the stuff I saw at this price bracket looked like a recipe for rot and weekend hobby wiring, not to mention with many of them not even running! Have you considered a Honda S2000 Dan? Bullet proof and so much fun! These are a right hoot! However I was under the impression a good one was still £5k+. I was offered one a couple of years ago for £3.5k at "mates rates" (unsurprisingly it went within the week of being advertised!) but even that was not without its flaws ; it was on its second gearbox due to a flaw with one of the bearings in the S2000s and he was honest enough to say that the bushes probably needed changing but were probably seized in. What if.... As a MX5 owner I'd say go for the MG-F and be a bit different, unless you want to do track days then go for the MX-5. Unless you're really taking it to limit I don't think you'd be too bothered by the diferences and for top down weekend fun either is as good as the other. Re the Z3, all the above applies but the 4 cylinder ones don't do it for me and the 2.8 is probably out of budget. there seems to be a lot of snobbery about the Z3, basically it's an E30 with an E36 front and look at how well regarded E30's are. Although back when they were new U had a 328 Tourer and borrowed a Z3 2.8 for a day and the 328 handled much, much better! But my then primary age daughter loved getting picked up by a car with an electric hood :-) Funnily I have a neighbour with an immaculate MG-TF that gets used as a runabout and another neighbour with an immaculate Z3 2.8 (which may have seen a track day) and I have a shed of a MX5 that has been on the track. I wonder who has most fun. Probably the MX-5 . It's part of the reason why I sold mine. It was massively fun, even on the stock 14" wheels with Goodyears all round. However, the temptation was far too strong to turbocharge it, especially with it being "the engine" (early 1.6), especially now a certain Might Car Modifying channel has done one! It was a damn sweet unit though! If the Z3s are as floppy as people say it would annoy the hell out of me! OK, I know the MX-5 isn't the best without mods done to it, but the floppyness and scuttle shake is what put me off buying an E46 M3! After driving a couple it annoyed the hell out of me! A bump in the road and the car just shaked, not much better than a Saab 9-3 in all honesty and I know which is better built and cheaper! IMO, apart from posing value, what is the point of getting the sportiest engine into a car with the rigidity of a boneless limb? But there is something about the wind in your hair! I sort of miss it! Sorry to throw a curveball this late in the day but if it's summer fun you want don't overlook the Del Sol. OK they're fwd, but you get vtec power and Honda reliability. Mine had done 170k and felt tight as a drum. It was my daily at one point! Watch rust on the rear quarters (I replaced mine - £500) as they rot from the inside, otherwise mine was trouble free in the five years I owned it. As with any old convertible manual roof is best as the trans top can be a nightmare if it goes wrong. jimbo200sx has one of these and loves it to bits! With the 1.6 B Series engine they just love to rev, and rev and rev! The scuttle shake didn't seem that bad at all with the roof off TBH! While the Transtop can be troublesome it is effortless! Issues? I can only think of 2: -Rust - it seems they can rust anywhere! B pillar edges beneath the rubbers etc. -Parts - There is not alot of stuff available from the dealer from what I can tell, meaning you will have to go on a custom route for a few things? Broken PAS hose with a funny shape? Make your own... So I sold the mgf....before we had a glorious summer,regretted it ever since,so at the end of this month I'm back in the market for another one,but........ My son has just found some Honda crx del sols on eBay anyone had any experience with these? I've tentivelly looked at mx5s but not 100% if it's the car for me? Drive a good MX-5 and IMHO buy the best you can afford. I bought mine for around £2kish (I deliberately wanted a car without issues and rot so patched cars were out of the question for me; an old car will have the odd niggle anyway, but it's nice to have smaller niggles than massive ones and mine were very small as per the thread!). They seem to sell very quick in good condition. I put mine for sale at RetroWarwicK with a sketchy ad in the windscreen. By the end of the day I have 3 offers on the table . You can't get fairer than that . I do miss it a little though. Bar the rust they are built superbly. Mine was on 155k and TBH you'd struggle to tell. The switchgear still felt massively sturdy, the gearbox was rifle bolt smooth (probably one of its best features!) that it puts alot of cars from that decade to shame in that respect! But do look around. There are plenty of dogs for sale as you know. Not really relevant to your search, but my other half bought a StreetKA. I was surprised by how good it was, with the only letdowns being the shoddy door mechanism breaking and the soft wheels (a common Ford problem apparently, as I have the same issue with my Fiesta ST). Brilliant little car though and a lot of car for the money. Heated seats, 6 CD changer and electric everything. Been pretty reliable too. She drives it very little, but it starts straight away every time. Well worth a look if you're looking into soft tops. Ka are cheap....but a bit to girly for me!! Drive one . Admitedly they are on the girly side for me, although the Kas are a superb handler and with cheap spares going for them! The MPG from the 1.6s however is horrific ; My now sold Clio 172 could do more MPG without too much effort and if I am honest it makes the M3 look "OK" on fuel. 30ishMPG seems to be the norm for those RoCam engines. It's what put me off buying a SportKa years ago (I had a Ford Ka with the Ford Racing Parts attached, so the SportKa seemed like the natural progression until I saw what people were getting out of them, boy or girl drivers! Why Ford didn't fit the superior Zetec SE engines to them Lord only knows but I suspect cost was the big one. I need to send across an article about the best Convertible to buy by Modern Classics! They said the MX-5 beat the lot purely down to affordability. However, they did feel the MGF wasn't too bad at all once you dialled into the car.
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Last Edit: Oct 14, 2016 6:26:22 GMT by ChasR
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Goafer
Part of things
Posts: 53
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Drive one . Admitedly they are on the girly side for me, although the Kas are a superb handler and with cheap spares going for them! The MPG from the 1.6s however is horrific ; My now sold Clio 172 could do more MPG without too much effort and if I am honest it makes the M3 look "OK" on fuel. 30ishMPG seems to be the norm for those RoCam engines. It's what put me off buying a SportKa years ago (I had a Ford Ka with the Ford Racing Parts attached, so the SportKa seemed like the natural progression until I saw what people were getting out of them, boy or girl drivers! Why Ford didn't fit the superior Zetec SE engines to them Lord only knows but I suspect cost was the big one. I need to send across an article about the best Convertible to buy by Modern Classics! They said the MX-5 beat the lot purely down to affordability. However, they did feel the MGF wasn't too bad at all once you dialled into the car. Yeah, the MPG is a little on the low side, but I honestly don't notice it that much (although I only drove it for a few months before my other half passed her test). I mainly noticed the tiny fuel tank. £35 took it from almost empty to full. They do drive very nicely though. I recommended it to my other half due to her looking for a cheap, reliable car and I figured it looked good (for her!), but would probably drive a bit sloppy. She's not into cars, so I figured she wouldn't really care about handling etc. I was the one to test drive it and I was thoroughly impressed. Tight handling, nicely weighted steering, reasonable acceleration and everything just felt good. The interior is a bit plasticy, but nicely designed IMO. We paid about £1500 for it with 30,000 on the clock and I feel we got a hell of a lot of car for it. The only thing that let it down is the plastics. As well as the stuff mentioned by maispa about the plastic heater parts, it was cheap plastic parts that caused the door mechanism to fail on ours. Not exactly bank breaking to fix, but it's worth taking into account. Another thing to take into account is space. Whilst leg room is good, the height isn't. I'm about average and I felt the roof was a bit low. Not uncomfortably so, but low enough for me to notice. Made me feel like I was in a roof chopped car though, so I can't complain! The boot, however is amazing. We managed to fit an alloy wheel, a tyre (separate to the wheel) and our weekly shopping in there with minimal shuffling.
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Last Edit: Oct 14, 2016 9:00:35 GMT by Goafer
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,201
Club RR Member Number: 170
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MGF/ MX5ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Oct 14, 2016 13:04:27 GMT
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That's more than an MX-5 boot then! Without the spare wheel they gain space but they are still not the roomiest .
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MGF/ MX5Mercdan68
@forddan68
Club Retro Rides Member 68
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Oct 15, 2016 16:36:35 GMT
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We put a deposit on a tidy 58,000 mile mgf this morning Another car bought for a reasonable price,I'm not going to sell this one!, will be picking it up tomorrow
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Fraud owners club member 2003 W211 Mercedes E class 1998 ex bt fiesta van
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