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Savington
Apr 9, 2007
I'm not Stinkmeister, this title is here so waar can tell the difference between Stinkmeister and myself in mafia games.

Psylocibe posted:

Hey guys, I'm going to be checking this out for a Socal goon, and I need to know what I need to keep an eye out for.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/car/476155134.html

Trouble spots, things to check, what should I specifically look for. Give me a Miata Rundown, because it's not going to be my car, and I'm basically going to be the eyes and ears and rear end for a guy 300 miles away.

Walk away. That's a thousand bucks high for that car with a good history, and that one has been crashed. $6k will buy him a very nice 60,000 mile NA if he's willing to be patient.

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INCHI DICKARI
Aug 23, 2006

by FactsAreUseless
That car has the line, for some reason that picture doesn't show it.

I looked that car over top to bottom. The only flaws I could find anywhere on it were a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of peeling paint around the trunk lock and one fingernail sized scuff on the nose. That's it.

I'll upload pics for Amir tonight. I think he found his Miata.

I also take back what I said in here about Miatas not being fun to drive. The one I drove before was a beat down '91.

I fully and formally withdraw all prior statements.

GOLDMAN SACHS PARTY
Sep 2, 2004

by Fistgrrl

Savington posted:

Walk away. That's a thousand bucks high for that car with a good history, and that one has been crashed. $6k will buy him a very nice 60,000 mile NA if he's willing to be patient.

But it hasn't been crashed :confused:

The guy has all records from day 1, even the window sticker (which he sent me). This car has the Popular Equipment package.
Also, the disappearing bodyline is an illusion. He sent me a larger photo and that oddity is due to a shadow, it seems:













Still think it's overpriced?

Applebees Appetizer
Jan 23, 2006

Jesus people, saying a car has been wrecked by looking at a picture is pretty dumb.

The miles are a bit high though for 6k.

GOLDMAN SACHS PARTY
Sep 2, 2004

by Fistgrrl

leica posted:

Jesus people, saying a car has been wrecked by looking at a picture is pretty dumb.

The miles are a bit high though for 6k.

The market has been sucking around here. I'll offer him 5k and maybe we'll settle on something like 5.5k.
I'm okay with paying a small premium for all the maintenance records from day 1.

Elysium
Aug 21, 2003
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It seems ok. Personally, for 6k I would prefer it have leather and nicer wheels like an M edition, but the new top is interesting. I wouldn't pass it up for 5k, though people love to come out of the woodwork to tell you all about how there are 15 50k mile Miatas for sale for $3,000 in their area, when I never see poo poo like that, or they are really run down.

GOLDMAN SACHS PARTY
Sep 2, 2004

by Fistgrrl

Elysium posted:

people love to come out of the woodwork to tell you all about how there are 15 50k mile Miatas for sale for $3,000 in their area, when I never see poo poo like that, or they are really run down.

Yeah, exactly. I've been hearing this a lot ("lol d00d it's california how can you not find a Miata") but the reality is that a lot of the cars I see are either poorly maintained by clueless owners, overpriced, or riced out.

This seems to be a well-cared-for (with documentation) unmolested NA with all the options I want. I don't find leather seats comfortable, by the way, so having pretty much all the M-edition options sans leather is a plus for me. I guess you could argue that the new top makes up for lack of leather. It does have a leather steering wheel, though!

edit: and a torsen :swoon:

GOLDMAN SACHS PARTY fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Nov 15, 2007

Phone
Jul 30, 2005

親子丼をほしい。
Go for it and join the Montego Blue Mica fanclub.

Applebees Appetizer
Jan 23, 2006

Well, it ultimately comes down to what it's worth to you. If you've had a hard time finding a decent Miata then this one is probably worth it. Haggle with the guy a bit then buy it. It looks really nice and well taken care of.

Gear Head
Aug 18, 2005
Ask me about the normal profile of a rape victim! The normal profile of a rape victim! The normal profile of a RAPE victim! THE NORMAL PROFILE OF A RAPE VICTIM! NORMAL PROFILE! RAPE VICTIM! NORMAL PROFILE! RAPE VICTIM!

(I only rape women under 30 though!)
I need to replace my soft top on my '93. I was thinking about ordering this:

$479 Zipless Glass Top

Is this a good deal from GoMiata or are there any better deals?

Schwack
Jan 31, 2003

Someone needs to stop this! Sherman has lost his mind! Peyton is completely unable to defend himself out there!
http://medford.craigslist.org/car/473879935.html

I just called about this one, on the hopes it might pan out. It has manual windows/locks, but A/C and power steering. Is it possible this is just equipped with the power steering package and it more than likely does not have a Torsen?

Applebees Appetizer
Jan 23, 2006

Gear Head posted:

I need to replace my soft top on my '93. I was thinking about ordering this:

$479 Zipless Glass Top

Is this a good deal from GoMiata or are there any better deals?

That's about average price. Don't forget to add labor if you're having someone do the install. If you're doing it yourself for the first time, good luck to you. Set a full day aside.

Doing a NB top conversion is the easiest and best value for the money IMO.

Guinness
Sep 15, 2004

Gear Head posted:

I need to replace my soft top on my '93. I was thinking about ordering this:

$479 Zipless Glass Top

Is this a good deal from GoMiata or are there any better deals?

I have that exact same top, only in Tan, on my 95. It's a really nice piece of worksmanship. Easily as good or better than the OEM top, and glass is SO MUCH BETTER than plastic.

Although I got mine for $410 shipped from mmmiata.net because the catalog I ordered from them had a 10 or 15% off your first order deal. It was pretty sweet, actually.

Of course I paid another $500 to have it professionally installed at a shop. If you're in Seattle, I highly recommend Convertibles Only. Very professional and quality work, and they share a shop with dozens of old Rolls Royces and Bentleys which you get to check out. It was a bit surprising to discover the going rate for a Miata top install in Seattle is close to $600, though. I called half a dozen shops, and nowhere did I get a quote anywhere close to what the guys on miata.net say it costs ($350-400), so be aware. Definitely order your top on your own though. The shops charge huge markup if you have them order it for you. One shop quoted me nearly $1500 for top+install! gently caress that noise.




Schwack posted:

http://medford.craigslist.org/car/473879935.html

I just called about this one, on the hopes it might pan out. It has manual windows/locks, but A/C and power steering. Is it possible this is just equipped with the power steering package and it more than likely does not have a Torsen?

The Power Steering Package in 1996 does not include a Torsen LSD.

See here: http://www.miata.net/faq/Miata90-97A3.pdf

Guinness fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Nov 16, 2007

Savington
Apr 9, 2007
I'm not Stinkmeister, this title is here so waar can tell the difference between Stinkmeister and myself in mafia games.
:psyduck: disappearing body lines

The car still isn't worth $6k, just based on mileage. It would be a decent buy at $5.5k, though.

INCHI DICKARI
Aug 23, 2006

by FactsAreUseless
I could find no evidence of body damage or collision damage. I drove it for a bit on streets, clutch felt good, no slippage. Tranny felt tighter than a ten year old, synchros were flawless in all gears. No fluids were leaking. Working on resizing pictures right now, since it appears Amir has all the body shots handled I'll just resize all the mechanically inclined ones and put them up.

Edit: The antenna doesn't retract, but according to him he's replacing that today. If he makes good on that, I see no need to penalize him on that.

Edit: These are just thrown up in my Photobucket. I'll probably just delete them later.

I can't guarantee something won't break down the line, but if I were in the market for a Miata, I'd put this as a strong contender. It felt like a very solid, straight car to me. I don't know anything about Miata pricing though, but the quality was there.







Scuff in circle











Tiny door ding





















There ya go. Just trying to help a goon out.

INCHI DICKARI fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Nov 16, 2007

GOLDMAN SACHS PARTY
Sep 2, 2004

by Fistgrrl
drat, the car looks really good :)

Anyone know a good mechanic in the Bay Area where I can take the car for an inspection? Nothing too involved -- just put it on the lift and give it a good look.

Applebees Appetizer
Jan 23, 2006

Psylocibe posted:



Scuff in circle


That's a common problem with Miatas on the rear fascia, it happened to my 95 M. It's super easy to take that piece off and have it sprayed at a body shop. It cost me 75 bucks and was a perfect match to the Merlot paint.

Amir posted:

Anyone know a good mechanic in the Bay Area where I can take the car for an inspection? Nothing too involved -- just put it on the lift and give it a good look.

I wouldn't bother, Psylocibe didn't notice anything odd when he drove it, and the pictures tell the story. It's really clean. Especially if the guy has documented maintenance and receipts, I wouldn't worry about it honestly. You really have to neglect a Miata for it to have any major mechanical issues. The only issues this one has is cosmetic and that can be fixed fairly cheap.

GOLDMAN SACHS PARTY
Sep 2, 2004

by Fistgrrl

leica posted:

I wouldn't bother, Psylocibe didn't notice anything odd when he drove it, and the pictures tell the story. It's really clean. Especially if the guy has documented maintenance and receipts, I wouldn't worry about it honestly. You really have to neglect a Miata for it to have any major mechanical issues. The only issues this one has is cosmetic and that can be fixed fairly cheap.

Last Miata I looked at in LA had all maintenance records and looked great. When I put it on a lift, I saw that the transmission body had a splattering of oil on it -- rear main seal was crapping out. I'm not taking any chances with this one!

Guinness
Sep 15, 2004

leica posted:

That's a common problem with Miatas on the rear fascia, it happened to my 95 M. It's super easy to take that piece off and have it sprayed at a body shop. It cost me 75 bucks and was a perfect match to the Merlot paint.

Yup, my 95M is just starting to have the clearcoat peel off on that plastic piece (and only that piece, rest of the paint is great). Once it starts getting really bad I might pop it off and have it resprayed. Glad to hear it's cheap.

I see a lot of Miatas with that problem on just that one plastic piece. What's the cause? Does the plastic expand a lot in sunlight and cause cracking in the clear coat or something?

Phone
Jul 30, 2005

親子丼をほしい。
I'm guessing it's the same deal with the windshield wipers and the windshield wiper spoiler: it gets rust. It just does.

Guinness
Sep 15, 2004

Phone posted:

I'm guessing it's the same deal with the windshield wipers and the windshield wiper spoiler: it gets rust. It just does.

Is that what that thing is? Some sort of spoiler? I have no idea what it's function is. What does it even do? If it were important, why isn't it on both wipers?

But yeah, mine is a bit rusty. My wiper arms aren't, though.

duep
Dec 9, 2005
I am the captain
I am experiencing a little trouble with the shifting.
When I shift slowly everything is pretty much quite smooth, but when I shift in a let's say more sportive way, I get some resistance that feels like grinding gears. Though usually there isn't any noise at all, when I shift really fast it is accompanied by a clunk noise. This does not seem to get better as the transmission warms up.
I have experienced this with second, third and fourth gear, probably also happens in first and fifth, I just don't use these as much. Clutch does not seem to be leaking.

duep fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Nov 17, 2007

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Have you changed the gear oil in the transmission?

Also, because I don't know if this would affect the shift quality in that regard, what about the turret oil?

Applebees Appetizer
Jan 23, 2006

duep posted:

I am experiencing a little trouble with the shifting.
When I shift slowly everything is pretty much quite smooth, but when I shift in a let's say more sportive way, I get some resistance that feels like grinding gears. Though usually there isn't any noise at all, when I shift really fast it is accompanied by a clunk noise. This does not seem to get better as the transmission warms up.
I have experienced this with second, third and fourth gear, probably also happens in first and fifth, I just don't use these as much. Clutch does not seem to be leaking.

What year is your Miata? You more than likely need a new clutch master and slave cylinder. It doesn't need to be leaking, the internal seals go bad. It's a cheap and easy fix if you do the labor yourself.

duep
Dec 9, 2005
I am the captain
It's a '92 with 92k on the clock.
Sadly I have no idea when the transmission oil was changed last time, so that was definitely on my to do list anyways.
Swapping the clutch slave shouldn't be much of a problem either, but the master is about 70€ here and I am, well, sort of broke right now. I havent inspected the pieces itself, I can only state that the fluid level doesn't seem to be sinking.

Ziploc
Sep 19, 2006
MX-5

duep posted:

I am experiencing a little trouble with the shifting.
When I shift slowly everything is pretty much quite smooth, but when I shift in a let's say more sportive way, I get some resistance that feels like grinding gears. Though usually there isn't any noise at all, when I shift really fast it is accompanied by a clunk noise. This does not seem to get better as the transmission warms up.
I have experienced this with second, third and fourth gear, probably also happens in first and fifth, I just don't use these as much. Clutch does not seem to be leaking.

Those are your synchros. Try experimenting with different weights of oil. I had a crunch sensation going into 2nd and 3rd/ Changing to Redline MTL (for the winter) improved things.

Applebees Appetizer
Jan 23, 2006

duep posted:

It's a '92 with 92k on the clock.
Sadly I have no idea when the transmission oil was changed last time, so that was definitely on my to do list anyways.

Change the trans and turret fluid with a quality synthetic like Redline. Also do the rear diff while you're at it. If you're still having issues, it's probably the Master and/or slave cylinders.

destructo
Apr 29, 2006
Thinking of getting the mudflaps for my NA, painted, unpainted, or none at all?

meatpimp
May 15, 2004

Psst -- Wanna buy

:) EVERYWHERE :)
some high-quality thread's DESTROYED!

:kheldragar:

destructo posted:

Thinking of getting the mudflaps for my NA, painted, unpainted, or none at all?



Smaller, painted.

Makes a big difference in rain splash and such.

INCHI DICKARI
Aug 23, 2006

by FactsAreUseless
Well I got word over AIM last night that Amir got a plane ticket and he's flying out to buy the Miata today. I'm just really hoping I didn't miss something and he winds up not getting it for whatever reason. He was pretty picky over AIM about the things to check for, but it's totally understandable, trying to buy a car long distance and all. I'd be worried too.

Amir, I wish you the best of luck, and I hope you like it as much in person as I thought of it when I looked it over.

Luxmore
Jun 5, 2001

Phone posted:

Go for it and join the Montego Blue Mica fanclub.
So that's what that colour is. When I bought mine they said it was "teal."

GOLDMAN SACHS PARTY
Sep 2, 2004

by Fistgrrl

Psylocibe posted:

Well I got word over AIM last night that Amir got a plane ticket and he's flying out to buy the Miata today. I'm just really hoping I didn't miss something and he winds up not getting it for whatever reason. He was pretty picky over AIM about the things to check for, but it's totally understandable, trying to buy a car long distance and all. I'd be worried too.

Amir, I wish you the best of luck, and I hope you like it as much in person as I thought of it when I looked it over.

Update: the car is loving AWESOME. Even after 9 hours of driving I had to show it off to my friends. The fun came right back!

Now I have to watch out for speeding tickets -- I do not notice that I'm going fast, it's just smooth all the way from 0 to 100mph.

Thanks, Psylocibe!

INCHI DICKARI
Aug 23, 2006

by FactsAreUseless
Aw, I thought you were going to call me when you were in town? That's a bummer, I wanted to go tooling around with you. At least you're happy with it. I was worried you were going to go through the trouble of flying all the way out here just to find something I missed and have to go home empty handed. Glad you found your Miata.

Phone
Jul 30, 2005

親子丼をほしい。

Luxmore posted:

So that's what that colour is. When I bought mine they said it was "teal."

I kinda freaked out when I went to the grocery store one time....

code:
-------|-------
  me   |some guy
-------|-------


                       | store entrance/exit |

I parked where "me" is, and I came out, and I saw a Miata with my color in the "some guy" spot and I was like, "what the gently caress happened!?"

Same color, but they had a softtop when I was rocking the hardtop. :c00lbutt:

grover
Jan 23, 2002

PEW PEW PEW
:circlefap::circlefap::circlefap:
:circlefap::circlefap::circlefap:
:circlefap::circlefap::circlefap:
:circlefap::circlefap::circlefap:
:circlefap::circlefap::circlefap:
:circlefap::circlefap::circlefap:

Phone posted:

I parked where "me" is, and I came out, and I saw a Miata with my color in the "some guy" spot and I was like, "what the gently caress happened!?"

Same color, but they had a softtop when I was rocking the hardtop. :c00lbutt:
I do that intentionally if I see a car like mine. He probably did, too ;)

Elysium
Aug 21, 2003
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
Found out my clutch slave cylinder was leaking the other day when my clutch went to the floor and became inoperable a mile (luckily not farther) from my office. Did some quick research and checked the master cylinder and found it basically empty. Just filling it up was good enough of a fix to get me home, but the slave will have to be replaced (opinions seem mixed on rebuild kits). I don't really do my own maintenance, but it looks really easy so I'm going to try to do it myself. Seems to involve only 2 or 3 bolts and removing the line, putting the new one in place and bleeding the system.

From searching Miata.net, this seems like a pretty common weak spot for Miatas. In fact looking over my maintenance records, this is exactly what was wrong with my car 2 years ago when I took it in for a barely functional clutch. I was charged $188 for parts (new slave) and labor (1.5 hours - this seems pretty excessive, searches lead me to believe a pro could do it in under half an hour easy). I got the Tokico slave from FM for about $50.

Elysium fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Nov 19, 2007

Sudden Infant Def Syndrome
Oct 2, 2004

Elysium posted:

searches lead me to believe a pro could do it in under half an hour easy). I got the Tokico slave from FM for about $50.

I've done it once, and now that I know what I'm doing, I could probably do it in half an hour if I need to again. It's really easy.

GOLDMAN SACHS PARTY
Sep 2, 2004

by Fistgrrl

Psylocibe posted:

Aw, I thought you were going to call me when you were in town? That's a bummer, I wanted to go tooling around with you. At least you're happy with it. I was worried you were going to go through the trouble of flying all the way out here just to find something I missed and have to go home empty handed. Glad you found your Miata.

You said you were going to be at work on Saturday :confused:

Keep in mind that I had to depart at 2:30 to keep my schedule of getting home before midnight.

Etrips
Nov 9, 2004

Having Teemo Problems?
I Feel Bad For You, Son.
I Got 99 Shrooms
And You Just Hit One.
Grats on the find Amir!

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goku chewbacca
Dec 14, 2002
Hey crew! I'm going to look at a 1996 M-Edition tomorrow, Starlight Mica Blue, 1 of ~3000.

108,000 miles, original owner, "garaged since new, the paint looks like new-w/no dents or scratches..Top looks new, with real glass" All the pictures look great. Flawless tan leather interior.

He's listed for $4995. Blue book is $4800, which I know runs low for Miatas.

What do you guys think is a fair offer? I definitely don't want to lose the sale, but offering less than list price is par for the course. Would offering $4500 CASH be insulting?

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