mx5cartalk.com

Aloha all,

I was living and working in Hawaii for a few years (2018-2021) and was lucky enough to pick up a Limited Edition 1992 NA Black and Tan (C Package) with 29,000 miles (46,000km), including the original hard top for $2,500 USD ($3,100 AUD) in January 2018. I've attached an image below of the original magazine advertisement.

It cost about $6,000 AUD to import (Oahu-HI to Longbeach-CA to Shanghai-China to Singapore to Sydney), so I'm roughly $9,000 AUD in. Overall, a pretty sweet deal. The car is 99 percent stock, the soft top has never been used and is still supple, with the plastic rear window wrapped in a towel. The only thing that isn't stock is the 15" BBS wheels. The original wheels are the exact same design, just in 14s, fortunately, I have those too (that's 100 percent stock!). I couldn't find decent tyres for 14" in Hawaii, so a quick search on Facebook Market place and I found the same style wheels in 15s from a 1995 Miata M-Edition with tyres for $500USD. Right place, right time.

Whilst I was preparing some paperwork for shipping, I found the address of the first owner, so I took a chance and popped in on the the way to the shipping company. Obviously surprised to the see the car, and after a chat, including identifying his 29 year old towel wrapping the window, I asked why it had so few miles on the clock. Vincent worked for the US Department of Defense at US Indo-Pacific Command, oddly, where I was working too, and spent much of his time in Japan. He sold it after 20 years with only 21,000 miles on it to a work colleague, who fell ill and stored it under his house having only added another 8,000 miles. The third owner Avery, purchased it to strip and build into a rally cross race car. Realising it was too good to tear down, he was ready to let it go. Avery already owned four other Miata's and wasn't allowed to buy any more cars until he sold one. That's where I came in. I had reached out to the Miata Club of Hawaii (of which Avery was the unofficial president) and he agreed to sell it to me before I arrived in Hawaii, he hadn't event advertised it for sale yet (again, right place, right time). Avery hadn't dríven it at all in the short period he had it for, other than to fix a squeaking pilot bearing. He names all his car, and 'Squeaky' became mine. He replaced Squeaky with a Lotus Elise. He took my suggestion of naming the Elise Lizzy as it linked in nicely with Lotus' British heritage and Queen Elizabeth.

I used the Miata it as a daily for about 12 months and it now has a 39,600 miles (63,700km) before I decided to bring it back to Australia on my return.

I've not been able to register it yet, as in the ACT, the vehicle must be greater than 30 years old or it requires a RHD conversion. Obviously, I didn't want to do that, so it's been in my garage eagerly awaiting a compliance plate and registration. With luck, the engineers I've spoken to will be able to confirm a time to inspect, and it will be on the road shortly. Hopefully I'll see some of you at a club meet soon.

The worst part about it, the gigantic 90s airbag steering wheel.

One sweet detail, it has a hand painted gold pinstripe which I didn't like at first, however a guy at a club meet who paints lowriders explained to me how good the striping was and how hard it is to do changed my mind.

I'm still amazed at how after 29 years on an island in the middle of the salt laden air of the Pacific it doesn't have any rust. I guess keeping it locked away in garage helps.

So that the story of how a LHD Miata from Hawaii ended up in Canberra.

If you want to see some photos of it in Hawaii, see my Instagram: mx5.miata.au

It is hard to estimate its value, particularly for insurance. Whilst a few MX-5s appear on Car Sales in the mid 30k range, they have much higher milage and no hard top. I'm curious if being a LHD reduces its value? But does being a limited production run (4,625) and the colour combination never being offered in Australia increase it? Who knows, it's only worth what someone is willing to pay on the day. From my perspective, it's priceless.

Does anyone know if they're ever seen or heard about another LHD Miata in Australia?

Very neat! Thanks for sharing.

Geeze Darren, enough of the post whoring, OK? Three posts since 2016 - it is a bit unseemly.

That is a sweet car you have, I was intrigued to see the route it took to get here - I hope nothing untoward happened to it on the journey?

I was surprised to learn that ACT required historic rego (if I understand you right) for LHD registration, I am pretty sure that hasn't always been the case. Perhaps it is an outcome of the harmonisation of vehicle standards that has been happening over the last few years. Either way, you have not had to wait too long for 2022 to roll around.

There are a couple of big car displays here (or were, pre-covid ) and the ACT Chapter of the Club is usually well represented - and I suspect your car would be at least one of our star exhibits if you wanted to bring it along! In the meantime I presume you have found our monthly Coffee and Lies gatherings https://nsw.mx5.com.au/chapters/canberra. Hopefully I will get to meet you there soon!

30 years for anything LHD was my understanding.
Boyracer had a LHD NC racecar (car is now RIP). Never seen a local NA car.

I wouldn't say it is 'priceless', it's just a car!
The downside of having it valued at say $30K is the attached premium (a few grand).
Plus it's LHD which make it an oddity and would turn off 99% of buyers.
When it turns 30 that means anyone can import a Miata for local rego - not that anyone would really want to do that.

You purchased it very cheaply (even for 2018). I guess Miatas are plentiful and unloved in the US/Hawaii (I do remember watching Mythbusters destroy a few).

bruce wrote:... (I do remember watching Mythbusters destroy a few).

And even though they were cheap and plentiful, my heart broke each time they dissed one.

I kept looking at all the nice salvageable bits that they were destroying.

Personally haven't heard of or seen any LHD Miatas in Australia, but expect there are some out there. Some people might find LHD desirable, while others might not. For example, some people don't like driving LHD vehicles on the left hand side of the road. And as you say pity about the huge 1990s airbag steering wheel. The desirability of your Miata is it's a 1992 NA6 Black & Tan LE C Package with original hardtop, 64k kms (40k miles), four owners, & documented history. A major factor with the desirability of very low km vehicles is their condition. For example, on an ADM NA6 things like is the steering wheel stitching still bright & clean or has it greyed from use over time.
Ref rust, you're lucky as even 15 years ago I saw MX5 NA rust buckets that had spent their life in Sydney's Eastern suburbs.
Don't rely on MX5 & a number of other car prices on Car Sales & Gumtree etc as a lack of supply of new cars has caused used car prices to esculate to drug money heights since late 2020. While some owners sold & benefitted from the COVID tax early on, it appears to have stagnated a year on to the point where there seems to be not a lot of movement in the market.
In early 2020 pre COVID in Aust I would have thought it could be worth $20k depending on condition & if it was registerable then, which it wasn't. In 2022 when it becomes registerable, hard to say as suspect used car prices will normalise once new car supply also normalises. Personal import I assume?

This is a cool story and you've certainly got something pretty unique. Like anything unique, it's always going to be difficult to put a dollar value on it - it always comes down to how much a specific person is prepared to pay, and how little the seller is prepared to accept.

There is one Hunter club member I know of (who occasionally pops in here) who has a RHD-converted USDM NA. That's the only other one I've ever seen.

If FB is anything to go off every kid on the MX5 groups in Australia seems to have one...

Seriously though, is a cool story and certainly unique as far as I know. Would love to have a good look through it for weird differences if you can make it out to some of the local shows/meets.