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I was removing the scuff plates and noticed this sucker on the passenger trim. I had no idea MX-5's had flares! Can anyone shed some light on this?

This is from Bruce:

That is interesting. Jap imports have a red road flare located there (the compliance guys remove it). But yours is a local Aussie car? Perhaps for the Aussie ones Mazda did grab the Japanese ones ? (Or it is a grey import?)

My reply: Definitely Aus Delivered.

Here's the piccies:

maybe the previous owner damaged their original panel and replaced it with that one?

Bruce got me worried so i rang Mazda Australia again to confirm that it is an Australian delivered MX-5 and that they didn't make a mistake (i did this when i bought it). It's definitely Australian Delivered.

It looks like it is an aftermarket ad-on but why would anyone fit an oem flare holder (which is only meant for Japanese MX-5's) to an Australian vehicle? All Japan models/grey imports have them. Seems a bit odd to put one on as a "modification"

My next question is: where can i get a flare?!? A maglight would probably be far more useful though

Flares are also very common in the USA, where they use them when broken down at night on lonely, deserted roads, so the crims know exactly where you are and can come and rob you.

It was probably put on by mistake on the production line, as the worker probably thought it was a car for Japan.
The badges are often one of the last things to go on a car so he saw a RHD MX-5 thinking it was for Japan, as he was too lazy to read the build sheet properly.

What does your speedo read to? 180 are imports, 220 (?) locals.

As at some car importers, they usually have a box of them for hijinx

Never seen an Import with a brown Interior. Defo the flare holder tho.

GP wrote:Never seen an Import with a brown Interior. Defo the flare holder tho.

GP my 1990 Eunos Roadster was BRG and Tan, I have seen quite a few of them around.

I now know what that little bracket was for !

A lot of imports had the tan interior, etc (Green ones, black ones)

Jimmy's is a local with a unique feature...

Could the original panel there have been damaged, and that one is a replacement from a Jap car?

bruce wrote:A lot of imports had the tan interior, etc (Green ones, black ones)

My black imported NA6 has a tan interior

sabretooth wrote:Could the original panel there have been damaged, and that one is a replacement from a Jap car?

It is possible but very unlikely. The car was very rarely dríven before i got it, only averaging 2,500km per year. I've never heard of anyone having to replace one. You would have to be doing something rather odd/unique/clumsy/special to damage the passengers side, let alone damage it to the extent replacing the entire trim panel. It's a very secluded part. I guess we'll never know.

Actually, i might shoot the previous owner an email. She was mighty fussy about the car and would have to remember something like this if it was replaced.

maybe someone had to remove that bit and damaged it when they removed it so they had to replace it with a new one

like the door trim on mine the panel shop damaged it and replace it

like the cover thing where the soft top is which the other panel shop damaged it and had to order it in from japan and replace it

Okay, i got an email back from the previous owner. She said that the panel had never been replaced and was there since new. She had noticed the holder there but didn't think twice about it.

She bought the car with less than 1000km on it so unless the first owner (who owned it for less than 6 months from new) damaged it, then i'd say that it is original.

Looks like my car has a one-off factory mistake.