Here's a brief run down.
Number 129 was purchased new from Port Darwin Motors, Darwin, on 05/02/91. The owners sold her after about 6 months of ownership with about 1000km on the clock. The new owners’ maticously maintained the car and had it serviced every year by Port Darwin motors regardless if it needed it or not. The car had its 100,000km service at just 18,691km in '98. All oils were regularly replaced and the seals accordingly. The car stayed in Darwin until around March 2002 at which time had just 28,524km with an average of just 2377km/yr.
The owners then moved to Adelaide, driving the five all the way there. The car was transferred to South Australian registration in April 2002. It was serviced by North Motor Company with 32,910km on her after the trip from Darwin. The car was regularly serviced by them, doing all the essentials as well as replacing all rubber seals/weather strips around the doors, hard top and soft top. The air con was regased to meet the new standards in 2006 and the battery was replaced late 2007. In the last 6 years, the car had only travelled 10,561km with an average of just 1760km/yr. The car was kept garaged its entire life.
On 12/05/08 I was browsing the major online car sales sites (i did this 3 times per day for months
you've got to be in it to win it) and was on the NSW Trading post where I came across an ad which simply read “Mazda MX5â€. I clicked on it and the heavens finally opened up. After months of searching, it looked like I had finally found the car I was after.
The ad read:
MAZDA MX5 2 dr convertible, 1990 Limited Edition model (hard and soft top), 43000 genuine kms, log bks avail, British Racing Green with fawn leather int, exc cond with many extras incl, reluctant sale $1X490 neg, Genuine enquiries
I promptly gave her a call and asked all the usual questions. Everything checked out 100% to my liking so I requested very detailed photos of every nook and cranny (Car was in Adelaide, I live in Canberra so it had to be worthwhile to travel down there. Well actually it’s up there. Did you know that Adelaide is more northern than Canberra? I didn’t until I got onto Google maps but anyway
) All the photos looked excellent. She was very upfront and extremely honest about the sale. She didn’t leave anything out. After looking, I placed a deposit to secure the car and booked a flight to Adelaide on 17/05/08.
By 2pm on 17/05/08, I had officially bought a BRG Ltd Ed #129
She was in immaculate condition. Only 43,471km on the clock, body and paint was perfect (there were a few
VERY small dents about the size of your pinky but these are all easily fixed), the interior was stunning and still had the new car/leather smell and mechanically she felt like new. Non standard bits included an aftermarket cd player, wood grain handbrake thingo and an aftermarket ashtray(which will all be replaced back to standard). The car came with a hard top, hard top stand, tonneau cover, original soft top in mint condition, car bra (ill never use this), all receipts/servicing and she also threw in a full size spare alongside the space saver. I kindly declined the offer on the full size spare but she insisted that i take it. This all made for an interesting trip back to Canberra.
At 2pm on 18/05/08 she was in her new home in Canberra after doing a little over 1200km in the first 24hrs of ownership and averaging just 6.9l/100km
(Plenty of time to get well acquainted)
I'm so happy that I waited for exactly what I wanted and made no compromises. I was offered numerous cars (some of which were very very nice) but they weren’t quite right for me. The wait was long but i'm so glad I did, I really couldn’t be more happy. I was a fussy little biatch but in the end it worked in my favour. I know that this one is definitely a keeper.
Nice pictures will be up tomorrow or the day after, after i’ve given her some TLC.