I bought my car on the 23rd of December 2010. Well, thats when I paid the deposit on it. I picked the car up on the 3rd of January 2011.
The car was in a used car lot ANA Cars in Bell St. Preston. It was advertised for $11,990.
Here are the pictures used to advertise it on carsales:
The 23rd of December was a half day at work and I had collected a list of around 6 MX-5s advertised on carsales that I was going to look at. I had been sending emails and speaking with a few people and doing some research for about 4 days prior. I had intially thought I would try to get an MX-5 for $6000. My wants included AC and PS and of course a great condition. I discovered over those 4 days that the great majority of NA MX-5s were sold here without AC and or PS. This was largely because the cars sold in the most numbers in the first three years and then as more equipment was added or became standard the sales dropped off as well. Part of that has to do with the recession in the early to mid 90s. The one Keating said we had to have
Anyway in those four days I had increased my price ceiling to around $8000. Even for this sum the pickings were slim. Either people were not advertising because of Christmas or there were no really good cars for under $9000.
Anyway this prompted me to try the $10,000 cars. On the spur of the moment I sent an email query to this LE in Preston that was way outside my price range.
Anyway of the six cars on my list only one had both AC and PS but the person had not called me back. All the others were with either one or the other. The first car I had a look at was a white 1990 without PS but with Air. The yard wanted $8000 and it seemed a bit scruffy. The car drove nicely enough, if a bit down on power. What put me off that car was the fact that the paint peeled off above the windscreen when the dealer pulled the sales sticker off. To me it was apparent that the car was badly repainted. Later on it transpired that poor paint adhesion was a known problem on white cars.
Anyway while I was inspecting the white car, I got a call from this dealer in Preston, the one whose car was for $11,990. He sounded very excited and convinced me to come and look at the car even though I told him that there was no way I could afford the price he was asking. He told me that the price had not much room to move but that he guaranteed I would fall in love with the car.
Preston was on the way to red 1989 car selling for $9500 in Bayswater. At the very least looking at the car would tell me what a top end car felt and looked like which would help me in my search.
Anyway the showroom was full of some nice cars and this great 1997 British Racing Green (officially Neo Green) LE was one of them. The dealer looked like the stereotypical used car salesman with slicked back hair a crisp white shirt, extra white teeth, a tan and sunglasses. Looking at him made my antennae stand up. Then I looked at the car. It looked almost like new, except for a few tiny cracks in the driver's seat leather and an opaque and cracked plastic window the car could have been new and also the dipstick handle had broken off. Later on I discovered a few minor dings here and there but at that point the car looked a million dollars. I felt a bit frustrated. I knew that was the car I wanted but it was outside my price range.
Anyway the dealer, a guy by the name of Ahmed, came over. We got to talking and I discovered that the car had a full Mazda service history. I rang Mazda and confirmed it. I had to take the car for a test drive.
The car started well enough and drove really really great except for a bit of misfiring, which turned out to be water in the spark plug wires from when they had washed the engine. After drying it out the misfire had gone.
The car had passed test number two. If only I could bring the price down. At that point we were $4000 apart in price.
We began by negotiating. I used the kilometers and the cracked rear screen as bargaining tools and told them I was not interested in the extended warranty, which is not worth the paper it is printed on but apparently costs dealers several hundred dollars. At a point in the negotiations Ahmed asked me why I had actually contacted him when my price range was limited to $8000. Anyway finally I called their bluff. I showed them the other five cars on car sales I was going to look at. I told them that once I walked out of the door I was never coming back, even though I liked the car. Ahmed kept umming and ahhing and finally called the owner of the yard.
Suffice to say I won out. The price was knocked down to $8000 without warranty and me fixing the rear window.
Later on Ahmed who turned out to be quite a nice guy under his salesman's veneer. He confided in me that the owner's had not sold a single car the whole week and needed to pay their staff. I was the only way they were assured some cash flow over the Christmas period.
Here is the video of the car at the dealer if you are interested
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyBPtlDWAzA
Here are a few pics I took of the car to keep me happy over the Christmas break.
Anyway the road worthy was finally done on the 3rd of January 2011. Predictably the only thing wrong was the cracked backlight. I picked the car up on the 3rd of January, fixed the plastic window by removing it from the car and taking the rear piece to Downunder Tents and AutoTrimmers in 111 Elder Street, Greensborough Victoria who fixed it for only $80.
Removing the rear section of the roof took about two hours. Putting it back another two. Checking and reinforcing the rain rail with pieces of bicycle tubing took another hour.
Anyway on the 4th of January I got the Roadworthy finally signed off and the transfer papers were sent off to VicRoads.
The car was now mine.
I now had a real chance to go over the car. I managed to successfully track down the previous owner from a mobile phone number on a receipt in the glovebox. I discovered that he was the first and only owner before me.
The car was serviced for the first 2 years at Australian Motors SA in Edwardstown SA. After that at Brighton Mazda for two years and from then till now at Penfold Mazda in Burwood. The car was traded in for a 3 series BMW coupe at Doncaster BMW and that is how it came to be sold to me.
The car never had any accidents and had four brand new tyres bought the year before.
