I'm buying* Canada's cheapest, roadworthy**, 50 mpg*** Mazda Miata MX-5

[Daox]

Haha, probably true!

[Daox]

So, if $750 is such a crazy steal, why has it been sitting around for so long?

[MetroMPG]

Because it was never advertised for sale, and it was tucked away behind the house, so no passing tire-kickers would have known to inquire about it.

The seller is a neighbour of my aunt & uncle. They were the ones who mentioned it to me (knowing my masochistic automotive tendencies).

My Miata-owning friend said it would have been gone on day 1 if he had advertised it at $1k. Well... assuming the owner had responded to inquiries... Getting responses from him was the most ridiculous part of this whole exercise.

[niky]

Congratulations and condolences in equal measure.

Can't wait to see what you do with it!

[MetroMPG]

[...maybe in a 116 horse open sleigh, RedDevil? ]

Superstition (me not wanting to jinx the deal) means this thread has lagged real life by about a week.

Which means I actually got to enjoy the car in the dying days of late fall weather before the above pic was snapped (yesterday). I managed to put a couple hundred km on the car before Mother Nature said, "enough of that silliness," and dumped 30 cm / 12" of snow on everything.

Oh, and also the fatally cracked radiator blew up, the day before the snowpocalypse.

First fill: 38 mpg US = 6.1 L / 100 km

That will be my first and only fill (brim-to-brim) of this year. So not quite 50 mpg, eh?

That's what I managed to squeeze from it in 270 km / 168 miles of gentle and very enjoyable motoring.

Not great, but not horrible, considering EPA = 22 city / 28 highway / 24 combined.


Unmodded:

The only mod to the car was tire pressure at ~40 PSI... except I discovered one leaky tire was actually down to ~30 PSI by the end of the week.


Route details:

~70% scenic highway driving, speed limit of 80 km/h / 50 mph
~30% sub/urban short trips

Most (~75%) of this driving was of the smile-inducing, Cd-destroying, top down variety.

Weather: mostly cool but dry conditions (5-10C = 40-50F), with one gorgeous (for late fall) sunny afternoon of 15C / 60F.


Driving techniques:

- Driving with load on the highway (where no following traffic);
- Engine-off coasting where appropriate in the sub/urban bits;
- Driving "without brakes" in the curves/corners is particularly fun in this car!
- No pulse & glide;
- Skipshifting 1-3-5 works nicely because the gearing is ridiculously low. Always into 5th gear, even cruising below 30 mph / 50 km/h.

And all driving was "blind" (no MPG instrumentation). Didn't like that!


The only mechanical surprise

About halfway through the week of driving, I finally discovered the source of the rattle/clunk in the front end: while re-checking the ball joints/tie rods for the 3rd time, I spotted a busted front sway bar end link.

So I popped that off (and may I say, what a joy to work on a car that hasn't been winter driven, where 26 year-old nuts & bolts come apart relatively easily and without the swear words soundtrack), welded the break, put it back on, and the clunk was gone. Also, the taut handling I remembered was back!

[Daox]

So, what are your plans for the car? I assume it'll be put away until next spring. Any work on it for winter?

[MetroMPG]

No plans for the winter other than shoehorning it into my shack for storage.

As for next year, I've been thinking a lot about ecomods. Off the top of my head:

1) Obvious repairs / maintenance (replace rad; repair floor; tune-up; oil change; timing belt)

2) Synth fluids in the trans/diff

3) MPGuino

4) Kill switch

5) Tires that are on it now (185/60/14) seem to have TERRIBLE rolling resistance. I'm picking up a set of lightly used LRR Dunlop Enasaves (OEM Mirage tire) which are 165/65/14. Should help both with aero and RR.

6) Aero mods:

- passenger mirror delete/inside convex replacement
- air dam/splitter (see post #22!)
- smooth wheel covers
- rear wheel spats / shaped deflectors
- undertray
- rear fender skirts
- rear bumper treatment: lower down, it needs some tapering behind the rear wheels
- investigate any drag-reducing top-down mods (behind-the-seats screen? decklid spoiler?)

Fortunately, with this car's racing history, there's been a lot of aero research done already that will help on the eco side of things.

7) Final drive / rear end swap (wish list)

8) Camshafts swap (need to research more)

9) 50 mpg!

I'm sure I've forgotten some things.I've got all winter to noodle ideas.

[MetroMPG]

Remembered some more!

10) Power steering delete (common -- P.S. was actually optional in the first few years of the car)

11) Air conditioner delete (I doubt that it even works, but haven't tried). I'll never use it anyway

12) Coolant / trans fluid pre-heaters

13) 52 mpg!

[MetroMPG]

I've already started stockpiling ecomods for the car...





^ Dunlop Enasaves.

These are OEM LRR tires from a 2014 Mirage, in 165/65R14 size -- same size, incidentally, as the 1st gen Insight. They're like new - still have some paint marks from the factory in the treads.

They roll decently on a Mirage. I'm SURE they'll roll better than the tires that are on the Mata now (stock tire size is 185/60R14).

But will they roll as well as Bridgestone Potenza RE92's? I hope to do a comparison next summer. My bet is they won't, if only because the RE92's I currently have on the Firefly are older and have half as much tread (if that).

[samwichse]

Not much data so much as anecdote, but one person, one fillup... didn't notice a difference in gas mileage on their CVT Insight:
Put Dunlop Enasave on my Insight - Insight Central: Honda Insight Forum