Today Good price or no dice Miata isn’t just a feast for the eyes. When you lift the trunk lid with the spare tire permanently mounted, you no longer have to worry about missing an arm even when working out at the gym. Let’s decide if there is also an unavoidable price.
There’s something to be said about cars that hit zero to 60 in the mid-teens or worse. Usually this involves salty language and rude hand gestures. The factory specified time from zero to 60 for 1981 Mercury Marquis Brougham which we looked at yesterday is a sad 13 seconds. Luckily for the seller, a slim majority of you were more generous with your time than your wallet, earning a considerably solid 57 percent price advantage over the much slower Mercury, with its also significantly low asking price of $5,000.
Although it is often claimed that the Miata is always the answer, that is still the case when the question is, “What if I wanted to drive through that muddy patch over there?” Alternatively, “How do I compensate for my nagging need?” “To stand out from the teeming crowd of Miata crazy people?”
Today 2005 Mazda Miata Sorta Safari covered both questions. With a three-inch lift, reconfigured suspension, and big, fat tires, it’s transformed from a low-riding sports car to a gentle creek-wading SUV. Add to that some vents on the hood, a custom-made transport cage over the top, and a rearview mirror on the trunk lid, and it had the look to match this implied function.
There is also some meat with the potatoes. According to the ad, the Mazda’s 1.8-liter DOHC four-cylinder has been “refreshed” and equipped with a fat turbo from CXRacing. On either side of the snail are some deep-breathing accessories from Flying Miata, ending in a silencer from Magnaflow on the output side. It also gets its spark from a Flow Force coil set and drinks it through high-flow injectors.
That in itself is a lot of work, but there is more. Behind the breathed engine is a new clutch and behind it a six-speed gearshift lever. The ad says the car only has 127,000 on the chassis. Obviously there are a lot fewer miles with the mods. And if the seller is to be believed, these mods were all “built right”.
It looks pretty right. The body is overall clean with only a few minor flaws and far too many stickers. The custom-made cage is equipped with LED lights all around and features the same windshield frame mounting as three A-pillar indicators. The interior appears to be in excellent condition and is almost entirely original, apart from the stereo and those that are too close to the comfort gauges. The situation is similar in the engine compartment, where everything looks clean and tidy. The seller’s boast that the car is a “show winner” doesn’t seem so far-fetched given the presentation in the pictures.
The only question the ad doesn’t answer is title status, as it doesn’t appear to be relevant to the Facebook marketplace. That could be a deciding factor, but we’ll have to take it into account when deciding the fate of this Mazda’s $14,000 price tag.
What do you think of this souped-up Miata and its $14,000 price tag? Does this seem like a fair deal for a turnkey safari sports car? Or is this price simply not appropriate for the occasion?
You decide!
Facebook Marketplace Get out of Birmingham, Alabama, or go Here when the display disappears.
H/T to MrMikus and Brent Dupuy for the meeting!
Help me with NPOND. Call me [email protected] and send me a fixed price tip. Remember to specify your Kinja grip.