Help decide the fate of my NA [Archive] (2024)

MX-5 Miata Forum > NA/NB (1990-2005) Miata > NA (1990-1997) General Discussion > Help decide the fate of my NA

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Skunky

22nd September 2015, 17:41

I'm an absolute grumpy pants right now, and very much not level-headed, so I'm hoping you guys can lend me an ear and hopefully help me think this out.

I've been the happy owner of a '97 for probably somewhere close to ten years now, but the last two years has seen the thing sitting non-op in my driveway because of a lingering ignition issue that I could not fix for love nor money. Fate has conspired to keep me from getting to hammering at it further. I've had a plan of attack, but it requires garage space that is in limited supply for me atm and of course money which is another issue.

I was pondering selling it and using the funds towards an ND, but I'd much rather sell a running car and so stubbornly sat on the thing.

All of my carefully laid long-term plans came crashing on me this morning as I walked out to find someone had shattered the driver's side window and stolen my hardtop. I'm doing the usual things, report it, watch Craigslist, post on the regional forum...but I'm still left with a still-unusable car that not only is in a bad state from sitting in the California sun for two summers, but now has no top so I NEED to cram it into an already full garage.

So now I've spent the day pondering what to do next. Should I cut my losses and sell it on the cheap to someone who wants a fixer-upper? Continue holding onto it, knowing that now I have even MORE work that needs to be done? It's a tough decision and neither choice will make me happy, but now that reality has slapped me upside the head I realize I need to do SOMETHING.

So what do you guys think? Have any of you had similar experiences?

3MiataFamily

22nd September 2015, 17:51

That sux..

mcparadise

22nd September 2015, 19:07

If you sell it "as is," you probably won't get much.

However, if it's "in a bad state" as you say in paragraph four, perhaps now is the time to unload it rather than spend money on it.

Parting it out is another option, which might yield more money, but will take longer.

Good luck.

SaratogaMiata

22nd September 2015, 19:35

If it were mine I would give it a quick wash, take pictures, post it on Craigslist, and sell it. You don't seem to be attached to it, so cut your losses and move on.

JoeMerchant

22nd September 2015, 19:58

If you've lived this long with it doing nothing but taking up space in your driveway, I'd lean toward cutting your losses and selling it on the cheap. It's going to take a lot of work to increase the money you'd get out of it; parting it out - for instance, surely could get you more money, but for how much time and effort?

If you have a sentimental attachment, you could fix up what you've got and almost certainly get it running well for far less money than buying a newer ND, but that would be a lot of work, plus a couple of thousand dollars straight out of pocket.

Personally, if I wanted a running Miata and I were in your position, I'd look for a cheap ($3Kish) good condition runner, buy it, play switchy-changey with the parts you prefer from the 97, strip whatever you want for spares from the 97, then let a junkyard take what's left of your 97 away for $100 or whatever the going rate is in your area.

Britmick

22nd September 2015, 20:00

Give it to a member of this forum who has the time & money to get it back into a working state.

jefflin

22nd September 2015, 20:32

You have neither the time, money, room or dedication for it. Sell it for whatever you can get for it. This will free yourself from worry and frustration everytime you walk by the car. In the end it's just a car and when the time and circ*mstances are right you can always buy another in the future whether its another NA or a brand new ND.

wannafbody

22nd September 2015, 20:42

Ever think of having a mechanic look at it?

Black

22nd September 2015, 20:58

Where you at in Cali... How much you want..?

What's the ignition issue?

Skunky

22nd September 2015, 23:19

Thanks for the responses everyone. Y'all pretty much had the same reaction so I'll look into getting rid of the poor thing.

Skunky

22nd September 2015, 23:49

Where you at in Cali... How much you want..?

What's the ignition issue?

Sacramento region. If I got $1500 for what's left of 'er I'd be ecstatic.

When it gets warm it started misfiring like crazy. It ended up burning out a set of coils, so those got replaced and it worked okay for a little bit but started again within a short time. I stopped running it to avoid burning out another set of coils. Adjusted timing, checked all the grounds. Plugs 'n cables were new, tried a different CAS and adjusted the gap on the crank sensor. The next thing I was going to try was replacing all the pertinent emissions gear (O2s and cat) to see if that improved things, but that's where things got spendy. This all initially started right after I bought my house, so you can imagine how that made things difficult.

tomcoulam

14th October 2015, 07:25

Whats the latest on the car? Did u sell it? Take some pictures and list it. I know Miatas typically go pretty quick in Sacramento.