i need some input to those guys who've driven a miata or own one. the S is only use during the weekend and im planning to upgrade my beater car which is a 91 civic DX with 125k miles(original) and got no problem. but i want to experience driving a rwd drive car on winter with snow. and the one that i like is a miata but heres one that already got 14k miles. is this engine still realiable? i know my civic dont burn oil since the original owner was an old lady and really dont push the car that much. does miata engine is realible even if they got this much miles as long as the previous owner took care of it? let assume same owner and same amount of use but its just that their different model,make and year make. if the miata was taken care of same owner of my civic, would i expect same reliability or even better? i read from somewhere that miata have a good engine and their durability are long. is this true? i would really appriciate your help.

 

Having had 2 99 Miatas I think I can say it will be dependable even with those miles on it.

It is quite a bit smaller and less comfortable than the S but still fun nonetheless.

 

If the price is right I wouldn't worry too much. Things are going to fail on almost any car with that many miles but the engine "should" be ok. If you need major work Miata engines are easy to find and pretty darned cheap.

 

I own a 97 base and 04 Mazdaspeed MX5 and both are reliable. I've beaten the crap out of my 97 (Solo II) autoX and that thing keeps on running. It's not the greatest daily driver due to the lack of trunk space but you're already use to that since you own an S2000.

One nice thing about owning two 2-seater convertibles... you rarely have to drive your friends around when you go out

 

My friend has a 99 miata and it's problem free.. 100%

 

thank for the info. im not really that much familiar with miatas, but what ive heard is right. they got reliable engine. and i guess they dont use that much of gas either. got_rice? your definitely right, im tired of driving people around so i love driving a two seater car. i use to own a mini van and an SUV, people always ask me to drop them off. thanks once again.

 

I had a 96 Miata which I bought used. In my 40,000 miles of ownership, it has well over 50 track days, many autocross events (lost count) as well as countless drive on the back road. It was very reliable, never had any problem at all whatsoever.

I wouldn't worry too much about the miles as you can pick up a used 1.8 motor with about 40-60k miles for about $650....low miles tranny (40-50k) for about $200.

 

Those engines are dirt cheap. I wouldn't worry about the mileage if the car is in good condition.

 

The engines are bulletproof, there were some early second gen miatas that had bearing issues but an engine with 140K should have shown signs of it already. The problems will lie in other areas: shocks, brakes, timing belt, clutch, leaking top, and possibly the diff. Make sure you get the mainenance history. You can probably go to your local mazda dealer and pull the service records (I think they have a national batabase). Check out Miata.net its an excellent resource.

Bobby