AW11 sold! Now i need a substitute...

[wouter86]

10-10-2006 the MOT of the aw11 ended, after some calculations I concluded that I was gonna sell the car, last tuesday I sold it.Always a weird feeling when you see someone else drive away with your old car and probably never see it back again.

I decided before i was gonna sell my mr2 that i first had to sell it before i was gonna buy another car, because if i didn't, i wouldn't take the effort to sell it (lazy aren't i ) and using my mothers car as a daily driver also aided in the end to speed up the process.

The whole process still took 2 months but hey better late then never!

So now that the car is sold i am looking for something else.There are 2 candidates i'm interested in.They have a lot in common yet they are exact opposites of each other.

candidate 1 : Peugeot 106 1.3 rallye

Never saw one in real life before but went looking for one today.What attracted me in this car is it's light weight (800 kg), 100 hp engine and modified suspension.The combination of these three could make a challenging car that is agile/nimble and can be pushed to the limit without breaking speed laws.And because it can be pushed to the limit it could be a rewarding car for the driver.and it would e a nice car to start with on trackdays with technical tracks ( not with long straights like zandvoort).I'm still an amateur you know.

I also like the looks of the car, the outside with those things on the arches and the interior with red carpet and no extra options at ALL (reminds me of the seat marbella).

Another good point are that the roadtax and insurance prices are quite low due to low weight (road tax) and low new price (around 12500 eur) and according to insurance companies no dangerous car for young drivers.

BUT...

after doing some research on buying guides about this car and reading several technical forums about this car i saw the dark side of this car, to mention some troubles, whining gearboxes that were gonna fail, differential problems, problems with rear axle bearing (big bucks), stuttering engines, engines that keep running after you take the keys out, headgasket problems, oil leaks,clutch troubles,gear linkage troubles.

And why does someone buy these kinds of cars?yes probably to drive fast so i assume most of them have some problems or gonna have some of them.

Went looking for one today and must say the model looks very simple but thats ok.The car i saw wasn't it good shape, fenders and bumper had different shade of red ( garage said with a good cleaner you could get it equally red), mayonaise emulsion inside oil cap ( garage said it was from driving short pieces), headgasket leaking oil (garage said it was coming from valve cover), whole lot of oil under the gearbox, a lot of water in the boot (garage said it was because the car stood still for 3 weeks).When i looked at the licence plate holder on the back it said the name of his garage so i asked him if he knew the previous owner or could tell me something more about this car.He said he didn't knew the car and the previous owner.He told me the maintenance books were also 'gone'.

That's when i knew enough, the other comment about the trunk and headgasket were probably also BS.

I didn't ask for a test drive because he knew i wasn't gonna even consider THAT car.

On to candidate nr2 : Mazda mx-5

Also light-weight, light powered and renowed for it's manuveability and handling.A step more expensive than the 106 in terms of road tax and insurance but still very acceptable.It does have a higher price tag than the 106 but the new price is twice as high then the 106.

When reading forums and internet it is said that the mx-5 is a very reliable car, it does have it's specific points but they don't sound horrible in comparison to the known problems of the 106.

O yeah i almost forgot to mention the plus that it is a convertible, although that's not the main reason i'm interested, because i'm more interested in handling but it's a cool feauture.

Interior and exterior of the mazda look much more refined and are higher quality then the 106 but that probably has something to do with the price that is twice as high.

Offcourse there some different models made of the mx-5, the 'old' ones with retractable headlight and the newer ones with fixed headlight.The anniversary edition with 6 speed gearbox and bilstein suspension(i thought ) looks mighty fine but they cost quite a lot of money.

The model i seek is the one with retractable headlight and 1.6 engine and if the car doesn't have options, i don't mind ( what isn't there can't break down you know)

AND there are mx-5's that were used as second car for the chick or used for cruising.These cars probably had an easy life and could last for years to come, might find one if i'm lucky.

BUT..

The downsides i was thinking are the higher purchase price, but since these cars are always wanted cars i think the price doesn't drop that fast if you know what i mean.

The only problem is that i had some vandalism problems with my aw11 (scratches from front to back, stone slapped against window, kicked off exhaust, garbage can on engine hood) I didn't care about that with the aw11 because it was allready an old car worth shit.

But a mx-5 with it's vulnerable softtop roof would be asking for troubles around here.I could take a subscription on a private parking lot around here that would cost around 50 eur/month.You could look at that amount as some sort of insurance.

So today i saw both of them and i think it's gonna be a mx-5.The winter is also a nice time to buy these kind of cars!

Does anyone know were i can find a good one?I looked at the dutch mazda club forum and there were some cars that sounded very nice.And does it have downsides if it is an ex-american car?

If you have tips i would gladly hear them!