My Miata Love and My Current 1995 Mazda MX5 Miata

1995 Miata Montego Blue color

My admiration and eventual fixation with Mazda Miatas began in early 2000 when I was living in Boston. I don't remember the exact circumstances but somehow I found myself in a Mazda showroom admiring a 2000 special edition (3000 made) burgundy Miata with cream leather interior, matching cloth top and mahogany wood steering wheel, shifter, and hand brake. I couldn't stop thinking about it and returned to finance it that week. 

 

2000 Miata Special Edition Mahogany Mica color (mine was identical to this one)

Unfortunately, I worked in telecommunications at the time and the industry imploded when competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) were swallowed up in traditional monopolistic form by the likes of AT&T. My company at the time, NET2000, was one of those CLECs and I, along with all of my coworkers, were left jobless in 2002. There were probably 1,000+ people like me with similar abilities in the Boston area with no jobs available to utilize our skills. I went from earning a decent salary to jobless in a harsh financial environment. Boston is darn expensive! But I loved the city (still do), so I adjusted and began a multi-year saga of a creative, scrappy, entrepreneurial and often challenging existence.

2001 was a tough year. Everyone has difficult years or times in their lives. 2001 was one of them for many people, obviously, but I was hit hard right from the get-go. My dad died suddenly in early January. We were best friends and he was incredibly fit, so losing him was a shock that carved me out hollow. I'm not sure what happened in the following months because I was a mental loss. I remember driving out to my dad's "country" place in western Massachusetts (where I lived briefly when I first moved out East) in my Miata the day after he died. For a tiny rear wheel convertible, the Miata handled the 3 hour drive west from Boston in January fine. I pulled into the gravel but snow covered driveway and tried to step out of the car. Seeing the house I spent so much amazing time at with my dad since he bought it in the 80s, tucked into the woods just off a winding country road, crushed my chest and left my legs so weak I collapsed in the snow and cried. My stepmother and half brother watched me from the raised wooden porch. It was one of the most difficult days in my life, even now, 21 years later.

As mentioned, my company also began to fold later that year. It was after 9-11. All in all, 2001 was dreadful and dreary.  

In 2002, after watching nearly everyone in my company get walked out the door with just six of us left (sales people and sales engineers, like myself) and shuffled down to Providence Rhode Island to save money, the remainder of us were let go and NET2000 ceased to exist. I was still in a fog from losing my dad and 9-11. I took up SCUBA diving, got advanced diving certification with specialty certifications, took up running seriously and was slowly pulling myself out of the muck and trying to become a better person.

Unfortunately, after losing my job and starting a telecom consulting business with a charismatic business partner (Phoenix International), I was strapped for money and had a lot of debt. I had to file for bankruptcy and gave up my beloved Miata to repossession. I kept paring down my lifestyle to make ends meet until I was sharing an apartment in Southie (south Boston area with predominantly Irish population - where Good Will Hunting took place) with a girl who was just a friend, though I remember flirting with one another on occasion.

Finally, after struggling at the telecom thing and working in sales for a printing business in Harvard Square, I threw in the towel and moved to Charlotte, NC where my dad's former business partner, Mary, lived and had a job opening for me at a local college as a program coordinator. My time in Charlotte will be another story sometime.

That first Miata stayed in my mind all these years. Miatas are ridiculed by macho car guys but anyone who's ever driven one has a new view of them. They are perfectly balanced with 50/50 front/back weight ratio, suitable engine performance for the exceptionally light (~2300 lbs) weight, and handling that leaves you smiling hours after you get out of the car.

I spend a lot of time going through online market places looking at primarily cars, motorcycles and furniture. I'm not really looking to purchase anything but enjoy learning what's available, what's going up or down in prices, finding patterns in problems with different vehicles and imagining what it'd be like owning certain cars or bikes. Once in a while a car or motorcycle catches my eye. It might be unique, rare, a great deal or just something I've always thought about owning. I found one of those in a 1995 Montego blue Miata that popped up on Craigslist last June. It looked amazing and had just 63,000 miles over its 26 years of life. It was also local. So, I contacted the seller and 20 minutes later I was in his opulent home gushing over his mid century modern furniture and meeting my new Miata in his carpeted "garage." 

The car was in such pristine stock condition I bought it on the spot, which was good because a buyer with cash in hand was in his driveway just minutes after I arrived. It came with a matching color hardtop - a coveted accessory for these cars. Here it is with the hardtop on.

With matching hardtop

I love the Miatas for a number of reasons and one is how basic it is. All analog, no computers interfering with the purity of it. This particular one was ordered with all the options, power windows, upgraded stereo with speakers in the headrests (I don't typically listen to music when driving), leather seats, but that's about it. Otherwise, it's very similar to a 1960s roadster with a direct connection between the driver and road.

After I purchased this one I replaced a few things. I couldn't tell whether the timing belt had been replaced yet, so, at 63,000 miles it was a common sense thing to have done. I had the hoses and belts replaced, too, just as preventative maintenance. I also had the mechanic do a full inspection of the car. His comment when I picked it up was, "This is the tightest stock example of a Miata I've seen. You really have an eye for cars." Well, I'd like to take credit for "choosing" this car but all I did was want an NA (first edition) Miata in good shape and this one popped up.

I should point out that I've been buying and selling cars and motorcycles since I was a teenager. I had owned and sold over 100 cars before I was 19 years old. There were times in life when I had huge gaps of other interests tamping down my car buying habits but for the most part I've gone through cars and bikes more than most people I know. There are several I look back at now and wish I had the money and brains at the time to keep them. A couple that come to mind are a 1956 Buick Super in white and teal blue. I picked that one up when I lived in Michigan and it had previously been in the Sloan Museum in Flint, MI (about 3 miles from my mom's house I grew up in). Another one that stands out was a 1968 red VW convertible bug. Both of those cars were immaculate. 

There have also been many duds of cars I've had. One was a 1980 Honda Accord. I cracked open my first carburetor on that car and let's just say it was a mess that I likely messed up more. There was also a 1964 Ford Country Squire station wagon I bought for $400 and decided to drive from MI to FL over Christmas break when I was 17 years old. The frame broke in half midway on the return trip and I had to detour to my grandfather's house in Missouri. He paid (I believe) $100 to have a guy weld the frame back together and I continued on making it back home. I sold it the next week for $400.

I don't really know why I'm so interested in the things I am but it continues to this day. I spend probably an hour every day going through online car and bike sales looking at what's out there. If I didn't do that I would've never seen the Miata because it would have been sold within an hour of the guy posting it.

I also purchased ALL the rubber bushings for all the suspension and motor mounts. I figured after 26 years, even with the very low miles, the rubber on the original parts would be degraded, hard, cracked. Wow, what a difference that made. The suspension is so hard and tight now that I can't even push the car down a half inch with all my weight on the quarter panel. The drive is harsher but that's what this car is made to do - drive stiff and hold corners. 

I've thought about how much money I would consider selling it for but I'm probably just going to keep it, at least for a while. Over this winter I've purchased several parts, all original manufacturer parts, like a radiator (the radiators on these have a plastic top that gets brittle over time, so it's a bit of a time bomb at 27 years old now). I'll be installing those parts myself when the weather is a bit warmer. 

Overall, I couldn't be happier with this Miata. It's pretty much everything I imagined I would want out of one. I also recently purchased a much more refined BMW Z4 convertible, which I'll likely write about soon. It's vastly more comfortable and, like I said, refined than the Miata but it isn't close to the visceral experience of driving the Miata. Pure joy!

Anyway, that's my Miata story that started some 22 years ago and continues today.