- Joined
- Feb 17, 2006
- Messages
- 17,470
- Car(s)
- '12 MX-5 PRHT, '02 Freelander, '90 Disco 1 Bobtail
Now that the deal has actually been done (there were moments where I didn't think it was going to happen), I can finally reveal the replacement for the Tesla.
After a short back story. You won't scroll past this without reading it, will you?
You can read my reasons for replacing the Tesla here. In short, I worked out I could sell the car, clear the finance and end up with enough back to buy another car. This car is that car. I wanted something small again like the Smart was and sporty like the Smart really wasn't, it's funny how the seemingly huge array of convertibles becomes much smaller when you actually start looking for one. I've been through a few candidates. I briefly considered a 924/944, the Lotus Elan M100 was close but they car I wanted was sold, I tried a 3rd gen. MR2 but found it too small inside, I got into a lovely red NB MX-5 that I could hardly close the door on. I considered outsiders like the Renault Wind and even getting another Smart Roadster, albeit a much more expensive Brabus one with those alloys that bend if you look at them funny. One of the important things was that it should have cloth rather than leather seats, this will be important later.
I toyed with the idea of just going screw it and getting an L322 TDV8 Range Rover, thankfully the one being sold by the dealer with the MR2 was already sold or it could've happened. I finally saw a local dealer with a blue hardtop NC.2 MX-5 for sale that used to be around the corner from me, it was very sadly deceased spec as the elderly owner had passed away (a teacher who was teaching when both me and my dad went to that school). It was nice, I fitted inside with some elbow room and my big camping chair fitted in the boot. Unfortunately, this car was a 1.8 5-speed so I had to reject the otherwise perfect example. I particularly liked the relatively thin steering wheel, I've never been in an NC before so wasn't expecting that at all.
So, I now had my mind set on something I never thought possible, I wanted an NC. I quickly realised that I was going to have to ditch the cloth seat requirement as only the base model had cloth seats and I couldn't afford an ND with Recaros. I found this car through a 'supermarket' website, yadda yadda they offered me a good price for the Tesla and I accepted. The car was moved to the local franchise and then I chose to have it delivered. I could've collected it but it's in the middle of a city and you can't give an MX-5 a proper test drive in a city, this way I have 14 days or 100 miles to return the car if I don't like it. From my first 15 mile drive, I don't think that will be necessary.
So, the inevitable has happened and I've become one of them.
Everyone, say hello to my yet-unnamed 2012 MX-5 Kuro Edition. Kuro means 'black' in Japanese, so that's why this car is white. Much like Henry the vacuum cleaner, it's so fucking happy to exist and its toothy grin puts a smile on my face too.
Does this do as a proof pic? ?
Yes, I'm a sucker for those special editions they just made to boost sales but this one does have two tone leather. Which I'm going to cover over. It has nice dark wheels too, unlike most MX-5s, and a fancier exhaust/rear splitter combo. It's a 2.0 6-speed with the LSD and Bilstein suspension, also has cruise which is nice and not something I would've got on any of my other options. Oh and the roof and is gloss black. You can see by the clouds that I've bought a convertible ahead of a UK winter, which is like a UK summer only it rains all day every day instead of just most of every day. Sometimes the rain freezes.
I've never considered a white car before, especially one with decals but this just grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it. If a Black Edition in Spirited Green was sitting beside it I would've had a hard decision choosing between them, I prefer the two-tone leather (particularly the door cards) to brighten the interior and the Black Edition has a piano black dash, which after 8 years is going to a scratched and swirled mess. This has nice red trim rings on the dash vents but otherwise it looks normal.
I think and I hope that the size is just right. It's bigger than the Smart but considerably smaller than the Tesla so it should fit in the garage just fine, while feeling much more nimble on the roads. It's currently parked in front of a Mk7 Fiesta and looks tiny in comparison. Next to the bobtail it looks minute. I've been working on a vector image for my signature (does anyone other than me have those turned on these days?) and had to triple-check the scaling because it looked so wrong. Nope, it's correct!
First driving impressions? It feels like a sports car! It begs to go faster around corners, plenty of feedback through the steering, nice snicky gearchange, low bite on the clutch suggests it's healthy, brakes are nice and sharp and it wants to kick gravel at every slippery junction. Okay so it's really lacking in power compared to the Tesla but that's a given, it doesn't remove the fun. It's still easy to bust the speed limit but at least there's engine noise to help judge variations in speed and the speedo is right there in front. It's very smooth over speed bumps which was a real surprise given the mountains we have on the suburban roads around here. Roof goes up and down well, as fast as you would expect and the seals look good.
I'm just going to add into this essay that when the smell in this car is a massive nostalgia hit because they've used the same stuff that was used on the plastics of the Series III when I got it, it's like a furniture polish smell. It's still on me so I get an occasional waft even while sitting here.
Modifications? Well a SmartTop will be going in because holding down a button while stationary is for losers and I didn't have to do that in my Smart. I have some fitted cloth seat covers on the way to try, for the winter at least, as despite having heaters it would still be frozen arse time when it's cold out. If I see a set of half-leather Recaros I might have to give in and get them. I might change the handbrake... handle, because it's well known to be a little in the way of a tall person's left leg on a RHD car. The chrome on the gear knob is worn too, someone with nails must've owned it and scratched off the coating like it's a damn VAG product. The light completely hides it in my photos. I've seen custom GoPro mounts that use the wind deflector brackets so plan to make one of those. I initially plan to use the aux input for audio but might add Bluetooth or put a CarPlay head unit in there since it's pretty straightforward.
I mentioned that I left a hint, I don't know if anyone spotted it but quite often and for some time my status on the forum would be viewing wdwben's 2012 MX-5 PHRT thread, I'd just refresh that in another tab and leave it. I've read through that thread and there is a huge amount of useful information to help me. I'm not going to bother with the illuminated gear knob, for example. Otherwise I feel like I'm free to customise it without fearing the finance company. I need another one of those 'no hairdressing products stored in the car overnight' stickers, too.
I'm looking forward to this experience, hopefully it will be more fun than the Smart while being more reliable. It certainly isn't going to be as economical on fuel as the average is already below 30MPG but you can't put a price on fun, can you?
Before anyone asks, I'm note actively going through cars @leviathan has owned in reverse order.
After a short back story. You won't scroll past this without reading it, will you?
You can read my reasons for replacing the Tesla here. In short, I worked out I could sell the car, clear the finance and end up with enough back to buy another car. This car is that car. I wanted something small again like the Smart was and sporty like the Smart really wasn't, it's funny how the seemingly huge array of convertibles becomes much smaller when you actually start looking for one. I've been through a few candidates. I briefly considered a 924/944, the Lotus Elan M100 was close but they car I wanted was sold, I tried a 3rd gen. MR2 but found it too small inside, I got into a lovely red NB MX-5 that I could hardly close the door on. I considered outsiders like the Renault Wind and even getting another Smart Roadster, albeit a much more expensive Brabus one with those alloys that bend if you look at them funny. One of the important things was that it should have cloth rather than leather seats, this will be important later.
I toyed with the idea of just going screw it and getting an L322 TDV8 Range Rover, thankfully the one being sold by the dealer with the MR2 was already sold or it could've happened. I finally saw a local dealer with a blue hardtop NC.2 MX-5 for sale that used to be around the corner from me, it was very sadly deceased spec as the elderly owner had passed away (a teacher who was teaching when both me and my dad went to that school). It was nice, I fitted inside with some elbow room and my big camping chair fitted in the boot. Unfortunately, this car was a 1.8 5-speed so I had to reject the otherwise perfect example. I particularly liked the relatively thin steering wheel, I've never been in an NC before so wasn't expecting that at all.
So, I now had my mind set on something I never thought possible, I wanted an NC. I quickly realised that I was going to have to ditch the cloth seat requirement as only the base model had cloth seats and I couldn't afford an ND with Recaros. I found this car through a 'supermarket' website, yadda yadda they offered me a good price for the Tesla and I accepted. The car was moved to the local franchise and then I chose to have it delivered. I could've collected it but it's in the middle of a city and you can't give an MX-5 a proper test drive in a city, this way I have 14 days or 100 miles to return the car if I don't like it. From my first 15 mile drive, I don't think that will be necessary.
So, the inevitable has happened and I've become one of them.
Everyone, say hello to my yet-unnamed 2012 MX-5 Kuro Edition. Kuro means 'black' in Japanese, so that's why this car is white. Much like Henry the vacuum cleaner, it's so fucking happy to exist and its toothy grin puts a smile on my face too.
Does this do as a proof pic? ?
Yes, I'm a sucker for those special editions they just made to boost sales but this one does have two tone leather. Which I'm going to cover over. It has nice dark wheels too, unlike most MX-5s, and a fancier exhaust/rear splitter combo. It's a 2.0 6-speed with the LSD and Bilstein suspension, also has cruise which is nice and not something I would've got on any of my other options. Oh and the roof and is gloss black. You can see by the clouds that I've bought a convertible ahead of a UK winter, which is like a UK summer only it rains all day every day instead of just most of every day. Sometimes the rain freezes.
I've never considered a white car before, especially one with decals but this just grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it. If a Black Edition in Spirited Green was sitting beside it I would've had a hard decision choosing between them, I prefer the two-tone leather (particularly the door cards) to brighten the interior and the Black Edition has a piano black dash, which after 8 years is going to a scratched and swirled mess. This has nice red trim rings on the dash vents but otherwise it looks normal.
I think and I hope that the size is just right. It's bigger than the Smart but considerably smaller than the Tesla so it should fit in the garage just fine, while feeling much more nimble on the roads. It's currently parked in front of a Mk7 Fiesta and looks tiny in comparison. Next to the bobtail it looks minute. I've been working on a vector image for my signature (does anyone other than me have those turned on these days?) and had to triple-check the scaling because it looked so wrong. Nope, it's correct!
First driving impressions? It feels like a sports car! It begs to go faster around corners, plenty of feedback through the steering, nice snicky gearchange, low bite on the clutch suggests it's healthy, brakes are nice and sharp and it wants to kick gravel at every slippery junction. Okay so it's really lacking in power compared to the Tesla but that's a given, it doesn't remove the fun. It's still easy to bust the speed limit but at least there's engine noise to help judge variations in speed and the speedo is right there in front. It's very smooth over speed bumps which was a real surprise given the mountains we have on the suburban roads around here. Roof goes up and down well, as fast as you would expect and the seals look good.
I'm just going to add into this essay that when the smell in this car is a massive nostalgia hit because they've used the same stuff that was used on the plastics of the Series III when I got it, it's like a furniture polish smell. It's still on me so I get an occasional waft even while sitting here.
Modifications? Well a SmartTop will be going in because holding down a button while stationary is for losers and I didn't have to do that in my Smart. I have some fitted cloth seat covers on the way to try, for the winter at least, as despite having heaters it would still be frozen arse time when it's cold out. If I see a set of half-leather Recaros I might have to give in and get them. I might change the handbrake... handle, because it's well known to be a little in the way of a tall person's left leg on a RHD car. The chrome on the gear knob is worn too, someone with nails must've owned it and scratched off the coating like it's a damn VAG product. The light completely hides it in my photos. I've seen custom GoPro mounts that use the wind deflector brackets so plan to make one of those. I initially plan to use the aux input for audio but might add Bluetooth or put a CarPlay head unit in there since it's pretty straightforward.
I mentioned that I left a hint, I don't know if anyone spotted it but quite often and for some time my status on the forum would be viewing wdwben's 2012 MX-5 PHRT thread, I'd just refresh that in another tab and leave it. I've read through that thread and there is a huge amount of useful information to help me. I'm not going to bother with the illuminated gear knob, for example. Otherwise I feel like I'm free to customise it without fearing the finance company. I need another one of those 'no hairdressing products stored in the car overnight' stickers, too.
I'm looking forward to this experience, hopefully it will be more fun than the Smart while being more reliable. It certainly isn't going to be as economical on fuel as the average is already below 30MPG but you can't put a price on fun, can you?
Before anyone asks, I'm note actively going through cars @leviathan has owned in reverse order.
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