Ownership Verified: Going Mainstream (2016 Miata)

Question 1: has it been that long already?
Question 2: only 30k? How many do you do on your bike?
 
On the bike, I've done about 1,500 km since Ringmeet last year...

I'm just not driving much, because in everyday life distances are short and both public transport and bicycles exist, driving around on weekends only happens occasionally (I don't have that many free weekends with fine weather and those have to be divided between cycling, motorcycling, roadstering and sailing), and I'm often hitching rides with friends as soon as we're more than two people. ;)
 
Since yesterday the car is on new summer tyres. Due to Corona my tyre dealer had closed down shop for three weeks right in the middle of high seson for tyre changes, so that postponed my plans a bit. When I went for a spirited drive a few weeks ago in 16°+ weather, I really noticed that the winter tyres are not the ideal rubber for warmer conditions.

I needed four seasons or about 22,000 km to sufficiently use up the unbelievably bad (in the rain at least) Bridgestone Potenza S001 that Mazda inexplicably chose for the car, but at least trying to use them up as quickly as possible gave me a good excuse reason to oversteer on every possible opportunity.
Now I'm rolling on a set of Hankook Ventus V12 evo2 which were recommended to me from several sources. Let's see how that goes. So far I've driven them about eight kilometres. :D
 
Thanks to the recently (this winter) introduced Dutch speed limit of 100 kph during daytime, I managed to drive to the coast of Zeeland and back on one tank. In fact, I improved the following personal bests for me in this car in terms of "x on one tank":
  • longest distance: 692 km (+ 56 km)
  • lowest average fuel consumption: 5.39 l/100 km (-0.5 l/100 km)
  • highest average speed: 90 kph (+ 6 kph)
The runners-up for the speed are definitely not combined with low fuel consumption, but were the result of serious high-speed runs on the German Autobahn. Well... :rolleyes:
 
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So, sometime this month I took the car past 40,000 km, which I just noticed when fueling up.
I've also driven only about 8,000 km this year, and 1,800 km since Ringmeet... :(
 
So, sometime this month I took the car past 40,000 km, which I just noticed when fueling up.
I've also driven only about 8,000 km this year, and 1,800 km since Ringmeet... :(

Happens. :/
 
So... people say with the standard suspension, the MX-5 drives like a boat... well, today that came in handy. We had a bit of a rainstorm. And with "a bit" I really mean that the area I had to drive through was definitely not getting the worst of it. But it made for an interesting way home from the office:

Autobahn-ueberflutet.png
 
Another year, another Ringmeet, another few laps.

Friday #1, with @Adrian as passenger:


Friday #2, with @Tram:


Saturday, with @ninjacoco:


Sunday, with @nicjasno:


And on the way home, I should have had a schnaps:

MX-5_44444km.jpg


Before Ringmeet, I took the car on this year's FG roadtrip to the Black Forest, and it was lovely. In one very sunny week of driving (roadtrip and Ringmeet), I only drove with the roof closed when going on the Autobahn. And on the small roads of the Black Forest, this was definitely the correct car to have.
 
My old phone holder was a DIY 3D printed thing that fit into the slot for the bottle holder next to the centre console. After five or six years, that thing broke. So I searched for a replacement and ended up buying a fairly expensive Beat-Sonic BSA21EP from a German shop.

And I broke the actual phone holder part immediately upon unpacking.

20220902_123825.jpg

That's not a very solid construction, and also not a very practical one: You need to push the two arms together to put the phone in, and push the button on the bottom right to release it.

But well, luckily the old Brodit part more or less fit on this base mount (one of the screws might be a bit askew). But the screws were a bit too short. So I went to buy a pack of screws and nuts so I could put the parts together. The correct length was not available, so I bought longer ones and a metal saw. Good - now I own a metal saw. My tool set is a bit less incomplete. :D

Anyway, I put the finished product into the car and adjusted it in all the possible ways:

20220910_183335.jpg

The phone sits much higher than with the previous holder. I'll see how this holds up (haha) in actual use. And with respect to long-term durability. At least it should be less wobbly than the old DIY contraption.
 
Well well.... that didn't go well. In November, I purchased a new set of winter tyres (Vredestein Wintrac). This week, one of them fell victim to some shards that were still on the road after NYE. On the parking space, I should say. Anyway, time to make a phone call:

20230105_084601.jpg


Luckily my mobility warranty thing provided by Mazda for doing all the yearly services took care of the tow truck. Still, I had to pay for a new tyre. But only one, because the set is still as good as new with only 500 km driven.

And it's good that I haven't had lowered suspension installed. There was at most 2 mm of space between the exhaust tips and the asphalt when going on and off the tow truck - "helped" by the right rear tyre being flat, of course. But at the front it wasn't what I call a comfortable amount of space neither. :D
 
And it's good that I haven't had lowered suspension installed. There was at most 2 mm of space between the exhaust tips and the asphalt when going on and off the tow truck - "helped" by the right rear tyre being flat, of course. But at the front it wasn't what I call a comfortable amount of space neither. :D
Isn't it up to the towing company to come up with a solution for towing your car without damaging it? I can't imagine if they get a call for let's say a Ferrari they would use this truck and just let the bumpers scrape over the ground and truckbed.
It could/would probably take longer because you'll have to wait for the correct truck to arrive, but apart from that that shouldn't really be your problem.
Although my own experience is that even if you tell them on the phone they need to send a certain type of truck because your car is lowered (or too big and heavy for a -3.5ton tow truck in my case), they'll just send the standard type which results in an angry tow truck driver and a lot more waiting until the correct one arrives. So in that perspective it is easier to have a standard car :LOL:
 
Isn't it up to the towing company to come up with a solution for towing your car without damaging it? I can't imagine if they get a call for let's say a Ferrari they would use this truck and just let the bumpers scrape over the ground and truckbed.
It could/would probably take longer because you'll have to wait for the correct truck to arrive, but apart from that that shouldn't really be your problem.
Although my own experience is that even if you tell them on the phone they need to send a certain type of truck because your car is lowered (or too big and heavy for a -3.5ton tow truck in my case), they'll just send the standard type which results in an angry tow truck driver and a lot more waiting until the correct one arrives. So in that perspective it is easier to have a standard car :LOL:
yeah, they usually carry some planks of wood or something. They are liable if they damage the car.
 
I was keeping a very close look when the driver drove my car on and off the truck and would have stopped him if necessary.
 
yeah, they usually carry some planks of wood or something. They are liable if they damage the car.
Friend of mine got involuntarily towed once while he was away and they did manage to screw up his wheels real nice. But try proving anything… 🤷‍♂️
 
Friend of mine got involuntarily towed once while he was away and they did manage to screw up his wheels real nice. But try proving anything… 🤷‍♂️
Rechtsschutzversicherungen 👌
 
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