I picked this Miata up truly out of necessity.  I had sold my wife’s Navigator on her and we didn’t have a spare vehicle sitting in the driveway as a backup yet.  Yikes!

Thankfully I came across this Miata while searching for flippable cars to buy.  I’ve found that in late fall a fair number of “summer cars” get posted for sale at discounted prices.  The car was in good mechanical shaper and only had about 62k miles on the clock.  It had a decent spot of rust on the drivers rear wheel well arch but I figured my local body shop could repair it easy enough (and cheap enough).  The tires were pretty well shot but the brakes were brand new.  He also had a set of snow tires and wheels for the car too, which, I’d need. It was looking like I’d be driving this into the winter (as it was currently October) unless I could find another deal on a good 4wd to pick up.

I think he had the car posted for $6,300 and he wanted another $500 for the snow tires/wheels.  I wanted the whole package but I was intent on minimizing my expenditure.  We talked for a while about the car, its condition, and his situation/goal.  Based on that discussion I told him I was prepared to make an offer now and that I had cash with me.  “$5,000 with the snow tire”, I said.  He hemmed a hawed a few moments and said he wouldn’t sell it that low with the snow tires.  “OK, how about $5,300”, I came up $300.  “Nah”, he said.  “Well, where do you have to be at?”, I asked.  “I could do $5,500”.  “Alright, I do $5,500”.  And I drove home a shiny New-to-me Miata.

I had my local body shop repair the rust issue and I hunted up a good set of tires of Craigslist for $120.  I figure why put brand new parts on a used car? Its used.  Find some good used parts at a discounted price and they work just fine.  

Good thing that winter was relatively mild, and I had snow tires, because I did in fact drive it half way through the winter before I found my wife a replacement for her Navigator.

We continued to drive it into the summer until we found a couple who wanted it more than we did.  Miatas are fun drive but I think they are equally fun to sell; every buyer leaves with a sizeable smile on their face even though they left you with a pile of their cash. 

Deal done, onto the next one.