Buying A Used Miata

So, you want to buy a used Miata.  There it sits on the lot... looks pretty good from a distance.  But is it the car for you?  Has it been well taken care of, and will it provide many years of trouble-free service?  Or has it been abused, perhaps damaged?  You could persuade the owner to let you take the car to a mechanic for a thorough check.  That assumes that you know a mechanic who is intimately familiar with Miatas, and that you are willing to pay for the analysis.  Or, you could conduct the analysis yourself.  How?  You can click here to download a rather lengthy checklist that will help you analyze whether this is the Miata for you.  We've saved it in .pdf format, so you can open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Print it out, and take a copy on a clipboard with you.  Note that once you know the vehicle identification number (VIN) of the car you want to investigate, you can accomplish the first few checklist items from your computer at home.  After all, you don't want to buy a car with a salvage title, do you?  And you don't want to pay too much, do you?  Don't be intimidated by the length and depth of the checklist - you don't have to conduct every check if you don't feel comfortable doing so.  And don't be concerned if it takes you a while to finish the analysis; think how long it would have taken if you'd turned over the car to a mechanic, and perhaps even then he wouldn't have thought to make some of the checks, such as the check for replaced body parts.  As is usually the case, you can probably simply invest more time to do a better job than the so-called "professionals", because you have a vested interest, whereas they do not.  You'll save money, and yes, it's more work for you.  So?

This page and checklist is provided with the expressed permission of Bill Gusky of the Central Florida Miata Club.