Description
Now offered for sale via my business, Goodwood Sportscars, is this 1990 Mazda Eunos 1. 6 finished in Red with black cloth seats and trim. Its lovely to drive, its completely solid and it looks terrific but before we go any further, I have to tell you that this was subject to an insurance claim back in 2016. This was due to paintwork damage (someone attacked it with a key) which meant it needed a respray and this resulted in a Category C recording. On the plus side, it has quite a good history and has been very well looked after and maintained. I’ll explain the full story to any serious potential buyers...
Before I tell you more, let me tell you about Goodwood Sportscars and why should you buy from me:
I have been buying and selling Mazda MX5s for over 20 years now. While I'm a car dealer, I consider myself to be a car enthusiast above all else. I'll only sell cars that actual interest me as an enthusiast. I live, sleep and breath quick cars and have sold literally thousands of performance cars over a thirty year period. I have compete in various forms of motorsport including the Scottish Hillclimb Championship (in an MX5 of course). So I'm pretty good at spotting a good car and at making one work to the best of its ability. I've had many thousands of MX5s through my hands and know their strengths and weaknesses well.
Specification includes electric windows, power steering and a Momo steering wheel. Its sitting on a set of 15” Enkei alloys fitted with good tyres (Pirellis on the year, budget make on the front). Its covered around 209500 kilometres (about 131000 miles) and its terrific to drive. The black vinyl soft top is in good order too. Bodywork is in very good condition: there is no rust on wheel arches, sills, wings etc. Underneath, floors, lower sills, chassis rails etc are all in strong and sound condition. Its had various repairs over the years but these were done by someone who knows what they are doing and its all solid. Paintwork is pretty good though it has the odd stone chip along with some very small spots of lacquer damage here and there. If you stand 10 feet away, it looks brilliant but close inspection shows some minor (and they are minor) imperfections. The nearside headlight lid has had a (homemade) air intake added and its then been resprayed with an aerosol resulting in a marginally different finish. Its still a good looking and very presentable car though.
Inside, its all in pretty good, clean condition. Seats, carpets and trim are in good order and its a nice place to be. It has a modern Sony stereo fitted complete with Aux in and USB ports. The heater works perfectly though the air conditioning does not. The leather on the Momo steering wheel is very dry and tired and is split along its seams in places (see photos).
Mechanically its all good too: the engine is typical MX5 in that it feels sweet and strong and loves to be revved hard. There are no leaks or odd noises and it holds its temperature in all conditions. Gearbox, clutch and brakes are all just as they should be. As usual I like to cover a good 250 miles in all of my sales cars and I can confirm that this one drives as a good MX5 should.
Its been fitted with MK2 suspension (with slightly shorter springs) and while ride height is pretty well standard, the car stays nicely flat when pushing on a bit but it still retains very good ride quality. Its definitely great fun blasting around the local country lanes.
In preparation for its sale, its just been comprehensively checked over. In fact whenever I prepare a car for sale, I use my own MX5-based checklist which covers 80+ points and ensures that even the detail stuff is checked and any issues spotted and attended to. This includes all sorts of things such as hood catches, drain holes, electric windows, door locks, condition of coolant hoses right down to the state of the cigarette lighter. It means the car is fit for purpose and should behave and drive just as a good MX5 should. Accordingly this one has just been serviced with new oil and genuine Mazda oil filter, new NGK spark plugs and new silicone plug leads and a new air filter. Its had a coolant change, door locks greased, drain holes cleared, handbrake adjusted etc. Its MOT tested until February 2027.
There is a file full of receipts showing work carried out over the years along with lots of old MOT certificates etc. Its should be remembered that this is an old car (nearly 36 years old now) and its far from perfect but even so, this could easily be used every day. Last week, I sold a near identical car (same age, same colour etc) for £5750 but thanks to its insurance status, this one is a fair bit cheaper at a firm £3995.
I'm based in Berwick on Tweed, near the Scottish Border and I can collect any prospective buyer from the local train station or I can arrange to have the car delivered by a trusted transport company at extra cost. I’m well known in the MX5 world and know these cars well. Please do not hesitate to ask any questions – if you are genuinely interested, you’ll have plenty and I’m happy to talk about MX5s all day. I'm also happy to give you an honest description and if there any faults or issues with the car, I much prefer to tell you up front, so you are clear about what you are buying.
