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I'm thinking about buying a used Eunos and want to spend around 1700. My question is what comes first when considering reliability - age or mileage. I've seen a vehicle with around 60,000 miles on the clock but am worried about its age. It's a G reg and I've never bought a car that old before. What are your thoughts?
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Give me a day or three and I'll get some thoughts from a neighbour who owns one. He is a shift worker out all night and in bed all day so he might be hard to talk to! I think there are rust issues and, obviously, variations from the UK Spec
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Parts on the Eunos can be an issue, an amazing amount are different!
these include, most of the suspension - Dampers and springs have different settings, but if replaced as set wont cause issues, wishbones have different part numbers to UK spec, but Im not sure why - could be differences in the bushes, or maybe the dimensions of the arms themselves?
Bumpers are also different, can be interchanged with UK ones, but Mazda UK didnt like that, in fact you had to order by UK chassis number to get UK ones - not sure if that is still the case.
Headlamps are also different, they are available from Mazda dealers, or change them to UK spec, or I think there are aftermarket one available (Cibie?)
Spec is normally higher on the Eunos, autos were available when all UK ones were manual...
Rust can be an issue, as the corrosion protection was pretty much non existent, some had underseal plastered on at arrival in the UK, that could be hiding some nastys now.....
Look around the MX-5 forums for fuller advice, there are a lot of Eunos's around, and like everything, there are good, bad and AARRGGHH!!!!!!!
Edited by the swiss tony on 02/05/2009 at 10:16
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Thanks a lot for your advice. I've found a 1992 model, 70,000 miles for 2250. How does that sound to you? It has a 1.6 enginer
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which 1.6?
there are lots of different power levels. some very very slow
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Mileage isn't a problem with them. There are pleanty around with greater than 250k miles on them.
Age also isn't really a problem - I've had mine 6 years and it is a 1990 and sails through the MOT. I've had to change a couple of springs (but who hasn't nowadays?), disks and pads, but I'd call those normal consumables.
The main rust spots are easy to check - the lower rear wing where it attaches to the sill, just behind the vertical seam at the rear of the doors. Some don't seem to have a problem, some do. Seems it may be caused by leaf blocked rainwater drains from teh roof, exiting in the front of the rear wheel arch.
I've heard of rust on the rear wheel arches as well, where like many cars, mud can hold water. I don't think I've heard of any structural corrosion problems -ah, I tell a lie - I had to replace a brake pipe from OSR to NSR calipers, where it goes above the subframe.
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Martini - can I ask which one you have and how much? Do you think the one I mentioned is a good buy? I think it may be slightly over priced
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Gabe - it looks as thought have most of the info you need. If you want me to compare notes etc with my Eunos owning neighbour please email me (see profile). Glad to help if I can.
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i saw a eunos 1995 in white with auto box and aircon on a 1.8ltr engine for sale down the road this morning as a private sale and he was asking 2000
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That money for a 1992 eunos is far too high, for reasons others have mentioned stick with a UK suplied car. You should be able to get a 1996 ish car with 70k, try the MX5 owners club For Sale section. Price going up now for summer, be quick.
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I think it's a bit on the pricey side.
Mine is a UK model that I got 6 years ago with 100k miles for £2000, but it is/was a Cat D repaired "write off" probably due to the cost of front bumper and wing at new prices.
The early 1.6's were "full power" the weak things didn't come in until quite a bit later in.
The fact it is an import vs UK model isn't as bad for parts as is often made out (even in HJ's car by car review) the dealers learnt that saying "you can't get parts for imports" just lost them business.
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The fact it is an import vs UK model isn't as bad for parts as is often made out (even in HJ's car by car review) the dealers learnt that saying "you can't get parts for imports" just lost them business.
As I stated in my earlier post, some parts DO differ to UK spec, and ARE harder (not impossible) to obtain.
Although, back in the early days Mazda would not assist dealers in any way regarding imports, this meant that the parts guys were correct in saying "you can't get parts for imports"
As dealers WE did want to supply the parts... we just couldnt!
Now.. Mazda supply the dealers with a list of fast moving parts for the Eunos, and WILL give part numbers as required.
(please dont mention Bongo's - they are still grief getting parts for..........)
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Are Jap imports a good idea, really? I would have thought they spent most of their lives stuck in Tokyo's notorious traffic jams. They aren't rustproofed to European standards either as they throw them away after a few years thanks to Shaken so there isn't much point
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Some are murder- If its not listed in ADL ( an aftermarket japanese/korean parts supplier) then really you're up the creek. Anything other than consumables and you can really struggle, or if you do find it it WILL be extortionate.
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