We need 2 cars, but am currently selling mine and want to replace it with a fun little 2 seater for around £5k. Plenty of MX5s around for this price, also a few Boxsters too. Happy to spend a bit on maintenance (currently drive a 1985 Escort for reference) but must be reliable for daily driving and happy on longer stretches of motorway.

Any owners of either car with any advice to share? Another option is a hot hatch like an EP/FK Civic Type R but I don’t need the practicality as it’s a 2nd car.

WWSTWD?

A £5k Boxster is almost certainly rough as. I looked at one a while ago and from memory those early ones at that price now have some fairly serious engine bearing problem. Add to that a couple of decades of abuse, plus the fact those early cars are actually pretty slow.

The IMS (I think that’s the acronym) is a known Porsche issue so would narrow the search down to one that has had that sorted.

I’m aware a Boxster might be stretching it really to find a good one.

Audi TT.

I think 2.7 porks avoid ims issues, but I might be wrong.

Na mx5 is a lovely thing, super reliable but will rot. Truly a joy to drive though.

Rx8 should be in budget if your milage is low.

Good to know – thanks. I prefer the look of a Eunos but more likely to go with a later MX5 as reliability is more important than looks and power.

RX8 is in budget but had written off due to the rotary-ness and risk of expensive repair bills!

@Doomanic – TT’s do really do it for me I must say. Happy to be convinced though.

My bro runs a 3.2s Boxster. 2003 vintage, he paid £3900 for it as it was barn stored for 4 years. Hes spent the same again bringing it back to good condition. Some parts that are not available from gsf or ecp and main dealer only are criminally expensive.
They rust badly in certain places, the ims bearing people bleat on about is expensive but the actual failure rate is fairly low, its not 1 in 100 but people with perfect cars dpnt whine online about them.

There’s a specialist buyer who does pre purchasing inspections. If your still keen, his does 26 to 36mpg, is on classic insurance so buttons. There are a few desirable features, traction, glass hood, heated seats from memory.
He will chat on the phone if your serious or i cam get him to ping you a message

The rotory engine costs around £1500 to get retipped from memory, and lasts 60,000 miles (do it’s unlikely to happen during an ownership period). Buy one for 3500, leave the rest in a kitty and if it doesn’t blow up you’re quids in. If it does, you’ve still got a great car that was much newer than others you could have got

Appreciate that, thanks. Still early days but if the Boxster route proves realistic and I find a good one locally I may well take you up on that.

@5lab – reckon they’re worth it over the ‘more conventional’ alternatives? I’m no speed demon but I do like the interest value of the Rotary engine.

I had a mk1 mx5 for 13 years. Utterly brilliant particularly the gearbox, handling and reliability. The early 1.6 was 115 bhp, which was ok in a car weighing about 1000kg but when the 1.8 came out they dropped the 1.6 down to 90 bhp which I would expect to be sluggish.

BMW Z4 3.0 SE.

EDIT – I chose a Z4 over a 2.7 Boxster and the MX5. The Porsche was nicer to drive, but felt slow and quiet. The MX5 just felt underpowered and less…special. The Z4 was the best all round from a specialness, drive, noise and practicality/maintenence POV. It also had a fully electric roof which the others didn’t.

I ran the Z4 for a few years and then considered a Cayman 3.4s but ended up with a Z4M Coupe.

reckon they’re worth it over the ‘more conventional’ alternatives? I’m no speed demon but I do like the interest value of the Rotary engine.

They’re certainly better value. Go test drive one and decide for yourself. In contemporary reviews they did really well, other than the fuel consumption that may not be an issue as a second car

MX5 is a brilliant car, not very powerful but fun, cheap and easy to maintain, plenty of parts for them.
Boxster engine issues would put me off, friends have had them, both needed a lot of work to put right.

You could get a nice BMW Z4 for 5k

My fun car is a Cooper S which is just a like a go kart we have Type R as well which is nice but I doubt would really tick the box for you.

I’ve spent some quality time with both. The boxster is special, the mx5 less so.

Don’t drive a boxster if you want the mx5. It won’t feel the same after.

5-6k should buy one. But learn and look carefully. 2.7 should be fine. I ran an S for a year or so, you don’t need that much pace, the wail at 7k is fab 🙂

Get learned up, and go get one.

Having owned an ep3 civic for over a decade, they’re great fun, very reliable and pretty cheap to run. They’ll also do 40mpg on a motorway run if you take it steady. I think mine had done 170k miles when I sold it and it was still driving great. I miss mine and shouldn’t have sold it, I think I sold it for £1k a few years ago.

Daughter has a 1992 Eunos which i get to drive. Has done most of the work herself apart from fitting the turbo. It’s a bit quick and in very good condition for its age.

She also imported an 1998 Evo 5 last year which she is just building back up after a full strip down. Can’t wait to give it a go in a couple of months once it’s finished

I’ve just been through a very similar exercise weighing up a boxter,cayman, mx5, z4 or hot hatch and ended getting a z4.

I’ve had an mx5 before and it’s nowhere near as nice.

The porsches have a real risk of some sort of engine issue which will require an £8k rebuild so that put me off those for now. Also a soft top convertible is a pain, with the shampoo and conditioner-ing it, and it’s like being in a tent in a hurricane on the motorway.

I plan to get a porsche cayman in the future when budget allows, but the z4 was the best option for practicality and expense, boot fits a golf bag, super quick fully electric hardtop convertible, not crazy thirsty, and nice enough to put a smile on your face while driving it

Are Hartech still doing the maintenance plan? That guarantees you against the IMS issue…

Had a Boxster S for 10 years and it was fabulous. Had one major bill when the cam cover oil seals leaked and the brakes had corroded from sitting over winter after using after the road had been salted. Regular use would prevent that last issue. Rest was just two yearly servicing.

Roof is absolutely fine at motorway speeds. Only retreated it once in the time I had it and the glass rear screen was as good as in a fixed roof.

3.2 engine not mega powerful but fast enough and a joy to drive at legal speeds. Twisty back road, keep it in third and it felt alive like no other car I’ve ever driven.

I looked for a lot of last year for a boxster at that price. You better have a good reserve for emergency repairs because I found not a single one with more than a service every 3 years. One came close and I even test drove it, engine was amazing and worth the money alone, but on the drive home my NB mx-5 felt unbelievably light and nimble in comparison. I’ve ended up with a r53 mini cooper s instead for the winter whilst the mx-5 is hiding from salty roads. Both cars together cost less than half a “safe” boxster

350Z?

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202302114181942?

https://m.facebook.com/groups/426132064172580/permalink/5876208695831529/?sfnsn=scwspwa&ref=share
Service history, looks smart but over budget

I went the Boxter route. Mine’s one of the runout edition 986 3.2s. I’ve had it since late 2015. I bought it on the rebound after trying my “dream” car – a Jag XKR which was really boring. Drove one; loved it; looked for a good(ish) one.

Its plenty quick enough. Maybe not in 0-60 terms compared to modern hot hatches, but its at its best on fast A and B roads. Very tactile. (especially since the Centre Gravity geometry setup which has made it a bit more interactive and a bit less bitey). There’s plenty of torque, so while you can drive it on power (and it feels great to do so), you can also make decent progress without thrashing the knackers off it.

Its a good touring car – boots each end can take plenty of stuff. Motorway driving is absolutely fine with the hood up, and its still quite civilised with the roof down. We did the NC500 in 2016 and did a week in northern France in 2019 doing WWI and II battlefields and it soaked that up with no problems.

25mpg in normal driving, 30+ when tootling at 65/70 on the motorway (although punt it hard down a slip road and you’ll knock that back down to the mid 20s again)

I do a lot of the maintenance myself, but keep the service history going with a good indy. Some parts aren’t too bad, others are point and laugh.

IMS isn’t so much of an issue as its cracked up to be. Mine’s on its original, although I had it checked whnen teh clutch was done. Bore score isn’t an issue on 986s, but is on 3.4 987s. Aircon condensors rot (one of mine is just starting to go), brake lines rust (look under passenger side sill) – I DIY replaced all mine a couple of years back and the powersteering rack hardlines rot out and burst (look in through the drivers side front wheel and you can just about see them. That was an absolute **** of a job. Suspension can also make all kinds of fun noises. Front ends of the sills get battered by crud coming off the front wheels and can rust

Its not a cheap thing to keep nice, but on the right road and the right day its an absolute joy. Like all nigh-on 20 year old cars though, it has plenty of “why the **** am I doing this to myself” moments.

Thanks for the links – 350Z is a bit brash for my tastes, I’d prefer something a bit more subtle.

That Boxster looked good – it’s sold now I think but that’s certainly the kind of example that could tempt me. At this point though, an MX5 seems the best choice for me, unless a killer Boxster comes up.

@JonEdwards, thanks for the thorough response!

My FiL had a 987 Boxster for a while and he raved about it. While I’m not worried about a bit of maintenance compared to a modern car (I currently drive an 1985 Escort!), I don’t want it to be in the garage every second week.

If I had £10k to play with then it’d be a Boxster every day, but with more like £5k I can’t really be as picky as I’d like and it could well end up as a bit of a gamble, might pay off, might not!

MX-5 lovely cars, just bear in mind rot is bad for mk1 and also mk2 (especially silver ones!).

Depends what you want out of a car …

The Boxster will be faster but it doesn’t have the ride quality, engagement or handling that the light weight MX5 does.

For some speed is everything and will find the MX5 boring. For others the Boxster is heavy and lacking in emotion and engagement.

Tracey, what compression ration is that turbo charged miata running?
They made lcr piston for the gtr /gtx but they are hellishly rare.
A mx5 with a 323 gtr or gtx transplant would be great, correct cr, corrrct valve timing overlap, gtx easy 200bhp, gtr up to 300bhp.

IMS isn’t so much of an issue as its cracked up to be. Mine’s on its original, although I had it checked whnen teh clutch was done.

I think the issue with it is that in most cases it isn’t but if it does go then you’ll be needing to strip it down to see exactly how much it’s fubar’d ,it’s the usual pain in the arse if you can do it yourself but if your paying someone else to spanner it I reckon it’s gonna cost bigly.

I’d probably have had it changed whilst the clutch was being done tbh.

I had a 2001 3.2 boxster and tbh I think you really have to be into them and into spannering once they get a bit long in the tooth.

I’ve been lucky to have a lot of Porsches over the years , but when I moved to Spain it was the smart convertible that came with me.

Save some money and get a MR2 Mk3. Best handling car I ever drove, and that was when I had a Caterham 7 and my wife had an MR2. Lotus-engineered suspension, reliable Toyota engine same as the Corolla one, so easy to get spares for if needed. Looks a lot like a Boxter, too 😁

Watching a few of those MR2s on eBay at the moment. Could definitely be a viable alternative.

I’m thinking small engine, low power but big fun. The other thing that I’m keep an eye on is a little Daihatsu Copen, but that might be pushing it a bit too far into the niche!

I like a hot hatch.

2.5 focus st. Lovely 5 pot sound. Practical.
Can be subtle in right colour

Don’t get me wrong – I love me a hot hatch, but we have a ‘big’ car in the wife’s Vectra so I have the opportunity to go for something a bit more impractical if I wanted. MK5 GTi, Civic Type R and 100hp Pandas are all on the Hot(ish) Hatch list, but seems like too good an opportunity to pass up to have a small midlife crisis!

I sense hooning around is not quite what you are after but deeply impractical could be a clio 172/182 that you converted into a daily driver trackday car (or bought one that hadn’t been totally mashed as a track car already). 2 sets of wheels, a stripped interior and a roll cage and probably a pair of ear defenders for the motorway! Mid life crisis enough for you?

I think I’d go Tt mk1 3.2. Not the last word in handling but sounds good and everything you touch inside is wonderfully designed. But i know that Clarkson et al ruined it’s image beyond repair for some people.

@convert I can’t imagine my wife wanting to come along for a nice pootle up to the moors with a picnic on a sunny day in a stripped and track prepped 182, although the mental image is making me chuckle!

Might have the give the TT’s a second look – I’d kind of glossed over them in truth.

imagine my wife wanting to come along for a nice pootle up to the moors with a picnic on a sunny day

Then does sir want to go back a generation and pick up an mgb or a stag? Actually, that might be beyond budget….and having owned an mgb in the early 90’s when they were ‘only’ 20 years old and motorways much quieter – I can’t see it being a lot of fun on a motorway these days.

I’ve got a 2000 Boxster S 3.2 250bhp. I’ve had loads of cars, mostly sporty. TT’s, MX5’s, MR2’s of all 3 varietys etc etc. The Boxster is probably the best car I’ve owned. Perfect handling/balance, amazing engine note, easy to work on, well built, not terrible on fuel. Everything about it is just right, for me at least.

I normally keep my summer “fun” car on SORN for winter as the weather is pretty rough up here in the Highlands. This year though, I’ve just been using it. Drove to Skye in snow and -8 degrees, heavy rain, all types of weather. I’ve commuted in it, done 200 mile journeys in, 90% of the time with the roof down and loved every minute.
Go and try one 😁

Speaking as a serial MX5 & hot hatch owner / boxster driver…

Sorry to be boring, but this is so dependant on how and where you drive.

Ultimately you will not beat a Boxster for handling, and if your local roads are fast and open, and you’re not interested in wringing its neck (or alternatively staying legal) it’s an amazing car. But the gearing is really long. Hanging on to second gear will see you well beyond the legal limit. If you enjoy ragging a car then it’s arguably not the most engaging, unless you’re happy to completely disregard speed limits.

The MX5 is at the other end of the spectrum. Get an early (pre-’94) 1.6 and the gearing and general lack of power means you can drive it like a teenager, everywhere, without having to worry too much about how fast you’re going. Where I live (west Cornwall), a good blat is mostly spent diving between 20 mph corners and short straights – roads that in a Boxster would be dispatched without leaving 2nd gear. The Mazda will be 2nd / 3rd / 4th / 3rd / 2nd all day long on these roads. I love this aspect of the car, but it’s not for everyone.

A Boxster also feels heavy by comparison, because it is. The Porsche is better balanced, but there’s more mass there.

A hot hatch falls somewhere between the roadsters. Can be a great option, depending on what you go for. Again, for my roads (and preferences) I’d go more old school, but that’s just me. But there’s a reason the first hot hatches were the death-knell for old sports cars – they can be an unbeatable combination of practicality and joie-de-vivre.

Consider the pitfalls, too. The Porsche could be uber-reliable (though more expensive on consumables), or could be ruinous. The Mazda will be utterly reliable, buy equally will rust (doesn’t matter if it’s just been restored with full cavity wax… it will rust). And don’t think the newer MXs are better for this. They’re not… they’re just a little more refined and less raw. But still rusty. NA and NB MX5s are also rattly, flexi old things compared with the Porsche (or hot hatches). If you’re used to old classics it’s part of the “charm”, otherwise it might get wearisome.

TL:DR
For me…
Porsche; beautiful balance, really practical, great engine, insufficiently engaging at sensible (boring?) speeds.
Mazda; Light, lithe, old school fun. Also utterly reliable but slow, rattly and rusty as ****.
Hot-hatch; Arguably the best option if you just want a giggle, and don’t care what car Nazis / driving gods think. Also most choice.
Also, the MR2 is an epic shout. Zero practicality and dull engine, but awesome car.

I would (and do) have the Mazda.

YMMV

Fiat Barchetta?