Are Miatas reliable? How are they as daily drivers if I have no friends or family?

Reliable and easy to work on. Everything will rattle. Don't get one if you're too tall and you live in an area with bumpy roads.
Check it very well for rust.

The Miata isn't any more fun than any other light weight low power car. It's just insanely impractical too. Most people seem to ignore that the miata is a convertible and will never not feel like one in the end

Its true though. Youre clearly butt hurt about something that has zero effect on your life. That screams insecurity

And i dont own a miata

what?

there aren't many other options for light weight cars at that price

He's saying you're just spouting opinionated crap with no content whatsoever.
>Hurr hurr what people think of miata drivers.
It has nothing to do with OP's post.

Except it does? It's just an opinion calm down.

>opinion
More like projection of insecurities

uh ok

I am so glad i dont live in America. Miat doesnt fit that car culture at all.

In the real world it's only brotruck drivers and retarded kids in Civics who even have an opinion of Miata drivers, both of which are some of the most insecure, obnoxious shitheads on the planet.

OP, nobody cares in real life and they're great, reliable cars. The only people who would give you shit are the autists online like in this thread who's only contribution to this board is outright lying about and shitting on good cars to make themselves feel better about their bus pass/shitbox civic and to fit into le epic Veeky Forums kulture.

Also Miata owners are some of the nicest people you'll ever talk to, go check out a meet to see what they're actually like (insert original gay joke) instead of listening to some retarded shitposter making things up on the spot for attention

I just picked an nb up, so far so good but I'm a little concerned about some rust on the bottom, going to see if I can get this repaired.

Should I look for a general rust repair service or seek out a mazda specialist?

It's not even awful but I'd like to get ALL rust repaired so I can take care of it.

Just ask for quotes around body shops

Oh also OP, get a NB. They're a direct upgrade from NAs for a negligible amount of money

I've daily driven various miatas for about 3 years now. I don't regret it at all but I wish I had a second car for long distance trips. The gearing is pretty short and it has a fair amount of road noise even with the hardtop on. Also mine doesnt have cruise control or AC so that can be annoying at times.

Eventually it'll be my weekend car but even as a daily it's not bad. It's really fun to drive even during my commute. 28 mpg is nice. The trunk is big enough once the spare is removed and the shelf behind the seats is useful.

Depends on where you live in America. Miatas are pretty popular where I live (PNW). People only lightly tease about it occasionally and I'm not autistic so I just go along with it and laugh it off.

This is so wrong.

It's really not. Not in my area at least.

Roof down is the best AC

can someone help me?
can I fit a computer tower, monitor, keyboard, and some clothing luggage in a miata ? (NA or NB)
looking for a fun first car but I'm also driving to college

also 28mpg? which model and engine?

Why would anyone fault you for driving a miata?

They're cheap and cheerful.

If anyone is a joke it's the thousands of people buying entry level BMW / Mercedes / Audi on finance/lease to pretend they're hot shit

Those are the type of people who take themselves too seriously.

Commercial says yes

youtube.com/watch?v=t5UjmHOl4pU

true true

I have a 1997 base with the 1.8 liter. I used to have a 1994 C package with the 1.8 and it got like 26-27.

Bought an NA in bretty good condition. Am now dailying it. I enjoy my hour long commute every day. Fun driving experience.

The only thing is that I'm afraid of a deer jumping out in front of me and killing me and the car. Everything else is great.

nevermind I missed the smallprint!

miats best truck

...

...

I don't like the Miata because everyone has one. I'd rather a Civic to be honest.

its a good car

its just small so plan accordingly

hahaha

What?

The miata just seems like a boring choice to me

Why are NBs better than NA?

mini-S2000

But NA has pop ups and no power steering

wait NA has no power steering?
Why did I never know this

Only if you're a furry faggot according to this board.

Better power, handling, build quality, driver feel, interior, looks etc.

99% of NAs have power steering. Only early base models didnt have it

Tbh I'm partial to the early 90s Japanese interiors. I like the pre-airbag cars with the thin steering wheels and the plastic. Idk.

Yes and yes. Not so good in snow, but they're also so cheap to insure that you could just get an old jeep to eat up all the road salt since those are just as cheap

And the R models.

They're quite reliable and hold up well for daily use. My 95 has been my daily for almost three years and it's never let me down.

Besides internet tough guys, I've never heard gay comments. Older women think it's adorable and young kids think it's a zoom zoomy race car. Everyone else kind of ignores it.

Again, it's not about gay. But most people find miata drivers obnoxious

>most people

user speaks for "most people"

okay

I did a poll user. Most people see it as a mid life crisis car, with car people seeing it as a car for obnoxious teens
>Cars I'd rather have
>Integra came first
>followed by Civic
>with RSX in the rear

I really love that Miata owners get so fucking pissed, more than anyone else, when someone says anything even vaguely bad about it.
youtube.com/watch?v=kA89RWCnE1c

>I did a poll user
Let me guess you posted a strawpoll on Veeky Forums and claim that it's a representation of "most people"

You're silly lad

No I did it in my city.
>if miatas are so good why does it only have such a fandom in america
>why do people in japan prefer FWD "shitboxes" to Miatas when they want a nimble fast car?

it has a fandom here too. we brits like our droptops even though the weather is usually shit

I've DDed a '96 Miata for almost three years. Incredibly reliably cars, easy to work on if it ever needs maintenance. Only major Miata problems (other than the 1990 short nose cranks) are airbag modules and rust.

Biggest downsides for me are interior space, noise at highway speeds, and driving with the soft top up is like being in a duffel bag. It's a car for you to enjoy DRIVING THE CAR. If you want to relax and enjoy the trip, it'll get on your nerves after a while on the highway or on rainy days. I'm gonna replace it with something a little bigger with a hardtop soon.

Also, real life experiences with the public in a nicer area of the northeast:

-Most people love seeing Miatas and asking about it
-You'll get a lot of "nice car" comments, especially from kids
-Young women think they're cute but don't like riding in it. They think it's cool until they go a mile or two
-Older women like riding in them. I guess they've gotten tired of spending decades in boring cars
-Most Miata owners are middle aged and have them as their 3rd cars
-Most people who really DD them are either middle aged women or guys in their 20s
-The young drivers I've met were super chill and not boy racer types
-You'll talk to a lot of really old people who used to own Miatas
-Never heard any gay comments in real life, just online

I think it's a great owner's community. You don't have to deal with the ricer crowd with teenagers coming up to you asking when you're gonna slam it and put on a fart can. I'd compare it to Corvette owners vs Camaro owners.

I wish i could be a miata guy, its lightweight and seems fun
But I don't like convertibles, and when I look at a Miata I feel nothing. Some cars I look at and my heart races and I feel it in my arms . With a Miata I just don't feel that same excitement like I do for EF Civics and first generation Preludes. So while I respect the good miata owners I'll never be one of those guys. A shame.

Most people I know see it as a midlife crisis car or a car for girls. Like an SN95, but it can turn.

Actually the worst are the Honda owners. Miata's don't fucking rev at me or do stupid shit. Miata people know their limits and just like to cruise. Fucking honda people on the other hand are cancerous fucks composed of Mexicans and white trash.

Miata owners are 10x worse. They do all that shit while driving the ugliest shit piles I have ever seen
Miata owners have this intersection of bro frat dude culture and dumbass ricer culture

Just because you have a bias doesn't make that part of miatas disappear

Hondas are stupid fucks who drive FWD. Atleast miata's are RWD. I've seen more riced out shit come out of Honda people put together. They are literally the cancer of car culture.
>Paco says, "Hurr durrr bro check out my slammed Honda Civic with functional negative camber and with a fart can exhaust."
>White trash replies, "Dude that's hella flush fucking muscle cars and miata's don't got shit on our FWD drift missiles."

>Miata owners have this intersection of bro frat dude culture and dumbass ricer culture

You're describing VW owners, not miata owners.

Jesus christ people, calm the fuck down. Miatas are fine as daily drivers if you can deal with the lack of space and noise. They are reliable and easy to work on. No one can deny that. Im not saying its gods gift to earth, far from it in fact, but it is awesome for the price. There are douchebag miata owners just like every other car communties out there. I dont understand why everyone is so butt hurt about the community. Its literally the same as any other highly modifiable cheap sports cars community. Thats what happens when douchebag teenagers can afford the car, making all the awesome people in it overshadowed by the douchebags.

Just ask anyone who is seriously into hondas. Teenagers with shit for brains make alot of people look at civics as a joke, even though that is FAR from the truth. Same with the miata community.

Some Honda people are complete jokes, but real Honda folks who build for speed and function are legit. Like if you have a civic with 500hp clean paint job clean rims. It's respect, but most Honda fucks are straight Ricers.

They're amazing daily drivers if you're not needing to carry around a family or a fuckton of equipment.
To put it into perspective:
Me and my buddy were electricians, and we'd carpool to work so we'd save gas(Buddy owned a V8 Firebird lmao). We were able to fit my toolbag, two of his large toolbags, and both of our hard hats and safety vests in the trunk of the Miata.
On top of that, it really isn't that cramped up front, even with 2 people in the car. I mean it's not as spacious as my Ford Escape, but as long as you're not overweight or over 5 10-ish you'll be comfy.
If you're really concerned about storage space, you can leave the top up and you'll have an entire shelf behind you, and/or you can take out the spare(Or relocate it) and you'll have almost double the trunk space.

As far as the actual driving goes, it's fucking awesome. On the weekends I go out and just drive around, and I can do that without blowing the bank since my Miata gets 25mpg city. A huge part about owning a sports car for me was being able to drive it around as much as I wanted, and I couldn't do that with a Corvette or similar 2 seater thanks to gas or repair costs(RIP my dream BMW Z4).

But that's just my opinion on Miatas. You're gonna have to decide for yourself if it's the right car for you, but don't listen to these biased honda shillers or the trolls just trying to piss Miata owners off. Go test drive one and see if you like it. If you buy a Miata and other people's opinions matter a lot to you, you're gonna be really disappointed unless you like having your car called a bitch car by non-car-enthusiasts. For me, the only people's opinions I cared about were my friends, and the people at the local car meets.
tl;dr if you don't care what 'muh hondaz' or 'muh v8' guys think, and you're not trying to be the fastest guy on the highway, you'll probably enjoy your purchase(Assuming you get a decent Miata)

Also it should be mentioned that the aftermarket for the Miata is fucking amazing. The only one that probably surpasses it is the Mustang aftermarket, but even a custom Mustang doesn't grab attention or look as unique as a custom Miata imo, just because you see Mustangs(Yes, even custom ones) everywhere. But that's relative to where I live. In some towns there may be more Miatas, but I've driven all around my state and from firsthand experience I can say that Mustangs are everywhere.
Honda's aftermarket could also be mentioned as a competitor to the Miata's, but lmao FWD

Honda Civic's* Is what I meant to say.

lol whattup hows that miat treating you? i saw you bought it almost a month ago on r/miata

>pig fat gross looking car fed with a truck v8 engine going only straight for some scedons
>car culture

I've had my miata for 3 years, bought it from some old guy who bought it new in '96 and only used it to drive him and his wife to the beach in the summer time; had like 60k miles on it when I got it in '12. It's been a blessing, the only maintenance I've done to it is the timing belt and water pump, and a new pair of spark plug wires (the stock ones are notorious for crossfire or whatevere). The impracticality is as bad as any 2 seater, the trunk is pretty spacious despite what you'll hear, plus if you have the top up, you have the rear parcel shelf that you can cram stuff on to. It's more than enough room for a week long vacation packing wise with your significant other.

I don't know what these guys are talking about with the image thing though; The car group I'm in which consists of 2 10th gen evos, a wrx sti, another scca race prepped miata, a big diesel f250, one stingray corvette and a '69 mustang all love it to death, and are genuinly intrigued by the cost vs. performance of it. I never get shitty looks from other people, and I've gotten more compliments from people in it than any other vehicle I've ever owned. All I've done to it was drop it on some konis and went to 16 in wheels. I think the whole gay stipulation is widely blown out of proportion online, 'cause everyone I mention it to IRL are all taken aback that anyone would be that shallow anyway.

Fucking amazing car, but I'm having some insane bad luck.
>Flashing check engine light less than a week after I got it
>Blew brake cleaner through the EGR Valve and it fixed it
>Flashing check engine light comes back a little while later
>Go in and buy new spark plugs like a friend suggested
>Flashing check engine light goes away the moment I start the car, before I even did shit to fix it
The most recent issue was the worst though
>Vibrations really bad over 60 mph
>Assume it's 65mph shimmy
>Replace 3 tires. 2 were bald and 1 had a bad knot
>total cost $150+
>only getting worst lmao
>take it to my mechanic driving 30mph and the car still shakes uncontrollably
>THE DRIVESHAFT WAS MISSING TWO FUCKING BOLTS
My mechanic Lucky said I was lucky(No pun intended)to have made it to his shop without my drive shaft falling out

It's been treating me well now that I've stuck a couple more bolts in there though, but I still have a lot of work to do before I'm satisfied.
Actually while I'm here, does anyone know if it'd be better to repaint my car and fix the body damage for 3k, or if I could get away with buying a parts miata and swap all the external body pieces from the parts miata to my current one? I've got a lead on a NB with nice paint and body, but I think it may be broken down since I've never seen it move.

When I got my miata some decent wheels and a hardtop at the time, it changed the look of the car entirely, it went from cute to a somewhat aggressive looking generic 90s shitbox. Of course, once the pop up headlights went up, that went out the window.

I've owned a NA6 Miata for about 4 years. Is it fun? Fuck yeah. Is it cheap to buy and maintain? Fuck yeah. Is it fast? Fuck no, especially the 1.6L engine. It's basically a street legal go-kart. You will continuously lose drag races against angry moms in Minivans, but it corners like a slot car and you can run it at WOT to Redline from every stoplight and never have to worry about it blowing up. Basic suspension mods and a good set of tires will do wonders. Is the scene full of assholes? Yeah probably, but every scene is full of assholes. They're relatively easy to work on and make for a fun DD. Try and find one with a Hardtop though. Steal one if you have to. A Hardtop makes the car %100 better: way less road noise, you can see out the back and you can drive it through a goddamn car wash. Test drive one and if you like it, go for it! Just don't expect that it will have any real straight line performance. Even a turbo isn't much help there.
My 1.6 NA was actually pretty good in the snow with actual snow tires.

>Are Miatas reliable?
Generally. NAs like any other car, are becoming less reliable with age. Later NBs should still be breddy gud - earlier NBs being an in-between of course. NCs IDK shit about but I would assume so.

>Had my NA for four years
>Only put 16,000 miles on it so far
>Didn't have a single problem with it until four months ago
>Flasher relay module shit itself so my turn signals weren't functioning - $20 part online, free if you can loot one from a junk yard
>My driver side front turn signal bulb burned out once four months in a row but I think it's due to my aftermarket turn signal lense
>Next month, battery starts failing (but I knew it was going to happen) and I end up having to push-start it a few times - only drove the car once or twice a month before because I was NEET and couldn't drive as much as I wanted to
>Month after replacing the battery (NAPA Legend, $80), transmission would start getting locked in first or reverse sometimes
>Car would keep putting power to the wheels even with clutch pedal all the way down and then stall - wouldn't be able to start up because locked in gear
>Quickly learned it's the clutch slave cylinder going bad
>Learned that to get it to unlock, I'd just press the clutch pedal down again and roll the car either direction (hope this helps one of you fagets if it happens to you in traffic)
>Friendo gives me his used slave cylinder for free because I wanted to be a cheap bastard about it and asked if he had a spare I could borrow
>Swap it in
>Clutch pedal drops to the floor and won't come back up when I try to downshift two weeks later as I'm going down a mountain at 60 MPH
>Welp
>Replace with brand new clutch slave and master cylinders - was like $70 IIRC from NAPA - wanted to buy off RockAuto and save like $30 but couldn't afford to wait for them to restock with the brands I wanted

>Change engine oil two months ago
>Within those two months, I seem to have lost all four quarts of oil
>Might've fucked the engine because it started smoking when I got to the top of the mountain - I immediately shut shit down when I noticed it and let things cool down - temperature gauge is supposed to be legit but it didn't show that it was overheating - engine bay temp didn't feel any different than normal as well so IDK
>Get underneath
>Seems to be coming from around the crank pulley
>Might be coming from the rear main seal as well as there's some oil between the back of the oil pan and bottom of the front end of the transmission - don't see oil anywhere else
Going to do the timing belt and water pump today while I replace the crank seal. Hope the rear main seal doesn't need replaced because I don't have the part for it right now. Need to replace the valve cover gasket since there's oil getting to my spark plugs as well. Ever since I bought it, the paint has kinda been going to shit and it's developed some rust here and there. Also my passenger side mirror rattles like complete fucking shit - the screws are as tight as can be. I've read that it still loose because there's some rubber padding or something under the mirror that most likely disintegrated now - so I'll have to get that. I also need to rebuild the shifter and replace the shocks still. So yeah, I would advise to stay away from NAs if you need something reliable. There are reliable NAs out there provided the previous owner has kept up with the maintenance, but it's apparent that most people don't.
>How are they as daily drivers
They're fine unless you're a little bitch about wind noise and ride comfort - lower to the ground so you feel more shit, more so if you're in one that needs suspension work. Oh, and I guess if you live somewhere that snows then you'll want to spend another $1k on a hardtop. I can fit $250-$300 worth of groceries in my NA, you just gotta be more resourceful with space.

My NA is a '94 (1.8L) - most of my driving is through town and I get about 25 MPG in it. I used to have a '93 (1.6L) and it would get 30 MPG - it needed a shit ton of work. They're not as good on gas as they should be IMO but it's decent enough. '90-'93 model years tend to be the most neglected. Most people find them uncomfortable to drive after a few hours - I regularly drive mine about five hours a day without issue. I wouldn't recommend getting one if you're over 6'3" but I know a couple of people who DD them who are both 6'4" - of course they did a little modification to make things less cramped for them. My fatass bro is literally 350 lbs and DDs a Mazdaspeed Miata. So if you're a hamplanet, you can make it work, too. If you get a Miata you'll either learn there's a lot of shit you don't need in a car, or you'll hate it because you want "muh luxuries". Speaking of which, the air conditioning in the NAs isn't that great - mine just barely does the job and I live in a humid hell-hole. If you enjoy listening to music while driving, get an NB or later - they're much quieter as they have a ton of sound deadening. Don't fucking put that shit in an NA. It's fairly common for powered windows in NAs to be slow as fuck - either the window rails need relubed or you'll have to mess with the regulators. Door locks can seize up as well. So basically if you get an NA or early NB, have an extra grand or two ready because you'll most likely need to replace at least a couple of things.

>this 2bh
>in hs guy with straightpiped 80s civic
>stock except s2 clutch and pipe
>wants to race turbo subi outback 2.5
>it's not a fucking race car
>raced him atleast 10 times before he finally fucked off and stopped trying to race
>he literally never won a single race but wanted to race me every single day
>last day of school
>parked next to me, I rev at him
>him: "let's fucking do this"
>his girlfriend runs and asks him for a ride
>all of the sudden he changes his mind
the dude is notorious for being a cocky retard and wanting to race every single person, but has never won a race from what I've heard. This basically sums up every single civic owner

Is an auto miata that bad? Getting my wife one and she can't drive stick. Have a boosted 540 so I'm not too concerned with a speed demon miata...

...

They are reliable if you maintain them right.
Great daily, assuming you don't have a lot of people or shit.

The main appeal of the Miata is being a feelsy driver's car which having an automatic nullifies. If she's just being a dumbass and buying it because it's "cute" then get something else

b8

don't feel bad, i bought my NB back in april and had to replace both ball joints, both wheel bearings, and both rear brake pads and rotors. wasn't fun.

recently got rear ended and I'm now just waiting to find a black nb part out so i can grab the bumper off it lol