At $4,500, Is This 1992 Mazda Miata A Dirt Cheap Deal?

Today’s Nice Price or No Dice NA Miata is claimed to be all original, right down to its dull as dishwater paint. Let’s decide if it’s priced accordingly.

In today’s modern world, where many people travel around with at least one electronic device, it’s always important to have a charger at hand to keep those devices functioning. That same advice can’t be made for the 2008 Dodge Charger R/T we looked at yesterday. While Hemi-powered and even more rowdy owing to the addition of a Pro Charger centrifugal blower, it failed to blow up the skirts of enough of you. Add a $15,900 asking price to that mundane reaction, and the Charger was doomed to a 72 percent No Dice loss.

Have you ever attended a high school reunion and discovered that some of your former classmates haven’t aged all that well? That shock can either bring chagrin or a healthy dose of self-satisfaction.

We’ll have to decide what sort of emotional response is demanded by today’s 1992 Mazda MX5 Miata. Naturally, each of us loves the Miata, as the model is the answer to almost every automotive conundrum. And, more so, this one is an original NA model with the pop-up headlamps that we like all the more. However, as presented in its ad, this Miata obviously hasn’t led the easiest of lives since graduation.

According to that ad, the car is “all original” and wears a top that’s in “very good condition.” Such a claim of originality is a bit mendacious, though, as the car wears both aftermarket alloys and a non-factory stereo. And while the paint may be the car’s first set of clothes, some of it has been shed over the years.

The car’s bones do seem solid, though. And, aside from some wrinkles in the front bumper, cracks in one turn signal lens, and an overall scruffy appearance, this car seems ready for summer fun. It’s even passed its smog test, so it can provide that fun legally.

The worst parts of the car are the drab and lifeless paint, that beat-up nose, and an interior that could use a new set of carpets and a seamstress for the seats. The climate controls in the center stack also look like they’ve seen even harder times, and there’s a weird mini clipboard/cup holder thing in place of the ashtray.