Faults:

Alternator belt.

Battery terminals.

Rear wheel bearing.

2nd gear hard to engage and baulky, especially when cold.

Blocked drainage channels.

General Comments:

It is a very delicate car to drive, mine does not have power steering or ABS, and the deftness of touch with minor steering movements is quite amazing. The gearbox isn't as good as the K11 Micra, which is awesome, but it is nice and quite a positive shift.

The engine puts out 115 bhp, not much; the car is light, but still not very fast. It really needs revving very hard to get it moving, so I see why the 1.8i is the preferred choice. This JDM version has a questionable final drive, and motorway trips are often at a screaming 5000+ rpm. For enjoyable motoring it's often nice to cruise at 60mph. The stereo loses all bass when driving due to noise.

Hood is very easy to use and relatively water tight; some water gets in, but not enough to cause any problems.

The worst thing is the fuel economy, best is 30mpg and hard driving gives 25mpg. This is a 1.6i NA engine and uses more fuel than my 2.0 Saab 9-3 turbo engine ever did.

Faults:

Handbrake stuck.

Radiator top hose.

Radiator thermosensor.

I think the wheel bearings are on the way out.

General Comments:

I own a few vehicles, including an very fast Efini RX7, and yet this car is one of my absolute faves. It's the special edition "S-Special", which has the BBS alloys, Bilstein shocks and a strut brace.

It's such a great all rounder as a sports car - handling that is so good I have seen off all manner of much faster cars in the corners. These cars are a joy to drive, and the mechanics so far have been great for a 17 year old car with 115K miles on the clock - and I'm hard on it.

Also, it's a nice car to maintain. Engine bay components are generally very accessible - I changed the hose and thermosensor myself and it was a doddle.

I did an oil and filter change on it too, and that was easy enough.

Parts are cheap too (I used SFT MX5). Fixing the sticking handbrake was easy and free, jacked up and put it on axle stands, take the wheels off and then spray some WD40 on the actuators. All in all then, I've spent about £40 on maintenance so far, including an oil change. I think it may need the wheel bearings doing soon though, and this is probably a job for a real mechanic.

These cars are quite tail happy in the wet, so watch out for that. These cars sound great - they really have a lovely engine note and they absolute adore being caned.

There is a superb American forum for these cars called miata.net - these guys know EVERYTHING about these cars, and are really friendly, so you'll never be short of a helping hand.

Faults:

The only fault I can report in 3 years of driving is a torn seat cover and this year the car failed the mot on a leaking brake caliper, which was fixed in an hour and then passed the MOT without other problems. Previous 2 years the car passed the MOT without problem.

General Comments:

Excellent little car for a lady to drive.

Goes well, good speed, cruises down the motorway quite happily on trips up to Cheshire from Surrey.

As far as handling goes, back end slides out a bit on slippery or icy roads. Bit disconcerting the first time it did it, but a change of tyres helped.

Removed strengthening bar to put in style bars, this has made a difference to the handling, feels less stiff and I can now throw it round corners better!

Obviously boot rather small, but once you learn to pack it carefully and adjust for the space - not a problem, unless you are off to the airport of course.