I needed an accessory for my Protege...

[MazKid]

...so I bought this:










1994, BP powered, 5 speed. Top is only 2 years old. 99,000 miles. Runs great, interior great, exterior great except rust spots on lower quarter panels(normal for a Miata and I'll get it fixed soon). Clutch is great.

So, how much would you think this would cost me? $6,500?


Try $2,900.

[sfd]

wow.

[maz94protege]

Great find dood, absolutly a beauty... Nice collection of mazdas too i might add....that an RX in the background too? Pretty sweet man

[Turpro]

sweet find.

[MazKid]

Yeah, the cars pictured are:
The blue one near the garage door is my dad's '86 RX-7.
The blue car next to my Miata is my brother's '96 Millenia.
The car that you can see through the windows of the '96 Millenia in the first pic is my brother's '95 Millenia(which he is selling soon).
The black car at the left in the first pic is my brother's '88 MX-6 GT.

Cars missing from the pictures are:
My mom's '92 MPV
My dad's '93 Probe GT

Cars that we own that aren't normally at our house:
'88 323(being fixed, or is fixed, it's at this body shop guy's house, and has been for nearly a year)
'87 626(my brother's first car which he has done some body work on, needs to paint, and then will sell, or rather will trade for a '86 B-2000 with 43,000 miles that has sat for 11 years in a shed, this will happen at the beginning of the year)
'95 Millenia(being parted out at a junkyard(not by the junkyard)


So yeah we have 11 Mazdas, 10 of which are functional.

My folks aren't as happy as I am about my Miata because it's another car, and we evidently don't have room for it. Boo hoo! As long as there's a place to put it I was bound to buy it.


The thing is, and this really isn't surprising, I love driving the Miata more than the Protege. It's smooth, relatively quiet(sounds awsome), handles awsomely, and runs strong. My Protege should be the same, but I have to admit that my mods have screwed that up, mainly the exhaust. The Protege is so loud. It's fun sometimes but it's not a good loud. I'm almost at the point of just giving in and buying the CorkSport catback for it. Amature welding and miss-matched parts is no way to put an exhaust system together.

As far as mods for the Miata...maybe intake, which would just consist of a cone filter on the AFM and not an airbox and snorkel. It might do something for power. The exhaust is ok(small leak at the converter) so it stays. No need to screw that up. I'd like to turbo it if I could make it reliable and stockish - like if I used GT-X turbo parts and no aftermarket. But I'm not really bored with the power. It's a blast to drive.

[protegeDX]

family loves some mazdas. thats dope

[EricM]

congrats - i know that you've been looking for one for a while now...and i really like that they both match (black 94s)

[MazKid]

Hah, yeah. I didn't want a black car, either of them, but the deals on both were un-pass-up-able.

Luckily I'm a car prep so I can clean them often and keep them looking good.

[Pastor_Protege]

Sweet Miata. I thought the 94's still had the 1.6L. Did you find it locally?

[ThatCarGuy]

awesome find... man, I love miatas...

[MazKid]

Nope, '90-'93 were 1.6s, '94+ are 1.8s.

The car actually found me. I was at work about 2 weeks ago, when I saw a lady test-driving a new Miata. Thought nothing of it, then went into the showroom(I often visit the showroom when nothing is going on just to see what's up) and outside was parked the black Miata. Looked clean as hell, so I found the sales woman who was dealing with the owner, who was the lady test-driving the NC Miata. My first plan(which I now realize could have got me fired) was to wait for the car to get appraised, then offer the lady a few hundred more, so I'd get a good deal, and she would be happy too. If I waited for the car to go through the system, I knew it would be retailed, and even if it was wholesaled I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

So the saleswoman told the lady I was interested in the car, but she said that she had another buyer for it but if it fell through then she would call me. Meanwhile, we dealer-traded an Outback XT to another dealership, and she bought it there for considerably less(slap in the face to my dealership huh). Well the guy that was supposed to buy her Miata decided not to, leaving her with a car she had no physical space for(she lives and works in Clayton(which is an office-high rise type of area and I assume she lives in a town-home or condo type place), which she ended up leaving parked at her office parking garage. She called the saleswoman last Wednesday to inform me about the car. I called back, and got a call on Thursday. Knowing it was a 1.8 worth more than I cared to spend, I didn't expect much. One of the first questions I asked on the phone was "How much are you looking to get out of the car?" and she said "Twenty-nine hundred". I said "Really?(higher pitch)" and she restated it, then I said "When can I see the car?" She said "Well I don't work on Sunday so we can meet up then".
Sunday rolls around(not fast enough, lol) and I gave her a call at about 10. I asked were I should meet her, and she asked for my address, then said she would be over at 11. Sure enough, she drove it to my house and I test drove it. (instant amazement at the condition it's in). Then I asked when I could buy it, and she said Monday. Well, I have school til noon, then work at 2. But I figured what the hell and she offered to take it to my dealership at 4 and I'd buy it there. She showed up at 4, we did the paperwork and I gave her the check, she gave me the 3 keys(1 oem). She then needed a ride back to her office, so I asked my boss then clocked out and drove her back in MY new Miata. She was sad to see it go but happy that it went to someone who would take care of it. As she was getting out of the car at her office, she said "oh, I guess I don't need this anymore" and handed me a metal first gen Miata figurine keychain. (ohh the symbolism!!) I said thanks and bye and drove back, this time giving it more throttle and higher RPM shifts, and it was great!

Don't know what else to say. It's the best $2,900 I've ever spent.

[Pastor_Protege]

I am jealous. Go to flyinmiata.com and see all the cool stuff you can do to that thing.

[95ProLeila]

yum

[Chad]

very nice find man... congrats... now start the supercharged protege project

[MazKid]

Installed an extra 626 CD-Radio in the car today...god what a pain. It wasn't bad to take the center console out, but the radio surround you gotta take the vents out then there's 2 screws. Dropped one and it flew back into the dash. Then I got the surround off, and unscrewed the aftermarket radio thingy. One of the screw clips was broken and it flew into the dash too, I couldn't find it. one of the mounts for the center part of the dash plastic is broken too, but you can't see it from the outside. Once the radio was out I noticed that they did the ground for the illumination, so I poped the terminal out of the aftermarket clip and then had to smash it to get it to fit at all in the OEM clip, but it works. Then I had to cut part of the aftermarket radio surround for the OEM radio...then cut the OEM radio face on the edge(like where the radio tools go) so that it would clear the center stack surround. Had to take off the OEM radio clips(which sucks because the screws are torqued to hell and the metal is weak so they strip pretty easily), then screw the radio into the aftermarket surround using small screws that I found in the basement. It all works though, and IMO it sounds better than the Sony Xplod whatever. Fits great now and looks a lot better.

Also tried putting on a Millenia leather parking brake boot but it's too small length wise. I'll try an RX-7 one next time I find one at the junkyard.

Next "mod" is putting an OEM horn to replace the high pitch clown car airhorn some retard put on.