Voodoo Pearl Magnum

The Genesis of the Mezger-Miata Relationship

So in the spring of 2003, about a year after graduating college,
my '93 Ford Probe GT was starting to near its end, with it's paint
beginning to sunburn (who am I kidding it WAS sun burnt), and
the fact that I was replacing distributors with unsettling regularity, I decided I needed a new car. The '94 T-Bird SC my father gave me mearly held me over.

What I REALLY needed was a NEW car. Considering I had just
started a new job I now had the means.

So I compiled a list of requirements for a car that I would like
in order of priority:

1 - Affordable, around the $20k range new (or 2 yrs old)
2 - Rear wheel drive
3 - Rear independent suspension
4 - Lightweight
5 - 2 Door

After weighing these options my list became pretty small. I
basically had to choose from a Miata, used S2000 or a MR-2 Spyder. I threw out the Spyder, because while I did want to be mostly impractical, this car did have to be my daily driver, and be able to travel on the occasional road trip from Houston to Austin, Dallas, or even Lubbock, and the MR-2s lack of almost any luggage space tossed it. Plus I liked the F-R look of the Miata and S2k. So I concentrated on those two (for fun I test drove a Mini Cooper S, and after the Miata it's shift linkage was kinda rubbery and it felt like I was sitting ON the car, not in it. Plus it was FWD).

First I test drove a Miata Shinsen, then a 6-spd LS, back to back.
I liked them both, but the 6-spd was pretty interesting, but the main benefit of the 6-spd was that it automatically came with the LSD as did the Shinsen. Both test drives combined probably lasted about a half an hour, and I REALLY enjoyed both examples of Miatas. I loved the look of the '01+ Miate, plus the new for '03 cloth top really looked sharp.

Then I went off to test drive a '01 S2k it did feel a lot more solid, and the seats were nice, plus I felt the overall power delivery of the S2k was a lot better than most people said it would be. Even though you do have to rev the crap out of it, doing so is easy. It was a pretty neat car and I did like a lot of things about it, and it became very clear that I had a tough decision on my hands.

The decision was ultimately made in the treatment and the deal I was given on my Miata. The Honda guys constantly jerked me around, called me in to look at '01s and then showed me '02s at significantly higher prices. And basically wanted to sell me the car they wanted to sell, not the car I wanted to buy. I went to a bunch of Honda dealers around town and got the same treatment. I almost exclusively went to Honda dealers because I wanted a "Certified" car. But I came to loose confidence in this rating, as one "Certified" '01 S2k had clearly been in an accident, and not been repainted very well, with a dull finish, and over spray on the black trim, with some rippling on the sheet metal.

The Mazda dealers on the other hand were a good bit nicer. I did some internet research and found a dealer in my area offering '03s for 3% over invoice, with the manufacturer rebates taken off of that. After several emails back and forth I finally went in to Jeff Haas Mazda and talked to Ted "Dundee" Griffin. This guy was a character, apparently the nickname posted on his card referred to the fact that he bore a resemblance to Paul Hogan of Crocodile Dundee fame. Anyway... after going in we talked a bit and negotiated back and forth (I originally came in to look at a Black '02 LS, 5-spd, but it had the body kit and no LSD, plus I did want the Blue, and the cloth soft top), but I only had a limited amount of time before I had to be at my then-new girlfriends place for our second date. So he just drew up the "extended test drive" paperwork and lent me the '03 Midnight Blue LS 6-spd Miata for the weekend. at the time immediately before I took it, it had 6 miles on the ODO, and we had just taken it for a couple mile test drive.

After the weekend I brought it back but found out they werent going to give me much in trade for my 2 cars, the '93 PGT, or the '94 T-Bird SC, (they offered around $2500) so I sadly left the Miata behind at the dealer and drove the decade old cars home. Througout the following week I worked my ass off to sell the pair of cars for enough money to help put me into a Miata, on the following saturday morning I ended up selling the pair of cars for $4k cash money to a local used car lot, drove down that May evening and closed the deal on the same Midnight Blue '03 Miata LS 6-Spd for invoice minus $2500 in rebates.

Big props go to the people who helped it happen, my old man Tom for Co-Signing for my first new car.

My roomates Bill Moore (newly prowd Mazda convert, he traded his '03 G35 Coupe in for a '04 Mazda RX-8) and Eric Thompson (another fan of lightweight Japanese sports cars, he owns a '73 Datsun 240Z). Both of theese guys tolerated my constant chatter and flip flopping between the S2k and Miata, and they helped out by driving me to test drive cars and helping me drive my pair of cars all over town to get them sold or appraised for trade in.