I Sold My Unloved Project Miata in Under an Hour. I Couldn’t Be Happier

I realized that my car was thus best positioned as one of the last cheap entries into an original NA Miata. It had crappy paint and a rough body, but also had great mechanicals, including coilovers and a limited-slip diff. Thus, it made for the perfect base for someone who wanted a fun car to hoon that they didn’t have to feel guilty about “ruining” with modifications. Where versions with nice paint and less than 200,000 kilometers on the clock (about 124,000 miles) were trading for upwards of $13,000 (about $9,300 USD), I positioned mine at just $7,500, with an optional hardtop for a further $2,000 (that’s approximately $5,300 and $1,400 USD, respectively). 

I considered this a wise price point, given that I’d originally bought the car for $3,000 in 2016, paying an extra $1,100 to secure the hardtop roof from another seller. My friends quickly disabused me of this notion and told me to immediately relist at a higher price. I rushed to change the ad to $9,000 (about $6,400 USD) for the base car and waited.

Sold!

It didn’t take long to get a message, with an old contact of mine from the next state over quickly reaching out. A few words back and forth, and the car was sold, sight unseen. The interstate buyer is known in the Australian Miata community for flipping cars, as well as selling them for parts. His work made my car an ideal buy; valuable pieces like the Torsen differential and coilovers could be taken off and sold for good money. The car itself could then be reassembled with cheap stock parts and would probably still sell for around the same price he paid. A little body work could take that even higher.