04 Mazdaspeed Miata?

04 Mazdaspeed Miata?

Since I crashed my Spec V and totalled it, I've been looking for another car. At first I was looking at a new one but thought I couldn't afford it due to, now, I would have higher insurance and still have to cover the negative equity from the remaining loan.

I was looking at the SRT-4s: FWD, turbo.... FAST but it's a FWD. Plus I've read mix-match opinions about people driving it fine and have tons of problems. Cobalt SS was my option too... but one of my co-worker, a very good friend of mine, told me stay away from those cheap high-performance American cars (he is Japanese and he is 'heavily' biased toward Honda) (He fix air planes, owns 8 cars, plus he is a sushi chef). I talked to him during work for 2 days he finally convienced me to get a good used one. He was try to get me to get a NSX so he can get one too... lol he sure is crazy. I can't afford insurance and the maintenence cost.

We finally come down to 2 choices, either a RX-7 or Miata. I had to forgo the RX-7 due to the same reasons as I'm not getting the NSX. I found quite a few nice Miatas. I test-drive one yesterday.... all I have is... "WOW, FUN CAR!!!" I was instantly in love with the car.

I stopped by local Mazda dealership last night to look at used ones they have at the lot. The salesperson told me on the new 04 Mazdaspeed Miatas they have $4,000-$5,000 rebates right now because they are try to get rid of it and get the new 05s. He said (I didn't ask) they are ranged between $19,000-$22,000. At first I didn't think too much of it because I want to get a used car.

After I got home I started thinking hey this is a good deal. 04 new with virtually no miles on them, and it's 05 already. USAA (insurance) already approved me a loan for 4.7% for 72 months and by taking the loan out with them it's possible that my insurance might be lower? (USAA are good about multiple discounts if you do more services with them)

So I'm actually getting the car with extremly low depreciation off the lot, 04 new car in 05. This is limited production so selling it off in future it's not a problem, and I'm betting it's not going to depreciate THAT fast. So what do you guys think? I'm going to go to dealership in a hour or two to talk to them about it. Going to try to get another $500 off or have them order me a hardcop at dealer price and going to try to get them to throw in free carpet mats as well.


[edit] my negative equity issue has already being taking care of all I'm dealing with is the possibility of higher insurance.

if you think its a good idea, go for it.. i for one have seen nothing but problems arise from the mazdaspeed protege, and i'd imagine mazdaspeed is still making mistakes in the Miatas as well..

but yeah, it's your call. if i were you, i'd hunt down a used MR2..

mr2 owns... i really want one

didnt mazdaspeed just slap on a turbo to an otherwise stock protege. well that explains the problems. I think mazdaspeed actually upgraded the internals for the turbo and the block is made out of iron, but don't hold me to that. and its got a nice 6spd.