Okay, so my story begins with searching for a car. I began searching for my first car in late 2012 due to me getting my P's soon down the track but needing to learn manual properly with a more sedan style car rather than my father's really forgiving 60 series Land Cruiser. I had a budget of about $7'000 (Parents budget really), so I went away to the vast open world of carsales and started searching through the list of cars only setting a max price of $8'000 and max Km's of 200'000 (looking for a car with around 150'000 or less). I came across a range of options such as the typical Holden Astra, Mazda 323, Astina, Excel and so on. But being a fan of more sleak and sportier cars I wanted something different. I then came across Hyundai Coupe's, in fact our neighbour has one with only 20'000km's on it as he bought it from the show room floor and then lets it be a garage queen only being taken out now and then for a short drive to the front of the suburb to grab a pie from the pie shop. However they wanted $12'000 for it and that was well above our budget and mother wanted me to get a more practical car for my first car. So the search continued, I then came across a Mazda 6 that was for sale on display just up the road. We had a look at it, had some paint blemishes and a fair few km's but was only asking for $4000. In the end we chose not to take that one but continued looking at Mazda 6's and 3's couldn't find any 3's in our price range but found a 6 for $6000 that had a fair amount of goodies on it and looked well looked after. We tried contacting the owner but could only leave a message, mother also organised for us to go look at a 03 Lancer CG the next morning, we went there and had a look, car checked out nicely, service records, only 120'000kms on it, well looked after, with a advertised price of $6'000.
The decision was made that day in the car that yes indeed we would buy this car and talked the guy down only to $5'700 but still was a good price for the car.
Here she is my first car an 03 Mitsubishi Lancer CG 2.0L
This car served me well and it was an excellent first car, never had any issues with it (except ones caused by me).
Yes Lancer's aren't seen highly in the car community but they go alright for what they are.
Okay now to the interesting part, one outcast winter's day me and the local Lancer Forum members went for a cruise down to Natural Bridge/Mt Tambo.
Here I learnt I big lesson. The cruise started off well, we got to Mt Tambo fine, drove to Natural Bridge and took some photo's. Me being a ex Photography and Digital Media student I did my best to take some nice pictures here is the outcome of that.
So the decision was made to head to the Dam nearby and so we set off. During the travel to the Dam it began to spit lightly so we slowed down just a bit to account for the now greasy roads. Just 2 corners away from the turn to the Dam I had a life experience. I was traveling at about 70-80 along the 80km set road winding through the lower area beside the mountain, when we came up to a corner the car I was following had to brake due to a subaru liberty that decided it was a great place to hit the brakes and drop 10km's on a straight just after the semi-blind corner due to the angle and tree cover, this caused me to come around the corner at about 60-70 at this point (understandably a bit to fast for the conditions) and I just touched the brakes to account for the the lower speed the car in front of me was travelling sadly, there was a slight bump/rise in the road and my rear tyres lost traction due to braking while not fully planted on the road surface. Being a FWD car it was a very bad sign, before I knew it I was completely sideways with my rear in the oncoming lane and me in line with the centre white line, I tried to bring the car straight again but over corrected and the car grabbed the road and swung straight around to put me sideways yet again but the other way around in less than a second, I then tried to correct again but sadly, over corrected again which lead to the sliding off the road at about 40-50 head on into the dirt wall of the mountain. I hit the dirt wall at enough speed and force it lifted the whole car up into the air and flung it 90 degrees around to land perfectly parallel to the mountain wall. I had a crushing thought in my head to think how bad the car was going to be, and how badly my parents are going to kick my butt around the street when they find out. I lean across and fling open the passenger side door due to not being able to open the drivers door as it was right next to the mountain wall, and jumped out of the car similar to how they bail from the car in Fast and Furious and scream "NOS!!" I then pop around to asses the damage while still shaking like a cold rat.
This is what I see:
The damage wasn't actually too bad, much to my surprise. I was extremely lucky to only get off with just a broken front bumper... after getting the car checked later on my alignment is still fine (somehow) and everything else is straight... sept for the bonnet which is slightly morphed up a little bit and doesn't sit perfectly flush.
This is the crash scene:
I now still to this day am very wary of corners, wet roads and cautious when driving my Lancer. It was rather lucky that at the time there was no oncoming traffic as otherwise this could have been quite alot worse and I am lucky the mountain dirt was wet enough to absorb most of the impact and act like a big cushion. This incident is one of the main reasons why I wish to do a bunch of driver training courses to better my driving skills to help me avoid and get out of situations like this.
Okay so now onto my MX as that has been enough talk about my Lancer for now.
I began looking for a new more fun car that I could work on more easily and freely and learn new things on both in driving and mechanically. I always had a thing for small 2 seater coupe's and didn't mind the idea of roadsters either. I began looking to see a price that I could work towards and save up for while I was waiting to get off my P plates. I spotted the Honda S2000 and really liked the styling and form of it. I saw the 15-20k price tag and began planning to save up. Later in the year I over heard my parents discussing how they were going to afford to buy my younger sister a car due to her getting on her p's soon. Not to go into to much detail but my family has always had financial issues big and small and I've had to sit through and grow up with my parents discussing just how they are going to afford certain things to help raise us kids. I thought instead of them having to put themselves into even more financial trouble I would simply get out a loan of a small size and get a cheaper car that I could still enjoy for many years afterwards. That is where my MX5 story begins!
So I came across Marty from Might Car Mods working on his recently purchased MX5 NA and really liked the small size and styling of the car, I watched all the videos I could of the car, did some research and discovered the car was actually really good and has very little bad things to its name (unlike most sports cars). I looked up the pricing of them on carsales and saw they were only about 4-10k for a NA version and I decided to go check out one and see how they are. I went and checked out a 7k mariner blue NA6 that had been excellently looked after and was a grey import version so came with some of the nice goodies offered on them. I loved it! I decided that this was going to be what I would get. I began the long and tiresome research of all the ups and downs of getting out a loan to buy a car at my age and just in general. I decided the ups was worth the downs and began pricing to see if I could afford to pay of a loan properly and quickly. I discovered I could. So a few weeks passed as I decided my final verdict and looked to see if there was any good MX5's for sale.
I eventually got out a 7k loan for 7 years (I plan to pay it off in 2-3) with only a 170 fee for early pay off.
I was literally from half a day away from buying a mx5 for 4'500 but strangely the owner was not agreeing to some very important conditions I wanted in order for me to purchase the car, even after much negotiation to try and work something out he still wouldn't budge and so I decided to walk away from it which he responded to with threats... Goes to show you can't trust anyone.
I originally had looked at Mark's (Magpie) son's old MX5 NA6 that he was willing to sell to me for $3'000 which was an excellent price for the car. I went back to Mark and we arranged the purchase of the vehicle after about 2 weeks of arrangements and sorting out stuff ready for the sale I purchased the car.
Here it is!
For 3k I was super happy! Gave me enough money left over to pay off full comp insurance in full, and purchase a few items straight up.
After having a look at why everyone should buy a roll bar, I decided a roll bar was to happen soon after I purchase the car. I have done just that, I picked up the MX5 Plus Single Hoop TB Roll bar the other day and now to just install it. I also wanted to go for a classic/retro look on the interior so I purchased a Nardi Deep Corn wheel. I also have some money put aside to purchase a hard top as soon as I can (as I work night shifts in a dodgy area and want the added security), which I believe I am getting one this/next weekend if everything goes well between me and Shane here on the forum.
So this is the beginning of my NA here on this forum, with hopefully some great experiences to come!
Shall try my best to keep this up to date as well and stay active on the forums and eventually come out to a meet or two sometime soon.
Thanks for reading my SUPER long beginning post to this thread!
David.
