Enthusiasts Start With A Mazda Miata and End With A Porsche 911

Bro, I haven't done a podcast in like a year.

You are listening to the analog and grit podcast.

I'm your host, Victor Troyer.

Who do we have today?

Who goes first?

Let's go around the table.

Counterclockwise.

All right, I guess I'll start with you then.

I need to trip right now.

Dylan here, returning again for another episode.

Justin, back again after yet another hiatus.

Christian here, been on leave for about a year.

Glad to be back.

Welcome back.

No, not like a medical leave, just like a friend that you

don't see that often.

Mental health leave.

It's pretty common when you get into your late 30s.

That's facts right there.

You have friends, and then you see them usually once every four

months is pretty good.

Just pick up where you left off.

Exactly.

So today's episode, we're going to talk about the Mazda

Miata.

Have you heard of her?

Is Miata always the answer?

We've talked about it in the past on this podcast,

because Christian owns one.

But now we got another guest that owns a Mazda Miata.

Tell us about it.

Yeah, I just picked it up.

I got a really good deal on it.

It's super clean.

It drives super good.

It has about 160,000 miles.

It has the, Jesus, can't think right now.

Need any help there?

I did need help.

Yeah, Christian probably knows more about my car than I do.

It's got some coilovers on it that ride pretty good.

Drives well.

Has a roll bar already.

This honestly doesn't really do anything

besides some paint work and a little bit of TLC.

And it's awesome.

No, those are great cars, man.

And honestly, even you said it has 165,000 miles.

Yeah, it runs like a top.

Yeah, those things will last forever.

I have one that I sold it with like 260,000

and still didn't even burn oil or anything.

Just keep doing all changes and keep driving it

and it'll last you forever.

That's kind of my thought.

Yeah, I feel like you always wanted a sports car.

Like you always wanted something to like go out

and go through the gears in, right?

You had the Buick, which is kind of like a floaty classic

that kind of bit you.

It was the first car that you've owned recently, right?

That was like vintage worthy, right?

You can bring to a car as in coffee

and people might actually geek out over it, right?

If they knew, you know, if they have an idea

of what it is, yeah.

My grandma had one of those.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Oh, it still smells like her.

But now you actually have a car that you can actually

go through the gears and have fun in and, you know, for,

I mean, it's the best bang for your buck sports car out there.

Well, and a convertible.

Like we live in San Diego.

Like I've always wanted a convertible

and just nothing's really popped up

that just got me like the right value for the right car.

And then this thing popped up and I'm like,

I couldn't pass it up.

It was, that was it.

Yeah, no, definitely.

I mean, for the price you got it for,

like the thing with the Miata, I feel like

it was the first car in Gran Turismo.

You know, like it's like your first car.

Like for, I'm using this as an analogy, right?

Because of the simple fact that like

when we grew up playing that game, it was the first car,

right?

Was it the first car?

I don't remember that.

Yeah.

I'm trying to think.

Or I think you need for speed.

It was one of them.

It was the first car you got.

Oh, wait.

One of the need for speeds I think was a Miata

is an optional, I think it was underground.

I think one of the options was a Miata.

You started with a Miata.

And then you had to work your way up.

You had to win races and then obviously collect money.

Yeah, that was need for speed.

Because Gran Turismo, I can't remember.

The first car was like a Nissan or something like that.

I want to say it was, yeah.

It's like a 240 or something.

It's like something funky.

Well, either way, it's your first like car

to kind of get you into the sports car roadster,

like, you know, class and it's affordable.

It's easy to work on.

It's reliable.

And like when, you know, Christian says

there's no like substitute for lightweight.

It's the perfect like specimen for going on a great drive,

like a spirited drive, right?

Because you don't have to worry about like, you know,

you point it in the right direction and it goes.

Yeah, as long as there's no hills.

Well, yeah.

What's the term they say?

It's not uphill.

Exactly.

No pike-speak here.

But like it's a slow car that you can drive fast.

Well, and it honestly doesn't feel slow.

Like every time you drive when you're doing 60,

like, holy fuck, it feels like we're doing 90.

And that's my favorite thing about the car.

Like you don't have to be on the like super far

on the legal side of the speed limit to be having fun.

It gives you the illusion that you're going way faster

than what you are.

Like on the way here.

And also you can just like leave it.

I don't know if you just have a six-speed or a five-speed.

Six.

OK, so mine's a five-speed.

So like on the freeway, I'm at like 70 to 4,000 RPM.

But it still has quite a bit of range left.

And so I like pinned it when I was doing like 70.

And you're doing like 90 or so.

And it feels like you're going so fast and you're tiny.

So everything around you feels massive.

That's exactly it.

It feels like a state of legal.

Yeah, it's because it's lightweight.

The RPMs are higher.

So it makes it gives you that illusion

that you're going faster than what you're going.

You have power.

Yeah.

And you're actually on the power.

Power band is like 4,500 on that car.

Yeah.

And then it red lines at 7,200.

And you can red line it all day long.

Like I drive it aggressively all day on those cars.

And I'm actually excited when you guys said that we

were going to do a podcast about Miata today.

So I'm actually curious now that you have a you've driven

all kinds of cars and I'm actually like curious about how

you feel about the car now, how you compare it to other cars.

Well, so to be fair, I've had a lot of experience with Miata's.

Well, I've never owned one.

I've had several buddies that have had several MBs, NA's,

ND's.

I've had a lot of experience with Miata's.

I've always found them be a pretty incredible car.

The problem with the Miata that I had is I kind of have

always wanted one.

But by the time I finally kind of got into them,

their prices are pretty high on them.

If you have to wait until the right deal comes up,

because I'm not going to spend,

I can't spend seven to eight grand on one.

And I, as you know, I like pretty mint conditioned cars.

Like mine's not mint by any means, but it's not.

It was a good enough deal and it's not far enough off

from it to where I can put some money into it

and it'll be close to mint, which is the reason I got it.

You get a deal from like the 2013, you know,

like that's the prices that you will get

and back in the day.

Exactly.

And that's just not what you do now.

Like you'll find them like 240 for four.

And I'm like, that's that I'm sorry.

Like a Miata is not that cool.

They're too plentiful to have this price tag on them.

You need to reward that.

What do you mean, a Miata is not that cool?

Not cool enough to scale for what they're going for now,

considering how common of a car they are.

Gotcha.

I don't think they're going for that much.

Okay. Classic.com has them at $10,600 for a high price.

I've said so far.

You're not going for four grand.

It's like two over two highs.

So it's, it's, it's considering like,

like even low mileage examples.

Yeah, I know.

Which are crazy numbers.

There was one that just sold on December 2nd.

So just the other day on car,

I'm bringing a trailer for an 03 NB, right?

34,000 miles sold for 9750 automatic manual.

Manual.

Okay. Yeah.

So if you think about it, a car that low miles

that gives you that much joy to drive.

If you think about it, 10 grand is nothing.

No, I agree with that to an extent.

I just, for, and just like a throwaway extra car,

I just didn't want that.

Cause me working for the brand,

like when I see that, that car goes for like $40,000,

it blows my mind for a new one, you know?

When you can literally get the same experience

for a fraction of the cost.

Yeah. And they haven't changed much.

They got slightly heavier and made slightly more power.

So that's exactly the same.

Yeah. The person who's buying that low mileage.

Oh my bad.

That person who's buying that low mileage Miata,

who's willing to pay that much money,

that's exactly what they're paying for

is like all the hassle-free miles.

So I think it's worth it to a lot of people

just for that peace of mind.

I mean, even a higher mileage Miata

is still a reliable car,

but if you're willing to spend the money

on a low mileage car, then, you know,

it just might be an easier ownership experience

if you plan on really tacking on the miles.

Yes and no.

Well, let's say because also when a car

is obscenely low mileage,

you have a lot of oil seals and stuff

that start to go too,

which might be a little bit of a maintenance pay.

There's kind of a happy medium to find.

Exactly.

You want to find like 80-ish to 120,000 miles

for that old to like kind of hope

it's had regular driving.

Yeah, because you want it to be regularly driven.

For sure.

Yeah. Two low miles will actually scare me

because I know, like Justin said,

like I'm going to have to replace water pump,

like flush the radiator,

like all the, like the gasket seals,

they're going to go bad.

So you're going to drop more money,

but once you're done with it.

Then you have a brand new car,

so it's kind of flat.

And you have less wear because it's lower miles,

but all the other things that you have to change

and replace it actually kind of

is going to outweigh the price of their car.

Yeah, fair enough.

I could see that.

That was part of what I was worried about

with the escalator I bought earlier this year,

where it was like 11,000 miles.

But it was like super old.

What year was it?

It's a 2010.

That's 15 years old of 11,000 miles.

It's less than a thousand miles a year.

Like even that one,

I'm like, watch, I'm going to be driving it.

And like, I'm just going to see an oil leak.

I'm going to be like, but there goes all my profit.

That's why you probably didn't drive it, right?

How many miles did you drive?

Well, I didn't drive it because honestly,

every time I drove it, Victor knows this.

Every time I drove it,

I almost got in a fucking accident.

I don't know what it was.

It's probably because it was in the back of your head

that you didn't want to crash.

I'm driving like this thing is too mint.

Like, is this sketchy?

Like if anything happens, there goes all the people.

People would cut them off.

Dude, yeah, dude, I don't know what it was, man.

That car I'd be driving

if people just do the most fuck shit around me.

I'm like, okay, cool.

I'm just like, I'm going to keep this thing at home.

Actually, I'm going to keep it in a storage unit.

So you said yours is a six-speed, right?

So you guys both have NBs, right?

Meaning an NB is going to be from what?

98 to 2005?

99?

No, earlier, right?

I think the 98, I mean, the 98 probably, the 99 came out,

you know?

Yeah, yeah, like September 98 or whatever.

Yeah, so it's the second generation

without the no-pop-up headlights.

Miata's easy, right?

N, it's always going to have an N, right?

And then the next letter is going to be the beginning.

So A is first, B is second.

Well, kind of, because it's also NB1, NB2.

There's NB1, 2, and 3 now, I think?

The body style is the NA, which is the first gen,

and B second gen, and so on.

C and D in the second, three and four.

I'm going to talk about the C.

Unless you're a very tall person.

Oh, true.

The NC is the only one that can fit decent-sized people.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's a bigger one overall.

Wait, can you answer my question?

What's a six-speed?

Why is yours a six-speed?

Honestly, I think it's like a special edition thing.

I see.

So my car is a 2000.

You have an M edition.

It's not an M, it's just called a special SE.

So a special edition, and it came with a Nardi package.

So like steering wheel, shift knob, e-brake.

It's all made out of wood by Nardi.

And it comes with a bolt, some system, whatnot.

And it's purple.

It's kind of like a burgundy color.

It's a pretty car.

Yeah, and it actually compares into the five-speed

that you have just in versus a six-speed.

Your RPMs on your 50, so that you're going like four

grand at 70, I would be going like 35.

But his red line's at seven.

Yours too?

It red lines at the same time.

Same motor, right?

Yeah.

So what year is yours?

1.8.

Yours is a?

It's a 1.8.

Yeah, that's what that is.

It's a VP4W.

What year is yours?

99.

It's a VP4W, too.

That's the engine code for that one.

It's honestly quick.

It's one of the best engines.

Yeah.

What year is yours?

2000.

Oh, so a change in 2000?

It changed in 2001 when they went with the variable

timing.

OK.

So there is some differences.

That's the MB2, right?

That's the MB2.

And that's a different interior, too,

if I'm not mistaken.

It's different seats and different from bumper and headlights

and tail lights.

I think the MB1 looks better.

And by personal opinion, it looks better, too.

So let me ask Dylan, who does not own a Miata.

Dylan, what do you think between the NA and the NB?

NC, obviously, like he mentioned,

is a complete redesign.

It's a little bit stretched for taller people,

things like that.

But between the NA and NB, the easiest distinction

is the pop-up headlights and all that shit.

Values-wise, they're about the same.

The NA, you'll get a little bit more.

Classic.com has NA's at 11,000, right?

A similar mileage one for the one

that I just mentioned at Carson Bids that sold with low miles.

We'll sell for 11 to 12, somewhere between there.

So it's not a big difference compared to the one

that sold for 9,700.

That was an NB.

So what do you think of the NB specifically in the Miata

lineup?

I think it's the sweet spot in many ways.

I think it's objectively superior to the NA

in terms of if you want to do track racing

and you want to have a Miata spec car, I would choose an NB.

It's a little bit more modern.

I think the NA, if you want to cool cars and coffee cars,

something kind of stylish that you want to repaint and kit

out and make to be a cool, stylish 90s car with pop-ups,

maybe you would go with the NA.

But I think in terms of driving and ownership

and what a Miata is meant to be used for,

I think an NB is just superior.

Yeah, so what changed?

Because the NB, from what I understand,

is pretty much an NA, but just more refined.

Different motor too.

I think the NA was a 1.6, right?

No, they made the NA 1.8 as well.

Oh, OK.

Yeah.

Later, I believe it was like 94 or 95.

They made a 1.8 on the NA.

Was it originally 1.6, though?

Originally when it first came out in 89 or for 1990,

it was a 1.6.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Making like, I think it was 110 horsepower or something like that.

It's still fine.

I've driven one.

They're pretty good.

It's a noticeable difference.

When you drive the NB with your 1.8

and you go into a 1 NA with a 1.6,

it's a night and day difference.

Oh, really?

Yeah, those extra 30 horsepower make a huge difference

on a car that's not like.

Well, how much is a weigh?

I actually didn't look at this up,

but I think it's like what, 2,000?

NA is like 2,100, and I believe NB was 2,300 or so.

Which is nothing.

But NB, I've owned three NA's and two NB's.

You know, when I had my last NA,

I got into my friend had an NB and I got into,

I went on a drive with him on his car

and completely changed my mind.

And my NB's is the way to go.

So way less rattles on the dash.

NA's are notorious for a pebble on the,

it's like riding a skateboard.

Like anything will make it rattle on the inside so much.

NB's way more refined.

The AC actually works, which is another thing with the,

it's a more modern.

The other one had like the R12 refrigerant,

which kind of sucked.

Yeah, because it's pre-1995.

Yeah, exactly.

And I don't know, overall interior feel,

like the dash holds a lot better too.

NA's is very hard to find a non-cracked dash

versus the NB's, they take a beating.

You can leave an NB outside in the sun

for fucking 20 years and there will be no cracks there.

Honestly, I'd pay the extra 10% to get an NA.

Only, not because of, yeah, obviously all those things

are like, wow.

As long as you know your main car, it's, yeah.

And it never will be your main car.

It's a two-seater roadster, you know?

It's my main car.

Well, for you, I guess.

Unless I'm daily mine.

Yeah.

But like, well, because you guys don't have any kids,

you don't have any reason to use the backseat.

But my point is, look, the NA is the classic Miata.

The pop-up headlights, the fact that it's pre-1995,

some of them probably don't even have,

like, do they all come with ABS?

Even?

No.

So it's the more analog version.

Honestly, even my 2000 doesn't have ABS.

Okay, interesting.

Does mine?

I don't know.

There's some that came with it, some that didn't.

Same thing with, there was some NA's

that came actually with ABS.

And then in 01 it was mandated, I believe,

because that's when the Viper got ABS

because it had to have ABS by 01.

Yeah, okay.

And then some came with a limited slip.

Not all of them did.

Mind those.

Right?

So, well, we might have to see if his does.

Don't burn out, let's find out.

Well, you could just put it up on a lift

and you can, like, move it.

That's a lame way of checking it.

No, we can check it literally like 10 seconds.

Drop the clutch.

Yeah, rev it and dump the clutch.

We're gonna find out.

So honestly, look, the NA, for me,

like, it's not that much more than the NB

and I get why the NB is worth more

because like, a lot of cars,

the newer they get, the better they are.

For the NA it was worth more.

Did I say NB was worth more?

Yeah.

Oh, my bad.

The NA is worth 10% more, let's say, right?

Not much, but the only reason why

is because in my opinion, it's the classic one.

It's the first one.

Pop-up tax.

Yeah, the pop-up tax.

And it's like something that is nostalgic for people.

Like, they no longer exist pop-up headlights,

but for the most part, like, that's the car for me

that is like the classic version.

Like, that car came out in 1989, right, for the 1990 year

and it pretty much put the Alpha Romeo Spider

out of business.

It put out like all those MG and Triumph and, you know,

Sunbeams and all the British roadsters

and Italian roadsters that even came to the US

put them all out of business.

And that was the goal.

They were trying to actually make a reliable roadster.

Well, not put them out of business,

because put them out of the US.

The only other Japanese counterpart to the Miata

was like the MR2, right?

Right, yep, but that was mid-engine.

Yeah, not quite.

It doesn't really follow like your standard roadster recipe

so in that sense, really, the Miata

was kind of the only one.

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised that there weren't more.

Well, the Z3 came out, right, in the late 90s.

And then you had like Pontiac and Saturn

do the solar system and the sky, right, in the 2000s.

A little bit later.

But yeah, I mean, roadsters was a segment.

I was talking about the FIERRO and I'm like, oh.

I mean, like, I wouldn't really call the FIERRO a roadster.

It's like a little coupe.

Yeah, I think roadsters should have front engine, right?

Yeah, front engine, rear-wheel drive, convertible top.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, long hood.

I mean, the Miata's pretty proportioned.

It's not that much of a long hood like the Z3 is.

Not a whole lot of motor to hide.

But I just feel like the NA for me would be the one to get

just because like, it's a hairdresser's car,

but an NA you can say like, ah, but it's a classic.

The only reason I want an NA is because

the only reason I want an NA is because

you can make it wink.

You can, yep.

I think that's just hilarious.

Like, I love that.

That'd be the only thing.

If I ever got an NA, I'd only drive it at night

and only so I could go back to people and wake up people.

Let me go back to my word.

The NB is a classic.

It's already now, the newest one is what?

20 plus years old, right?

They went out to, they went out to 97.

So almost, yeah, more, more than 20.

What am I talking about?

So there's a few years that are older than 25.

Right, exactly.

So like-

My years are 99, so I'm like, what, 26 years old?

Yeah.

I'm way far away from the migraine now.

Yeah, no, I would say just based on-

There's a couch out there, yeah, back there.

Based on years alone, it's a classic.

I would agree.

But it's not the original one.

And they look very similar.

It's not like the classic classic.

Like, the NA does have that.

The pop-ups definitely do age it way differently

than the non-pops up, because I feel like the NB

still looks like a relatively modern car.

Yeah.

Like the lines of age very gracefully.

The NA, the pop-up headlights definitely break the lines,

in my opinion, like when you look at them,

but it also makes it nostalgic.

My favorite part about the NA, it's like,

a lot of people actually like the pop-up headlights up

just so they can show them.

My favorite part is like actually keeping them down,

so you literally have seen no headlights at all.

So it doesn't-

I'm like that with Porsches.

I like Porsches when they have the pop-ups,

and when they're down, it's just sweet.

Like the 928?

Like the 928, 944, no, 928 is a lot of things.

928, yeah.

That's a V8 one, right?

They pop up, and it's like super round in the back.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They look super weird, but it's cool.

Is the 928 the V8 one?

Yeah.

Yeah, that's my favorite.

That's like my favorite Porsche.

Yeah.

I love Porsches.

I love the-

I'm the same way.

The V8 is so dope.

I would love to find one of those.

Like that's an okay shape.

So what do you guys think when someone says

it's a hairdresser's car?

I don't give a fuck.

I can't agree more with you, yeah.

Suck my dick.

It's the most fun you can have for such little money.

Whoever, literally, whoever talks shit about a Miata,

they never experience it.

Like, show me a hairdresser that can drive a manual.

Okay, so-

We got that.

Only the two Miata owners here are like, fuck them.

Everyone's just crickets.

Couple months for two days and I'm all aggressive.

Let's let Dylan chime in here, right?

Because it is known as a hairdresser's car, right?

Any Roadster, essentially, is a hairdresser's car, right?

So like, what is a hairdresser's car?

It's a car that's like a woman drives.

Like it's just like a cool little fun little,

you know, weekend driver, you know,

maybe a divorcee, right?

But it's not masculine in that sense.

It's not a Mercedes, that's all.

But time out, I'm gonna get there.

I'm gonna get there, right?

No, yeah, SL could even be, because technically-

That's a divorce lady car.

That's a divorce lawyer car.

But it's starting on, I feel like,

I feel like it's starting to shed

that like negative connotation.

What do you think?

Yeah, I mean, it is.

I mean, it's just, I think it's just kind of like

a going joke.

I don't really think it's very much deeper than that.

I mean, I think even people who appreciate Miatas

could make that joke to just like pick on their friend

when they pull up, you know?

I literally have friends that carry a blow dryer

in their car.

That's amazing.

I'm not even kidding.

But I think that like people-

Does a blow dryer match the car's car?

People see past it, I wish.

Like enthusiasts definitely see past it.

Enthusiasts, I think, see past it

because they can look at like the objective

qualities of the car

and they don't really care about the stigma.

Yeah, I wanna see something that also helps, I think.

It's like all these car review channels

that actually reviewing the car more

and saying how good it is is changing

the perspective of people on the car.

100%, I agree.

Have you noticed that with the-

Absolutely, that's probably where the value increase came from

was people finally started looking at it more objectively

because if you look at it objectively,

there's quite literally besides lack of space,

almost nothing about the car you can't like.

It's reliable, fun, easy to work on, cheap.

Like it has, and it's not uncomfortable.

No.

Like I have a pretty bad back and it's fine.

Like the seats are pretty supportive

without being, you know, obnoxious.

It's just a good little car.

And it's, I mean, that being said,

I think if you're over, I will say

if you're over 5'10", I don't think you can do a Miata.

Like my buddy drove it last night and he's like 6'1",

and they look directly at the top of the steering wheel.

As he can't recline enough

to like where they're gonna be lower.

It's definitely like, that's the one biggest negative,

I'd say, of the Miata, which is also kind of why,

is also the biggest positive to an extent,

but that if you're over 5'10",

it's definitely not a car for you.

Go get a Z3, a Z4, maybe an NC,

even an NC, I'd really just go with a Z3 at that point.

I'm 9'11", what the fuck?

I'm 5'11", that's why I,

that's one of the ones.

Bringing up some bad memories.

I know, my bad.

That's one of the things that I noticed

when I got the car, the NV,

and the first thing I did was replace the seats.

That's why I went with the spark goals,

because it actually lets you stay

at about two inches lower than the car.

See, that makes sense.

Can we talk about the fact that Victor said bad memories?

Instead of going to like the Porsche 911,

he went to fucking American 911.

He's like, damn bro, too soon.

I mean, he owns a 911 right now,

but I also was in New York during 9'11".

That's in high school.

You know what?

That would be more rigid in your mind.

I was, I think, four.

So let's talk about driving dynamics, right?

So I think partially, yeah, the people in the media,

the people on YouTube that are making videos

about Miata's enthusiasts, like Dylan said,

are starting to shed that stigma

about it being a hairdresser's car.

But in the end of the day,

it's going to be the driving dynamics

once people realize and catch on that damn,

this car is aging really well.

It's not like, like no one ever talks about a Z3

having great driving dynamics, even like the three liter, right?

They say it's heavy.

They say it just doesn't have the same, like, I don't know,

the same spirit of a Miata, right?

Light weight, obviously it's a car

that a lot of people track.

So based on the acronym, right?

Miata is always the answer.

It's not because it's the coolest,

like starter kit car for enthusiasts.

It's because it's a great track car as well, right?

It's a car that you can own for years

and you can always like grow your skill

and the car to match that skill level.

There's so much aftermarket support

for any Miata that you buy

that literally I used to be the person

that almost like every six months or every year

I will switch cars and buy something else.

And with the Miata, I noticed that this is the car

that I'm gonna, I bought the cleanest one

that I could find and I've been building it over time

because I'm never gonna run out of things

to do to that car.

And when you get tired of power to slap a turbo

or you know, like you can always do more.

Or an LS or a Coyote.

Or what, there's so many, no, there's so many kits.

No, there's like LS's in here.

Yes, there's dropping kits for Miata's for an LS.

What is it, the LS400 Lexus?

What is that?

One-UZ.

One-UZ, I've seen that in Miata, yeah.

If you wanna do Japan to Japan,

which I would, if I ever thought about doing a,

I'm obviously a GM guy, so I'm gonna get some flak,

but if I were ever gonna do like an engine swap,

I would do in a Japanese V8 or a Japanese ask motor,

maybe a 2J or something.

But look, that motor is a twin cam.

You said 1.8 liter.

1.8.

Super easy to work on.

Oh, I'm never gonna change it actually.

Right?

It's, I mean.

If I want more power, I'll just go buy a CTS-V

or something.

Go buy something worth power.

If you want more power, go buy another car, yeah.

It's just meant for that car.

Yeah.

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly.

It feels great.

Like they geared it so perfectly too.

Like I have the 5-speed and it's still like,

even on the freeway, if you have 4,000,

like it doesn't feel bad on the car.

Like some cars at 4,000 you notice

No, this car can take it.

It feels fine.

It feels like it's like happy there.

There's a point that even if you go a little bit higher,

it's gonna smooth out

and you're not even gonna hear the engine at all.

Yeah.

I noticed that today.

We're gonna say something.

Oh, I was just, one thing I was gonna say kind of

on that topic about the Miata is,

I think it is a good first car

for so many type of people.

It could be a good first car for like a teenage girl

or it could be a good first car

for somebody who wants to build their first spec car

and start going to the track.

It could be a good first car

for somebody that wants to learn how to work on cars.

It's like the first car for so many things.

It's at least high on the list

for a lot of those categories.

Yeah.

Extremely easy to work on.

Like I had to replace the fan on my car

the other day, the cooling fan,

literally took me 10 minutes.

It's all right there.

It's a whole fan.

Yeah.

So really the engine bay is so simple.

You open it up and there's some engine bays

you open up, people are like,

this one's like you open up.

It's like, oh wow, that's right there.

It's everything.

Everything's accessible and easy to take apart.

And you can see all the bolts.

There's no funky bolts in weird places

at least I've seen so far.

Yeah.

It's almost everything's 10 millimeter.

And like it's super easy.

Oh, so I'm cooked.

Yeah.

I know.

You never can find a 10.

One thing I learned about Miata's the hard way

from a friend of mine in college who had an NA

is to always use OEM valve cover bolts.

Yeah.

I used as much OEM as possible.

I used as much OEM as possible

because the aftermarket ones,

even the good ones, they'll break off in the head

with even just a little bit of torque.

Oh, there you go.

Yep.

So if you ever got to do that,

go to the dealership and get your valve cover bolts.

Well, I do have to do my valve cover.

So that's a perfect timing.

Yep.

Yeah, your valve cover, it's all right there.

Like that's easy.

It's easy.

It's right at the top of the motor.

I need valve cover.

I need that bushing for my shifter.

That's about it right now.

You need a whole $50 to fix your whole car.

Yeah.

Maybe less.

So look at the engine on the ND.

That's the ND motor, yeah.

So it's funny because it still looks pretty simple, right?

The ND, they actually went back to their roots

with an ND Miata.

So they went back down in weight.

Yeah, so they made it as close as possible

to the NA, first generation.

Like even the look of the valve cover,

it's almost the same as the NANNB.

And it's still port injected, right?

That I'm not sure.

It's not, okay.

Because I was gonna say that would be something

that would keep it simple if they kept it port injected.

I think it's direct.

But a lot of modern cars are going GDO.

No, it's direct injected.

It's the two liter, SkyActive.

That's direct injected.

I should know this.

I'm like 99% sure it's direct injected.

Okay.

It boosted horsepower.

The ND Dot2s went up to like what, 180?

More horsepower and also higher red line

by like a good margin.

Naturally aspirated.

It was from like 6,500 or so to like 78 or 7,500?

That's pretty good.

Two liter.

That boost of overall red line.

I remember people driving and be like,

dude, don't even get the ND1.

Cause just get an ND2.

They red line at 65?

The ND1 red lined way lower than the other.

That's sad if it was 65.

Watch, I'm gonna be totally.

So in 19, 2019 was the year where it went up to 181

horsepower from like 155.

Because back, you remember the FIATA, right?

The FIATA version had the turbo version,

which was like only like five more horsepower

than the Miata at the time.

The Miata had like 155.

Cause you had a smaller, I think,

what was it that like a one five?

Yeah, it was smaller.

One five turbo.

But it was turbo.

Smaller engine.

And it did like 160.

Yeah.

So it went from 6,800 RPM red line

to 7,500 RPM red line.

Yeah, that's.

That's a big increase.

That's how the phone right there is having higher red line.

And it went from,

and it got up to 181 horsepower

and is originally 155.

That's a pretty big increase.

Yeah. So the ND, a lot of people love today

because they think like it's like the complete Miata.

Like it's now finally where it's what it should be.

It's lighter.

It has the horsepower now.

It has the technology that a lot of people live for now.

Exactly. It's contemporary.

It keeps up to date.

But like at the same time,

it's still not like pop up headlights

and it's not the lightest.

And it's, you know,

but it's not losing the essence

of what the Miata should be.

Isn't it crazy that they made it so right

on the first generation

that even for their fourth generation,

they were chasing the first.

Right.

They were trying to make it as close as possible.

And when you drive the new one,

it honestly, if you drive an older one,

you, it's not like you're missing anything.

Like it's, they're all so similar in their own way.

Just like a little bit of refinement.

I think the one thing I will say about the ND

that is extremely appealing is the RF.

Yes. So that's what I was going to say.

Because you have a daily able Miata

that doesn't punish you in practically any way

at that point.

And the suspension is better tuned.

It's definitely more compliant and they're faster.

Quite a cabin.

The NDs are fast.

Yeah.

Like they're quick as heck for what they are,

for like, and it is direct injector.

The ND is my favorite.

I mean, I think just in terms of design,

especially the RF,

I think it is just the most gorgeous,

like one of the most gorgeous roadsters ever designed.

I agree.

I think in terms of just styling,

I think they nailed it.

They got the proportions right.

They kept it simple.

They didn't overdo it.

And that's why I like the ND.

As soon as the ND came out,

I remember when it came out and I immediately loved it.

Yeah.

It checks all my boxes.

And what I always tell people is

there's very few modern cars.

I'd feel comfortable buying with the intention

of keeping them for 10 years or more.

And the ND Miata is one of those cars.

And I'll say, I'll put it this way.

For me, it's ND convertible or ND RF

or like the two favorite in the entire Miata line.

I will pick an RF.

For sure.

Like an ND RF is dope.

But again, like now you're looking at price and stuff,

but like I would pay that at some point

if I had more money.

Yeah, yeah.

Because honestly, that's one of my complaints

that I have about the any other regular Miata

without a hard top.

It's the wind noise is insane inside those cars.

There's no sound detaining at all.

And also mine, like I don't know of yours.

I'm sure it's probably every Miata,

especially because they're aged now,

but where my convertible top meets the roof,

there's like,

there must be just like a little bit of a sliver.

Cause if I pull the top of the roof down,

I lose a lot of wind noise.

But if I let go, it just makes an insane,

like I can't go over like 50.

I already have a fix for that.

You do?

Yeah.

You just need to come to my house.

I'm just going to hang out.

We're just going to go on the internet.

This is our ordering ship.

Honestly, yeah, you literally have to five.

You put two washers, two washers will fix that.

I did it to mine.

Yeah.

Let's go.

Yeah.

I'm excited.

Yeah, just come to my house.

You know what I'm excited for?

This nice spirited drive about to go on.

Yeah, a little fun.

I'm ready.

You checked your oil already?

That's the first thing I did before I left the house.

I probably should.

We'll do that before we leave.

So real quick, I'm going to flex.

Oh, here we go.

I'm going to flex.

I wrote this article probably February of 22.

So three years ago.

Three years ago, right?

Right, when I was working for hot cars.

Yeah.

So let me tell you,

I'm just going to give you my last paragraph, right?

Just to summarize.

The improvements Mazda continues to make on the Miata

has contributed to the roadster's longevity.

It still continues to thrive in a market

that is saturated with reinvented crossovers.

The Miata never intended to be a volume car.

However, it will always define Mazda's brand.

In a world full of SUVs,

props to Mazda for not neglecting their pride and joy,

their roadster, the Mazda MX-5.

So like the way I remember like reading

that takes me back three years ago

to how I was thinking of the Miata at the time

because I was driving one.

This picture of this ND was actually my car.

Oh, the car I had.

Yeah, so I was thinking of that car as being like,

wow, like 30 years later,

and it still captures the essence

of what it was supposed to be from day one.

I agree.

Yeah, cause what is like,

let's just take a Porsche 911, right?

Most people today will say that the 992 911

is super heavy, right?

It's like lost its spirit, right?

It's supposed to be,

but one, it was supposed to be air-cooled, right?

They're all water-cooled now,

but give them a break cause they have to keep up.

Yeah, and I thought that was a pretty foolish hill to die on,

but they gotta keep up with emissions

and things like that, right?

So obviously no one's making water-cooled cars anymore.

So, did I say, yeah, air-cooled cars anymore.

Thank you.

Thank you for like keeping me up to, you know.

Cause sometimes you're in like a talk,

like you're in like a moment there

and you lose sight of what you're saying.

Anyway, so like when you think about the Miata,

it hasn't lost that.

Like it still kept what's true.

Like how much heavier could the NDB from the NA?

Not much.

And funny that you mentioned the 911

because I've owned a 911

cause I was trying to replace my Miata.

And I've actually gone and I did the Porsche experience

when I, that was in 2023.

I went and I drove my Miata all the way to the Porsche.

Where's that at?

Is that LA?

I think so.

Somewhere around.

And I literally, my wife got me for the anniversary gift

like a track day at the Porsche.

And I was doing the whole track

and I was thinking in the back of my head,

man, as soon as I get on my car,

it's gonna feel like shit, right?

After driving a Porsche.

And after I did the whole track or whatever,

I jump in my car, I'm driving it.

And I mean, like, you know what?

Like it's fine.

Like it's so crazy.

And the same thing when I had my 911

that I sold like a year ago or so,

maybe a little longer.

One of the things that made me sell the car

is that honestly, going into a turn,

I could not push it harder than I can push my Miata.

Like my Miata, I felt faster on a corner.

And it was a 996 4S.

See, yep, yep.

See, same on.

Yeah, and that's literally what made me,

I'm like, you know what?

If I were to crash the Porsche,

I would be out a lot of money versus the Miata.

I can just go buy another one, you know?

Now, one thing I'll bring up on that though,

how much of that is just your familiarity

with the Miata since it's been in your car

for so long?

That could be it.

Because you had an all-wheel drive Porsche,

like I don't think it gets much more trustworthy than that.

And I got the best tires that you could get for it

and everything, but first,

maybe I'm just more comfortable with Miata.

That's just my car that I'm so familiar with.

But I was, I'm way more comfortable driving

on a Miata on a turns than on a 911.

I think, yeah, you got a point.

Honestly, it's because I guess I'm used to

more of the front engine.

So having that rear engine,

it made me feel like I was kind of like

understeering going into a turn

because it kind of felt light on the front end

and I didn't like that.

Well, and also out of that,

the Porsche is just a heavier car.

Like the Miata is stupid light.

It just, everything you do, every input

does exactly what you expect it to do in the Miata.

Another thing, I will always be cruising

on the highway going over a hundred,

which I knew it was gonna get me in trouble.

So I'm like, I need to get rid of it.

Yeah, part of the reason why the Miata is cool

is because like take like an off-roader, right?

Like a Montero that I used to have.

I'm okay with pushing that Montero

to its limits and like going full send

on a rutted out road because the car is worth five grand.

So when you have a Miata, that's where it's like yours.

You're gonna be okay with pushing it.

As long as you got it sorted

and you know like the suspension's up to date.

Yeah, I'm not gonna go too hard today.

I'm still gonna use the car.

Yeah, but you're not gonna be scared to like push it.

It increases your amount of enjoyment

that you can get out of it

because you're not worried as much.

It's easier to lose a car that you pay a few grand

versus losing a car that's like $50,000, you know?

So it makes it more fun.

You're probably gonna be going into turns

like with a big smile on your face

versus like worried that something's gonna happen

to your car.

Yeah.

So I wanna wrap up on the Miata

and I wanna talk about the 996-911

since we're on the Porsche topic right now.

But I do wanna say one thing,

like the Miata, when you think about it

across four generations, right?

Has obviously the N, I guess the NE

is gonna come out, I guess eventually.

But like, for them to-

No, they'll just be ND4.

They're just gonna keep doing the ND.

It makes sense to NE

because they're gonna do what, electric, right?

Or hybrid or something?

I don't think they're gonna do electric.

Yeah, I think hybrid, right?

I saw like a teaser that looked pretty official

for a new model that is definitely a new generation.

Okay.

But my point is the Mazda Miata

is still gonna continue.

It's a segment that is low volume, right?

I wrote that article

because it's not a high volume car,

but Mazda is not gonna say,

oh, let's get rid of Mazda Miatas now

because they're not selling us.

We need volume cars like CX-5s

and things like that, right?

But at the end of the day, it defines the brand.

It is in the US,

that is the car that you think of when you hear Mazda.

Yeah.

Well, I don't know.

I kind of feel like Mazda is building

quite a name for itself.

One thing I've noticed,

because I work in the used market,

is Miatas used to have a pretty big gap

between their costs and price point on the used market

compared to your Twitter or Honda option.

That's going away.

And the amount of people I have coming in

looking for CX-5s over the other comparables

because people are starting to notice that's a good deal

and people are really starting

to recognize Mazda's reliability

since back in the 2000 when they were partnered with Ford

they definitely hurt their reputation pretty hard

for their passenger cars.

Thankfully it never really affected the Miata

but I feel like Mazda in general

is building a pretty good name for itself.

And its entirety.

It's not a boutique brand.

No, it's kind of getting popular.

If they weren't able to sell CX-5s,

then they're not going to be able to sell Miatas.

They need to obviously have that cash flow.

Like Porsche, the 996, they needed to create the 996

and make a car that was a little bit more volume

or cost cutting to be able to make money

and be able to stay afloat.

And that's why a lot of people think the 996

is like the shittier model because of the interiors

and it looked like the Boxster and all those things.

But the Miata is still going strong, right?

Which is impressive is my point.

A car that has been continuously being made

for over 30 years is crazy.

And largely unchanged at least from the original recipe.

Right, exactly.

No, you drive an ND and it still feels the same

as far as like just a modern version

of the same exact car.

Like a lot of cars don't do that.

A lot of companies don't do that.

It delivers on the same expectations.

Yeah, it retained its essence from day one

and that's why I think it's so impressive.

So 996, the reason I wanna talk about it

is because two videos dropped today,

both from Haggerty and from Doug DeMiro.

And I watched both of them this morning.

So Doug DeMiro's video was on a 996 that's for sale.

It's a 2000 coupe Carrera, right?

Just a regular base Carrera.

And then on Haggerty's YouTube, Jason Camisa

did like a video on the history,

the 50 anniversary of the 911 Turbo, right?

So my takeaways from watching both of those videos is

they talk about the 996 in Jason's video as well.

He pretty much says that the Turbo of the 911

shouldn't be the holy grail version of the car.

And the reason why is because the amount of Turbo lag.

So he starts with the 930, right?

You guys know the 930 was like the first 911 Turbo.

And it has a whole spiel about homologation,

how it went to race and they needed to do a Turbo,

blah, blah, blah, it wanted to win a Le Mans, all that stuff.

But it has so much Turbo lag on a four speed

and that the gears are so far away

that you can literally floor the car for like a minute

and until it hits boost, right?

Fast forward.

And then it'll put you into a ditch.

Right, and that's why it's known as the widow maker.

It's responsible for killing a lot of orthodontist wives.

That's what I like to say.

Yeah, so like for the 996 though, right?

Obviously I own a 996, when you own a car,

now you're like doing a lot more research

and you're more aware and intrigued.

I was like curious to see what he said

because most people think the 996

is the redheaded stepchild.

And he didn't say that, he just said

that it's the first obviously water cooled 911

but the automatic was terrible.

Yeah, like a triptonic or whatever.

Tiptronic, yeah.

It was before PDK.

He said the automatic was like it just-

Single clutch automated manual.

Dumbed the car down so badly.

Shifting at Chrysler.

You have the little button on the steering wheel.

Dude, Lexus.

It looks like a Bollywood.

The automatic IS, he's got buttons on it to shift

and it was so bad.

Really?

Dude, it's so bad.

So combine the automatic with the 996,

the turbo lag, he's like,

this is not the best car you can buy of the 996.

Like he'd prefer a Carrera base manual

or a Carrera 4 because turbos were all all wheel drive

to get that all wheel drive experience.

But for the most part, he said

the turbo was not great in the 996.

And going forward and eventually they interviewed guys

that owned them that took the car

to the Nurburgring and all that.

One other all turbo besides like the GT3s, right?

Because one of the 911s come just turbo now.

Correct.

And they still have the turbo,

but that's just a more powerful turbo.

991 started at, I believe.

991.2.

991.1 had naturally aspirated 38 still, I think.

Correct, yeah.

So yeah, they're all turbos

even though it's not a turbo.

Yeah.

Regardless.

Taycan turbo.

Yeah.

Doug reviews one cause it's on cars and bids now.

And he's like, he just bought a 993 turbo.

And he's saying the 993 base, 300 horsepower, right?

The same one like mine.

That's it.

I mean, that's solid for that, like car, but that's-

But he's saying 300 is plenty.

It feels different than a Boxster, right?

People, I've said this before,

people think the 996,

cause it came out simultaneously with the Boxster

in the late nineties,

that it shared too much of the Boxster.

Look, the interior, right?

But the driving, no one ever says the 996 sucks

because it drives like shit.

No.

Yeah.

Headlights, interior, and it's not air-cooled.

And that's the thing.

A lot of people focus so much on horsepower

that it kind of annoys me

cause most of the people that talk about it

can't even handle the amount of horsepower.

So I feel like if you get in a car

that is like 300 horsepower,

that's plenty to have like a lot of fun

and use all the power.

I don't, I think that there's nothing worse

than getting a car that has so much power

and you can't use it.

Okay.

It's better to have less power and use it all.

They have plenty of not being able to.

I would agree.

I would agree with that wholeheartedly.

Me personally, I had a Boxster too.

It was a 986, so same generation as the 911, 996.

In my favorite car, if I were to get another Porsche,

I would get another Boxster

cause I think it handles better.

The amount of power wasn't much, but it's a lighter car.

I think it makes like two to 20.

Well, cause the Boxster's mid-engine

versus rear-engine.

Yeah.

So I love the handling of the 986.

I've only driven a shitty version of a Boxster.

It was like a clapped out version

but it was still pretty fun.

Yeah.

I think lightweight, right?

I mean, it's similar to the Miata.

Like if it's lightweight and the car, you know,

obviously is just dynamically tuned,

like the chassis tuning, everything is great.

In that sense, like it's meant to be driven

like on a windy road, a canyon cover, right?

Then you're gonna want, make sure it's light, right?

Now the thing with the 911 though,

like I think obviously it's got to set itself

apart from the Boxster.

Besides chassis tuning is handling and the power.

So he mentions in the video like 300 horsepower is plenty

to, to feel, cause like he was saying

the Boxster doesn't feel fast.

It doesn't.

It's like a Miata.

It's a slow car.

It feels, what was the term?

It's like it feels a slow car that feels fast

is usually better than a fast car.

You're going slow, but it feels,

I feel even the Boxster feels swift,

kind of like the Miata, not to the same percentage

but it still feels.

Because you can use all of its power

without worrying about it.

Yeah.

It's a light car that's not super separated from the world.

That's the other part of that.

They still feel like.

Still six cylinder, 2.7, 200 and something horsepower.

They sound great.

They sound amazing, especially the high revs.

Yeah.

They're really good cars.

And their manuals are fantastic.

Yes.

So I guess my takeaway for Doug's video was more of like,

you know, if you're gonna knock the 996,

then knock it because it's sucked.

It's not a great driver, right?

Don't knock it because it had amber, you know,

headlights to make it look like a runny egg

or at the interior looked like it's base model Boxster.

Like no one can knock it because it drives like shit.

It drives like a 911.

It's the 911 of that generation that in his point,

he's saying it drives better than his 993, right?

He doesn't think he would own a 996 over a 993

simply because the 993 has that like nostalgia

that classiness because it's air cooled.

But at the end of the day, at what?

Let's just say on average price of a 996 is around 25, 30 grand.

That's a fraction of a 993, 911, you know?

So it just makes, he pretty much ends the video saying,

the person that buys a 996 isn't trying to look cool.

They just wanna buy a driver's car

and experience what a real 911 should feel like

at a fraction of the cost.

It's like the smarter choice.

And if you're getting non-turbo manual,

they're pretty decently dependable cars

on top of all that.

It's relatively expensive to maintain, but like reliable.

Yeah, and honestly, I've seen 911s with stupid high miles.

Oh yeah, I've seen them with 200,000 miles.

Oh, that was not me.

Oh, you just killed the rest of his vibe.

I know.

And I remember that a lot of people,

one of their complaints was the interior of the 996.

I think it's fine.

But honestly, I think as years go by,

it looks better and better every year.

Yeah.

I think it's aging very well.

Because there's no screens, right?

It doesn't have like the center, you know,

the dial for the, yeah, this is the 996

that Doug reviewed today that dropped.

That's on cars and bids right now.

It's like a green 90, no, 2000.

So it's a year before mine.

So this should be cable driven, 64,000 miles.

In seven days, it's already at $30,000.

Wow.

Unpopular opinion.

It's a coupe.

I like it without the wing.

The 911 996.

Yeah, no arrow keys.

I actually like the base model.

Dude, yes.

It's pretty.

Like when it has a wing, it looks weird.

Like they're trying to make a smooth car.

They all have wings.

They're just hidden.

They go up at 30 miles an hour.

Well, I've seen ones that have like an obvious wing.

You're talking about an arrow key.

I don't like the arrow key.

It's like fixed.

Yes.

I don't like them.

I see a lot of them with it.

And I'm like, no, I like a smooth, sweet back.

So let's go back to the interior, right?

Obviously, this car has a very simple interior.

It's just, you need like the full leather package

for it to like feel luxury.

But at the same time, it looks simple.

It's analog, right?

It's not like that square 993 interior.

Like I was looking at the one we have, the red one

that we have at analog and grit.

And it looks very straightforward and simple.

It has that like full on rectangle, you know, dash.

This has some like curves to it, some lines, right?

It's a little soupy.

It's obviously a little bit more modern.

As long as the ignition's on the left

and the tack is in the center, I'm happy.

Right, exactly.

It doesn't have the little, you know,

dial in the center to, you know, track your track times.

Like the 997, I think, eventually introduced.

But regardless, like if you get a nice leather package

and like mine has the carbon fiber, you know,

which I guess you could say is tacky,

but at the end of the day, it's not that bad.

It doesn't fall apart.

It's a package from Porsche.

It's not like you stuck on some fake carbon onto the trim.

Exactly, exactly.

And even like, look at the tunnel right here,

like the, in the center console, he,

that's a factory and like mine is silver.

He installed the green matching color

of the exterior on the center.

And that makes it look way better.

You know what I mean?

Cause it actually matches the interior,

like the green with the tan.

So this car is at $30,000 with seven days to go.

How many miles?

64,000.

Okay.

Has 20,000 more than mine.

It's a coupe.

I feel like that's quite a bit though.

Quite a bit, oh, a lot more.

But to already be at 30 for 60,

I mean 64, it's pretty low for an hour.

It's gonna climb too with how much time it has left.

I'm sure.

Here's my point of why I'm bringing it up, right?

Jason Kameez is doing a video on 911s.

Obviously he talked about the 996 in the video.

Doug DeMiro is talking about the 996,

not only in this video, but in the podcast they do.

So they're about 20 years old now, right?

The last year is 2005, I think of the 996.

So even the newest one is 20 years old, mine's 25 years old.

My point being that that's the bottom of depreciation.

Usually a car at 15, 20 years old hits its bottom

because now there's a bell curve usually that happens.

The people that grew up with this car in high school

are now in their 30s, right?

So they're gonna eventually say,

oh, what 911 can I buy

because my favorite automotive journalists

are talking about them like Jason and Doug.

And these are influential, obviously automotive journalists.

And they're gonna say, well,

why not the one that's 25 grand

instead of 100 grand, right?

And then next thing you know,

someone else is gonna think the same thing.

And oh, why not 30 grand?

Why not 35 grand?

These are the next 911s to go up in value.

Where I think all the other 911s are either gonna,

obviously 992s are probably still depreciating,

either stay stagnant or go down.

All right, so we all gotta go get 911s.

Yeah, so now it's your time to sell your 911.

Those videos came out,

everybody's gonna be looking for them.

Now it's your time to post it.

It's a cabriolet, so I'm gonna wait probably

till people want cabriolets, right?

Not in December.

Cause for us it's 70 degrees outside.

December, yeah.

Right, let's go for a drive to the top down,

but 99% of America is not thinking that right now.

Especially if there's a buyer, if you post your car

and there's a buyer, let's just say in New York

who has to have it,

they're not gonna pay top dollar for it in December.

So I hear you.

Yeah, I mean it's a Carrera 4 mine

and that means it's all a little drive.

But the funny thing is,

is like going back to Jason's video,

he does not think the turbo is the best option.

Most times the best option,

the one that cost the most is like what everyone wants, right?

That's what they aspire to own.

When he's like, no, you don't want the turbo, right?

You don't want the automatic.

You want a manual.

Yeah, no one usually wants the cabriolet

because it's not the coupe version.

It's not the enthusiast spec when it's a cabriolet.

But regardless, the turbo isn't the one, you know?

A Carrera 4 manual is the one.

Well, 4S is all wheel drive,

but it's not turbo charged.

It's not.

Right, yeah.

S has a bigger engine, a little bit more horsepower,

but no turbo.

Yeah, so yeah, that's my take.

I don't know what you guys think.

Can't agree more with you.

Yeah?

Yeah, mm-hmm.

So I mean, think about it, 25 grand gets you a 911.

I like the cabriolet a lot, personally.

I live in California, I love convertibles.

Well, you could even get it,

a cabriolet you can get probably for,

I mean with 100,000 plus miles,

but you don't look at a Porsche

like you do other German cars and say,

oh wow, 100,000 miles,

no way I'm gonna pay 20 grand

for that Mercedes SL with 100K on it.

And honestly, 996 is my favorite generation

because literally when I had both my 986 and the 996,

it was such an easy car to work on.

Both of them.

Yeah, literally anything that I needed,

I can just plug an OBD2

and it will tell me exactly what it was.

And it was extremely easy to work on.

The only thing you have to do most of things

from the bottom of the engine or whatever,

but and it's kind of tight,

but they're super easy to work on.

It's one of the last cars

that you can still do your own maintenance and repairs.

Yeah.

One other hot take Doug DeMiro said on his podcast

was that the 996 is the last analog 911.

And he said this because he,

a lot of people say it's not,

it's the 993, right?

Simply because that was the last air cool to water cooled.

So he's saying that the 997 got heavier,

the 997 didn't get the PDK until .2, right?

So technically, you know, it wasn't like

it's still kind of trash.

Right.

Now look, I haven't driven a 997 to even compare,

but lightweight, no ABS, no traction control, right?

If it's some of them are cable driven,

there's still some analog features about the 996.

And the only complaint that most people have,

if you look at any 996 form,

they're all going to mention the IMS bearing.

That's it.

And honestly, if you're spending 30 or $40,000 in a car,

go get an IMS done.

If that works you so much, spend three grand.

When I did mine back in the day, it was like 1500 bucks

to get an IMS done with a decent one.

Nowadays, I only might just like three or four.

If it bothers you so much, just get it done.

Yeah, I could tell you this.

If you have record of an IMS bearing done on your 996,

it will increase the value of your car by like five grand

because you have to drop the transmission.

So it depends, look, the numbers, yeah.

The numbers that you're referring to the prices

are probably like 2020 labor rates, right?

Like today's labor rate, especially get it done at Porsche,

you're looking over 200 plus.

You're not gonna buy a 996 and go get it done at Porsche.

996, no.

But my point is, it's gonna cost you over five grand now.

It's that much of a safety, not safety,

let's say a preventative maintenance,

like a timing belt on like an interference engine.

And that's the thing.

This car, it's not gonna go down in value.

That time has already passed.

It's not gonna drop again.

And then even if you spend four grand into an IMS bearing,

that's not gonna be money that's gonna go down the drain.

It's still gonna increase the value of your vehicle

because it's already been done.

Yeah, I'm looking at them.

I'm watching ones where they didn't have like options

where they didn't have proof of it, you know?

And I had to jump through some hoops to get it

because obviously it's, you gotta get through to Porsche

and then you have to also,

I ended up finding it through VIN analytics, right?

Because Porsche told me that the transmission was dropped

and that there was some kind of crankshaft intermediate seal,

which is the IMS, that's what it stands for.

But there's not enough here.

And then I looked VIN analytics

and it literally said that they took care of it.

And you know what's funny?

All these people that talk about the IMS,

it actually messes with your head

because when I bought my Boxster,

I didn't have no records of IMS bearing.

And for the first three months, I was stressing.

Every time I will drive the car, I'm like, what is that?

What is that noise?

Even if there was nothing going on.

I'm like, you know what?

I kind of want to enjoy the car.

So I'm just gonna just buy once, cry once.

I just went and just got the IMS bearing.

It's a lot cheaper than a new engine.

Exactly. And that was my thought behind it.

I'm like, I can either-

I was about to ask, I was like,

is this IMS bearing so severe

because if it fails while you're driving,

it'll like kill the motor?

Yes, it will completely destroy the motor.

It'll instantly grenade the motor.

And it's funny, all these reviews,

they plan that sitting your head that messes with you.

And then my car had 127,000 miles at the time.

And I'm like, I need to get it done, right?

Cause I wasn't sure when in, they got to replace.

They gave me the old bearing.

It was beautiful.

Like there was nothing wrong with my old bearing at all.

Yeah, but it just, it messes with the head.

What a lot of people I've heard say before

is like on a high mileage car,

if it hasn't been done, it probably doesn't need to.

Yeah. And then another thing is like 99, I believe,

or 2000, like the first few months that they made it

or something, they had a dual row bearing

versus after that, they went to a single.

So I wasn't sure what mine was.

And the single is way more prone to failure

than the dual row.

I see. Yeah.

So I just had to get it done.

If it was a 99 or older, I would have just left it.

They say like 3% have had failures.

It's a very small number.

Yeah, but because it's a small percentage,

but it equates to a pretty large number of cars.

Yeah, because they sold, you know,

thousands, you know,

and that was part of the reason

why I never really cared for Porsches at 911 specifically

because of the fact that they made a lot of them.

It wasn't that special to me,

but now I get why people care so much

about the option sticker under the hood

because they want to know like what is unique about it.

Like just this green center tunnel here

by the manual transmission, like that's an option, right?

And that's cool and unique about this car

and people will pay extra for that, right?

They'll pay extra for the third, for the three spoke wheel.

Right. Even like the, there's that Porsche exclusive

underneath the sticker.

It's like 9099X or whatever.

Like that tells you, okay, it went through Porsches

like executive order type of bespoke.

Something's unique about your car.

So if you have that, chances are

you're gonna have something, you know, special about it.

And people go crazy over that.

Whether it's stitching, whether it's the carbon fiber,

whatever it might be.

But it kind of got me thinking like as in a,

like now that I'm in my late 30s,

I look at Porsches as like,

it is definitely the quintessential driver's car.

You know, like you start with the Miata

and you finish with a Porsche 911.

Or higher.

Just like this episode.

No, there is nothing higher.

Because once you go above Porsche 911,

now you're talking supercars.

You're talking like what?

Ferrari's GT cars.

The 911, people don't like the progression of the 911.

That's why I brought this up earlier compared to the Miata.

It's because it became sort of like a GT car.

It got heavier.

People wanted luxury.

They wanted options and creature comforts,

which now they associate the 992 as a GT car.

You know, where these cars, the 996

and earlier weren't, right?

So I don't think past the 911,

I don't know of another car that's comparable.

You know, maybe like an Alpine or like,

we don't have those here.

Like a small driver focused car,

kind of like a Lotus, you know,

like that they made them for canyon carving, right?

You could take any model to the track

and it will be great.

Even a base model.

There's not that many cars that are not supercars

that you can do that with.

That's true.

I think the Porsche, the 911 is the top of the,

you know, like I said,

it ends with the Porsche 911.

Look at Pettner, he's thinking like, damn.

I know.

I'm just thinking of those little wheels.

I'm trying to think of other cars, but...

He's trying to debunk my theory.

Dylan, you have any updates, anything new

as far as things going around, analog and great garage?

We got a purple Chevy SSR going up for sale.

Ooh, right up the GM Guru's alley there.

It's an automatic LT1,

but it's a really cool color,

really well cared for car and very interesting.

Yeah, purple SSR, so...

5'3 or 6'0?

LT1, so it'd be a 5'3, right?

6'0 would have been the, well, no, LS1 is a 5'3.

That was for the final year of the SSR,

but this is the older one with the LT1.

I have a question, since it's purple,

is it the same like purple color as the Plymouth Prowler?

It's similar to Plum Crazy Purple,

like the old Mopar color that you'd see.

If you ever see a purple Hellcat or a purple 60s Charger,

it's similar to that.

Because the Prowler, like the...

That's a little bit darker and kind of more maroon.

This is like in your face purple.

Okay.

The purple SSR, what are you guys asking for that yet?

Can you say?

I haven't gotten the price on it yet.

Still need to comp it and assess it and get it listed.

But that's a very unique, yep.

Okay, so purple SSR.

These were like little hot rod pickups, right?

Kind of like, it was an arrow where Chevy

was just getting a little crazy.

What do you say to that?

Yeah, it was just like the arrow

when everybody was doing stuff like that.

Like the HHR, the PT Cruiser, the Prowler,

like that was just kind of a weird period.

The Thunderbird.

There's a lot of like funky cars.

I mean, this is gonna kind of be maybe controversial,

maybe not.

I feel like nobody really did it that well.

Like not a single one.

Like even the Prowler, like yeah, V6 five-speed auto.

Like, I don't know, they just nobody really did it well.

The problem with those cars is they're niche.

They're intentionally niche.

They're seeking out those enthusiasts,

those old guys who had the old version of the car.

And since it's niche, they're not gonna sell

a lot of units and they can't put too much into R&D.

Right, that's a good point.

I could tell you who did it really well.

The Challenger.

I mean, it came after this.

But that's like later though, and that's different

because that's also when the Mustang redesigned

and also when the Camaro came out and like all of them,

but those ones did good.

Cause those ones actually went after a larger demographic

in case that attracted probably people

that used to own those cars,

plus the new people that want a cool car

that's not expensive.

Yeah, what?

20 year olds.

These were all really expensive too.

Like the Prowler was expensive.

The SSR was expensive.

The PT Cruiser was just a piece of shit.

Thunderbird was expensive.

The HHR was also kind of a piece of shit.

Besides the HHR SS those are kind of cool.

What 20 year old in the Navy

doesn't want a Dodge Challenger right now?

Yeah, but is that a good thing?

I mean, what about the Volkswagen Beetle?

Came around early 2000s.

Yeah, that was awesome.

I did not like that generation Beetle.

But would you say it wasn't a success?

It was a tremendous success.

Yeah, that was a success.

Retro, kind of similar headlights

and bubbly kind of design language

from the early 2000s.

I mean, they were successful.

I can't attest that.

Wasn't it you that you will always show me

whenever you'd be driving a Volkswagen at work

and be super pumped about it?

The new Gen Beetle.

Yeah.

Like the 2014 and on or 15.

Loved the newest one.

I thought the lines were, they got it just right.

They sleeked it out a little bit

and I thought it looked amazing.

The one before was too bubbly.

I couldn't do it.

Every time I see those,

I think of the Flower Power wheels

and like that green color that the Beetles came in.

I could never do those.

You were butt hurt about it

because it had a little vase there for a flower.

No, I just didn't like the Gen Beetle.

It was too feminine.

The new one, the roof is just slightly chopped.

The front end slightly chopped.

It looks good.

And they're fast.

I agree with you.

It is feminine.

The two liter turbo behind the Beetle,

the whole ass or the five cylinder,

that's a fun car.

I was showing my fiancee yesterday,

the Mandy Moore video, Candy,

where she's driving around in a Volkswagen Beetle,

the earlier 2000s.

I don't know if you know Mandy Moore,

she was like an actress slash singer

back in the early 2000s and she's driving a Beetle.

And I remember watching that video in middle school

and thinking like, damn, that's like,

what they drive around in California, you know?

Just Beetles.

Yeah, like skater girls that just drive Beetles

with a flower in it.

But yeah, I mean.

Skater girls with rich parents.

Yeah.

I think like Jay Leno says it all the time,

the best looking cars have both masculine

and feminine qualities to them.

Design wise, you know, and I agree with him, you know,

it has to have like swoopy lines

but still have like haunches in the rear,

you know, kind of flared out fenders.

And that makes a perfectly designed car

because it appeals to both.

Well, cause it has to be beautiful and striking.

Right.

You have too much of either.

You're going to lose one or the other.

Yeah, good point.

So that's it for today's episode

of the analog and grit podcast.

Appreciate you guys coming on and sharing your expertise

with the Mazda Miata.

Of course.

Dylan, we call him Main State Dylan now.

He's pretty much a regular these days.

Yeah, I'll catch you guys in a year.

Yeah.

Well, hey, you know, you're going to be in your 30 soon

and that's how it is.

So all right, guys, until next week

on the analog and grit podcast, we'll see you soon.

Hasta.

Enthusiasts Start With A Mazda Miata and End With A Porsche 911

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