So I'm going to look at a used miata today, what should I check for?

Nvm, I passed on it.

Even if it had rust on the rockers it's not usually a huge issue. It isn't structural unless it branches out to other areas. Yeah, it looks like E36 M3, but it's hard to find them in the NE after 10+ years without some sort of rust around there unless they never saw foul weather. Pretty sure there are patch panels made for the area you can throw on there if you want to fix it up, but if you leave it outside or drive it in bad weather it will just come back anyway.

Looks like a decent but not spectacular asking price.

One other thing to look at is the top, around the rear window. A new top is one of the most expensive Miata repairs, with labor.

MattGent wrote: Looks like a decent but not spectacular asking price. One other thing to look at is the top, around the rear window. A new top is one of the most expensive Miata repairs, with labor.

This is a good barganing point if you want to buy a Miata. Try and get your hands on a written estimate from a Miata dealer as to what it will cost to replace the top. Here in Ontario it is way over $2000.

But what your really need to know is that it is a day's job for a fist timer and about $500 for the top. It is a bit of work, but well documented on-line and no individual step is hard to do.

Yea, the car needed a good $4k of work to make it "fun". I've given up on 10 year old cars now for my daily driver. My friend keeps insisting I need to checkout a G35 infinity, which I will.

Yea I just test drove a g37 and really liked it.

NOHOME wrote: Nope, those drain holes do not apply to the portion of the rear quarter that is below the holes. (The rusty section in the picture) Have a close look at the picture and you will see a row of spotwelds on the lower curve of the rocker. This is where the bottom of the quarter is attached; surprisingly NOT to the pinchweld. Look at the picture, had the lower quarter been attached to the pinchweld, the outer coating would not still be visible as it would have been on the quarter panel. Water that gets in the sill structure and rises above the holes in the inner sill will NOT drain out the rocker drain holes but will remain trapped between the outside of the sill and the inside of the lower quarter panel. There is virtually zero gap between these two surfaces and hence water is not likely to evaporate once it gets in. The result is the rust shown in the picture. If anyone wants any other pictures of how a Miata comes apart, I have many more from when I took this car apart spot-weld-by-spot-weld.

Ah, I see what you're talking about now... I've never had a problem with that on my Miatas, but I've also been fairly serious about keeping the drain holes cleared, so maybe I've just been lucky and there hasn't been much that got past those inner holes. I'm sure not cutting into my non-rotty one to see :)