Pass the Koolaid, never mind the glass.

Joe Gearin wrote: and yes.......the ND is fantastic. I mourn the loss of a real trunk,

Whut? How is the ND trunk compared to NA,NB, and NC?

It's taller than the NB trunk but not as deep (front to back). It's definitely smaller than the NC trunk because the car is smaller. If you're okay with NA/NB trunk space, the ND isn't a whole lot different.

At least, this is what I remember. I drive an NA every day and I haven't noticed a big difference.

I'll have to take a golf bag and a hockey bag to the dealership sometime. I could fit both in the NB trunk; for me that is the minimum size requirement. (Couldn't fit both in the car at the same time).

Oh, and a dreadnaught guitar. Arguably more important than either the golf bag or the hockey bag.

Thanks for the article. My "wait 2 years for the price to come down" plan may have just gone out the window. Maybe I should change that to the "wait 2 years for a different color option" plan.

I could carry a Hobart Handler welder in the trunk of my NA. Not so much with the NB. I wouldn't mind a deeper trunk well.

If only Miatas weren't so expensive in Canada. I could have bought my C1500 and a brand new Yamaha Zuma X for the cost of a 1990 NA where I live, and not have to worry about the short nose crank.

G_Body_Man wrote: If only Miatas weren't so expensive in Canada. I could have bought my C1500 and a brand new Yamaha Zuma X for the cost of a 1990 NA where I live, and not have to worry about the short nose crank.

Drive south and pick one up from across the border. Canadians do that for a lot of other things, why not cars?

'Tis true that they hold their value better in Canada. I think that's partly because most of them are put away in the winter, so the proportion of ragged out rustbuckets is lower.

I can say it'll happily handle a Strat, haven't tried the acoustic yet. Maybe tonight :) I know I used to be able to put a tenor sax in a gig bag in the NA, maybe I'll try that as well.

In reply to Stefan (Not Bruce):

The travel costs, exchange rate, and duties for a good one basically equalize the cost. I'd be spending over $3k CAD on the car, over $800 CAD on travel costs to tow it up here, and then probably another 800 Canadian bucks or so on taxes and duties. Then it's only about $400 CAD or so cheaper than just buying a decent example up here.

In reply to G_Body_Man:

Tow?

Take the bus, train or fly down. Pickup car and drive home. Its an 8 hour drive from Portland. At 27mpg-ish would be about two tanks of gas maybe? So $50-60?

In reply to Stefan (Not Bruce):

I would do a fly-and-drive, but I don't want to have to buy not only insurance for a car I haven't seen yet, but also buy the car itself essentially sight-unseen. Towing gives me the ability to look at options in the metal before I commit.

Insurance follows the driver. If you have proof of insurance, you can generally drive the car, at least far enough to get it home and purchase insurance for it.

In reply to Stefan (Not Bruce):

Not quite. You need ICBC insurance to drive the car into Canada, and that requires a VIN number. Otherwise, you're SOL when you get to the border.

Driving an untagged car, or car tagged and titled in someone else's name, across a border is asking for a headache.

Keith Tanner wrote: 'Tis true that they hold their value better in Canada. I think that's partly because most of them are put away in the winter, so the proportion of ragged out rustbuckets is lower. I can say it'll happily handle a Strat, haven't tried the acoustic yet. Maybe tonight :) I know I used to be able to put a tenor sax in a gig bag in the NA, maybe I'll try that as well.

I took my bass to practice a few times in my NA. The Danelectro and Hagstrom fit in the trunk no problem, even in the case. The others were stood upright behind the driver's seat.

There are very specific procedures for importing a car. My friend Eric has imported a Miata. He did his research and didn't have any trouble - but I think a copy of the title has to be at the border a few days in advance. I can't remember what he did for plates on the drive from CO to Ontario, but it wasn't anything too weird.

So it can be done. It's another question as to whether it's worth it. In Eric's case, it was.

petegossett wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: 'Tis true that they hold their value better in Canada. I think that's partly because most of them are put away in the winter, so the proportion of ragged out rustbuckets is lower. I can say it'll happily handle a Strat, haven't tried the acoustic yet. Maybe tonight :) I know I used to be able to put a tenor sax in a gig bag in the NA, maybe I'll try that as well.

I took my bass to practice a few times in my NA. The Danelectro and Hagstrom fit in the trunk no problem, even in the case. The others were stood upright behind the driver's seat.

I'm pretty sure I had some odd combos of instruments in my NA when I first had it. I seem to recall baritone, tenor, alto and soprano saxes all at the same time. Possibly some drums. It's been a couple of decades.

Keith said: I can't remember what he did for plates on the drive from CO to Ontario, but it wasn't anything too weird.

I actually drove the Miata from Colorado to Ontario on the temporary paper CO Plate that you put on it. No one on either side of the border crossing event said anything about it. Note that I wasn't pulled over by the police anywhere, that might have been more awkward, I don't know.

The border crossing itself was the most fun. For the exit processing on the USA side the border guard thought it would be "funny" to ask me why the title came back as stolen. He then joked that he figured I was going to need the defibrillator based on the look on face, the truck drivers in the border office were very amused, me less so. For the import side Canadian Border Services was only interested until they realised it was over 15 years old so I didn't have to pay the large import tax, just the sales tax, then they couldn't care less. Hell Keith even installed a DRL module and all that to pass compliance but it was total overkill. Hell they didn't even check if the VIN matched the paperwork.

I would import another car from USA to Canada, no problem. Like Keith said just get the paperwork faxed to your future border crossing a couple days before (and have proof). Other than that just enjoy a nice drive, or in my case make it from CO to ON in two very long days of driving.

In answer to your question about the trunk...

JUNK by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

mtn wrote: I'll have to take a golf bag and a hockey bag to the dealership sometime. I could fit both in the NB trunk; for me that is the minimum size requirement. (Couldn't fit both in the car at the same time). Oh, and a dreadnaught guitar. Arguably more important than either the golf bag or the hockey bag.

My golf bag is a tour sized one and there's no way it will go in the trunk of any Miata and my hockey bag is bigger still. Good luck with yours. Post pictures.

I just carried a set of Longacre scales plus my gym bag home in the ND with a fair amount of room to spare.

The Mazda S plan is an evil evil temptress...

DeadSkunk wrote:

mtn wrote: I'll have to take a golf bag and a hockey bag to the dealership sometime. I could fit both in the NB trunk; for me that is the minimum size requirement. (Couldn't fit both in the car at the same time). Oh, and a dreadnaught guitar. Arguably more important than either the golf bag or the hockey bag.

My golf bag is a tour sized one and there's no way it will go in the trunk of any Miata and my hockey bag is bigger still. Good luck with yours. Post pictures.

I've got an old ping hoofer. In the nb, it fit pretty easy if you took the driver out of the bag--still fit in the trunk with the bag, just not IN the bag.

As for the hockey bag, it fit with about 20 seconds of maneuvering and careful packing in the locker room. Sometimes had to take the helmet out. And I'm not a small guy.

As for instruments fitting in small spaces, my claim to fame is a 000 acoustic and a strat in the trunk, and a dread on the shelf. No clue now how the two fit in the trunk. Tried to do it again not too long after. And failed.

I managed to fit a cat-back for my MX-3 in the Smart Fortwo, by squeezing it between the seats and into the hatch. Picking up a set of headers and y-pipe in the MX-5 was a little trickier. The headers fit in the trunk, but the roof had to come down, for the y-pipe to be angled down and across my passenger's lap.

mtn wrote:

Joe Gearin wrote: and yes.......the ND is fantastic. I mourn the loss of a real trunk,

Whut? How is the ND trunk compared to NA,NB, and NC?

The ND trunk is noticeably smaller than the earlier cars. I can fit a golf bag in my NA if I take the driver out and place it in there separately. No way one would fit in an ND. Not sure about hockey bags, etc. But the trunk is a bunch smaller.

The small trunk and the ergonomic niggles are really the only flaws to the car.

It's true, you can carry a full set of wheels and tires in an NA using only the trunk and the rear parcel shelf.