Am 68 years old. Empty nester. My wife has a great new SUV which she loves. We also have a 2016 Golf which was for our kids, but the only one who drives it moved for work a thousand miles away, is happy and settled, and doesn’t want the car. So it’s time for a sports car again - last one was pre-kids, early 90’s 300ZX Twin-Turbo which I liked but didn’t love. My favourite car ever was my first one (am sure I’m not the only one who feels that way), a 1979 metallic black Toyota Celica GT. Obviously, I can drive a stick and like them - but have driven automatics in very practical no-nonsense SUV’s and 4 door sedans after the Z. Should say my second favourite car is the very plain but reasonably tight Audi A3 Quattro I’ve driven for the last 10 years.
Have looked at/test driven every sports car within my price range. The two that stood out are massively different - the new Corvette and the Mazda MX-5. Love the Corvette’s mid-engine balance but do I really need almost 500 horses. I’m fit and my reflex’s are still good and I’m a pretty serious simracer, but I want this to be my car for at least ten more years. Should a 78 year old really be driving a car that powerful in 10 years? I also don’t like its footprints, both physical and fuel consumption. The Vette is so wide. I’m a fine parallel parker and my eyesight is decent, but again I’m not getting younger. Also the gas mileage is extremely low and it’s “green” footprint is crap. Among the less important factors is that there is no manual and the Vette is double the price of the Mazda. The Miata was a huge shock to test drive. Wasn’t expecting much at all and it was awesome fun, like the Porsche 944 I test drove in the early 1980’s which would have been too irresponsible a purchase for where I was back then (though I probably should have in retrospect ;). The Miata is underpowered but it feels plenty quick enough - and when I think of me 10 years from now it seems much more sensible.
Think I’ve (obviously) talked myself into the Miata just by writing all this out - the key learning being that I really feel the Miata was in fact way more fun for me to drive NOW. The Vette has all sorts of curb appeal but what do I care about impressing people with what I drive. Can’t say that wasn’t a thing for me 40 years ago but these days I just want to impress myself - LOL. So I just realized I probably don’t need to post this endless ramble, but will just in case there are some persuasive cases to be made in any direction. Thanks for listening (to those who did)…