u/Middle-Discussion-53

Hey guys, hope everyone is doing great. Just checking if anyone can share some perspective.

I live in a very small country where cars are around 25–50% more expensive than in the US. My fiancée and I love cars (a blessing and a curse), and we recently sold our Subaru because we want to get something fun as we are in the position to do something like this responsibly.

We’re both 28, getting married soon, and we have no plans for kids for at least the next 6 years, so we figured this might be our chance to get something a little more “couple” focused.

After doing an exhaustive amount of research, we ended up between two cars: the Mazda MX-5 and the GR Yaris. Both are around $60,000 here. Crazy, right?

The car would be shared between both of us since we both WFH most of the week.

GR Yaris:

My fiancée loves the design and the “spirit” of the car being a rally car. I’ve loved rally since I was a kid. My dream car growing up was an Evo VI, and I feel like the GR Yaris is in the same line: a true homologation special, AWD, small turbo engine, and that kick when you get on it.

The resale value here is also really good, there are very few units, and it’s practical enough for us to use as a daily. Fuel consumption isn’t really a concern either; I’m used to cars that consume a lot.

My only concern is the power for her. She likes cars, but she’s not really a “driver,” if that makes sense. We haven’t been able to test drive one because there isn’t currently one available here.

MX-5

On the other hand, we have the MX-5.

She loves the design, the interior quality, and the whole idea of having a convertible for road trips.
From my perspective, this is one of the last breeds of truly driver-focused cars. The Yaris is also driver-focused, but in a different way. The Yaris feels more focused on engineering and performance, and my biggest fear is that it might actually be too perfect and too fast to be as enjoyable on normal roads. We don’t have a proper track here. There’s one, but it’s extremely expensive, so tracking the car isn’t really an option.

The MX-5, however, was tested for a day and a half, and that changed everything. It was an absolute blast on the mountain roads we have here. Just getting close to the limit, or even simply enjoying a roundabout, was ridiculously fun. To be honest, I just have a hard time imagining the Yaris being more enjoyable than the MX-5 in those situations.

Practically, the MX-5 is good enough. We can do a supermarket run, and we managed to fit two carry-ons and two backpacks. The ground clearance is also perfect for our roads, so that’s not really an issue.

The resale value. It’s nowhere near the Yaris here, so I know I’d be taking a bigger depreciation hit. And if we eventually decide to have a larger family, we would definitely need another car.
But I honestly can’t stop thinking about how much fun that MX-5 was.

And here comes the bad news…

Because we live in such a small country, our options are very limited. For both cars, the only options available here are automatics. We only have one dealer per brand, and I’ve already tried pushing for a manual, but it’s simply not possible.

To be honest, my fiancée prefers automatics. I’m completely fine with the GR Yaris being automatic considering the engineering behind the DAT transmission. But the MX-5? It’s hard for me to imagine ordering an automatic. I mean, it was crazy fun, but I feel like I’m committing a sin by buying an automatic MX-5. I know the manual would be even more fun, and we both know how to drive manual.

The driver assistance (hill a climb control) in the ND should also cover some of the things my fiancée would prefer from an automatic, but unfortunately, the manual simply isn’t available here.

I also can’t stop thinking about resale. The MX-5 feels like one of those cars that could become a future classic, especially considering where the automotive industry is going. And I feel like buying the automatic might mean I’m giving up part of that.

So basically, I’m stuck between a monster of a car like the Yaris, which makes a ton of sense but I’m afraid might not be enjoyed to the max, and an MX-5 that we already know we love driving, but buying it with an automatic transmission feels like I’m doing it wrong.

I know I should be grateful that this is the problem I have, and I absolutely am.

The other option would be importing a manual MX-5 RF with low mileage. That would definitely solve the transmission problem, but it comes with much more risk and is very expensive because of import taxes.

A $30K car could easily end up around $48K all payed upfront by the time it gets here, so financially it just doesn’t seem like a very intelligent decision.

So in this case…

Is Miata always the answer?

Sin or not to sin?

What would you guys do?