1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata: So, This Happened.

Ouch, that can't be a cheap repair!

I say time to add lightness via carbon fiber trunk, maybe add a nice new body kit while the bumper already needs to be replaced anyways.

Let me guess, the Blazer guy had "brake failure"?

On the upside, it updated the taillights by giving them that annoying, bugged-out appearance so in vogue nowadays...

Ouch! Damn shame. Non-driver a-holes!!!

Aren't they just going to total the car? that has to be more damage than the car is worth.

I am almost certain they'll total the car. Please don't let them do it! Too many NA Miatas are meeting that fate. Miatas are known for being rear ended so many cars are outfitted with flashing third brake lights, I however constantly monitor my rear view, still only so much one can do to avoid such things.

P.S. If you guys do let them total the car I'll buy the wheels off you guys.

Was Al Cowlings driving it? Was OJ in the back seat?

But the real concern is did that Chevy Blazer driver get their text message sent?

'Let me guess, the Blazer guy had "brake failure"?'

The brakes in a Chevy Blazer are in a perpetual state of failure. I know. I used to own one.

My Miata/Blazer red light incident went the opposite way... when the dude decided to change lanes and backed up over my hood.

Needless to say, I don't want to repeat in my car now, because there's almost no accident damage that would mean anything less than a total on a 90k mile 90 NA

This will be a good opportunity to take off all the good bits and go buy one in a little better shape. Or at least without a horrific stench.

It looks like the light housings bent the quarter panels as well. And the project car was just coming along.

Oh well, that's what insurance is for.

It does appear the Blzer managed to slow down a little. I would have hated to see that at the top of the ramp w/ traffic still moving at a good clip...

Bummer. Hope everyone's okay.

Ouch. See what the insurance co. says. If they decide to total it, buy it back. Its usually pretty reasonable, but you'll pay for repairs yourself. It happened to a friends Prelude. He wound up letting them total it because he couldn't afford repairs, but I figure you'll want to keep the car. Here's an article about what to do if your car is considered a total loss:

http://finance.yahoo.com/insurance/article/101724/What_To_Do_When_Your_Auto_Insurer_Totals_Your_Car

If you do go the repair route, this may be the time for some interesting rear-end mods. Lots of possibilities. Maybe its a sign from God that you need to put in cooler tailights, or an RX7 rear end.

Ain't that a bitch.

Sweet! Time to get a new back end! For free!

I feel this is my fault... Here's why:

When you had the 2006 LT Miata, I invited you guys down for some fun during the San Diego Miata Club's annual Puke run (named after the infamous action some of the passengers would exhibit after spending a full day attacking the twists and turns that San Diego's mountains offer). Erin was going to come down and play, but a few weeks prior... wham! That Miata got rear-ended.

Fast forward several years, and I invited you guys down for our regional Surf 'N' Safari 2010 four-day Miata event. You guys said you might be able to drop in, and the event is now a few weeks away. Sure enough... wham! This Miata got rear-ended.

That's it! I'm not inviting you and your Miata down for any more events... I'm apparently bad luck!

Maybe it was a good thing that the roll bar had not yet been installed. May have staved off a head injury. I do wonder how this will turn out in terms of insurance and repair / replace.

For some reason this post smelled like Lemons..... 24 hours worth.....

just wondering lol whys this car even part of the long term blog.... imo throw it in the scrap yard and add a new car .... though im at a loss as to which new one to suggest lol

Ummm it really does not look a lot different.....it was kind of a beater anyway....just take the money you get and use on the engine upgrade and have a real sleeper! Who cares how it looks?

If it gets totaled part it out for all its worth so that at least you can help other Miata owners.

From here there are three paths to take:

1. Convince Mazda to donate a new or newer Miata and mod that.
2. Buy a another used Miata.
3. Forget a Miata and move on to the next most common project car a 98-03 Ford Mustang.

The car is very likely a total loss with that kind of damage, but for the sake of the project it would make sense for Edmunds to have the car fixed. Still, I wonder what the at-fault insurance company will do.

"Who cares how it looks?"

The taillights/reverse lights are broken, this car is not safe to operate in that condition. The decklid may not operate properly anymore either. It could also be structurally compromised which puts the occupants at risk in the event of a future collision. The car should be properly repaired if they're going to continue driving it.

That looks like the same kind of damage that Dan had to repair on his SSC Miata (minus the finish panel damage). Let the insurance total it out, buy it back, replace the trunk lid, bumper and finish panel with used replacements in the same color. Then the only thing a body shop needs to do is to pull out the back panel a bit. Its an old car, who cares if it has a salvage title.

I was already having a bad day, and this just made it worse.

At least it didn't happen to a nice looking car. This car must attract damage because it didn't look that great to start with.

"The taillights/reverse lights are broken, this car is not safe to operate in that condition. The decklid may not operate properly anymore either. It could also be structurally compromised which puts the occupants at risk in the event of a future collision. The car should be properly repaired if they're going to continue driving it."

You are kidding, right? Go to the junk yard and get some new lenses or even better get some red tape and cover the broken lenses. I can see you have never worked on a car, Jay. (no offense) It may be expensive to fix but the damage is really minor. Have somebody with a big butt sit on the hood and get it down a bit. I learned this awesome technique when I raced cars in Bomber C class on 1/4 mile tracks. It is not structurally compromised...no more than it was before because Miatas are not exactly built like tanks.

At the junk yard I bet you can get a new trunk lid and rear panel for less than $500....oh and try to get a nice yellow or red trunk lid! A super fast and super ugly car is super fun! You can find yuppies in 328s and dust them at the stop light! It is even more fun in a beater!

How many times has an Edmunds LT fleet car been rear-ended like this? It seems like a lot. It's a reflection of how many bad, distracted, dumb drivers there are out there. LOTS.

being an InsideLine LT car is like naming a pet Lucky.

nearly always a death seal.

Is it really that hard to STOP a vehicle? I can understand if someone pulls out in front of you... but crashing into a car stopped at a red light? It should never happen.

There, NOW it's a project car!

"You are kidding, right? Go to the junk yard and get some new lenses or even better get some red tape and cover the broken lenses. I can see you have never worked on a car, Jay. (no offense) It may be expensive to fix but the damage is really minor."

None taken, I unfortunately don't have the time to work on my own cars. I do, however, keep them in absolute perfect shape. But that really isn't the point here, if the structure of the vehicle was compromised from the collision, that's a safety hazard. The vehicle's lights are obviously compromised. Red tape on the lenses means they probably would no longer pass the FMVSS regulations for lighting visibility and reflectivity. Those things are rather important in real life.

This is not a personal vehicle, it's a company car operated on public roads and I doubt the management at Edmunds would want their employees driving a damaged vehicle around an urban jungle like LA. If they were to be hit again and a staffer is injured, the company could face severe liabilities if the accident and/or injuries were in any way related to them neglecting to properly repair the car.

My point is that it would be more fun (to me at least) to take a beat up car that looks like hell and make it crazy fast.....I had a couple of cars like that. ( I had a 73 Comet 4 door with a 302 that I put nice intake and holly with some headers and it went like hell....it did not look nice but was perfectly sound) I was kidding about the red tape but it is cheap to put a used lens on the back and a trunk lid from another car. Keep it on the down low so to speak.

From reading your posts over the years I assumed that you kept your cars in really nice shape. I dont have expensive cars anymore but no matter how much my cars cost they are always well taken care of...it is a point of pride to keep a machine in good shape and not abuse it. That is why I hate stupid events like the Burn Out tests and other machinery abusing stunts.

I'm finding the coincidences with this 94 and mine quite unsettling. I went around a corner the other day (not even that fast), hit some sort of slick spot, and had to go to the curb to avoid hitting another car. At first, my insurance company said it was close to a total loss. Then a day later, they said it wasn't as bad as they thought because they were misquoted on some parts (to the tune of about ($950 including labor). Mine is getting fixed now. I hope this one gets fixed as well.

Hope the driver is ok!!

Your Miata project was barely moving along, all you did was put new wheels, suspension and top on it in what, half a year? Just total the car and move along. This whole Miata story got stale and covered with fungus long time ago and I don't care for it anymore. It took you several months just to change a frigging top for christ sakes, which costs 200 bucks and can be done by a 12 y.o. girl in 5 hours without reading instructions while chatting on a pink barbie phone with her friends about boys and makeup! You can learn 100 times more by just skimming through a few random threads on miata.net forum. This whole long-term Miata project is a major dissapointment for a company with your financial and time resources. The car should have had full set of bodykits, neon lights, sattelite remote control run 9 seconds in quarter mile and travel through time in short burst by now. All in all, a deserving end to Project Fail.

Fret not, nuieve, there's a lot more to come. It's true we encountered several unforeseen delays with a big part of the project which resulted in its apparently pedestrian pace.

Even an asspacking by a Blazer won't derail the project. The project will continue, and big changes are in store. If you're still pining for neon and bodykits, though, I suggest you head over to poseurboy.com.

Also, I change Miata softtops in my sleep. But softtops suck.

Pull off the hard top, put the old wheels and tires back on. My guess is they are going to total it. Miata is a uni-body in the rear and I am guessing that the Blazer got into the structure. It can be repaired but from the insurance companies point of view it won't be worth the cost. Find another Miata and keep the thread alive.

update?

its been over 3 weeks guys.....give us an update here!

whats taking so long for an update i want to see this project actually take off, also i think you need to add a crz hybrid into the mix since you only have one Honda in the fleet and since your getting rid of the prius this would be a good replacement. Also you should make a project car out of it and make that motor crank out some power and make that disappointing suspension better too!!! pleas follow my advice i would love to see the crz all souped up it would be a beauty

What happened here?!

whats taking so long for an update i want to see this project actually take off, also i think you need to add a crz hybrid into the mix since you only have one Honda in the fleet and since your getting rid of the prius this would be a good replacement. Also you should make a project car out of it and make that motor crank out some power and make that disappointing suspension better too!!! pleas follow my advice i would love to see the crz all souped up it would be a beauty

whats taking so long for an update i want to see this project actually take off, also i think you need to add a crz hybrid into the mix since you only have one Honda in the fleet and since your getting rid of the prius this would be a good replacement. Also you should make a project car out of it and make that motor crank out some power and make that disappointing suspension better too!!! pleas follow my advice i would love to see the crz all souped up it would be a beauty

C'mon guys, just tell us whether the project miata is totalled or getting fixed. It is the least you could do.

i agree makabe

Rest In Peace little Miata...

Anything yet? It's been almost 2 months.

Hey what's up it's been 2 months and nothing, and if you're making a paint jop keep us posted.