imprezadan1

hi,
does anyone on here own or has owned one of these im thinking about buying one for the wife to stop her driving my wrx the trouble is she loves the power of the scooby,will she be woefully dissapointed or is the overall package(nippy,economical,convertable) of the mgf enough to compensate. and what are the plus and negatives about the mgf
thanks

matchmaker

It will blow a head gasket

ewanrw

Had an MGF before my scoob (now sold for an elise). They are fun to drive and fairly cheap now. You will not notice the difference between the VVC and non-VVC unless you spend all your time at the top of the power band. The main problems are head gasket failure, the alarms are temperamental and the hoods are very expensive to replace. Also late-VVC heads have a habit of going porus due to a problem with the casts that were used.

Personally I'd save the pennies and go for the non-VVC, but either way you will notice the obvious lack of power compared to the scoob, but yeah they are nippy and should give 30+mpg plus parts are pretty cheap.

And check for a twisted chassis - screwed mine royally.

ewan

FlightMan

A few years ago, i had a 1989 MR2 GT t-bat. It was about 8 years old, and had 90,000 miles on the clock. It cost me £3.5k.

A mate, not wanting to copy me, bought a MGF 1.8vvc. It was 2 years old, and had 30,000 miles on it. It cost him 9k.

He sold it a year later, to a dealer, for 5k. Why did he sell it? Because it was crap.Total, utter crap. It leaked, it was windy, it was sluggish, you name it.

He bought an MR2.

imprezadan1

thanks for your advice people,i think ive heard about the gasket problems before,just need to find her something soon so i can have my scooby back.

imprezadan1

[quote=ewanrw]Had an MGF before my scoob (now sold for an elise).


any regrets about swapping the scooby for an elise(apart from getting in and out of an elise of course),ive quite fancied one myself been pondering on the idea for a while now.

ewanrw

The Elise is fantastic. If you enjoying driving and pushing the limits on the twisties then you cannot beat the Elise (apart from the Exige). I miss the power of the scoob even tho' the elise is as quick to 100mph(mine is the bobby basic).

Insurance costs are on a par with a scoob and running costs are low with 40+mpg. They are also easy and cheap to mod.

However, they leak, are noisy, spartan and cramped, but a whole lot of fun.

Series 2 are a better for everyday use and are not as raw as the S1, more comfortable, less leaky etc.

A part of me wishes I still had the scoob, but another part wishes I skipped the scoob and went straight to the elise.

Its a very easy decision to make once you've driven one tho'

nelboy75

DONT DONT DONT buy an mgf
girlfriend was going to buy one bout 3 months ago,posted on here and every reply was telling me how crap these cars are.
went seeing a good few,hoods,head gaskets,gearbox...etc....
crap car
thanks to everyone on here who warned me against

imprezadan1

thanks for that nelboy,the mgf is looking a big no no

imprezadan1

thanks for that advice. i think i may be taking a little test drive in one this weekend

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Yep, dont do it, had a BRM (same engine) and the Head Gasket went, quite a nice engine when it works but they are a pain for the gasket going, cant always be reapired either, get the MR2.

taffyboyo

mgf vvc noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a work mate, has been getting a price for a cambelt service and most places wont do it, and the ones that will are wanting £600+

and this week while he's been thinking of what do about it, the head gasket goes,

and to top it all off, he ripped the back plastic screen with an ice scrapper (all within a week)

Dream Weaver

Absolute crap, avoid like the plague

Sister just lost £10k on a MGTF she bought 2 years back, nothing but problems with it.

Look at either an MX5 or a MK2 MR2

Hanslow

Get an MX-5 or Mk3 MR-2 (DW, I assume you ment Mk3 and not Mk2?)

ewanrw

imprezadan1

thanks again for all your advice,iam going to stay clear of the MG,and browse auto trader.the mx-5 is a good idea i think shed prefer that to the mr2(cause its more girly)

scoobynutta555

I've come from 8 years of owning 4 Imprezas and moved into an Elise. Obviously not as fast as an Impreza in an everday situation as the boggo Elise has 118 bhp or something. Saying that the car is very, very light and quite fast.

There do seem to be problems with HGF on the K series engine, but to be honest they are a "cheap" fix in the region of 500 quid. Yes the roof does leak if the car is standing, but a shower cap costing around 50-60 quid will fix that. 40 mpg is possible and it runs on NUL. I purchased my mint S1 for 8,500 and have seen advertised good examples on Ebay sell for 8k.

The Elise is a very sexy car, and I actually prefer the S1 to the S2 ( I have an S1).

The only problem I find is getting in and out, but TBH I'm used to it now and its not the rigmarole it was when I first attempted to get in one.

The only thing I know about the mgs is that there seems to be loads of them about. I counted 8 yesterday in a 30 min run, havent yet seen another Elise on the road since Ive owned mine. I wouldnt by an MG as I dont like the image and the weight it carries.

But I suppose if the price is right there is no harm for your partner to run around in one. After all at least 8 of them aren't broken!

MX5 is possibly your best bet as reliability wise they are tops. They arent the fastest things around, but if its cheap topless fun then its unbeatable value.

imprezadan1

thanks for that scoobynutta
so its an elise for me and a mx-5 for the wife got a feeling she may want the elise though . yeah ive got to say you dont see many elise's when driving round and i quite like the idea of that.
liked the shower cap and at least 8 MGs working comments

scoobynutta555

Ive had no water leak in when the car is in motion. Even without the shower cap when parked up, you only get drips on the sills, you wont need wellies.

Brendan Hughes

MX5 an excellent suggestion. I'll throw in a Puma, as a hard-top? Not fast, but fun.

imprezadan1

thanks mate. is it right about staying away from the imports with mx-5's??
do u know what i could possibly get interms of year and mileage for around 5-6k??

Dream Weaver

We're looking at MX5's at the minute. 01/02 models are approx £9-10k, so you should get a decent 99/00 model for £6k

chrisowe

I would go for the MX5 over the Elise, the Elise has the same engine as the MGF and being a Lotus would probably cost lots more to fix. That's not to say that the Elise is a fantastic little car.

If you like the Elise as mentioned you might want to try the next best thing the MR2, mid engined like the Elise but with less luggage space.

imprezadan1

thanks for all your advice.
looks like ill be test driving a few cars

ewanrw

I'd say the next best thing to an Elise is the VX220. Its basically a S2 Elise with GM engine and its half the price.

And having had an MR2 as a company car, I can safely say that I would never buy one. I preferred the MGF to it and thats saying something.

Also, Elise parts are cheap provided you don't get them from a Lotus dealer. The car is built from Vauxhall parts with a Rover engine.

scoobynutta555

Regards the Eunos, the Jap spec version of the mx5, I see no reason why anybody would want to stay away, apart from things like service history etc. Parts wise I'm fairly sure they are very similar, possibly higher spec'd with things like air con. The only thing with the Mx5 is that if youre not female you look a bit

I wouldn't discount an Elise on running costs, with things like HGF, as there's so little on the things to go wrong, and when they do they are hardly expensive to fix. Servicing and running costs are especially cheap when compared to running and owning an Impreza for example, servicing at a specialist NOT a dealer. Have a look on Ebay at the Elises on sale, they are not as expensive as you think.

Then there's the image, snobbish I know, but you feel that extra bit special knowing you own a Lotus. I won't mention the looks of the Elise, suffice to say I find it's lines much more attractive than a 22b.

Hanslow

What? You can't drive?

Interesting if you look at car comparisons, the MR-2 often gets compared against the Elise and the VX220, but also against the MX-5 and MGF, so would appear to be placed somewhere in the middle.

I used to have a '2, preferred it to the drive I had in an MX-5. MGF for me was a no-no, too soft a drive.

Sold the '2 now and have a boring daily runner, but saving up for a weekend Elise

Couple of interesting reviews here and here on the MR-2. Bear in mind the bias on the reviews with them being on a MR-2 board.

Edit : pants, you need to login and register to read them, but they are worth it if you are remotely considering the MX-5, Elise and MR-2 as they are all mentioned in one form or another.

imprezadan1

thanks again everyone.
personally i think the mr2 is out its not girly enough for the wife i think the mx-5 is looking favourite for that
now as for me someone at work today actually mentioned the vx220. if i change the scooby i fancy something along the lines of this or the elise.id personally prefer an elise but im slightly worried about the engines and costs compared to the vauxhall
id be interested on peoples advice and opinions between the 2
thanks again all

ewanrw

The VX is a bit more tame with a better engine (2.2 145bhp vs 1.8 118bhp) unless you stump up for a S2 Elise 111R or VX turbo.

If its an everyday car, you'd get on easier with the VX or S2 over the Elise S1.

As for service/part costs, there won't be much difference and I'd use a "specialist" over main dealer for both.

ewan

Hanslow

Ditto everything what Ewan has just written

Apart from badge snobbery, the downsides to the VX are the dealers. Specialists appear to be a much better bet, and most Elise specialists will work on a VX.

VX has the torquier engine of the two, and appears to be rather robust. Having said that, some people have had no problems at all with the 1.8 K series.