Hello everyone, Newbie here.
I'm a young guy, still livin' at home with the parents (i know, super-cool dude) and thus far just getting by with borrowing from the pool of family cars. Luckily I've been able to convince my dad to get some cool sports cars into that mix.
It started with a 1980 Fiat 124 Spider 2000 Turbo(removed)
[not-too badass autocross pic coming soon]
Autocrossed and just tooled around in it, eventually suffered the typical Fiat fate of just becoming to annoying to keep running and it sits in the garage. Still sitting there today.
then a 1997 Mazda Miata followed
[not-too badass track day pic coming soon]
absolute base model with AC and steelies, we're not a well-to-do family, so the only mods this car saw was 14 inch BBS alloys from a '93 Limited Edition, and a Brain Storm Products Roll Bar.
Trackday-ed a bunch of times, autocrossed, and daily driven. It's in pretty rough shape now, running half on steelies and half on the BBS's the alignment is out of whack, makes some funky noises, and the sills are rusty and toasty.
then a bright shining light, a 1972 Lotus Europa Twincam arrived
[semi badass trackday pic soon]
came with a ton of sweet mods, (webbers, coil-overs, swaybars, desmogged, sprint cams) and served as an amazing trackday car, and fun little classic car to tool around in. I loved the car despite the horrific electrical gremlins. Lotus reliability and flat-brokeness ensured that it was sold off.
So now here I am, with enough money in the bank for a decent used car, with enough left over to live on and finish up with the student loan payments. And I'm seriously jonseing for a Mazda2. Ideally a green Touring 5-speed. I just view the Mazda2 as my ultimate car in my search. Daily driving the Miata has kind of spoiled me for handleiling and driving thrill, but I feel like the Mazda2 will make me feel the same way, while also hauling around some good amount of people and stuff, and being easy to work on and reliable.
After college i quit the trackday/autocross sceene and cars were just a way to get me from job to job to job (trying to pay off loans while in a tough job market left me with a lot of part time jobs) I'm just getting traction in my career and want a good car to last me a decade or so, kids, marriage that whole decade. I view the Mazda2 as just the car for that. Maybe I'll get back into autocross or rallycross, maybe i'll want to enter the world of modding a car myself, who knows but i want a trusty lil Mazda2 along with me.
So my car search has lead me with like no Mazda2's in my area. Ok maybe some automatic sports, but life is too short for having my gears shifted for me. It'll feel even shorter when these gears are magic swirling vortexically "attached" to a 100hp engine. I just can't find any. I'm looking at mainly used ones. I really dont see why 'I can't find a decent manual mazda2 anywhere.
Can anyone offer any help?
I'm a young guy, still livin' at home with the parents (i know, super-cool dude) and thus far just getting by with borrowing from the pool of family cars. Luckily I've been able to convince my dad to get some cool sports cars into that mix.
It started with a 1980 Fiat 124 Spider 2000 Turbo(removed)
[not-too badass autocross pic coming soon]
Autocrossed and just tooled around in it, eventually suffered the typical Fiat fate of just becoming to annoying to keep running and it sits in the garage. Still sitting there today.
then a 1997 Mazda Miata followed
[not-too badass track day pic coming soon]
absolute base model with AC and steelies, we're not a well-to-do family, so the only mods this car saw was 14 inch BBS alloys from a '93 Limited Edition, and a Brain Storm Products Roll Bar.
Trackday-ed a bunch of times, autocrossed, and daily driven. It's in pretty rough shape now, running half on steelies and half on the BBS's the alignment is out of whack, makes some funky noises, and the sills are rusty and toasty.
then a bright shining light, a 1972 Lotus Europa Twincam arrived
[semi badass trackday pic soon]
came with a ton of sweet mods, (webbers, coil-overs, swaybars, desmogged, sprint cams) and served as an amazing trackday car, and fun little classic car to tool around in. I loved the car despite the horrific electrical gremlins. Lotus reliability and flat-brokeness ensured that it was sold off.
So now here I am, with enough money in the bank for a decent used car, with enough left over to live on and finish up with the student loan payments. And I'm seriously jonseing for a Mazda2. Ideally a green Touring 5-speed. I just view the Mazda2 as my ultimate car in my search. Daily driving the Miata has kind of spoiled me for handleiling and driving thrill, but I feel like the Mazda2 will make me feel the same way, while also hauling around some good amount of people and stuff, and being easy to work on and reliable.
After college i quit the trackday/autocross sceene and cars were just a way to get me from job to job to job (trying to pay off loans while in a tough job market left me with a lot of part time jobs) I'm just getting traction in my career and want a good car to last me a decade or so, kids, marriage that whole decade. I view the Mazda2 as just the car for that. Maybe I'll get back into autocross or rallycross, maybe i'll want to enter the world of modding a car myself, who knows but i want a trusty lil Mazda2 along with me.
So my car search has lead me with like no Mazda2's in my area. Ok maybe some automatic sports, but life is too short for having my gears shifted for me. It'll feel even shorter when these gears are magic swirling vortexically "attached" to a 100hp engine. I just can't find any. I'm looking at mainly used ones. I really dont see why 'I can't find a decent manual mazda2 anywhere.
Can anyone offer any help?
