MX-5 OC Forum

To Robbie: Your LINK

I know the details are spartan
never mind

Roadie:

Hope you managed to get a picture of our Merlot as it is none of the above (P28 RUL)

Yey  I got a piccy of that one, sorry Paul. You still beat me though, fair play.

Roadster Robbie:

Maybe a good topic to add this link to

Just looked here and gave my details to the cause. I also posted the following after reading he would like VIN Numbers.

 "On the subject of VIN numbers did you know that if you run the VIN number of a Merlot through DVLA it comes back as a Gleneagles. Apparently this is true for all Merlots. I know mine is on the log book as a Gleneagles. Is this true for anyone else. I contacted DVLA a while back and they said they would change it only if Mazda themselves agreed to changing the description of the car. I never did get round to contacting Mazda UK. Now I have been reminded of it I may well do so soon. I also get the same problem when trying to insure and get parts from a Mazda dealer."

No fair, NOT Gleneagles, Tis Merlot.

Gleneagles still NICE though!!!.

Nemesis:

Thank you for your kind comment, I usually get "You should'nt have modded that" or something similar. I think I'm going to

Cheers mate, well chuffed.   made my day.

I look at it this way. Of the 19 cars that were at Chatsworth we have the ex Mr Merlot, now Youngy car which is highly cosseted and kept in what is probably better condition than when it left the factory. We have one, Project Merlot, which is a full stripped out racer. There was the subtly modded but very un-subtly supercharged P***URN which looked and sounded awesome as it drove away up the drive. Then we have yours with all the skirts and wings. That's four alternative routes to take with a basic Merlot. The other 15 Merlots at Chatsworth were pretty much standard everyday road cars. It's not like you have used the last penny black to send a letter to your granny. Nothing wrong with injecting a bit of individuality into your car. I have seen the pictures of your rebuild and it's obvious that if you had taken it to last year's national people would have thought 'it's a shame somebody hasn't tidied that up'. Well here it is and it's very tidy, very shiny, and very much your car. Fair play to you for doing it.

Paul

Nemesis:

Roadster Robbie:

Maybe a good topic to add this link to

 

 

Just looked here and gave my details to the cause. I also posted the following after reading he would like VIN Numbers.

 "On the subject of VIN numbers did you know that if you run the VIN number of a Merlot through DVLA it comes back as a Gleneagles. Apparently this is true for all Merlots. I know mine is on the log book as a Gleneagles. Is this true for anyone else. I contacted DVLA a while back and they said they would change it only if Mazda themselves agreed to changing the description of the car. I never did get round to contacting Mazda UK. Now I have been reminded of it I may well do so soon. I also get the same problem when trying to insure and get parts from a Mazda dealer."

No fair, NOT Gleneagles, Tis Merlot.

Gleneagles still NICE though!!!.

We had a Merlot and had a terrible job convincing the insurance company that it wasn't a Gleneagles as that 's what their 'system' called it.

Mind you the same insurance company called it a 4 seater!

On that occasion we had 5 certificates where they kept making mistakes(and this being a very well known insurer!)

Hi Roadie.

Finally got round to up loading my photos from Chatsworth. Hope this completes you collection from the rally. On the suject of V5 details, I have checked ours and it is registed as a 'MX5 Merlot', seems strange some are registered as Gleneagles!

Regards Mike

Thanks Mike. Added your picture to the original post. My V5 quotes mine as a Merlot too. Mine is a '97 model year with the cranked indicator and wiper controls. Might be interesting if Roadster Robbie could get this info on his register to see if it is model year or VIN number related.

Paul

 Hi,

Ours is a 96 model with straight controls, I didn't know there were any other things other than the later steering wheels different. With reguards to VIN numbers it would be intresting to see if they ran consecutively, then we could work out what number our cars are in the production run. I noticed that some limited editions have plates with their numbers on them. Just a though.

Regards Mike.

Mike W:

Ours is a 96 model with straight controls, I didn't know there were any other things other than the later steering wheels different

Must admit I didn't know myself until I had a forum chat with Mr Merlot. The story goes that the production of the Merlot spanned the '96, 400 cars, and '97, 200 cars,  model years. This year change marked the change from the straight arm to the cranked arm column controls. It also saw changes to safety regs which meant that the steering wheel had to be changed to the PU version with the impact absorbing centre. I believe that there were also some changes in the air filter piping arrangement under the bonnet. Would be interesting to compare one of each sometime to see what the differences are. Don't know of any other differences but if anybody has any more info then I'd like to hear from them. I would guess that the incorrect DVLA classification as a Gleneagles is more likely to be related to registration dates than to VIN numbers but we will probably find out when Roadster Robbie has got all the info sorted. I'll let him have my info over the weekend.

Paul

 I have already e-mailed Robbie with our details. Very intresting to know there are more differences that I first though. This has jogged my memory about a chat I had with another owner at last years national rally. He said my seats should have piping of a similar colour to the body colour, but mine have very dark grey or black piping. The previous ower said he had changed the seats because the old ones were torn and he replaced them with seats from a later Merlot that had been written off. So possibly this could be another difference.

Mike.

My main reason for the resgisters is to link the Special Editions to the VIN numbers. From the VIN's I can obtain production dates. Changes to things like the indicator stalks can be worked out from VIN's but I don't intend to put that much specific information in the register.

Mike W:

seats should have piping of a similar colour to the body colour

The seat piping on mine is a black backgroung with 'Melot' colour flecking over the top. I would imagine that it would be almost impossible to get anything resembling this for re-trimming. I have seen seats that have been re-trimmed and the choice seems to be to go for a solid black or something close to body colour. One strange thing that I noticed when comparing cars with 'Mk1 Merlot was that while my seats are wearing well but the piping is worn away in places, his seats have some worn patches but his piping is immaculate. I suppose that being a natural material the leather is going to vary in resistance to wear. If pieces of the leather piping come away then the white plastic shows through which looks very unsightly. Where mine has worn I have coloured the plastic with a black marker pen. Makes it far less obvious unless you look really close.

I've added engine numbers to the register for those that have a record of them. Also removed the request for all personal info.

While at Chatsworth last year I had the pleasure of spending some time chatting with Dave Young aka 'Youngy'. He was the owner of the beautiful Merlot H11GKP which he loved and cherished just as much as it's previous owner Mr Merlot. I was shocked to receive an e-mail from his partner Yvonne to let me know that he had passed away last week. It's only a couple of months ago that I was chatting with him via the forum about what he had been doing to the car and he was really looking forward to meeting up with everyone at Billing Aquadome. You meet some lovely people through the club but none more so than Dave. Next time you are out with the sun shining and the roof down don't forget to look up and say 'Thank you Dave'.

 Very sad news indeed!

Julian