Mash the miata
Hi! My names Monica & I drive a 1994 Eunos Roadster (also known as a Mazda MX5) imported from Japan.
How did your interest for cars start and anything that led you to going for a miata?
I got my license a little later than I should've, and to be honest... I never thought I would've picked up cars as a hobby... but here we are! I think it all started during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people around me were buying cool cars & I knew I eventually wanted to get one for myself. I always loved MX5's, especially the first generation model... but was a little hesitant because the car is quite old. I ended up biting the bullet & sold my reliable Suzuki Swift to begin importing my Eunos Roadster.
What challenges come with having an older car as a daily?
This car has been pretty good to me for the most part. Funnily enough, a fair amount of the challenges I face driving this car daily usually circles back to its size & lack of space. Every old car needs attention & money put into it to be reliable. There has definitely been times where the car has been off the road for a few days due to parts seizing or failing, but it's something I knew I would have to deal with owning a car that's almost 30 years old and thankfully there's been no major issues as of yet!
How did you go about importing and what was the process like?
The import process was definitely a little stressful, but worth it! I began searching in March 2021, didn't end up purchasing a car at auction until June & the car then arrived in September that year. The quality of cars coming through the USS Auctions is definitely declining as time goes by, making it a lot harder to find nice examples of these old japanese cars. A lot of the cars we looked at were full of rust, which wasn't visible in auction photos. Luckily, I used an importer who had agents onsite in Japan to inspect the cars on my behalf before we bid at auction. This was super helpful & made the decision to import a little less scary, as my biggest fear was importing an absolute lemon.
Any particular plans for the Miata or just to continue enjoying how it is?
No particular plans, I'm mainly just focusing on getting the car running as best as possible. The car sat for a while in Japan and wasn't driven for an extended period of time. A lot of money has been put into maintaining the cars driveability. Being a 28 year old car, things begin to wear out and need to be repaired or replaced. Cosmetically, the car is pretty sound already. Although, I do have plans to enhance that a little bit. I'm not going to give anything away, you'll have to wait and see!
you’ve only had the @mashthemiata account for just over two years now but grown tremendously currently standing at 29.8k. Is there anything you’ve done that might have helped this sort of growth?
do you think this has affected your current experiences in the automotive community?
I actually started my Instagram page before my car even landed in the country... I wanted to document the import process & I also wanted to connect with people in the car community. Once the car arrived, I was constantly taking photos & videos of it because I was just so excited. I began uploading to Instagram & Tiktok and the content I was posting gained a bit of traction, which was crazy. I have a background in photography and always loved creating content. I couldn't tell you exactly how the accounts grew so quickly, but I think quality, consistent & engaging content definitely contributed to the growth. I have met so many awesome people through social media & have been presented so many incredible opportunities. Regardless of how many followers you have or how many likes you get, I think it's important to put yourself out there & get involved in the community. That's half the fun!
You’ve created For The Girls - a community for female car enthusiasts. Can you explain what it’s all about and how you came to creating it?
For The Girls is a Sydney based group that focuses on hosting car related events for female car enthusiasts. I started FTG because I wanted to create a safe space for women in the car community to come together, connect & network with other likeminded women. We host regular events (meets, cruises, car shows, etc.) and we try to host a mixed event once a year for everyone to attend! We aim to support local women's organisations & not for profits where possible too! We do this by running raffles at our events where we fundraise for certain organisations and we also host regular charity drives throughout the year.
Just had the first FTG proper car show, how did the event go & was it as expected? + What could be expected at a future FTG event?
Yes, we just wrapped up our 2023 Charity Car Show! This was our biggest event to date & it was open to everyone, not just the girls! We had some awesome brands/businesses on board supporting this event, including; Macarthur Motorsport & Mechanical, Bendix, Bar's Bugs, Shannons and Australian Drift Club, just to name a few. All profits from this event were donated to WILMA Women's Health Centre, a local women's organisation dedicated to providing empowering and evidence-based health & wellbeing services to women in a safe, supportive & holistic environment. Thanks to everyone's support, we managed to raise $7,504 for WILMA. It was a great day & we are stoked with this result. Stay tuned for next year's big event!
Where do you see FTG heading in the future? - Is there a goal for it?
Moving forward, our goal is to continue growing our network of women & keep hosting fun and engaging events for them all to to attend. We're planning to do bigger and better things in 2024, watch this space!
