Scary Downeast Drop-Tops: 1978 MG Midget vs 2000 BMW Z3

Good morning! Since Halloween is near, I decided to take another stab at finding some spooky cars. And where better to look than in the backyard of the master of horror himself, Stephen King? I aimed my browser at Maine and found a couple of convertibles that are bound to keep you up at night.

Yesterday’s cars weren’t all that scary, unless you fear being strangled by a robotic seat belt. I guess I’m not surprised that the Integra won; people love those things. I had a bad experience with one, but it was more to do with circumstance and a bad deal than with the car itself, but I guess I can see why they’re so popular.

Me, I’d rather have the little 323, though. I just love the BG platform, and I’ve long been a fan of Mazda’s manual shifter feel. And there’s something really appealing about that generation of 323’s slightly dumpy styling, like it’s not even trying to be cool and it doesn’t care what you think. I admire that.

Now then: I don’t know about any of you, but I feel like my pop-culture upbringing was in large part defined by horror. Forget John Hughes; I was all about John Carpenter. I grew up watching cheesy old horror movies with Son of Svengoolie on WFLD in Chicago, talking older friends and cousins into taking me to see Freddy and Jason movies, and of course, raiding my mom’s shelf of Stephen King novels.

I’ve been a gearhead for even longer than I’ve been a horror fan, and I picked up on something early on in my explorations of Stephen King’s work: there are a lot of cars in there. I mean, there’s Christine, of course, but mechanical difficulties with cars are plot points in both The Shining, and, more substantially, Cujo. A car that acts as an interdimensional portal is the basis for the underrated From A Buick 8. Not to mention short stories like “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut,” “Dolan’s Cadillac,” “Trucks,” “Uncle Otto’s Truck,” “The Road Virus Heads North,” and some others I’m probably forgetting. I can draw only one conclusion from this: Stephen King is a bit of a car guy. If I ever meet him, I intend to ask him if I’m right.

It’s only fitting, then, that we celebrate spooky season with a couple of scary sports cars for sale in Maine. Cover your eyes and peek through your fingers; let’s take a look.

1978 MG Midget – $3,200

Engine/drivetrain: 1.5-liter overhead valve inline 4, four-speed manual, RWD

Location: Brooks, ME

Odometer reading: 82,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

“This is the way the world ends,” wrote T.S. Eliot, “Not with a bang but a whimper.” He could have been talking about British Leyland, the massive conglomerate formed when the already bloated British Motor Holdings merged with Leyland Motors in 1968. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but by 1978 when this poor MG Midget staggered off the assembly line, half of British Leyland’s brands were dead or dying, labor strikes were the rule rather than the exception, and quality control was a lip-service idea at best.

Worse, the Midget’s original Austin A-series engine, a defining part of its character since 1961, had been replaced by a Triumph engine, the same 1493 cubic centimeter engine as the Triumph Spitfire. In Britain, that meant a bump in power and performance, but here in the US, the smog-strangled Triumph engine made all of fifty horsepower. This one may do a little better; it looks like its Zenith-Stromberg carb has been replaced with a Weber DGV, but it’s still a low-compression malaise-era lump. The good news is that it runs well.

It looks a little tired inside, but intact. If you want to freshen it up, everything you could possibly need is still available. That’s the nice thing about British sports cars, for now anyway: they have a loyal enough following to keep them going, even a generally unloved late-model Midget like this. Be warned, though; “Midget” isn’t just a clever name. This car is tiny. The seller says “If you’re tall or large this isn’t for you.” No kidding.

The paint on it isn’t great, but the top is in good shape, and it looks like it has escaped the tin worm. Several under-car photos are included in the ad, and they all look rust-free. It does have those giant rubber 5 MPH bumpers, which somehow look even worse on the Midget than they do on an MGB, and someone has added that gigantic chin spoiler to the front, which isn’t helping. The good news is that it’s far easier to de-rubber-bumper a Midget than it is an MGB, and they look pretty sharp without them.

2000 BMW Z3 – $3,500

Engine/drivetrain: 2.3-liter dual overhead cam inline 6, five-speed automatic, RWD

Location: Portland, ME

Odometer reading: 171,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well, but has a check-engine light

Little convertible sports cars fell out of fashion after MG and Triumph collapsed and Fiat abandoned the US market, but they never did quite disappear completely. Alfa Romeo kept the flame alive until a new generation of roadsters appeared a decade later, including the Mazda Miata, Lotus Elan, Porsche Boxster, and this car, the BMW Z3.

The Z3 debuted with a 1.9 liter four-cylinder engine, but BMW soon got wise and realized that the one thing that could distinguish it from the Miata was its legendary inline six. Sadly, this one is missing one item critical to the success of any sports car: a clutch pedal. Yep, some damn fool ordered this car with an automatic transmission, a GM-sourced five-speed gearbox. I mean, it works, but an automatic is a sin in any BMW smaller than a 7 Series, in my book. In a roadster, it’s just plain silly. It does run well, but the check-engine light is on for bad oxygen sensors. New sensors are included; not sure why the seller doesn’t just install them and be done with it. Plausible deniability in case the problem is actually more serious, I suppose.

The interior is a little rough around the edges: there’s a split seam in the passenger’s seat, and it looks like the door panels need some attention. And I do wish people would take the trouble to vacuum cars before photographing them for sale. It just makes it look so grubby with all that crud on the floor.

It does look good outside. The paint is still shiny, and there’s no sign of any rust. Best to check underneath, though; I don’t know if Maine uses salt on the roads or not, but with 171,000 miles on the clock, it’s a good bet this car has been driven in the winter at some point. And there’s no clear photo in the ad of the car with the top up, so it’s hard to say what sort of shape it’s in.

There are more frightening cars out there, of course, but either of these two will give you more to worry about than a Miata would. One is a British car from the ’70s, and the other is a turn-of-the-millennium BMW, after all. You’re in for some heartache and misery either way. But you’re also in for the wonderful sensation that is open-air motoring on a nice day. Which one is worth the trouble?

(Image credits: sellers)