Last week, all over the car-loving internet there was a disturbing story: a 17-year-old buys his first car, a Mazda Miata. Great choice, right? Well, not according to his post on Reddit, where he describes a depressing litany of vandalism to his car by small-minded dipshits who scrawled “bitch boy car” on his MX-5. Luckily, it’s most likely bullshit. Yay, I guess!
For proper context, here’s the original post on Reddit (his account has since been deleted):
hey guys, im 17 and have worked my ass off for 2 years to save up for my first car. i managed to save around 4300 to buy the exact NA miata i wanted. adult owned with 51k miles and original window sticker. anyways, i knew that the comments id get for owning a miata would come soon, but not like this. since the 2 weeks ive been driving my car to school, its been keyed 8 different times and the wipers snapped off twice. it also looks like someone took some sharp object and started stabbing at the rag top roof. all 8 key marks with different words such as “Fag” and “bitch boy ride” all over. i talked to my friends about it and they all just said “lol yeah thats what you get for owning a miata”
school wont do shit, saying that i signed a contract to acknowledge they dont have cameras nor are the responsible for any damage. considering selling, but i love my car so much and it just hurts seeing something damaged that i worked so fucking hard for. anyways i just want some advice. thanks in advance guys.
edit: you guys are really cool
wow i didnt expect so much attention from this. my dad contacted Fox 4 news and we are waiting for their response. as for the school, i asked for a copy of the contract and student handbook. the police i have yet to contact, ill offer no legal problems as long as they agree to pay for the damages if they fess up after seeing it on the news. maybe even wash my car a couple times.
update: fox 4 is on it :-). seriously thank you so much for the support, it makes this situation so much better. hearing all this made me put forth the idea of taking legal action, we are meeting up with our lawyer on monday and filling out a report tomorrow. also a go fund me is unnecessary, although i myself have no money at the moment im am very lucky to have my helpful parents. i didnt even tell them about it until this morning, they both have been extremely helpful. also, i have no idea why anyone would hate me enough to hurt my property. i talk to no one, do my shit at school and leave. being social just isnt my thing, im more amused by being surrounded by cars and engineering. also ive taken my fathers audi s5 to school numerous times and nothing has happened to that. i guess if it isnt a.) Lifted truck b.) 14/15 mustang or c.) some fancy german car, they have a problem with it.
We at Jalopnik resisted writing about this last week because, frankly, we were suspicious of the whole thing from the start, and wanted to wait until the news story from TV station FOX 4 (alluded to in the post) appeared to see what another source made of this.
There was always something about this story that just seemed a little to on-the-nose, if you know what I mean — it felt like something designed to get gearheads riled up. Take a car that’s an icon in many communities but one that still fights against an effeminate reputation from outsiders and insecure jackasses, subject it to some shitty vandalism with just enough slurs and homophobia to get a bit of a hate-crime feel going, and boom, instant support and sympathy from the car-loving community.
And while it’s shitty this kid (most likely) made up this desperate, attention-hungry tale, what the whole thing really shows is actually quite positive: first, no Miatas were harmed, and the high school-age population of Texas has been shown to be at least not as bad as we were led to believe.
Second, it’s another great example of just how supportive and great the overall gearhead community actually is. In fact, the reason the Miata Kid was outed as a liar is because so many people wanted to help and support him. One group, TexasImportsToday, was planning on getting an event together to “do something special” for the kid, help fix up his Miata with donated parts, and generally being generous, classy people.
As more and more attention and scrutiny came on the Miata Kid and his unfortunate situation, things started to unravel. He claimed his dad sold the car, the vandals had been caught, and the family wanted to avoid publicity. In short, he was trying to back away and end it all. Soon after, his Reddit account was deleted, the Miata Kid disappeared, and the high school the events supposedly took place at couldn’t confirm anything. There’s a good chance this was all a hoax, and now it’s over.
It’s easy to be pissed at this insecure, anonymous whoever, but that’s not how I see this. The whole situation just makes me proud to be a filthy-fingernailed gearhead, and once again reaffirms my belief that, somehow, the gene for genuine love of cars — all cars — and the gene for being Not An Asshole must reside on the same chromosome.
There’s no shame in being fooled when the response to the fooling was so overwhelmingly generous and good.
So, to TexasImportsToday and all the other car groups out there who supported a (even hypothetical) kid in their dream of driving the car they wanted, popular or not, you have my personal thanks for being so wonderful.