I think you had bad luck - I bought a Miata with 50k on it and it had a few mods that indicated it had almost certainly been raced. I owned it for 6 years without a problem driving enthusiastically year around (except when there was active ice or snow on the ground - it is too light and sucks big time on those, unlike my F type which has been stellar with winter tires). My impression is that most Miata owners look after their cars. The Miata forum is more mechanically focused than this one and very quick to react to any issues.
Insurance wise I am paying 60% more, but for a car that is valued at 5x as much.
I also worried about changing down to British reliability but figured that in the end there is always a leap of faith as there are lemons everywhere - even with new cars.

 

I've had my 2016 F-Type R since November 2015, almost 23,000 miles in that time with only a difficult to open sun shade to comment about (replaced under warranty at the 16k mile service. Otherwise perfect and I drive it fairly hard.

 

Thanks everyone! I'm honestly going to pull this dream aside for a few years, get a decent reliable (more everyday friendly) daily driver and when the time comes I'll hopefully get a F-Type that I can use during the summer.

 

So interesting to hear people opine about how bad the risk is with used cars. Since I'm an engineer I deal in facts. Let's start with fact 1: manufacturing technology with internal combustion engines, transmissions, brakes, accessories, electronics, etc. is soooo advanced today than when we grew up in the 60s that I'm amazed the myths still abound. I've owned the following used cars (mileage denotes when we parted with the vehicles - still running fine except for a tree event with the Galant): '98 Mercury Grand Marquis ($130K miles), 2005 Mitsubishi Galant (129K miles), 2005 Ford 500 (152K miles), 2008 Kia Sorento (123K miles), 2009 Hyundai Sonata (102K still in family), 2011 Hyundai Genesis 4.6 (80K miles still in family - my driver for more than 2 people). The new cars I've had include an '06 Kia Sorento where it was sold with the AC dead at around 120K miles. All the others gave us virtually no issues. Now let's talk track cars. I owned 1984 Turbo GT Mustang that I definitely put 10K of track miles on it. I finally blew a head gasket at 80K miles. I could still see hone marks in the cylinders when I replaced the gasket. There were minor detonation indications - and I was running alot more boost and power than the factory design. I swapped the turbo at that time since we cracked the cast iron exhaust turbine housing from all the heat cycles. My '88 Mustang, later tweaked (315 HP, 360 ft. lbs. torque) saw many track miles with no issues until I ran it too lean - my fault. The rebuilt powertrain is in my Factory Five Racing Cobra today. Cars today are SOOO much more robust than 40 years ago. Don't worry about used, especially if you have warranty left before you buy.