Mazda didn’t debut anything at this year’s Detroit Auto Show, but that doesn’t mean there was nothing to see at the Mazda stand. We couldn’t wait to spend some time snooping around the upcoming 2016 MX-5 Miata. It’s dimensions feel like they are tidier than ever with a truly small scale making it feel almost comical when standing next to it. But sink into that simply bolstered seat, tile the wheel into adjustment and you can imagine the backroads unwinding in front of the impossibly low hood on a beautiful summer morning. It’s 2.0-liter four cylinder still doesn’t have final power figures but it’ll be enough to push this lightweight package around with haste. Just how lightweight is something else we don’t yet know. Keep checking Automotive Trends for our full review as soon as we can get our hands on one later this summer.
Dye navigates the 2006 Mazda MX-5 through a slight chicane during our comparison of it versus the Pontiac Solstice.
It takes more than a spot of rain to dampen our spirits when our charge is a 2009 Mazda MX-5 Miata!
With Every Birthday Mazda’s Best-Selling Roadster Redefines Perfection
Those of us in this business have now been trying to explain the Miata’s magic for 20 years. We use poetic superlatives and proclamations like “thrilling!” and “unbeatable!” and even with a heaping helping of exclamation points we can’t always convey its awesomeness. You must simply experience the pure driving pleasure Mazda’s minimalist roadster continues to provide two decades after its debut to understand its enthralling charm. Our real job, then, is to keep you up to date on the little changes Mazda makes every few years to keep the MX-5 on top of its game. For 2009 Mazda made just enough tweaks to make a revisit worthwhile for the AT staff. Who are we kidding, a smile occupies our faces every time Mazda sends one our way. Here then is what’s new in the land of Miata. Read more…
Better Than Expected
Driving a Mazda MX-5 Miata with an automatic is like dating a cross-eyed supermodel. As long as she keeps her lids latched you’ll be the envy of bachelors everywhere, but the moment her pupils start peeking her seemingly perfect package is forever flawed. The same scenario will haunt owners of the slush-box Miata. When your car buddies see you pull up in the poster car for roadster perfection they’ll stand ready to congratulate your wise purchase. As soon as they see the automatic shifter they’ll slap you silly—Jerry Springer style. And as enthusiasts, clear cut condemnation of any Miata with an automatic seems warranted. With a computer making the decisions that elemental “oneness” between man and machine is lost. Read more…
Maybe We Could Have Picked A Warmer Weekend?
The plan drawn up at AT headquarters was deceptively simply: Gather the hot new Mazda MX-5 and the sexy Pontiac Solstice, drop their respective tops, and chase the horizon for a day of fantastic fall fun. It’s the stuff dreams are made of—or at least our tire smoking, fuel-injected dreams. This plan, however, would require two things. First, that we could get our anxious little paws on the keys to the two hottest cars for 2006 during the same week. And second, that the weather in Michigan in late fall wouldn’t resemble something from The Day After Tomorrow. Read more…
Ivory Soap used to advertise that its product was 99 and 44/100ths-percent pure.
Mazda could have said the same thing about the Miata when it was introduced in 1989. The first Miata was about as pure as sports cars could get, offering only the bare necessities of transportation so that it could focus on its core mission: fun for the driver. Read more…
