Miata, Always a Good Sport
Long before roadster rage--and almost a decade before the BMW Z3, Plymouth Prowler, Boxster and Beetle began selling their heritages for a mess of sales--there was the Mazda Miata.
It was a retrospective rascal catering to our remorse at never having owned an MG, Triumph, Austin-Healey or Morgan. Or any other British sports car that leaked, creakedand was dashing only when it was running and sun was shining on the Cotswolds.
Wobbly icons all, they steered in approximations, typically went faster than their ability to stop, and their nuts didn’t fit our wrenches. They also introduced Americans to the 18-month back order, something called a plug spanner, and oil seals that couldn’t be potty trained.
But the Miata did it right, scoring mightily by being precisely what a Limey two-seater might have been if Triumph, MG et al. had gone the Full Monty. Quick but manageable. Exhilarating but safe. Pretty, a flirt, good fun, spunky, impossibly reliable, and never a threat to your paycheck by purchase, repair or maintenance.
Today, after 10 years and almost half a million affairs to remember, the Miata is poised to extend the romance and expand its record as the world’s best-selling two-seater.
Like its ancestors, the 1999 Mazda MX-5 Miata is cramped quarters for a large couple, and only has trunk space for two bags of spilled groceries. It has a tiny gearshift, little pedals, dinky wheels and sits hub-high to a Range Rover. Trunk, doors and hood close with the tinny clatter of a lunch pail. For anyone over the age of 17, or who fails Jenny Craig’s height-weight physical, there is no graceful way to enter or leave this car unless you can flex and twist like Gumby.
Don’t be daft. Of course, you can’t hear the radio with the top down. Not even with the windows up and a breeze screen, a 1999 addition, behind the seats.
But that’s the price, even the charming compromise, of a partnership in time. With a Miata comes that wonderful sense of driving a Sports Car Club of America G Production racer on city streets. It darts through traffic, is a terrier behind a Buick on the twisty bits and does it with impudence without attracting too much attention. Nor can we deny its open-top invitation to the sunny seductions of alfresco motoring.
Those were the original qualities; they are the charms that have survived Miata’s transition to its second decade. They even have been made all the merrier by a stiffer chassis, a little more power from the Maytag motor, and styling that has removed a lot of toy-like appearance and most of Miata’s puppy fat.
The grille yawns wider, and pop-up headlights--perennial zits on the old look--have been replaced by flush ovals. Now you can play European hotshot and lay some high beams on stonewallers in the fast lane without the corners of your Miata winking like a Bud-wise-er bullfrog. (Unfortunately, as always, nobody will get out of the way.)
From behind, there is no mistaking the new car because the bulging upper lip on the rear deck--almost a hint of an old continental wheel kit--swells a little larger than last year’s. Not for design aesthetics, we suspect, but to offer more room for the mid-mounted brake light, plus Mazda’s mustachioed new logo.
None of this will bring wows of envy from existing Miatans. Most, it will disappoint curbside critics who expect significant distinctions, visually and mechanically, between iterations of their automobiles. But the minor changes do add up to a more capable, better looking, sassier second edition that’s better than the original--which is more than you can say for “The Love Boat.”
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Power from its uncomplicated four-banger is up to 140 horsepower from 133, with a mild boost in torque in the early gears. Not exactly neck-snapping force, but enough to get the job done for those prepared to rock ‘n’ roll with the five-speed and to use 5,500 rpm as a shift point on the way to fifth. Working those gears, incidentally, is a ton of giggles thanks to a shortened shifter and a box that is firm without being over-notchy, and remarkably quick in finding and switching gears.
Trunk space has been enlarged to 5.1 cubic feet (an improvement of 10% gained by moving the battery and spare tire beneath the floor), which is admirable--but fractional, once you accept that there was very little there to begin with. There’s an optional automatic transmission, which we haven’t tried, and don’t want to, because predetermined shifting is a total betrayal of the sports car experience. Except, maybe, for those who always have salespersons pick out their ties.
The top is manual, and raising or retracting the canvas is a light, one-handed, effortless maneuver. Last year’s scratch- and fog-prone plastic rear window thankfully has been replaced by real glass, with a built-in demister. But the soft boot is a calamity, easy to slot and snap into place, but quick to come adrift and start flapping in the breeze before you’re up to freeway speed.
The interior is generally unchanged but for some new boxes and openings for hiding stuff. Plus a key switch for deactivating the passenger side air bag if that seat is empty.
You’ll also notice a face on the dashboard: air vents for eyes, emergency flasher button for a nose, and the radio display for a mouth. It will give you somebody to complain to while sucking diesel fumes on the Hollywood Freeway.
A high joy of the Miata is that it is light, and no creature of brute force. Control is pin sharp, and it changes directions like a whippet. It also is one of those rare sports cars with limits that are a pretty fair match for average driving skills. Therein the ultimate exhilaration of being lord and mistress of a little racer that your skills can take to the exciting outer edges of its handling--but in absolute safety, because the Miata wasn’t designed to do anything dumb without sending you an e-mail of its intentions.
However, it remains a car for young singles, and isolated purists who get their jollies from topless two-seaters with an engine up front and power to the rear.
A Miata is even OK for the newly coupled, until the day they might want to cram a stroller and diaper bag into the trunk. But closeness of occupants, and lack of such niceties as an audible sound system, make the car a short-distance traveler best purchased by big people who are part of a multi-car family. Should El Nino return, take the bus.
For a base price of $19,770, it is a peppy, glorious, affordable roadster, about half the price of a Porsche Boxster or BMW’s bigger-engined Z3. It has enduring appeal and enormous legs. When Miata was introduced in 1989, it had to arm-wrestle sales from the Alfa Romeo Spider, Pontiac Fiero, Toyota MR2, and then the Mercury Capri and Honda Civic del Sol.
Miata is still around.
Where have all the other flowers gone?
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1999 Mazda MX-5 Miata
The Good: Vastly improved in power, tauter chassis, styling, luggage space--matters where it really mattered. No more pop-up headlights. Completely affordable, while prices of other roadsters have driven off the page. Deft handling, quick shifting and peppy acceleration. Plus the sensual joy of top-down motoring.
The Bad: Like a good dog, this is essentially a one-person car. Tonneau cover that comes adrift.
The Ugly: Thinking of a world without Miata.
1999 Mazda MX-5 Miata
Cost
* Base, $19,770 (includes dual air bags, with passenger side deactivation, disc brakes, sound system with CD, remote trunk and fuel lid release, center console, carpeting, five-speed manual).
* As tested, $23,200 (adds power steering, alloy wheels, power mirror and windows, limited slip differential, cruise control, power antenna, wind blocker, air-conditioning, three-spoke, leather-wrapped NARDI wheel).
Engine
* 1.8-liter, 16-valve, in-line-four developing 140 horsepower.
Type
* Front-engine, rear-drive, two-seater roadster.
Performance
* 0-60 mph, as tested, 8.6 seconds, with five-speed manual.
* Top speed, 118 mph.
* Fuel consumption, EPA, city and highway, 25 and 29 mpg.
Curb Weight
* 2,299 pounds.
