a friend and i went to see the new miata. he's owns a 97 and has been waiting for the 3rd gen to come out to see if he wants to "upgrade". we drove the special edition (hey it wouldn't be a miata w/out a special edition) we also drove a mid-range model with an automatic. these were the only two miatas on the lot. nice cars. felt a little heavy compared to my buddies 97 and my old 01, however it felt more substantial. the 2.0 liter is nice. strong enough. revs willingly to red-line, that's for sure. handles nice. a little tippy, but stock miatas are. interestingly we both preferred the base miata with it's standard suspension. it was well planted and handled better than the SE with the sport suspension. steering was good, but there was a lot of play in the wheel on center. styling is subjective, so i won't comment on the exterior. i will say the butch level is turned up a bit, however it's still recognizable as a miata ... and that's good. vw aside, i think mazda is building the best interiors in this price range. they did a great job with the 3 and hit another homer with the miata. matierals are good and seem screwed together well. however rx-8 owners complain of rattles as the miles rack up. time will tell if the miata has the same affliction. i'm not sure how i feel about the new top. my pal seemed to like the single latch versus two. at first it seems great that a boot is no longer required because boots are often a pain to deal with (though nothing near as bad as the boot we are forced to deal with on the s2000) anyway, after seeing the top folded i noticed huge holes on each side of the top that weren't covered. it left it looking unfinished ... like a convertible with out a boot. it also seems like it would be a good place for dirt and debris to collect.

my buddy summed it up the best when he said, "it's just like my 97, but new." i would agree ... and that's a good thing.

ps. the sales gal was very cool. as this dealer also sells fords, she took us into the ford showroom to see a ford GT! wow! man what presense! B E A U T - full!!!!

 

it does add one thing the old one was missing...power.

stock it is faster than the outgoing mazdaspeed model. The new Mazdaspeed model, with a 2.3 turbo MZR (my prediction) would be a total ANIMAL.

 

Interesting -- can you elaborate?

 

someone on the miata forum mentioned tires as a possible reason. i hadn't thought of that. i checked the dealers inventory to see exactly what trim level the other model was. it was a touring w/6 speed auto and no other options or packages. the SE seemed hesitant to react. that could be a result of the 17" wheels versus the 16's on the touring. i don't know tire measurements for the two, but if the SE's tires are wider that could also contribute to a "slower" handling car. also, the SE, to me, seemd to wallow around a bit. i am used to the s2000 and its stiffly sprung ... to a fault. that thing'll shake your fillings loose on a bad road. however, that wallowing motion didn't seem to be there as much in the touring. could come down to tire preasure too.

none-the-less, nice car. i don't care for the shiny bits of the SE, but the touring seemed to really get it right. more simple or more pure, i guess.

 

From what I've read, in order for Mazda to keep the ride from being too harsh for us Americans that like huge wheels, but a soft ride, they put soft springs on the sport suspension. IMO, they should have kept 15" wheels on the base and 16's on the sports. 17's are rediculous on the car. Same with the Mazdaspeed turbos. The damn thing looks like a monster truck. The '99 sports were able to pull .90+ g with the stock 195-50-15 Michelin Pilot SX's. The car doesn't need 17's, but today's market is all about da big wheels yo!

 

i agree...big wheels are only good for slowing you down and burning extra gas.

 

bling bling

 

they just had the zoom zoom live event around here. i got to drive the miata and rx-8 around the track they had setup...it was a lot of fun!
the new miata is really nice looking on the inside but i just can't used to that front end. the handling on both cars was impressive...the rx-8 seemed to handle better than the s but it's hard to tell in a 40 second lap. the miata had a really good amount of torque which really suprised me.

 

does the new miata has a structural roll bar for roll-over protection?

(i can tell there's something behind the seats, but can't really tell if they will offer any roll over protection)