2011 MAZDA MIATA MX-5 REVIEW
Austin Powers, Your Car Has Arrived

The time is now, and Austin Powers needs a new car with the all the spirit and essence of the classic 1960s British sports car. Not a problem. The car is available right this minute, is reliable as all get out, and it’s made by Mazda. It is, of course, the Miata MX-5. They even make one with a nifty power retractable hardtop, called the PRHT (Power Retractable Hardtop). Brian Kennedy reports on the top-of-the-line Special Edition model. By Brian Kennedy The Miata has been an icon from day one. A friend of mine bought one back in 1990, about a year after they came out, and drove it from Ohio to Tennessee for a weekend writing retreat. “Everywhere I went, people treated me like a celebrity,” I remember him saying. He later bought another one, a Special Edition model made late in the decade. Before that, he’d been driving a Triumph TR6 rust bucket. The Miatas gave him a way of enjoying the freedom of the tiny open roadster without any of the reliability problems associated with British cars of the time. Here we are twenty years later, and Mazda still offers a version of the car, now called the MX-5 Miata and sporting a retractable hard top and a price north of 30k for the latest Special Edition, which is a Grand Touring Premium model with extra goodies added, such as top-line leather with special stitching. Of course, my willingness to consider the Mazda on your behalf had little to do with special packages. I wanted merely to see what all the fuss has been about all these years and 900,000 versions after the birth of that original blue-with-black-top model my friend had.

I’d never driven one except briefly on a test at a dealer about ten years ago. I was considering one since I worked close to home at the time, and it seemed like a fun idea. The cramped quarters dissuaded me, not from a personal standpoint, but from a “what if I buy a lot of groceries this week?” standpoint. There wasn’t much trunk room. Still isn’t. But maybe, now that there are other cars in the driveway that can serve as haulers, it’s time for me to have an MX-5. Perhaps the same is true for you, so here’s my experience. My big caveat—you need first to decide if you’re a convertible person. I’m not, I discovered, though not without some experimentation that yielded some memories. Down in Manhattan Beach on a Tuesday evening, there was a moment when it all seemed right. We parked on a side street, got out of the car, locked the glove box, and left the top down while we strolled away to get an ice cream in the tiny downtown. That movie moment, the one that marks you a carefree person of the world, that says it’s okay to leave the horse unattended, seemed like one I’d like to repeat. I glanced back at the car as we rounded the corner toward the creamery. “Hmm, I might be able to do this,” I thought. I left the top down while we cruised down PCH and over the Vincent Thomas and Terminal Island bridges. The air was cool, the sights grand. Until we headed up the 710 toward Pasadena. Then, the tinyness of the car overwhelmed both me and my passenger. In the southern-most part of the freeway, where the speed limit is still 55 mph, I was going along at speed when a truck whizzed past on the right, heading for the 405 cutoff. “Wow, those tires are big!” I said involuntarily.

The feeling that having the hardtop up would afford a measure of protection was comforting, but then, why buy this car to keep the hardtop up? In fact, if you do that, don’t expect great visibility. Hard to imagine on a car this small, but there’s not a lot of rearward view if you turn around to look out the back window when the top is up. Partly, this is because your elbow hits the back wall of the car, and you can’t really pivot like you would in a car with a back seat. Okay, so buy the Miata and keep the top down. Nice idea, but in much of California, much of the year, that’s an invitation to bake. I see people doing it—rolling along in the 90-degree heat with the car open. They’re wearing baseball caps, usually, or sun hats. That seems entirely counter-intuitive—why invite the sun in only to block it out? For me, the ideal convertible weather is 70 degrees. Maybe that’s a few weeks or months a year, unless you live near the beach. So why have a top that stows? I’m not saying that’s a strong enough reason not to buy the Miata. Just that I don’t think I would use the convertible (retractable) feature enough the justify having an open topped car.

On the other hand, for about ten thousand bucks less than the car I had (around $23), you can get the iconic softtop model. I think I’d give it serious consideration over the other one. I wouldn’t feel so guilty about not putting the top down all the time. But enough about that. What I like about the car has nothing to do with the top. It’s the mechanicals, and the feel. When I first got in, and ever after, the sensation was of being in a much bigger, heavier car than what this one is. The hood is long, the nose heavy. The feeling, though I’m not certain this is intended, is much more 60s British car (or even American ponycar) than 2010s Japanese one. Pulling out of my driveway the first time, I was reminded of the first day I drove my 1966 Mustang. I got in, saw the long hood reaching out in front of me, put the pedal down, and spun the rear wheels. “Oh my, what’s this? This is not my dream!” I recall thinking. The experience driving the car wasn’t at all like my imagination of it had been. The same was true of the Miata. I expected quiet refinement. I got a feeling of a car designed a decade or two ago. Not that that’s bad. In fact, the car has more character than many of the generic, smoothed-out vehicles you can buy today. But from a consumer’s point of view, I wonder if a test drive in this model would be enough to make one peruse the classifieds for a good used version. If the sensation is of getting a brand new but somewhat outdated car (the lack of dedicated iPod interface is another sign of this car being long in the tooth—you have to use a plug-in and run the iPod off its own controls, rather than off the head unit), why spend this kind of money for a new one? Why not grab a few year old one for half the dough? Fifteen grand gets you one, and you’re probably not going to put that many miles on it, anyway.

To go along with that, the car is somewhat unrefined in its ride. I know Miatas are raced and tuned, but the straight out of the box version has clunks and bumps that don’t let you forget that it’s a convertible. Looking underneath reveals the cross-drilled chassis bracing that stabilizes it by tying corner to corner (not quite literally), but if you’re expecting Lexus IS convertible smoothness, forget it. The MX-5 is just too small. That’s not to say it’s not fast, and here’s the part that car people will love about this model. The engine is more than adequate to keep you happy, and the nose lifts pleasantly when you apply the pedal. There’s enough noise up there to tell you something’s happening, too. And the six-speed is pretty snicky—maybe a little less smooth than an econo-car box, but why would you want anything but a racing feel? And here we get back to the point. There’s a bunch of stuff wrong with the Miata. It’s outdated, cramped, and not for everyone. But it’s also quick and easy to handle and plenty boy-racerish for making a fool of yourself. I’ve said this before, and it’s not original to me—driving a fast car slow is no fun. The new Mustang V8, much as I hate to denigrate my favorite all-time car, is just too powerful for the street. You lug it in second gear all the time. Ditto all the high-horsepower brothers it has out there. The Miata is different. It’s raw at times and yet fast, allowing you to push it to its limits but still stay within the limits of the law. That’s joy on pavement, friends.

So if you can live with the old-school nature of the car, and you don’t mind the cramped quarters (I’m 160 lbs and 5’10”, and I thought the car was small inside, and hard to get in and out of. Most Americans are way huger than I am, so judge for yourself), go out and give it a test drive. You might end up with the model I tested, or you might be perfectly happy with one of the less-expensive offerings Mazda has in the line. Either way, and top up or down, you’ll feel connected to a community of enthusiasts who thrash these things, or you can just imagine yourself cruising around England in this car’s spiritual brothers, those darned British grease-leakers. SIDEBAR COMMENT A couple of comments about the Power Retractable Hardtop option (otherwise known as the PRHT) are worth noting. For one, it goes up or down in 12 seconds—that’s way quicker than the vast majority of convertible hardtops. Even more noteworthy, however, is that the Miata PRHT is the rare convertible hardtop that doesn’t shrink the capacity of the trunk when the top is down. That’s because the panels go in an area behind the seats rather than in the trunk. It’s able to do this because the top is so small compared to other cars. Also, although the PRHT is not available on the base model, it is available on the next-to-the-bottom Touring model as a $1,700 option. That means you can get a PRHT model for $27,150, which is considerably less than the fully loaded test vehicle we had. In any event, the Miata remains one of the most fun cars you can buy at any price. Like Brian says, it’s not all about driving a fast car. The Miata feels fast and sporty even when you’re driving slow. In the end, it may mean way fewer speeding tickets per fun mile. – Roy Nakano For more information on Mazda products, go to www.mazdausa.com

SPECIFICATIONS Name of vehicle: 2011 Mazda MX-5 Miata Power Retractable Hardtop Grand Touring Special Edition Price $23113 (base price for Sport model) $26,710 (base price for Grand Touring model) $28,550 (Grand Touring model with Power Retractable Hardtop) $30,925 (PRHT GT Special Edition model) EPA-estimated miles per gallon (city/highway): 21/28 Engine: 2.0L DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder with VVT (MZR) Horsepower: 166 @ 6700 rpm (6AT; 163 @ 6700) Torque: 140 @ 5000 rpm

Transmission: Six-speed manual (optional 6-speed automatic with available sequential-shifting manumatic mode on all models except Sport) Drive configuration: Rear-wheel drive Brakes Front: Power-assisted ventilated 11.4-inch disc brakes Rear: Power-assisted solid 11-inch solid disc brakes Suspension Front: Independent double wishbone with stabilizer bar Rear: Independent multi-link with stabilizer bar Dimensions Length: 157.3 inches Height: 49.4 inches Width: 67.7 inches Curb weight: 2,573 pounds