Now it can be told: the purpose of my leaving the country was not to escape prosecution but rather to drive the new Miata in Barcelona. In right-hand-drive, 1.5-liter, Japanese-market form, but still!
You can check out my thoughts here. Come Monday, I’ll have some additional technical details and interview questions up on TTAC. Although I found driving a wrong-side-wheel car in an unfamiliar country a bit daunting at first, before long I was being my usual annoying self. However, the combination of the narrow Spanish roads, the wide trucks, and the right-side seating position can be a bit tricky…
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to listening to this Jamaican baggage handler mack on the chunky black girl at the ticket counter. “You need to have your fun in your twenties, girl — you marry this man and you don’t experience the other varieties of pleasure, your marriage last maybe one year, I see it before.”
My real question is this: when I get one (and I will), will my NA sit in the garage permanently (after 25 years of ownership)?
Get a haircut, hippie!
He looks perfectly at home on those Barcelona twisties in the MX-5, that glorious, rigid Mazda chassis supporting his body, that sublime steering wheel and manual gear lever in hand.
Viva la Mazda!
Maybe it was just an auto show thing, but did you run into any difficulty getting in/out. Specifically with the steering wheel hitting your legs/knees?
Head clearance?
With a foamectomied seat I barely get under the rollbar of my NB1 at 6’1″.
That new MX-5 looks like such a tasty treat.
I respect Mazda more & more as time goes by. They have the purest soul in the mass market business by far.
Me: “Love you Mazda.”
Mazda: “Love you, too, DeadWeight.”
{Mazda & DeadWeight French Kiss each other. Scene.}
The Mazda6 would be my next car if they’d just put an engine with a little more horsepower under the hood.
I’m a previous Mazda6 owner and a current Mazdaspeed3 owner. So you could say I’m a fan of Mazda
I actually agree.
The 6 is underpowered. They should also have kept the last gen’s 6 cylinder, which would have offered up a great power-to-weight ratio given the lightness the skyactiv platform “added” compared to the last gen.
Mazda is not without its faults. They absolutely nail handling, ergonomics, gauges/instrumentation and aesthetics (inside & out), IMO, though.
Mazda is a better, far more reliable VW.
I owned a couple of 626 sedans. The ’00, the more recent, was arguably the slowest mid-size on the market with its meager 130 hp. Then again, it was inarguably the lightest — under 3000 lb with the stick, just over with the Ford automatic — so I never noticed it being poky.
Mazdas don’t seem to last up here in the Great White North.
They all seem to rust through like ’72 Torinos or like the original biodegradable car the Mazda B210.
That was the bidegradeable DATSUN B210 by Nissan, Sparky, and they proved it was no fluke by also hawking Datsun 510s and 240Zs with almost no structural strength in the sills, as several friends discovered in the 1970s. I don’t remember Mazdas being any worse than the norm in those days here in the Maritimes. The mid 00s 3 is1 a different matter.
Mazda can’t even catch a break from the uninformed.
Really happy for Mazda that Jack likes this new Miata. Can’t wait to try one out in the coming year!
RHD in Spain. Awesome!
wow, this is the first new car that i’ve lusted after in many years.
I could not/would not buy one because I need one car that can be used as a daily driver with a useable backseat, and refuse to pay for two cars, their insurance ($80 to $100 month alone in MI with a perfect driving record), maintenance, etc….
…but, it’s one of exceedingly few, affordable, lust-worthy sports cars, built with a clear, unambiguous & religiously adhered to raison de etre available as a new vehicle today.
And for this reason alone (but there are other compelling reasons) Mazda deserves kudos.
Amanda’s latest economic vehicles have been hit or miss.
MX-5, CX-5, and IMO the 6 are hits.
From that angle, it looks like the new Miata has gone full Groucho with the eyebrows.
Gee, how was the buffet, amirite?
Sorry, I’m just mad that I still can’t get the timing correct on my NB.
I skipped the meals and ate at the Burger King down the street.
Fat American status — confirmed!
European BK >> US BK in my experience.
Most definitely. Just having non-HFCS soda makes a big difference.
Just watch out for the horse meat (which really did affect EU Burger King, as well as Tesco, and other purveyors of alleged beef in the EU).
No horse meat DNA was found in U.S. supplies of beef used by BK or other businesses in the U.S. (I always wanted to try horse meat, though, admittedly on a knowing basis).
*Agreed on the HFCS issue even though scientists & nutritionists swear that a HFCS calorie is no more harmful than one derived from cane sugar.
That looks like a lot of fun and I think Mazda has done a great job on the ND.
The main obstacle to me buying one is I’m still awfully attached to my ’94 and it appears to have tons of life left in it. I guess there’s no reason I can’t have two.
Judging by the title of the article, Jack, you’ve still got “The Knack.”
John
Sorry team, I’m 6’3″ and need the fun cat to have a back seat an a trunk for groceries. How about a next generation MazdaSpeed 6?
Looks like very much fun ! .
My Son had a first gen. Miata and added a puffer to it , made it incredibly fast and even more fun to drive / race .
Sadly , all my height is above my weight so my eyes are directly in line with the windshield header so even when he offered it to me for free , I couldn’t take it .
Bummer , that .
BTW Jack : is the Bugger Kink food these same in Spain as it is here stateside ? .
-Nate
-Nate
Showing my age I guess as I well remember horse meat being sold along side of beef in any store….
It’s O.K. , not as ‘ gamey ‘ as venison , very little fat in it , that’s a good thing I suppose .
-Nate
Sorry to drag up an old article but your review on the ND was a key motivator for me to pull the trigger on one. Of course, living in Sri Lanka means our taxation makes a 2.0l out of the question (as in, would cost basically 100k USD) so I settled for a Japanese market 1.5l, lightly used 2015 model, which is now being shipped over and should get here in a month. Cannot wait.
The first time I drove an ND was a 1.5L Japanese right-hooker. It was GREAT, just as good as the two-liter. Enjoy it and KEEP US POSTED!
Good to hear! Will definitely update as soon as I get hold of the car, the next few weeks are going to be the longest ones of my life so far!
So it’s just closing on a month since I got MY Miata (or Mazda Roadster if we’re being precise since that is what it’s badged as in the Japanese Market, where my car is from) and honestly everything that has been said about it is true… and then some! I never intended on using it for the daily commute but the commuter car has barely moved since this got here. It’s just so much fun to drive that it makes even crawling to office a blast. Luckily commute distances here are quite short, though traffic is heavy. The Miata is obviously a totally different experience from my previous “Fun car” which was a 1998 Jaguar XK8 Convertible. While it doesn’t have the imperious high speed cruising ability of the Jag, it feels like a better car in every other respect. And it gets used WAY more than the Jag ever was!
Again, thanks Jack for the initial review that was a key part of starting off this process.
Well now you’ve had TWO of my favorite cars!
I still miss my Son’s first gen. Miata with supercharger .
Sadly the windshield header was simply too low making it unsafe for me to drive else I’d kept it when he wanted rid of it .
The fun factor is out of this world on these Sportsters .
(Roadsters don’t have roll up windows)
-Nate