Editor's Rating: 
The Good: Value, short gear shifts, driving experience, power hardtop, quiet cabin, trunk space, styling
The Bad: Interior is long on looks and short on substance
The Bottom Line: The once and future king of affordable roadsters
Reader ReviewsThe affordable two-seat roadster is the new black. It's also the old black. And, frankly, it's likely to be the next new black, too. So goes fashion in the auto industry. The cheap-but-fun sports car has been a perennial favorite since the late 1980s as a low-volume, high-energy image maker that can cast a zippy aura on less exciting but more practical models on the same lot.
General Motors (GM) breathed resuscitating life into its flagging Pontiac and Saturn divisions with two such sexy beauties, the heaven-sent Solstice (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/14/05, "Solstice: A Brawny Beauty") and Sky (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/21/06, "Sky High") roadsters. Honda (HMC) has garnered a fanatical fan following with its high-high-revving S2000. Nissan (NSANY), Volkswagen, Mini Cooper, and Chrysler are all on board as well. But before everybody was doing it, Mazda did it first.
The company's Miata reinvented the roadster market that had once been the domain of British brands like MG, Triumph, Lotus, and Austin-Healey, legendary in the 1960s. The Miata's 1989 introduction reopened an industry segment that still thrives today and one in which that model, no less, still occupies center stage.
Some 850,000 sales later, Mazda has managed to maintain its momentum for an astonishingly long time, nearly 17 years. That kind of sustained success is largely unheard of in the auto sector and a testament to the model's virtuous simplicity. According to Automotive News, the company sold 15,873 Miatas in the first 11 months of 2006, up some 45% from the same period last year.
The Miata has managed to stay true to itself?that is, inexpensive, fun, and uncomplicated. The car debuted with a reasonable base price around 13 grand. Adjusted for inflation, a 1989 Miata cost about $1,500 more than today's basic model. On top of an easily digestible sticker price, the car still ranks high in reliability and low on ownership costs. In fact, last year's model cost less to operate over the long haul than the Solstice, the Mini (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/11/06, "Maximum Mini"), and the convertible versions of the Ford Mustang (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/25/06, "Detroit Thoroughbred") and Volkswagen New Beetle.
My test Miata, the top-of-the-line Grand Touring edition, carried a base price of $26,360. Mazda threw in a $500 suspension package and a premium package with keyless entry, xenon headlights, and traction control to the tune of $1,250. With $560 delivery fee, the total weighed in at $28,670?a paltry sum for the package.
That's because the car also came with one big new feature that is intended to keep the badge, once again, ahead of the curve: a power-folding hardtop worthy of vehicles costing three times as much. That's right; this Miata wears a hard hat.
Even more significant than the major new accessory is the driving experience. The 166-horsepower, 2-liter 4-cylinder power plant under the hood might seem like a non-starter in a market where two-seaters pack engines that produce twice as much firepower. But where lightweight roadsters are concerned, balance preempts brute force. You won't find BMW or Porsche inflating horsepower values unless it's a requirement of engineering. Mazda neither.
That's also why the company made sure the Miata maintained its near-perfect weight ratio, with 50% of the vehicle's weight resting on the front wheels and the other half on the rear wheels. To ensure that distribution, given the new models' changed underbody layout, engineers moved the fuel tank forward, swapped the battery's location, and minimized the A/C unit.
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