[misfit]

The ND2 Miata and the 718 GTS 4.0 compliment each other very well. I love driving both cars.

They're both so similar and so different at the same time, it's difficult to describe. Either way, both cars are absolutely fantastic.

 

[DCFC]

Wish I had space in the garage for a ND2/3 to go with my 718. I'd take the Miata for the hops around town and use the 718 for the higher speed stuff and track days.

 

[TooTurbo]

Mazda's Soul Red Crystal is the best red ever.

 

[misfit]

Mazda's Soul Red Crystal is the best red ever.

I have to be careful when I am driving near my friend's (as pictured) because that red is SO gorgeous I stare at it instead of focus on the road

It's such a deep, complex red. Mazda really did nail it. Here are a few more pictures of his car. It's even better to drive than it is to look at!

 

[Treemagnet]

Mazda's Soul Red Crystal is the best red ever.

There's one in this color at our golf club, almost every day. I'm not into red, but this color is incredibly rich and completely mesmerizing. Our BGTS would have been this color, had Porsche offered something similar.

 

[TooTurbo]

Porsche doesn't seem to have any metallic reds like that even on PTS. Would have to go to PTS Plus to get something similar

 

[SCKOMS]

I had a 2000 Miata SE in a limited edition color they called Mahogany Mica. It was gorgeous. I'm currently shopping for a 1-2 year old ND2 in Soul Red Crystal. I normally don't like red sports cars, but that Mazda red is stunning.

 

[DevilDoc02]

I couldn't wait to unload my 2023 RF. I've raced spec miata before and always wanted one, but the amount of friday-afternoon engineering the car possessed was frightening. Add to that some of the worst suspension tuning that I've seen in a modern vehicle and you understand why so many owners swap out the springs and shocks as soon as they get home from the dealership. There were only a few bright spots in my 18 months of ownership: 1) the headlights. Can't figure out why, but mazda made some crazy-good ones here 2) the stereo. The Bose was better than I expected 3) the shifter. It was exactly as I recall from my spec miata days. The dark spots: 1) lousy driving position. Too high and no leg room. 2) the oddity of having no front grip at low speeds and then thinking you have grip at higher speeds, only to find that your car is neutral because the rear has no grip at high speeds. This is a 1970's trademark. Off to think that a 72 chevy nova was their target. 3) all of the cabin electronics, from the always crashing infotainment, to the mushy buttons on the steering wheel, to the rear-view mirror they took from the 1996 MPV mini-van. 4) no storage in the car. They said they took out all the storage to save weight...yeah, sure. Saved money...5) completely forgetable engine. I grew up on 1990 VTECs. This ain't one of those. I'll stop here, but truth is, Mazda needs to start clean-sheet on these.

 

[cratervanawesome]

I couldn't wait to unload my 2023 RF. I've raced spec miata before and always wanted one, but the amount of friday-afternoon engineering the car possessed was frightening. Add to that some of the worst suspension tuning that I've seen in a modern vehicle and you understand why so many owners swap out the springs and shocks as soon as they get home from the dealership. There were only a few bright spots in my 18 months of ownership: 1) the headlights. Can't figure out why, but mazda made some crazy-good ones here 2) the stereo. The Bose was better than I expected 3) the shifter. It was exactly as I recall from my spec miata days. The dark spots: 1) lousy driving position. Too high and no leg room. 2) the oddity of having no front grip at low speeds and then thinking you have grip at higher speeds, only to find that your car is neutral because the rear has no grip at high speeds. This is a 1970's trademark. Off to think that a 72 chevy nova was their target. 3) all of the cabin electronics, from the always crashing infotainment, to the mushy buttons on the steering wheel, to the rear-view mirror they took from the 1996 MPV mini-van. 4) no storage in the car. They said they took out all the storage to save weight...yeah, sure. Saved money...5) completely forgetable engine. I grew up on 1990 VTECs. This ain't one of those. I'll stop here, but truth is, Mazda needs to start clean-sheet on these.

You seem to have a very unique experience and perspective. Just sounds like it wasn't a great match for you, meanwhile everyone else loves them for what they are.

 

[DevilDoc02]

You seem to have a very unique experience and perspective. Just sounds like it wasn't a great match for you, meanwhile everyone else loves them for what they are.

most of my sadness is how they let the car rot. And continue to do so. I guess that I just refuse to accept the emporer's new clothes.

Their engineers said they left out the glovebox to allow for "an airy feeling" with a low dashboard. Yet then they put a rear view mirror that blocks 20 deg of the view out the windshield. The arm rest has the cheapest, thinnest foam, as if foam is expensive. Luckily, there are dozens of aftermarket kits to change that armrest out with something decent. They saved "90 grams" by not having door pockets...please, pretty please put the 90 grams back and give us door pockets. Add to that weekly hard-resets of the system....and the oddity of the windows always dropping 1/4 inch by themselves everyday. All called "normal" by 2 dealerships.

Like I said, you either accept what is a neverending series of cost-cutting decisions covered in sheet metal, in return for a unique..and dare I say "hyped" product.
or
You could do what 90%+ of miata afficianados do: As soon as your car arrives, add Coilovers, new exhaust, seat lowering kit, strut bars, anti-roll bars kit, and proper forged wheels. Now...THAT car is at least tasty. But why should an owner have to do that? Ironically, I had an old Integra type-R back in the day. It was around the same weight, but somehow had not a single drawback that the miata has today. Go figure.

BTW, I have 2 seat loweing kits for the ND miata if you want to take them off my hands. Both new and in box! One is the slider model and the other the fixed rail model. And I have one of those stubby antenna kits too.

 

[TooTurbo]

most of my sadness is how they let the car rot. And continue to do so. I guess that I just refuse to accept the emporer's new clothes.

Their engineers said they left out the glovebox to allow for "an airy feeling" with a low dashboard. Yet then they put a rear view mirror that blocks 20 deg of the view out the windshield. The arm rest has the cheapest, thinnest foam, as if foam is expensive. Luckily, there are dozens of aftermarket kits to change that armrest out with something decent. They saved "90 grams" by not having door pockets...please, pretty please put the 90 grams back and give us door pockets. Add to that weekly hard-resets of the system....and the oddity of the windows always dropping 1/4 inch by themselves everyday. All called "normal" by 2 dealerships.

Like I said, you either accept what is a neverending series of cost-cutting decisions covered in sheet metal, in return for a unique..and dare I say "hyped" product.
or
You could do what 90%+ of miata afficianados do: As soon as your car arrives, add Coilovers, new exhaust, seat lowering kit, strut bars, anti-roll bars kit, and proper forged wheels. Now...THAT car is at least tasty. But why should an owner have to do that? Ironically, I had an old Integra type-R back in the day. It was around the same weight, but somehow had not a single drawback that the miata has today. Go figure.

BTW, I have 2 seat loweing kits for the ND miata if you want to take them off my hands. Both new and in box! One is the slider model and the other the fixed rail model. And I have one of those stubby antenna kits too.

I think you are mixing up cost cutting and what is intended design. Mirrors are required by law, glove box is not. Also the gram strategy that they do is a solid strategy for reducing a car's weight and is why the miata weighs under 2400 lbs significantly less than any car on sale today. For example, 90 grams on a 1000 different parts adds up to 200 lbs which is significant and realistic method for mass reduction. It was designed for feedback and fun not lap times and is why behaves the way it does. Definitely not a cost cutting car especially when they are using double wishbone front and multilink rear which is more expensive to develop and they did it to get their ideal suspension kinematics and behavior. Definitely fits the price point. Its solid core design allows it to be easily modified into a spec miata. But if that's what you think that's what you think.

Savagegeese did a pretty good documentary on the miata's development and interviewed a lot of their designers and engineers

 

[DevilDoc02]

odd, or ironic, that all of the "weight savings" also happened to be "cost savings". Probably just a coincidence.

And even more odd is that adding back normal storage pockets and such, would add what? 6 ounces? Do you think you can even measure that in any definable sense?

The miatas that litter the miata-enthusiast-kingdom, which have coilovers, exhausts, adjustable seats, roll cages, aftermarket phone mounts, added padding on interior surfaces, and the other 100 mods needed to cover the flaws....do they weigh "200lbs" more as you claim? We know the answer to that.

To an extent, I do agree with some of what Mark said in that review. He said the handling falls apart on track. That is true. But the mistake you will probably make is that you believe that road manner and track manners cannot co-exist. I had a BRZ for a while that somehow felt great on both track and road. Mazda seems to disagree here. My GT3 performs well on both, as does my 718, as did many of my other cars. The truth is that we laud the miata because it is now in a class of one. It has no competition. We forget that it was mediocre even back when it was being compared to late 1990 vehicles.

Fact is: 100% redesign is needed.

 

[TooTurbo]

odd, or ironic, that all of the "weight savings" also happened to be "cost savings". Probably just a coincidence.

And even more odd is that adding back normal storage pockets and such, would add what? 6 ounces? Do you think you can even measure that in any definable sense?

The miatas that litter the miata-enthusiast-kingdom, which have coilovers, exhausts, adjustable seats, roll cages, aftermarket phone mounts, added padding on interior surfaces, and the other 100 mods needed to cover the flaws....do they weigh "200lbs" more as you claim? We know the answer to that.

To an extent, I do agree with some of what Mark said in that review. He said the handling falls apart on track. That is true. But the mistake you will probably make is that you believe that road manner and track manners cannot co-exist. I had a BRZ for a while that somehow felt great on both track and road. Mazda seems to disagree here. My GT3 performs well on both, as does my 718, as did many of my other cars. The truth is that we laud the miata because it is now in a class of one. It has no competition. We forget that it was mediocre even back when it was being compared to late 1990 vehicles.

Fact is: 100% redesign is needed.

So making components lighter is cost cutting? And again not meant to be a track car to set lap times meant to be fun car that's why it has the body motions it has. An actual racing driver thinks a unmodified MX5 is good on track anyway. But again if that's what you think sure...

 

[Chatman]

Miatas are so good. They're not a 718 to be sure, but a 718, particularly a GTS 4.0, is a serious piece of kit. It wants to be out there on the road, but I can be a little precious about it, and it is very easy to break laws (if not exceed the car's limits).

The nice thing about a Miata is you can go through a lot of the same motions as you do in a Cayman, feel almost as good, but not be breaking laws and speed limits. I rev my Cayman up to 7K RPM in 2nd and I'm already at 70mph. Forget redlining into 3rd... In a Miata though? Shift, rev, shift, rev, over and over again. Plus, I really like the tiny size of the car and the sol red crystal color! I may have to get one just for the fun of it, stigma be damned!

 

[IIIAWOLIII]

I couldn't get past the cheapness of the materials, inside and out. I had the RF version, which is the hard top convertible. The blacked out sections of the roof were gloss black plastic and were a web of scratches after one wash. The interior materials are terrible, and the layout of buttons and controls isn't intuitive or comfortable to use. For instance, to adjust the volume of the radio, you can either push the volume buttons on the steering wheel about 30 times to get any significant change in volume, or you can lift up your elbow and slide your hand to the rear of the center console to the physical volume knob. The ND1 disabled the infotainment touch screen if the vehicle was moving at any speed, forcing you to use knobs and buttons to manipulate the screen like a laptop. The roof can't be raised or lowered at anything over 7 mph. There is a digital readout of which gear you're in on the dash, but not your speed. You can turn off the half dozen safety nannies, some permanently, but then you're treated to a Christmas tree of warning lights on the dash every time you drive.

Yes, the Porsche is more expensive and you can expect better materials, but the differences aren't relative to the price differential. The Miata is much cheaper than it's price. They are fun to drive, but you can get the exact same thrill at a go-kart park, and not have to drive it home. Or to work. Or in public.

 

[Chatman]

I couldn't get past the cheapness of the materials, inside and out. I had the RF version, which is the hard top convertible. The blacked out sections of the roof were gloss black plastic and were a web of scratches after one wash. The interior materials are terrible, and the layout of buttons and controls isn't intuitive or comfortable to use. For instance, to adjust the volume of the radio, you can either push the volume buttons on the steering wheel about 30 times to get any significant change in volume, or you can lift up your elbow and slide your hand to the rear of the center console to the physical volume knob. The ND1 disabled the infotainment touch screen if the vehicle was moving at any speed, forcing you to use knobs and buttons to manipulate the screen like a laptop. The roof can't be raised or lowered at anything over 7 mph. There is a digital readout of which gear you're in on the dash, but not your speed. You can turn off the half dozen safety nannies, some permanently, but then you're treated to a Christmas tree of warning lights on the dash every time you drive.

Yes, the Porsche is more expensive and you can expect better materials, but the differences aren't relative to the price differential. The Miata is much cheaper than it's price. They are fun to drive, but you can get the exact same thrill at a go-kart park, and not have to drive it home. Or to work. Or in public.

The interior materials aren't Porsche grade but I don't think the Miata interior, particularly in the latest iteration, is that bad. There are some nice premium details like the overflow of the exterior paint into the interior door panels. And the fit and finish (at least on the 2023 models I've test driven) are no worse than what I see in an Acura or middle-range Toyota.

And in all candor, I wasn't even all that impressed with the base Cayman interior, even in the GTS. I spent a good bit of cash in options to raise the quality out of the realm of plastic-fantastic. Some things that come standard in a Cayman, like the horrendous plastic-silver trim, those awful metal-look plastic seatbacks, and that nasty plastic steering column, are just asking to be covered in leather. And speaking from experience, that costs a lot. I don't regret it one bit as I love the look and premium feel of my Cayman interior, but by the time I was done, it was 3X the cost of a Miata.

 

[TooTurbo]

Miata's chassis design is well beyond its price and that's what the car is about

 

[Chatman]

Miata's chassis design is well beyond its price and that's what the car is about

Agreed. Indeed, isn't it the case that Porsche referenced the original Miata when it designed the original Boxster?

 

[DCFC]

I have a base 2016 Mazda CX-5. Honestly, the door materials and dash and things of my Cayman T aren't any nicer than our Mazda. But I didn't buy the T because of how the door feels.

 

[TooTurbo]

Agreed. Indeed, isn't it the case that Porsche referenced the original Miata when it designed the original Boxster?

Idk about that maybe just inspired by the Miata's success.