New York 2014: 25 Years Of Miatas

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Mazda MX-5, Mazda brought out a number of historically significant Miatas. Some, like the Coupe Concept (above), the Mazdaspeed MX-5 and the Super 20 are well known.

But how about the 500,000th car produced, or the 1998 prototype that eventually became the 1999 Miata? They’re all in the gallery below.






Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • Suto Suto on Apr 17, 2014

    Someone needs to open the hood and pull on the upper edges of the headlight doors a bit, get that hood flush. Looking forward to seeing if the new one really is light and not bloated (how the hell is a Cruze/Focus 3200 lbs? And they still poor rear headroom). Newish owner of a turbo'd 92 here. It seems Mazda fixed its rust issues around 2008, or maybe those cars are still too new. Anyone with a newer Mazda have the wheel well rust? My 2003 Protege has holes in it.

  • LeMansteve LeMansteve on Apr 17, 2014

    I have wondered why Mazda never made a coupe or hatchback version of the Miata. Perhaps it is a matter of high development costs and relatively low market potential and the manufacturing direction had to be convertible or coupe, but not both. BMW did it for a few years with the Z3 and Z4, and so did Pontiac for a very brief time with the Solstice.

    • JMII JMII on Apr 17, 2014

      Agree, plus someone above stated there should be a shooting brake Miata or at the very least a Miata hatch. There is a conversion kit out there but I've never seen one in the flesh. I'm not a fan of convertibles but a Miata hatch would all kinds of awesome. Or maybe Nissan could just make a lighter version of my Z.

  • Alan Years ago Jack Baruth held a "competition" for a piece from the B&B on the oddest pickup story (or something like that). I think 5 people were awarded the prizes.I never received mine, something about being in Australia. If TTAC is global how do you offer prizes to those overseas or are we omitted on the sly from competing?In the end I lost significant respect for Baruth.
  • Alan My view is there are good vehicles from most manufacturers that are worth looking at second hand.I can tell you I don't recommend anything from the Chrysler/Jeep/Fiat/etc gene pool. Toyotas are overly expensive second hand for what they offer, but they seem to be reliable enough.I have a friend who swears by secondhand Subarus and so far he seems to not have had too many issue.As Lou stated many utes, pickups and real SUVs (4x4) seem quite good.
  • 28-Cars-Later So is there some kind of undiagnosed disease where every rando thinks their POS is actually valuable?83K miles Ok.new valve cover gasket.Eh, it happens with age. spark plugsOkay, we probably had to be kewl and put in aftermarket iridium plugs, because EVO.new catalytic converterUh, yeah that's bad at 80Kish. Auto tranny failing. From the ad: the SST fails in one of the following ways:Clutch slip has turned into; multiple codes being thrown, shifting a gear or 2 in manual mode (2-3 or 2-4), and limp mode.Codes include: P2733 P2809 P183D P1871Ok that's really bad. So between this and the cat it suggests to me someone jacked up the car real good hooning it, because EVO, and since its not a Toyota it doesn't respond well to hard abuse over time.$20,000, what? Pesos? Zimbabwe Dollars?Try $2,000 USD pal. You're fracked dude, park it in da hood and leave the keys in it.BONUS: Comment in the ad: GLWS but I highly doubt you get any action on this car what so ever at that price with the SST on its way out. That trans can be $10k + to repair.
  • 28-Cars-Later Actually Honda seems to have a brilliant mid to long term strategy which I can sum up in one word: tariffs.-BEV sales wane in the US, however they will sell in Europe (and sales will probably increase in Canada depending on how their government proceeds). -The EU Politburo and Canada concluded a trade treaty in 2017, and as of 2024 99% of all tariffs have been eliminated.-Trump in 2018 threatened a 25% tariff on European imported cars in the US and such rhetoric would likely come again should there be an actual election. -By building in Canada, product can still be sold in the US tariff free though USMCA/NAFTA II but it should allow Honda tariff free access to European markets.-However if the product were built in Marysville it could end up subject to tit-for-tat tariff depending on which junta is running the US in 2025. -Profitability on BEV has already been a variable to put it mildly, but to take on a 25% tariff to all of your product effectively shuts you out of that market.
  • Lou_BC Actuality a very reasonable question.
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