“I have never heard the 10AE referred to as the 10AM – spell check issues?”

Actually AM was what Mazda called them..Anniversary Model

http://www.miata.net/faq/brochures/2000/m10th-page10.jpg

Michael

I have never heard the 10AE referred to as the 10AM – spell check issues?

Back to the car – Too much blue and the 6th gear never made enough of a difference to make highway cruising any better. Add to that the fact that a lot of Miata nuts consider the 5 speed the better tranny (tighter shifts) and I think the only thing the 10AE really offered was the fancy shocks and smurf-a-rific styling cues.

PS Chicks dig’em. Don’t worry one bit about it not being masculine enough.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1999-Mazda-MX-5-Miata-10Th-Anniversary-Edition_W0QQitemZ170290113438QQihZ007QQcategoryZ6324QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Price is too high imho. Hard Top adds about 1K and low low miles adds about 1k so I would peg this one at 12k max.

Anyway, just one warning to those who decide to shop for an NB – many of us will tell you that the 6-speed is NOT as smooth as the 5-speed. In the cold it’s absolutely terrible until you replace its fluid with some Redline MT-90. But you do drop your highway revs a few hundred RPM and that’s worth it to anyone who’s going to commute in it.

http://www.mjposner.com/m

The Miata name was only dropped for the first year of the NC. The 2007 and are called the MX-5 Miata.

The early four-cylinder BMW Z3 could have been a better performer, but the power-to-weight ratio wasn’t better than the NB’s. Still a fun car to thrash, just don’t expect it to remind you of an M Roadster.

Still, there are very few cars that handle as well right out of the box as the Miata, any generation. The NC works better with stiffer shocks and front sway bar, but the ABS/EBD brakes are great.

Last year I decided I needed a roadster before I had kids. I drove an S2000, a Solstice, a Z3, a Z4, and a Miata. What was clear to me in just a few minutes of driving was how much more fun the little mazda was to drive over it’s faster progeny. I mean, all of them were fun to drive fast. But the Miata is fun to drive slow.

I ended up with the best of both worlds when I picked up an ‘04 Mazdaspeed for a song. Not only is this the quickest Miata ever produced (up to and including the new NC models), but it responds VERY well to simple bolt-ons.

Since my days driving the New Yorker, I’ve owned some frisky metal–300z, 3000GT, and a couple of A4s–but the little MSM Miata is my favorite vehicle by far. My wife learned to drive stick on this car and has since become smitten as well. Now we fight over who has to take the Jetta.

FWIW,I think the early M2 models (1999-2000) are the best value going in Miataland, with prices starting around 6k. I do like some of the special editions though, particularly the 2000 Mahogany and 2001 British Racing Green versions…

I bought the car 2 summers ago intending to own it for 3-5 months and use it to learn to drive a manual. Now I can’t bring myself to sell it. I just got a 2006 Legacy GT as my daily driver but I think I might keep the Miata forever or a least until I’m board with amazing handling and the best shifter in the world. I might even get another one just to put a LS3 V8 in it someday.

All Miatas are torquey little buggers that can handle daily driving tasks with ease if you know what you’re doing and enjoy making the effort. What you find intolerable I find endearing.

One of the most fun times I ever had on 4 wheels was driving down Highway 1/Big Sur with two friends (who were on motorcycles). Simply epic.

Of all Miatae, the ‘99 Special Edition was/is my favorite, although the ride with the Bilsteins is a bit rough of everyday use. That’s why my wife opted for the 2000 SE (plus she liked the wood interior trim).

Ultimately, I was more attached to hauling our dogs around (so I drove a 5-door hatchback) and she really wasn’t a sports car driver (her current ride is a Toyota Solara convertible), so we sold both Miatae. But it was fun while it lasted…

-1- Its about Miata.

-2- Its not about Detroit

Otherwise too much of what’s wrong with 10AE, instead of what’s right about the Miata overall. This is not a “blast from the past” article which I hoped for when I read headline.

My weekend car is 99 base model. Its a wonderful little project. Bought with 15k on the clock last April. A nearly new 99, perfectly preserved in heated garage. Adding in body braces this weekend; frog arms and butterfly. Racing Beat headers and exhaust next week. All waiting patiently on shelf.

I didn’t fit into it until I gutted the seat and bent gas pedal forward. Common mods.

Next I want S2000, maybe 2 years away. That has a really nice engine and needs no body braces or other aftermarket fixes.

I can only dream of NSX.

Terry :

Thanks for the information, it is very good to know.

With the 2nd generation solid lifters have you ever seen a valve adjustment actually be necessary?

To tell you the truth, the only time Ive seen them needing adjustment is during a head swap(overheated, warped. And many times the owners do not want to pay for an adjustment.
58K miles on mine, in 2K miles I’ll be replacing my timing belt and water pump. THAT’S the time to adjust the valves, since all it takes from that point is measurement and removal of the camshafts. There is a Mazda Special Service Tool to change shims without camshaft removal, but with the belt off it’s faster to just pull the cams anyway.
I prefer the torque characteristics of my 99 over the Mazdaspeed Miata, but I DO like the wheel/rim combination of the MSM along with the extensive chassis bracing and stiffening the Turbo has.

Other cars may be faster, prettier, more comfortable or more prestigious, but few (if any) are such simple fun.

If you haven’t owned one, you should do so before you’re too old for ingress/egress.

The 2nd gen NBs also had a (slightly) larger and more usable trunk because of the relocation of the spare tire under the trunk.

Thanks for the review Terry, I’m going to go put another $100 in my future Miata account.

If Mazda added some body kit or wings or a hard top. US consumer will probably will be more interested in purchasing a Miata but with our huge freeways.

This little car has no chance out there with those fast bigger sports sedans.

I used to like them but please Mazda change the style for crying out loud.

Blue on blue is relatively conservative compared to my favorite combination, the 1993 red on black limited edition:

http://www.miata93le.com/About_LE.htm

Thanks for the information, it is very good to know.

With the 2nd generation solid lifters have you ever seen a valve adjustment actually be necessary?

Very nice to see a writeabout about it and how it didn’t hold its value, sadly. I still think this design is much nicer than the current body style, which is why I didn’t consider one and got an S2000 instead.

To say that I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of the car would be an understatement. The car has been nearly trouble free (the only failure was minor, a power window regulator). I replaced the top about 5 years ago with an aftermarket one with a glass window (again, I had to replace it not due any problem other than my ham-fisted sister’s boyfriend who somehow managed to rip the zipper off the back window). Agree, the glass window is a godsend but I wouldn’t base my purchase decision on it since aftermarket units are cheap and an older car will likely require a new top anyway.

Despite a lineup of other cars over the years (BMW 5-series, Porsche 911, and others) and an expanding family, the trusty silver “baby car” as my 5-year old calls it has kept an honored place on our driveway.

When I drive it I always smile, it’s the perfect backup car for when one of the others is in the shop, and after a prolonged international trip it was the only one of my cars to fire up without complaint and was able to jump-start the BMW which was totally drained of battery power.

These are really well designed and fun cars. They don’t appear to have any particular vices, they get decent fuel economy, the little 4-cylinder engines sound great, the manual transmissions shift well, and they are even easy to live with on a daily basis with usable trunk space (a week’s worth of groceries or golf clubs are no problem). They also have terrific aftermarket support if modifications are your thing, strong owner clubs, and are a great entry into autocross or track racing.