Amidst all the talk of Z3's and MGF's, I got the new Car and
Driver in the mail last night with the new Miata on the cover. All I can
say is I'm completely blown away by it. When the first Miatas came out,
I completely hated them because I thought they were nothing but an LBC
knock-off. I also didn't like the look of the car because of the pop-up
headlights. But over the years my stance has softened on the Miata,
namely because I came to the realization that there will never again be
an affordable British roadster (and you can't be a knock-off if there is
nothing TO knock-off). Then Rover was swallowed by BMW and the only MG's
nowadays are upmarket cars aimed at 40 and 50 somethings with 40 grand
burning a hole in their pocket (and they can't buy them here anyway).
Meanwhile, Mazda continues to plug along selling Miatas by the boatload
to the younger buyers with no competition at all. Now Mazda has improved
the flaws I saw in the original Miata by ditching the pop-up headlights
and giving the car a bit of character. So if Mazda can build this type
of car and sell them for $20,000 in the US, why can't (won't?) the Brits
build anything for even close to this price? If this new Miata had an MG
badge on it, I'd buy one in a second.
John Miller
76 MGB
95 Nissan Pathfinder
97 Nissan Altima
|