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community weblog
Miata is Always the Answer
Do you want to hear middle-aged mid-western car nerds talk about their love for a car that bucks all the automotive trends for bigger, bulkier, angrier -- and yet, somehow, is still kicking? Of course you do. Let the good folks at Savagegeese soothe you with a five-part docuseries on the everyman's roadster, the Mazda MX-5 Miata:
Bonus content!
posted by postcommunism on Apr 15, 2026 at 6:41 AM
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love for a car that bucks all the automotive trends for bigger, bulkier, angrier -- and yet, somehow, is still kicking?
RIP Honda Fit
You were too good for us.
(And yes I know the Honda Jazz is still sold in non-US markets)
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:53 AM
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"I want a car that...."
"the answer is always Miata"
posted by lalochezia at 7:05 AM
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Miata
Is
Always
The
Answer
posted by Lanark at 7:11 AM
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I am so psyched for the evolution of battery technology to get to the point where an EV Miata is a possibility.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:22 AM
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I am so psyched for the evolution of battery technology to get to the point where an EV Miata is a possibility.
And it would deal with the Miata's main problem- that it's slow.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:44 AM
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> I am so psyched for the evolution of battery technology to get to the point where an EV Miata is a possibility.
An EV conversion Miata is probably not what you're hoping for but it's available now if you want one badly enough.
posted by at by at 7:44 AM
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All of the thrill of classic British roadsters with none of the joy of catastrophic mechanical failure.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:56 AM
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I've been pretty unapologetically enamored with these things ever since I learned they can wink.
posted by plagued out moggies at 8:23 AM
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Not being familiar with the ad campaign, I sort of expected the title to have something to do with tumblr user miata-detector, although frankly "Miata is always the answer" doesn't describe their philosophy at all.
posted by dick dale the vampire at 8:28 AM
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I've really enjoyed driving a Miata the few times I've gotten to do so. An EV version would sorely tempt me, especially since my beloved Fit got whomped by an Ent in a windstorm a few years ago.
posted by sgranade at 8:34 AM
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RonButNotStupid: "RIP Honda Fit
You were too good for us."
Lords, yes. Our 2010 Fit is creeping-up on 300,000 miles, and still kicking. It looks a bit shabby now, but it's still the car that can carry anything.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:49 AM
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And it would deal with the Miata's main problem- that it's slow.
It's balanced. A great combination of car and just enough power to have fun driving, but not so much to get into trouble with. Just a fun little package. It'll never win a drag race, but it's just impossible not to wear a smile while driving it.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:03 AM
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I'm not a sports car guy but I once got to ride in a friend's 1970s Fiat Spider convertible, which had become their student car. It wasn't fancy but everyone should ride in a little convertible with the top down once in their lives!
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:15 AM
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My best friend is a HUUUUUGE car nerd. He's bought, and then eventually sold, almost every sports car you can imagine. The only car that's stayed: his beloved black Miata that he's tuned into a tiny little screamer on the track.
posted by UltraMorgnus at 9:25 AM
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A friend of mine has somehow ended up with 3 different Miatas in various states of operational excellence.
They're a fun car. The first time I ever rode in was back when they were first launched and a family friend had one because he enjoyed driving it like a loon. (He was also an Army helicopter pilot, so maybe that's to be expected)
Definitely learned this weekend that my knees no longer quite enjoy the experience of getting out of them and the roof line is still definitely too low without dropping the top, but there's still the unbeatable aspect of rolling around SoCal with the top down and the hair flying.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:32 AM
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I feel like an interloper in this Miata thread but I must also declare for Team Fit.
Four times this year already I have had other Fit fans approach me in parking lots to coo over my beat-up little red 2013 Fit. Bury me in that car.
posted by Sauce Trough at 9:35 AM
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I love the Miata in theory (I'll never own one for sheer not practical kind of reasons) but as a teenager I witnessed a tree fall on one and it wasn't pretty and I'll always have that image in my mind.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:43 AM
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Spouse drove a manual Miata until the bottom rusted out and it would no longer pass inspection. We had a lot road tripping fun in that wee car.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 10:26 AM
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If you think an MX5/Miata is slow you are driving it on the wrong roads.
The problem with an EV Miata is the weight of batteries does not really gel with the idea of a small light sports car.
posted by Lanark at 10:27 AM
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"I am so psyched for the evolution of battery technology to get to the point where an EV Miata is a possibility." The future is now.
posted by BReed at 10:33 AM
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All of the thrill of classic British roadsters with none of the joy of catastrophic mechanical failure.
There is an extent to which the joy of mechanical failure is part of the fun of those British roadsters. Driving away from a breakdown on a jury-rigged repair is a great experience. I have to admit that nearly everyone I know thinks I'm crazy, though, and those people should just get a Miata. Also, my favorite thing to do with a tiny roadster is to drive it up poorly-maintained Forest Service roads, and nearly all the good experiences I have had doing that could probably have been achieved in a Miata. (Two of my favorites are the time the guys in the lifted 4wd pickup leaned out the window and asked with maximum incredulity "how did you get that up here?!?" and the time I arrived back at the trailhead to my tiny car parked at the end of a line of huge trucks and SUVs, and the SUV next to me needed a jump, so I gave him one and sent him on his way... ) Little convertibles are fun.
I am jealous of how easily the tops go down on Miatas.
posted by surlyben at 11:00 AM
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I owned a Miata for a few years. Loved it!
Ok, so I didn't love the clutch dying if I didn't drive the car for like a week. ;)
posted by luckynerd at 11:06 AM
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"I feel like an interloper in this Miata thread but I must also declare for Team Fit."
Same. The day my little Sue got taken out was the saddest day in my life. She could do anything.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:11 AM
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I am not a car person. Like, I have literally never owned a car and I mostly think they're bad for society and I'm lucky enough to live in a country where I can get more or less everywhere by train and bicycle.
But my partner's mom is a little old lady in her eighties whose pride and joy is a 1992 Miata, and she needed help getting it running again, and I'm generally mechanically and electrically minded through boats, aircraft and other pursuits, and, well...
...dear god that car is sweet.
So now I have all sorts of obscure knowledge about lifter tick, the brake system, every possible way the soft top can leak, and all the vagaries of the headlight mechanism, and am qualified to give the following dead-goat joke:
> I've been pretty unapologetically enamored with these things ever since I learned they can wink.
Although it's great if your Miata winks because you installed the custom wink mod, if your Miata winks unintentionally then it may be suffering from Miata Wink Pox, principally caused by failure of either the actuator motor or its driving relay, but in rare and annoying cases, the problem is actually the electrical connector nearby, which can be such an absolute bastard to get apart after 30+ years that you're probably better off replacing it entirely. I have the relevant part number somewhere if you need it.
posted by automatronic at 11:49 AM
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My high school girlfriend had a '92 Miata that was a bloody hoot to drive. She sank it, accidentally, in a water-filled ditch. Four feet of water. Swamped the little car, naturally but they still repaired it.
I had just recently seen "Risky Business" and immediately thought of the scene with the Porsche 928 going off the dock into the water.
And so her Miata was forever named "U-Boat."
Whatever. Japan was still an axis power.
posted by Thistledown at 12:00 PM
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Metafilter: it may be suffering from Miata Wink Pox
posted by lalochezia at 12:10 PM
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METAFILTER: All of the thrill of classic British roadsters with none of the joy of catastrophic mechanical failure.
posted by philip-random at 12:16 PM
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Miatas are nice but a Spitfire is better looking, roomier and easier to work on.
posted by leaper at 12:16 PM
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The favorite car I have owned was a 10th anniversary edition Miata. It was a blast to drive, and I also had a pickup truck in case I needed to pull a trailer or haul something bigger than a couple of medium sized suitcases. I had to get rid of it after 7 years when I became a father and the lack of a rear seat became impractical; otherwise I might still have it. Now that I am an empty-nester though, it might be time to start looking at the latest model....
posted by TedW at 12:42 PM
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leaper: "Miatas are nice but a Spitfire is better looking, roomier and easier to work on."
The difference being, though, that you have to work on a Spitfire. Often.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:05 PM
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When I was in the market I was cross shopping the BMW Z3 I now own with the Miata - the Z3 just edged it out with more interior space and an I6. Still the Miata is perennially beautiful.
Tiny cars rule!
posted by djseafood at 1:15 PM
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All of the thrill of classic British roadsters with none of the joy of catastrophic mechanical failure
Repeated cos it's true. The Miata mates small British convertible thrills with Japanese reliability.
I learned to drive stick on my friend's father's Sunbeam Alpine. The Bomb, they called it. That same friend later owned a Spitfire, and another friend had an MGB. So yes I've experienced both the thrills and headaches of British sportscars.
A Miata is Mrs C's dream car. In the meantime we scratch the sporty itch with a Mazda 3 with a 6-speed manual transmission*.
* aka millenial anti-theft device
posted by Artful Codger at 1:43 PM
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Team Fit! Ours is purple and doing just fine. And it *fits* things, as it says on the tin.
We'll get an EV when it dies. I'm hoping that's far enough in the future that the US car industry has realized there's a market for a small EV that can carry things.
posted by nat at 1:52 PM
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My spouse had a Miata when we met. It had a number of problems that seemed to center around UV damage, except for that one time that we replaced her window motors as a "date". At the time I was driving a Toyota Tacoma and let me say that the Pacific Coast Highway is a way different experience in a Miata than a pickup. Yikes, that thing hugged the road well.
My favorite Miata mod is the upside down Miata used in 24 Hours of Lemons.
As a side note, my spouse really misses that car and when she had the opportunity, she got a Mini Cooper convertible.
posted by plinth at 2:04 PM
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I am, for some reason, so touched by ppl that love their cars so much. I own a car right now for the first time in my LIFE (i'm pushin 50!!) and it's FINE...in fact it's more than fine bc it's a 2010 model that has like 80k miles and is still running great and doesn't have any weird touchscreen stuff. I will be sad when it inevitably dies but more out of the inconvenience it will cause me rather than affection for this particular INSTANCE of car.
I love it when people find a thing that they love. (ask me about my 1978 Gibson SG)
Thanks for this post, it's heartwarming and also really interesting.
posted by capnsue at 2:20 PM
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Mazda 3 with a 6-speed manual transmission
preach! I live in a hilly rural area and the partner's little stickshift Mazda 3 handles so well, great little winter driving unit also. my old 97 F-150 rwd does NOT handle certain situations nearly as well
posted by runsrealgood at 2:52 PM
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you have to work on a Spitfire
Oh sweet baby Jesus. 40 years ago I was a car stereo installer. A Spitfire Mark IV came into the shop. The mere act of removing the old radio caused the car to no longer start. As I gently poked around in the dashboard trying to fix that, two or three electrical connectors would crumble and fall apart for every one I repaired. I ended up pushing that junker out of the shop told the owner to get a tow truck.
A few months later one of the sales guys bought a brand new red Miata and I installed a really nice Blaupunkt system in it. The titanium JBL tweeters were the same diameter as the circular air vents, so he asked me to remove the grills, shove a big wad of shop towel in each one to block the hot air, and stuff the tweeters in there. It looked great and sounded amazing.
posted by CynicalKnight at 3:44 PM
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[ Fixed typo in post title! Please carry on!]
posted by mod_adrienneleigh at 4:02 PM
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Ah, little cars! The great joy of my life was a 1993 Honda Civic del Sol, purchased from a friend who I initially derided when he told me he was selling it. Boy howdy did I change my tune when I got it. Surprisingly capacious! Perfectly sized for me as a short person! 35mpg everywhere! Top pops off and fits in the trunk! Or, when the trunk lock breaks, behind the bushes in front of your apartment building when you want to take a night drive around the Perimeter! I hope she's still having adventures.
I had forgotten completely that I looked at a Miata when my mom was buying a new car back in the early 90s, when I must have been in 3rd or 4th grade - so I guess I caught the bug early.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 6:25 PM
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Haha, first rule of Fit Club is always talk about Fit Club. Ours is orange and occasionally referred to as The Great Pumpkin.
I've never tried a Miata but I have the Toyota equivalent in the MR2 and 138 horsepower really is enough when the car doesn't weigh anything.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 6:40 PM
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I had a Mazda3 for 14 years and really loved that car.
But my dad had an 80s-era Honda Prelude which I always thought was the coolest car. Unfortunately he wasn't ready to give it up until I was long out of the house so it was my younger sister who got it as a hand-me-down. I never even got to drive it because 1. It was a stick shift and I hadn't learned (didn't get my license until after college) and 2. My family moved 2k miles away.
posted by misskaz at 3:54 AM
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There was a time when I was in the market for a new car and an online friend of mine kept pushing the Miata at me. "It's such a FUN CAR!" he'd exclaim. "It's so much FUN TO DRIVE!"
Finally, I called up Google Maps of a nearby highway and two of its intersections, one involving a triple overpass and the other best described as non-Euclidean, and sent the link to him.
"What in the HELL IS THAT?" he asked me.
"That is one of many reasons why I'm not buying a Miata," I replied. "We do not DO 'fun driving' here."
posted by delfin at 5:19 AM
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I drove a 1990 NA MX-5 in bright primary red for a stretch and I'd count it as my third best enthusiast driving experience of all time (behind my Citroën 2CV, the Citroën GS, the best-ever middle-class car of all time, and tied in a 3-way for third with the car that seemingly ended up in our timeline in an accident involving a time machine and an Italian artist, the Citroën DS21 and the fantastic FWD sports oddball Saab Sonett III, which stayed glued to roads by some Swedish aeronautical engineering witchcraft).
The Miata was one of those fortuitous intrusions for me that sort of upturned a lot of my philosophical notions, and I essentially stole it from a friend in the art world because his husband did not remotely fit into it, except in the most circus-bearish fashion. I didn't fit well, either, but if I set the seat just right and slouched, I could get my line of sight below the top edge of the windscreen.
At the time, I'd believed myself immune to that residual teenboy energy that made me want a sports car, as I'd been through a sexy hell (MGB GT), sexy rusting Italian hell (Fiat 124 sport coupe), and a sexy rusting overheating US-market Italian hell (Fiat 124 Spider). I've driven a lot of cool stuff, and also come to the realization that I honestly believe that men being obsessed with fixing and maintaining cars (or other fetish objects) is a manifestation of a deep-rooted desire to be nurturing in a culture that says we're not supposed to do that. I'm over working on a busted-ass old car all the time. Still, I needed a new car, as my wilderness-years Chevrolet Metro sedan was dying of overuse as a truck and I had to get around, so the offer of a cheap, rust-free, low-mileage Miata for $1500 (with provenance) was irresistible.
I cannot stand rear-wheel drive. Hate "classic" American cars for that reason (and will never understand why my people's car club is so overwhelmingly dominated by flubbery mile-long American barges, other than the overstatement of it all). I get why it's familiar, but it's so stupid, from an engineering standpoint, to put the driven wheels on the other end of a car, and I lost interest in RWD right around the first time I pressed a Saab against my buttocks (to say nothing of my first time in a Citroën). Can't stand all the hype about how "sporting" and perfect it is...and yet—
That first-generation MX-5 was a revelation of what happens when you do RWD right. The team that built that thing got the balance exactly right. Got the manual shift right. Got the poise and composure right. Got the steering right. Got the exterior design right. Hell, they nailed everything, even though the pop-up headlights are a gimmick I could have done without. The flaws are few (the roof drain arrangement and putting the ECU on the floor in front of the passenger), and the engines turn in 200-300-400k if you treat them right.
Driving an MX-5 is lyrical. It's a forgiving car that, when you start to lose traction, it does it in a way that allows you to correct. I was convinced early on that it was going to kill me because it just egged me on to push harder and harder in corners, and if the tail would start to wag, you'd just have a visceral sense of it and the motor memory to keep you tracking. Back then, toxbros still found it hilarious to point it out as a "chick car," and I'd just smile and keep reveling in my ride while they lusted after godawful garbage muscle cars, which I'll never count as sporting, even, because all they can do it go fast, but an MX-5 can slice the road up and fold it up like origami. Besides, my masculinity isn't fragile. I know who and what I am. My car doesn't need to carry that water.
Is it slow? What the fuck does that even mean? A car that can drive highway speeds isn't slow. A car that can get out of its own way isn't slow, and man—a Miata is never in its own way.
It broke my brain, though, because the more I drove it, the more I realized that I'd come to hate driving, by which I mean that sort of lame, silly American "freedom" of the mandatory requirement to drive everywhere in the most mundane kind of going from boring point-A to boring point-B on the most boring road a person can find, and, oddly, it made me take the train to work more, because I could walk to the train from my home and not have to be a salmon swimming upstream in the miserable commutes in the Baltimore/DC corridor, saving the Miata for savoring, for taking the longest, most complicated routes to places I needed a car for, because sheesh, you don't drink champagne all the time for a reason.
I also noticed with increasing frequency that if you look at the faces of everyone else on the road in the lumbering nothingwagons that dominate the clotted asphalt arteries, you so rarely see anyone smiling, to say nothing of laughing or singing. I upgraded my radio a bit so I could sountrack my driving with Jorge Ben Jor and Mina belting out "Sacumdì Sacumdà" in the way that only Mina can belt, and my sassy dead Baltimore grandmother was always haunting the empty passenger seat and singing along with me in our shared taste for mid-century grooves. No one's ever smiling in a Ford Explorer—it's unjoyous. No one smiles in a Challenger, or sings along with Mitch in a Charger, because god forbid you surrender any of your masculinity behind those midnight-tinted windows, or be able to hear anything over your throbbing exhaust howl.
To be sure, YMMV. Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but I still notice the sea of sour faces when I'm out on the road, and I understand it, because driving is a soulless, dispiriting chore, even when you're not really aware of why beyond a troubling sense of unease and ticklish ennui.
That said, my MX-5 often revived me when life was being an interminable bummer, not with a thousand horsepower powerplant pinning me into my seat, but rather as a little proof that material things can still be incredible, no matter how much we're all supposed to surrender to the oatmeal paste of consumerist conformity in the face of being judged by the Joneses.
Other people could tell, too. Once, while driving down to an art-hanging gig with my toolboxes strapped on the little chrome trunk rack I had to supplement the laughably tiny trunk, I was full-tilt drag queen emoting to Plastic Bertrand with the top down and a little too much volume on a stroad heading south, and a cop sidled up next to me at a red light, and tapped his siren for little bllwoop. I sheepishly dialed back the volume and said "Sorry, is it too loud?"
"No, man, turn that fucker UP!" he said, and we drove away from the green light laughing. There was something in that car, something rare and perfect and like an antidote to the emptiness.
I am small, I am simple, I am perfect as I am, and I need be nothing more.
The Miata inspired me to make video, whether your basic lip-sync while driving down a back road with the top down when it was really too cold for that, or when I was feeling expansive and philosophical and wanted to try to explain the feeling of driving six hundred twenty-four miles to a little town in Georgia on a favorite route (scored on a synthesizer in the motel rooms where I stopped along the way). It just spoke to me, even though I knew, and continue to believe, that it's just a machine, and most of that feeling is coming from me.
In the end, I had to let it go. I had a pinched nerve that was so severely and relentlessly painful, to the point of rendering me unable to sleep or do my job without spending hours curled up under my desk crying, and my physical therapist said I needed to get rid of the car and to use my motorcycle to commute instead (since I didn't have to scrunch down with my neck angled to ride a motorcycle), and I'd changed careers for a new life in construction and needed an old truck that could actually carry lumber and toolboxes, and my little red car went to the girlfriend of my late, lamented motorcycle mechanic, and it's with her still, thirteen years on, and I check up on it on social media and keep tabs like one does with an amicable ex you still care for in spite of the impossibility of being together.
With another career change, I replaced the old truck, which was killing me at 13MPG, with a Fiat 500, which better suits my driving needs and the advent of a relationship where I suddenly had a future husband and stepkid to move around, and I did think "hey, maybe another Miata, this time an NB or NC," trying to figure out how to get back into a MX-5, but by then, people knew what a Miata really was, and the bargain years were over.
I have had cars more magical, weird, or wonderful, in some ways, but the MX-5 was the only car that ever cost me nothing—I sold it for what I paid for it, plus a bit, and everyone was happy. It's possible that that car is just a lovely fixed point in my history, a thing that happened when it happened and maybe, now that I'm pushing sixty, doesn't need to happen again, but golly, if it wasn't a fantastic time to be alive, darting down the winding roads of my region and singing the whole time. They are finally beloved for what they should have been recognized for the whole time—the answer to "what if a car could be joyous?"
The answer, I contend, is absolutely. We just choose dullness more often.
These days, my old 2CV is magical in a different way, but with the same intensity (and two more seats), and I still hate driving when I have to drive, and still love driving when I don't have to drive, when I just want to hit the road and explore. I just dive into the corners, the absurd tilt of a 2CV leaning in a turn always evoking a laugh from the car following me, and, since I don't have a stereo in the car, singing the tunes I can best remember.
It is just a machine, too.
Sort of.
posted by sonascope at 11:22 AM
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sweet story, sonascope.
It broke my brain, though, because the more I drove [the Miata], the more I realized that I'd come to hate driving, by which I mean that sort of lame, silly American "freedom" of the mandatory requirement to drive everywhere in the most mundane kind of going from boring point-A to boring point-B on the most boring road a person can find, and, oddly, it made me take the train to work more, because I could walk to the train from my home and not have to be a salmon swimming upstream in the miserable commutes in the Baltimore/DC corridor, saving the Miata for savoring, for taking the longest, most complicated routes to places I needed a car for, because sheesh, you don't drink champagne all the time for a reason.
This is entirely rational. Mrs C and I enjoy driving, when driving equals a secondary 2-lane road away from big cities, with hills and valleys and curves and neat stuff to see. Driving or commuting in a big city is usually misery, and not often enjoyable.
When I worked downtown, I took transit and/or the commuter train, or occasionally biked. Taking a folding bike on the train was the best of both modes. Much preferable to driving in rush-hour traffic.
posted by Artful Codger at 3:01 PM
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Used to ride shotgun in a friend's Miata back in the day (RIP, Kev).
This was when my hair was long. I'm 6'0" tall and I was just tall enough that my hair would enter the windstream and I'd come away from any highway trip looking like Yahoo Serious. Also, the top bar of the windshield was perfectly placed in between my eyes and the traffic lights so I'd have to squirm to see them.
Was my experience weird or are Miatas hostile to those of us 5'11" and up?
posted by Sauce Trough at 3:04 PM
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The entire point of the Miata would be lost completely if it was an EV. And that point is for it to be as lightweight as possible.
posted by drstrangelove at 3:10 PM
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Was my experience weird or are Miatas hostile to those of us 5'11" and up?
Miatas are very sensitive to if you're long-legs tall or short-legs tall. I'm 5'11ish these days (the descent has begun) and the latter, so when I'm sitting I'm way taller in the seat than you'd think, and the Miata was really pushing it for me, but it's that good that you just slouch and make it work. Meanwhile, one of my long-legs friends couldn't manage a Miata because his gangly Dutch legs were all over the place in the footwells, but I fit in a MG Midget just fine, since you sit with your legs straight out in those like a teddy bear.
posted by sonascope at 3:18 PM
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The entire point of the Miata would be lost completely if it was an EV.
Not if it was an SSB. Energy density up 50% higher than Lion an they're set to go into production as soon as next year.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:13 PM
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