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Claudia Hommel
Cabaret Singer
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Cordell Koland
Car Writer
Weekly Reviews
 2007 Mazda MX-5 Miata by Cordell Koland Last year, Mazda redesigned its sports roadster from the ground up, while still retaining the MX-5 Miata's essential personality. For 2007, the big news is a folding hard top the increases security and decreases the car's vulnerability to external noise and the elements. Yes, you say, we¹ve seen a plethora of hard top convertibles and roadsters in the last few years. What's the big deal? Well the big deal is that the three-piece hard top hinges and stacks up out of sight in exactly the same space as the standard soft top. My experience has been that on other models, the hard top takes up an inordinate amount of space in the trunk, in some instances rendering it all but unusable. So you have both the clean lines of the roadster when the top is down with no loss of storage in the trunk. In actual practice, the new hard top came as quite a shock. Upon lowering the hard top, I opened the trunk of the Miata, expecting the hard top to take up most of the space. I did a triple take, thinking there must be something wrong with my eyesight. But in truth the whole expanse of the trunk was available for whatever the owner desired to stow. For 2007, Mazda has increased the Miata's range to four models, the SV, Sport, Touring and Grand Touring models. Our test car was the Grand Touring model which delivers the full range of standard features with an MSRP of $26,360. Our sample added a few extras including a suspension package and the Premium Package, which included such essentials as stability control and xenon headlights for a grand total of $28,670 including destination charges. The Miata has earned its status as the world's best-selling two-seat roadster. The vehicle is certainly the heart and soul of Mazda's position in the current automobile market as a purveyor of sporty fun-to-drive vehicles. Internationally, Mazda is one of the few bright spots within the global Ford Motor Company's struggling empire. Through April, the Japanese manufacturer has racked up a 12 percent sales increase in the United States. The reason for the Miata's continuing success and the factor above all that makes it so special is the commitment to keeping the car a simple four-cylinder roadster, while incorporating modern safety and performance components. Utilizing aluminum components and other lightweight materials, engineers are able to bring the car to market with a dry weight of about 2,500 pounds, including the power hard top, while simultaneously developing a body that's rigid in terms of resisting bending and twisting forces. The design also delivers an almost perfectly balanced car in terms of front-to-back weight distribution, which can help the driver keep the car on path when pushed to its limits. Mazda designers have made modest modifications to the classic design of the Miata. The wheel arches are blistered in such a way to call attention to the attractive 17-inch wheels. The arches also give the car a sculptured design. Overall, the new MX-5 looks athletic without really compromising the purity of its time-honored profile. The Miata's interior does the job. The dashboard is well designed and all of the controls are very easy to find and operate. To be sure the MX-5 does not partake in a lot of the contemporary gadgets and gizmos that populate the interior of the typical luxury car or SUV, but the absence of this stuff also brings with it a wonderful elegance and simplicity. To tune the radio, you don¹t have to wade through a frustrating multi-layered computer menu system. It's in the context of a winding country road that one fully realizes the elemental nature of the Miata. The steering system is designed to offer maximum feedback and the taut suspension is engineered to accommodate a blistering pace. The optional six-speed manual transmission is perfectly mated to the spunky, but not terribly powerful, four-cylinder engine. When I tested the original Miata in 1989, the car was a revelation. It's agility and control were legendary and luckily for a new generation of drivers, its essential nature survives intact. Vehicle:
Mazda MX-5 Miata Grand
Touring Price as tested: $26,095 Engine: Type: 2.0-liter, inline four Horsepower: 166 @ 6,700 rpm Torque: 140 lbs.-ft. @ 5,000 rpm Fuel economy, manual transmission City 24 mpg Highway 30 mpg Curb Weight: 2,498 lbs.  Cordell Koland is an automotive journalist based in California's central coast. He can be reached at cordellkoland@oakparkjournal.com |
