Drawing Board: Lightweight RWD sedan

Imagine this but with two more doors and a fixed roof...

We haven't done one of these in a while, so lets take this opportunity in this new year and pontificate about a car that currently does not exist on the market.

From 2007 until 2012, my wife and I were proud owners of a hand-me-down 1999 Mazda Miata. It was a special edition car made in limited quantities and packed with lots of performance goodies like the then new 6-speed manual transmission and a limited slip differential between the rear wheels. The car was an absolute hoot to drive thanks to a curb weight of just 2,350 pounds. Its raw and tossable nature always made me wonder why Mazda never attempted to translate the chassis into other vehicles to add to the line-up. Just imagine what a treat it would be to have a light weight compact four-door sedan that offered all of the fun of the Miata, but significantly more practicality.

So that got me thinking, what would such a car really look like?

Test Drive: 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata

When the Mazda Miata was first introduced back in 1989, it was a small, light weight roadster that was easy to toss around. What it lacked in horsepower, it easily made up in handling shenanigans. But just as with all cars these days, the Miata grew in size and weight with each successive generation. The first generation car weighed a svelte 2,070 lbs. By the time the third generation car rolled around in the mid 2000s, the car had ballooned to 2,542 lbs. With only 170 horsepower under the hood, the third generation Miata was probably the least "Miata" like to date.

Looking to put some of the light weight tossable fun back into the Miata's DNA, Mazda worked hard to slash weight from the new, fourth generation model. The result is an over 300 lbs. weight loss to the tune of 2,200 lbs. While not quite as light as the first generation Miata, this put its weight under even the second generation car. With a 500 lb. weight advantage over my own S2000, I went into this test drive expecting to have a ton of fun tossing the thing around. 

2014 Mazda Miata PRHT

In the automotive enthusiast world, there is a joke that "Miata is always the answer." It is one of those things that is usually spoken half jokingly and half seriously because the Miata is truly one of those gems of a car that is capable of so much and is one of the rawest driving experiences that we can get at an affordable price. As a former Miata owner, I have a serious love affair with how the little roadster drives. The NB generation 10th Anniversary Edition that was our only car for nearly a three year period was absolutely one of the funnest cars to own and I had many an adventure in that car because of how easy and fun it was to drive. Unfortunately, the confluence of a pricey repair and a pending relocation to a much snowier climate forced our hand and we ended up parting ways with the beloved roadster in the summer before we moved to Boston.

I continue to miss that car dearly so when someone rear-ended our Focus Electric and the car needed to be in the shop for a week, the other party's insurance company offered to pay for a rental car for the duration of the repair. While I was at the rental car office, examining their available stock, the presence of an NC generation Miata with the power retractable hard top (PRHT) was rather conspicuously catching my attention. A bit of prodding around at the other cars available and some shrewd negotiation later, I was seated in the Miata and dropping the top.

Test Drive: 2013 Mazda MX-5 Miata Grand Touring - Power Retractable Hard Top

MSRP: $29,450
Price as Tested: $30,245

Since its introduction in 1989, the Mazda MX-5, better known as the Miata in the United States, has taken on the stereotype of being the quintessential "hair dresser's" car. With it small body and cute looks, many people ignored the great driving qualities possessed by the Miata. This stereotype seemed to persist throughout both the first and second generations of the car. Mazda was able to partially shed this stereotype during the Miata's second generation with the introduction of the Mazdaspeed Miata, which came with a turbocharged engine, revised suspension, and aggressive aero parts. However, as the third generation Miata was introduced, the cuteness factor returned with the Miata's "smiling" front fascia. In 2008, Mazda gave the Miata a much needed refresh, which introduced a far more aggressive version of the "smiley face" front end.

Fast forward to 2013. The third generation Miata has been on sale for eight years now, with minor face lifts and equipment changes along the way. For 2013, changes include another front end revision (this one more aggressive than the last few revisions), Bilstein dampers, new 17 inch alloy wheels, a bit of weight loss, and a whole host of other changes. The Grand Touring model I drove also includes a revised and more powerful version of the 2.0 liter MZR inline-4 engine. All these changes are supposed to make this one of the best and most aggressive MX-5 Miatas to date, short of the second generation Mazdaspeed Miata.

Long Term Test: 2012 Acura TSX Special Edition post #1

Update: Click here to read post #2.

The day our beloved 1999 Mazda Miata MX-5 10th Anniversary Edition was stricken ill was a dark day for my wife and me. From the day they b
rought it home, that car had been the pride and joy of my wife's parents and she had set her sights on it becoming the first car that she would own, which did eventually happen in 2006. When we relocated from the suburbs into the city, we consolidated down into a single car, and the Miata was the car we kept. As you can imagine, there were many years of sentimental value attached to the little blue convertible.

So when it came time to find a replacement, we had a long list of requirements and a lot of compromises to make. We knew we needed something more practical than the Miata (a criteria which just about any car would satisfy) and be able to carry our friends and luggage and potentially a pet. That meant that something with 4 seats would be required, at a minimum. My wife, who is very environmentally minded, wanted a car that put up decent fuel economy numbers. I wanted a manual transmission, which narrowed the available options to a tiny handful of cars. Fun to drive, comfortable, relatively maintenance free, and moderately well equipped with modern necessities such as Bluetooth hands-free calling were all a given. Pricing needed to be reasonable as we were losing an income for a couple of years and knew we wanted to keep our expenses under control.