All highs, no lows: The 2018 Mazda MX-5 Miata

Jonathan Gitlin

If one anecdote can sum up how good the current Mazda MX-5 Miata is, consider the following. Thanks to this job, I drive a lot of press fleet cars-between two and four a month depending on my travel schedule. And during the course of the last year, the little MX-5 has been the only one I've just driven around for hours with no other objective than enjoying the experience-supercars included. What makes it even more remarkable is that Mazda hit on this formula 29 years ago.

Evolutionary outlier

Three decades is a long time, even in car years. When the first MX-5 (the NA model) went on sale in 1989, it was a remarkable thing, combining the brio of sporty rear-wheel drive European roadsters from the 1960s with something those cars struggled with: reliability. It was small, light, and not very powerful. A 1.6L four-cylinder engine made just 115hp (86kW) and 100ft-lbs (136Nm), and the car ran on 14-inch wheels. But that was more than enough to put a smile on your face the instant you found a corner.

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