Miata coupe in 2010?

Right, what's the point? I imagine the US market for a slow, 2-seat coupe was saturated by the defunct (and ironically named) Insight. The PRHT is a hit; a fixed-head coupe would be a dud.

I am actually glad that Mazda did not have a coupe version of the Miata in 1999, as I would have probably bought it.

The PITA factor and the additional maintenance/replacement cost of a convertible top compared to a coupe did not seem to make up for the fun factor of dropping the top to me until I had driven it for some time.

The initial reasons that I bought the Miata were almost entirely based on the price, handling and reported reliability of the car.

Pat

I too underestimated the upside of the convertible and I too love the PRHT .

Anybody else remember how old this idea is? Almost that exact design was floated as a concept cat by Mazda back in 96. I have the Car and Driver calendar page (Oct 5, 1998) up on the wall in front of me! It was called the 1996 Mazda Miata M Coupe.

Chris

I bought my 99 because it was

1. A "sports car" (and a good one for the money)
2. A convertable sports car. If it had not been a convertable, I would have likely gotten something else, perhaps an older sports car in good condition.

That aside, I get more queries concerning the car when it has the matching hardtop installed. Seems the "Roadster" logo & the hardtop confuse some people, even today. Sports cars should be Red, Silver, Green, or Blue. No White, Black, Grey or Chameleon allowed. (G)

One of the funniest events occurred when the 99 was fairly new. I had buffed it, removed any "orange peel" and waxed it with a very high gloss, high carnuba content wax intended for boats and RV's. Then in the afternoon, stopped by a "Classic Car" show at the local shopping center. I ended up parking at the end of a row of cars to be judged, but just on the other side of the "rope".

The first thing that happened was that a family with a small boy (about 3-5 I'd guess). The boy was bored with the classic cars, saw the shiny RED 99, and went sorta ballistic. Seems he "WANTED THAT CAR". Parents had to drag him off screaming and kicking. Next, the judges actually started think about judging the 99, at first thinking it was one of the older italian "exotic" sports cars, even though it was on the other side of the saggy rope. They got a judging sheet partially filled out before they noticed the lack of an entry number (The sun was very bright on Marco Island that day, and most of the cars had the number tag on the inside of the windshield, so that it didn't blow away.)

We have a 2006 base MX-5.

It is interesting how people "see" the MX5 / sports cars. Last year, we left a wedding to drive across town to the reception. Top down of course! Several people left the church at the same time. When we arrived at the reception hall - a guy told me he followed me because we seemed to know where we were going. He said; "You were the folks in the MG, right?"

To some -rather oblivious- pe> thinking it was one of the older italian "exotic" sports cars, even though

Yes, and I really liked it, even though they painted it yellow.

Had it been in production and available in blue or black, I probably would have bought it in 1999 instead of the '96M that I went with.

Pat

There's that Miata knowledge!

Chris

Excuse me sir, but I am sure you mean Red, Silver, Green, AND Blue.

Leon P.S. And cut down on the silver with a responsible driver, of course.

The only thing I would like better than the ragtop or the retractable hardtop would be an integral rollbar with vertical retractable rear window. The main problem with this design is where to stash the small removeable top. The Lotus Elise has a soft top between the front glass and rollbar that rolls up, but that reintroduces all the noise that the hardtop takes care of. A hard shell would be hard to store. It sure would be nice to have a retractable rear window for ventilation w/ o the wind. And if the top could retract behind the seats, oh, joy!

What I would like better than a coupe is scissor doors. California parking spaces are tiny.

So you want the SUV next to you to have scissor doors...

miker