When Mazda introduced the Miata roadster for the 1990 model year, this fetching drop top was the recipient of widespread critical acclaim and overwhelming consumer interest. Despite its Japanese origins, in many ways the roadster represented the revival of the traditional British sports car. It had styling derivative of the Lotus Elan and excellent reliability in the tradition of Japan's automakers. Buyers lined up at Mazda dealerships and paid more than sticker price for the svelte new Miata.
Over the years, the Mazda Miata gained power. It also gained weight, which served to make it safer than its progenitors without detracting from performance. A major redesign came in 1999. Although it shared its basic underpinnings with the original, the second-generation Miata offered more power, a larger interior, exposed headlamps and more aggressive styling. It also received a glass rear window with defogger, a stiffened chassis and sharpened reflexes. A turbocharged Mazdaspeed Miata joined the lineup for 2004.
For 2006, the MX-5 Miata receives its first top-to-bottom overhaul. True, the '06 is longer, wider, heavier and roomier inside than before, and it's packing more motor and more amenities. All of this could have deadened that characteristic Miata feel, but it hasn't. The Mazda roadster still changes direction like a roller skate, speaks to you clearly through the steering wheel and driver seat, accelerates adequately with a classic inline-four growl and writes the book on manual-shifter precision, effort and feel.
The original Mazda MX-5 offered one engine, one transmission and three colors: red, white and blue. There are, on the other hand, five degrees of the new MX-5 from the stripped-to-the-essentials Club Spec model to the loaded Limited edition. If you pay more, you get more: a six-speed manual gearbox (versus the standard five-speed), black or tan leather seats (versus black cloth), a cloth top (versus vinyl), a seven-speaker Bose audio system (that sounds wonderful, top up or down), and numerous options, including a six-speed automatic transmission. However, if you're adding a ton of extras to the Miata, you're missing the point: This Mazda roadster is about simplicity in design and operation. It's about having fun behind the wheel. It's about feeling free and young on warm summer nights. Not a serious car, the 2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata, but that's part of its charm.