A couple of days ago, Mazda celebrated the 20ies birthday of the Mazda MX-5 / Miata. When it was presented in 1989 it was an instant sensation. It was quite a good amalgam of Lotus Elan roots and 90ies car engineering practices. And it was a pretty simple car with almost no electronic gismo. First only available in the US and Japan it came 1990 to Switzerland. Mine was one of the first ones sold here, it was red with a black interior and I loved it a lot.
I can well remember the trips I did with it, chasing Alfa-Romeo Spiders, and being quicker thanks to the very efficient convertible top mechanism, giving me an edge when it started to rain.
When it appeared it was basically the only car of its kind, but later Fiat and other makes copied the concept. It was clearly a success, with roughly 900'000 cars built it is clearly more than the fashion of a summer. Mazda did a very good job in keeping the car updated, I especially like the latest versions while I wasn't too keen on the ones between the MK1 and the current cars.The MX-5/Miata has all it takes to become a classic and it only takes another 10 years until the first examples turn into the "oldtimer" age. Today it's a "youngtimer" and it's a "classic" I could well imagine giving my son one of these as a present when he turns 18. I wonder whether my "own" MX-5 has survived ....
(more information for example on wikipedia)
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