Sorry, says Mazda, but we'll have to wait to get a first look at the next-generation Miata.
As much as we’d like to see the next-generation Mazda Miata land in showrooms by, well, yesterday, it appears we’re going to have show some patience. Widespread reports that the new 2-seater would be unveiled at next month’s Chicago Auto Show just aren’t accurate, it turns out.
“It’s not true,” Mazda’s chief U.S. spokesman Jeremy Barnes tells TheDetroitBureau.com. “File that under the heading of ‘Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.”
That’s too bad because Mazda – and the Miata – have always had a special relationship with the Windy City, the little sports car making its original debut at the Chicago Auto Show exactly a quarter-century ago.
When will the new Miata make its first appearance? Mazda officials aren’t talking but well-placed sources suggest it’s more likely the new model would be ready to make its debut sometime around the end of 2014 or perhaps early in 2015. Think somewhere between the upcoming L.A. Auto Show and next year’s Chicago event. We’re betting that would mean the first in line could be ready to enjoy the warm weather by the spring of 2015.
Specific details about the car are also being kept under tight wraps but Mazda has made it clear the next-generation Miata won’t bring a radical departure from the original formula. If anything, it’s almost a return to the concept that made the first-gen convertible so appealing, one reviewer at the time dubbing the then-new Miata, “the best British sports car the Japanese have ever made.”
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Don’t expect it to be the fastest, or the quickest in and out of a corner, for example, but it will have a unique link between man and machine.
The new car, Mazda has suggested, will be a fair bit lighter than the current model which weighs in around 2,400 pounds. The Japanese maker has been targeting an average mass reduction of around 100 kilograms – 220 pounds – on each of its redesigned models. That would make it just slightly heavier than the 2,100 pounds the first-gen Miata weighed in at.
That’s no mean feat considering the original had manual window winders, mirrors and door locks and a plastic rear window. The next Miata will likely have even more features – might a locking differential be among the offerings? – and will also have to meet ever-tightening emissions and safety standards. It is unimaginable it would not score at least a “good” rating in the new small offset crash test run by the Insurance Institute for Highway safety.
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Even then, it has been widely reported that Mazda would like to deliver as much as a 30% increase in fuel economy – which could mean highway ratings of as much as 37 mpg. Again, one might dismiss that as another “thing I read on the Internet,” but the maker has lent credence to that reported target. It will help to have two new SkyActiv powertrains available for the next-gen Mazda Miata, including both a 1.5-liter inline-four and a more peppy 2.0-liter engine, both naturally aspirated.
But, it appears we’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out for sure.