I am in my early forties. I am married and I have two kids. I have a nice home and a decent family vehicle. I have something resembling a career and a sweet side gig writing about cars. You’d think I’m living the dream, but I’m not. I have a secret deep down inside me – I always wanted a Miata. But somehow, for various reasons, I never bought one. But I always wanted one. Badly.
But realistically it won’t work for me. How would I drop my two kids off at two different schools every morning in a Miata? And then there are the guitars, lacrosse sticks, hockey equipment, and volcano projects that need constant moving. My dream of a daily driver Miata simply isn’t possible.
Or is it?
Currently, my daily morning commute is this: At 7:15 I take my daughter to school, roughly four miles away in the western direction. I then come back home and pickup my son to take him to school, roughly three miles in the northeast direction from my home. His school is about halfway between my home and my office and in the same direction. I drop him off and I then continue to my office.
Things get trickier in the afternoon. Sometimes I pick my son up and we go to home or to one of his sporting events. Some days we just go home. Other days I drop him off at home and go to pick up my daughter. Some days I scoop him and go right to my daughter’s school to pick her up. Glamorous, isn’t?
Most of the time, when I only have one of my kids at a time with me, the Miata (I refuse to call in at MX-5) would do well. But the Miata won’t work with two kids unless I put one of them in the trunk. And while that isn’t always a bad idea, it is illegal. Days like these would require planning ahead and driving my 4Runner (frequently used by my wife) instead of the Miata, but it’s doable.
But what about all the stuff that needs moving? The Miata has a five cubic feet of trunk space. That’s small and it addition to being small, the opening is rather small, further limiting what can be placed inside. But it works! That trunk is wide enough to swallow up a lacrosse bag (kid’s size stick), a trumpet case, a kids’ guitar case, and/or backpacks, and my workbag. Worst case scenario, a kid will have to have their backpack by their feet. Waah! Cry me a river, when I was their age…
Having established sufficient cargo space, let’s move inside. My youngest kid is six years old. That means he still uses the Recaro booster seat seen in pictures. It does fit pretty well over the factory Recaro seats* that were in this car (yo dawg, I heard you like Recaros, so I…). The big problem occurred when I had to remove the booster seat so that my eleven year old daughter could sit there. By some miracle, the Recaro booster seats managed to just fit into Miata’s little trunk opening. Once in, there was even room for a school backpack and a pack of gum. Great success!
To no one’s surprise, things are tight inside. I need like to drink coffee in the mornings and I do it while driving. The MX-5 Miata has two or three cup-holders, depending on how you count. There are two cup-holder cradles the clip to the back of the center console. That does make their use inconvenient but one of them can be removed and clipped onto the passenger side of the front console. That works much better but it cuts into the passenger leg area. Good thing kids have small legs. If they don’t like, they can take the bus.
There is a small glovebox and a small compartment between the two seats. There is also a secret compartment behind the passenger’s seat. And that is pretty much it for interior space in the not-a-Miata MX-5. That’s not unexpected in such a small car. If you need more space than that for your stuff, get rid of some stuff.
What is unexpected is the infotainment system. It is unintuitive to use and desperately lacking Apple CarPlay. I noticed one specific issue in the CX-9 and it was confirmed here – the single USB port was unable to properly charge my phone while driving. I decided to use my charger that plugs into the 12V socket. Except that socket wasn’t there. I looked and I looked. Nope. No 12v socket. The last car I remember that didn’t have a 12v socket was a ’79 Fiat 126p. What gives?
On my almost dead phone, I googled the subject topic and found this Jalopnik article. Holy poop, the 12V socket was buried deep, way deep, in the passenger foot well. It’s basically invisible unless you put your head on the floor. What the actual fuck, Mazda!? Whose idea was that!? And someone else approved it, too!? <Headdesk.gif>
Other than that, the Miata shockingly passed its test as a solid-ish family vehicle. Kids loved driving around with the top down. The current Miata is as much of a blast to drive as it ever was. Its biggest issue is having just two seats. Other than that, I really don’t have a good reason not to get one. And neither should any other forty-something who is living the so-called dream.
*Optional on the Club model with manual transmission, the Brembo®/BBS RECARO Package consists of: Brembo front brakes with red calipers, BBS forged 17″ aluminum-alloy wheels with gunmetal finish, an aero kit (side sill extensions, rear bumper skirt in black), and heated black RECARO sport seats. Get it, just do it. You know you want to.
[Disclaimer: Mazda North America provided the vehicle for the purpose of this review. All images copyright Kamil Kaluski/Hooniverse 2018]
