Stops Short - 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata Convertible Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

Stops Short - 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata Convertible Long-Term Road Test

Our long-term 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata is a joy to drive, and its stopping ability puts it in a league with some seriously high-performance cars.

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longtimelurker

All of those cars are much heavier and all of the ones mentioned have a greater front weight bias, which puts more demand on the front brakes and makes the rears less effective. The Miata also has a low center of gravity, which equates to less nosedive, again making the rear brakes more effective.

The Miata gets an inordinate amount of praise from Edmunds for doing things well that it SHOULD do well. Yes, it gets good fuel economy and brakes well...it weighs less than 2,400 lbs.

slyons89

longtimelurker I fail to see your point. If a car does something effectively, it deserves praise. Why wouldn't a potential buyer want to know how well it stops? Yes, it weighs 2400 lbs, and that helps it stop faster. Have you seen how small the brakes are? Replacement parts like rotors and pads are cheaper because of this, yet they perform as effectively. And without super-low tread-ware rating tires that need to be replaced sooner.

desmolicious

longtimelurker said:

The Miata gets an inordinate amount of praise from Edmunds for doing things well that it SHOULD do well.

That's because it is up to its design brief and deserves the praise as such.

Many vehicles are lousy at what they should do well. Sedans that get poor mpg and are uncomfortable. Trucks that have peaky motors and mismatched transmissions. Minivans that wallow once you load them up with passengers. All these describers have been recently on Edmunds' LT fleet.

It seems that you would be happier if Edmunds wrote that the Miata had weak brakes, a poor transmission and was no fun to drive.

desmolicious

And another thing Travis, pretty sure that wasn't a Miata that Frank Costanza was driving!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQmtOkO6ajc

longtimelurker

desmolicious said:

longtimelurker said:

The Miata gets an inordinate amount of praise from Edmunds for doing things well that it SHOULD do well.

That's because it is up to its design brief and deserves the praise as such.

Many vehicles are lousy at what they should do well. Sedans that get poor mpg and are uncomfortable. Trucks that have peaky motors and mismatched transmissions. Minivans that wallow once you load them up with passengers. All these describers have been recently on Edmunds' LT fleet.

It seems that you would be happier if Edmunds wrote that the Miata had weak brakes, a poor transmission and was no fun to drive.

Fair enough...but that's why I said "inordinate amount" of praise. They don't really need three posts on how great the shifter is or how great the IP cluster is...yeah - it's a three-inch-long linkage. It better be great.

youcanrunnaked

Lurker is missing the forest for the trees. The very fact that Mazda is able to produce a modern sports car that weighs only 2300 lbs (what the scales actually show in the real world for the Sport) is worthy of adoration beyond praise, and all of the MX-5's dynamic goodness (and resulting praise) flows from that. Alfa Romeo needed to use a carbon fiber tub and charge $70,000 for their lightweight sports car, and the 4C is still heavier than the ND. Lotus got their US version of the Elise down to around 2040 lbs by using a fragile fiberglass tub and charging 2x what an ND costs, and then had to withdraw the car from the US market when it couldn't meet revised crash standards. The ND meets all current and near-future world-wide safety, fuel efficiency, and emissions standards, while weighing within 100 lbs of the NA -- a car that could never meet any such standards; used a vinyl top with plastic rear window, instead of a canvas top with glass rear window; had roll-up windows and manual locks and mirrors instead of full power; came with A/C optional instead of standard; came with an AM/.FM 2-speaker radio instead of a 9-speaker Bose sound/ Infotainment system; and came with 15" steel wheels instead of 16" or 17" aluminum wheels. On top of all that, Mazda kept the price within a few dollars of the original, adjusted for inflation.