Word: miata
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...Love your car!" The young woman, who is quite pretty, has skipped across the main street of my New Hampshire town to say this. "Thanks," I tell her modestly, wondering if it would be all right to twirl my mustache. I borrowed this Mazda MX-5 Miata three days ago. People edge away when I park my usual vehicle, a large black four-wheel-drive Ford plow truck with red pinstriping and air horns. But the Miata gets passersby smiling and talking: teenagers, old couples, a fellow dressed in muscles and a camouflage shirt at a tire store, bicyclists...
Having charge of a Miata is like taking a puppy for a walk. People want to pat its stubby little muzzle (which looks as if it is not quite ready for the big world, since it lacks a conventional front bumper). They tell you about sports cars they owned, and when they get to the part where they sold the old XK 120, they look stricken...
...down, says the voice of reason. Have a nice cup of decaf tea. Try to remember that a car is not a puppy. True, the dreamer muses, but if adult automobiles bred and had young, the result might be a Miata: short nosed, rounded and soft looking; mischievous, with a funny, not quite serious growl...
...revving, 116- h.p. engine up through five gears, sounds like one-fourth of a Ferrari. Or, memory says, like an old MG-TC or Porsche Speedster. Which is to say, cunningly tuned to bring a grin but not a police cruiser. This is true, more or less, of the Miata's performance. Steering is solid and very quick; cornering is flat, without sway or slosh; and straight-out acceleration (0 to 60 m.p.h. in 8.6 sec.) is brisk but not pavement scorching...
Mazda, which is building the Miata in a plant in Hiroshima, plans to sell about 20,000 of the cars in the U.S. during 1989 and 40,000 next year. That is only a small portion of the 10 million-car U.S. market, but the Miata represents another little dent in Detroit's battered pride...