Since you are visiting this page, I assume you are a car lover like me. If that’s true, you’ve likely noticed how car models have evolved over the years. It is customary for car makers to release cosmetic upgrades each model year, do a mid-cycle refresh every few years, and release a significantly upgraded new generation within 5-10 years. Every model, irrespective of class—economy, mid-size, SUV, sports car—has become bigger, heavier, and more powerful with each new generation. However, there is one car that has remained true to its core founding value: the Mazda MX-5, or “Miata” as it is lovingly known.
What is the Miata’s core value?
A lightweight sports car that is inexpensive and offers its owner the true joy of driving. Thirty-five years and four generations in, the Miata still adheres to that philosophy. No wonder it is the world’s best-selling roadster.
I acknowledge that the Miata did lose its way slightly in its adolescence, but it returned to its roots as it entered adulthood with the fourth generation. The latest Miata is nearly the same length as the first one and very close in weight despite adding safety equipment to remain compliant with regulations.
Throughout the last 35 years, there have been numerous sports cars—some lighter, some more powerful, many more luxurious, and most could beat the Miata in a drag race. But none have been able to match the delight it offers the driver every time they get behind the wheel. I am often asked, “What’s your dream car?” And my answer has always been, “I don’t have one.” But if there is a car I want to own, it is the Miata.
As I started writing this article, I realized that 1989-90 was perhaps the most remarkable year for Japanese automakers when they launched four iconic cars: the Lexus LS400, the Honda/Acura NSX, the Infiniti Q45, and the Mazda MX-5 Miata. Wow! What a year for the consumer!
The LS400 and the Q45 were luxury cars in the same segment attracting the same buyer. On the other hand, the NSX and Miata were both sports cars but positioned at the extreme ends of the segment. And both achieved something no sports car had achieved before. Writing this gives me goosebumps.
Each of the cars above had a story behind why and how the automaker built it. Miata’s story is longer because it took a long time to convince stakeholders that this was a good idea. The LS400 and the NSX were Toyota’s and Honda’s passion projects, whereas the Miata was the passion project of a small group in Mazda’s US division. Like the LS400 and the NSX, there were many internal differences in every aspect of the car from the design, powertrain, layout, etc. However, in the case of the Miata, these struggles almost killed the project many times because it was never a priority for the company. That is one more reason the car took so long to launch—nearly 10 years—because the work was often delayed due to resource constraints.
For folks in the corporate world, there are so many management lessons in Miata’s story that a book can be written about it. Two entirely different cultures with their viewpoints on everything about the car, departmental politics, resource scarcity, regulatory compliance, and so many other challenges that the core team had to overcome. It is a testament to their persistence that the car was built. On the other hand, it is also worth noting that despite these challenges, every team that worked on the project did an astonishing job in their areas, never deviating from the core focus: building a lightweight sports car that was simple but offered unparalleled driving pleasure. So there you have it—two more management/life lessons: not losing focus and keeping it simple.
When a product succeeds, it is difficult to credit one individual. That is true for the Miata too. However, one person deserves credit for conceiving the idea of the Miata and pushing Mazda to build it. That person is Bob Hall.
Bob was an automotive journalist when he first shared his idea of a lightweight sports car with Mazda in 1979. Bob started working for Mazda as a product planner a couple of years later, and while working on the B Series Pickup, he got an opportunity to work on his idea.
The Miata owes a lot to the nostalgia Bob and his co-plotters felt for smaller sports cars from Europe. Models from MG, Triumph, Alfa Romeo, Austin, and Lotus were much loved in America but couldn’t cope with the tightening safety and emission regulations. These cars also were not known for their reliability, another nail in the two-seater roadster coffin. There was a strong desire to bring back the European lightweight sports car with Japanese reliability. Bob Hall strongly believed that Mazda could do it given its success with the RX-7. Thankfully, he found a few like-minded folks at the Mazda US offices. The rest is history. If you are interested, this video from Barchetta does a good job documenting it.
The marketing and sales teams across the US, Europe, and Japan felt that there was no market for such a car anymore. After years of working on it, the project was about to be shut down when someone had the brilliant idea to present the prototype to a closed group of customers. Thankfully, the customer enthusiasm at the event was overwhelmingly positive, and the Miata finally got the green light after being stuck in amber for a long time.
The car was an instant success. It broke all sales expectations within and outside Mazda. The formula of designing the car from scratch and not slimming down an existing sedan to a roadster worked extremely well. The car was not very powerful, nor was it very fast, but it delivered both in such an effortless way that one drive was all it took for someone to fall in love with it.
The price lowered the entry barrier, driving huge demand. So many people bought it as their “starting” sports car. Many graduated to Porsches and Corvettes, but a fair share of them remained with or retained the Miata because no other car felt like it. People loved to modify it, take it to the track, race it, or just drive it around town. Unlike other expensive sports cars, where the owners checked the weather before taking out, they would drive the Miata rain or shine.
The Miata means different things to different people, but one common theme is that it brought “joy” to motoring. I am reminded of BMW’s 2009 campaign called “JOY.” The Miata achieved that 20 years earlier.
