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Concept
Mazda MX-5
Summary
The Mazda MX-5 is a lightweight two-passenger sports car manufactured and marketed by Mazda with a front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. The convertible is marketed as the Mazda Roadster or Eunos Roadster in Japan, and as the Mazda Miata (miˈɑːtə) in the United States, and formerly in Canada, where it is now marketed as the MX-5 but is still commonly referred to as Miata.
Manufactured at Mazda's Hiroshima plant, the MX-5 debuted in 1989 at the Chicago Auto Show and was conceived and executed under a tightly focused design credo, 人馬一体, meaning "oneness of horse and rider". Widely noted for its small, light, technologically modern, dynamically balanced and minimally complex design, the MX-5 has frequently been called a spiritual successor to 1950s and '60s Italian and British roadster sports cars. The Lotus Elan was used as a design benchmark.
Generations were internally designated with a two-letter code, beginning with the first generation, the NA. The second generation (NB) launched in 1998 for MY 1999; followed by the third generation (NC) in 2005 for MY 2006, and the fourth generation (ND) in 2015 for MY 2016.
As the best-selling two-seat convertible sports car in history, the MX-5 has been marketed globally, with production exceeding one million, as of early 2016. The name miata derives from Old High German for "reward".
The original MX-5 was launched at a time when small roadsters had almost disappeared from the market, with the Alfa Romeo Spider being one of the only comparable models still in production at the time. However, even the Spider was not a direct competitor of the MX-5 due to its significantly higher price tag. That left the Mazda as the spiritual successor to a host of discontinued sports cars such as the MG B, Triumph TR7, Triumph Spitfire, and Fiat Spider.
The MX-5 was officially introduced in February 1989 at the Chicago Auto Show, and the public immediately resonated with the new sports car. The first generation MX-5 would go on to be the most popular of the four MX-5 generations by a wide margin, with over 228,961 units sold in the United States between 1989 and 1997.
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