LM: ND Miata

Posting this picture again with a question on the appearance package. Is that an option on both the Club and Grand Touring trims? Is it a standalone option or part of a package?

secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Andy Hollis :

I'll admit I haven't sat in a ND, but are you sure there's less room? Maybe using her legs as a driver keeps her from noticing while as a passenger they are just kinda hanging out and the lack of required movement makes her fidgety or notice the situation more when on that side.

There's less room when I sit over there, too.  As I recall, there is some electronic module back there in the footwell.

I concur about the infotainment system being outdated, slow, and laggy, especially if you're using Android Auto/Carplay. I use the stock wired AA everyday in my '21 and it sometimes takes a minute to boot up. It often crashes in the middle of a drive. On longer trips sometimes it gets into a cycle of crashing every 10 minutes or so. And by crash, I mean fully paralyzed reboot with Mazda logo on screen and nothing but volume control available. Very distracting when you're trying not to miss a turn on navigation. When it works, the controls integration with AA is quite intuitive. The "control wheel" was designed very nicely and keeps my eyes, fingers, and attention away from the screen, which is nice in this age of touchscreen everything. But overall the system is just outdated. I know it's not my phone because last week I hopped into a '21 Silverado, paired my phone wirelessly, and used all my apps for 5 hours to the Challenge each way without a single issue. 

Being a Miata, I am sure the aftermarket will solve it eventually, but the infotainment system is the single biggest flaw with the car.

In reply to dyintorace :

You can buy all of the parts from Mazda. I know our BBS/Brembo Club car (which no longer has BBS wheels or Brembo brakes) came with it. We purchased it for at least one of our other cars. The aftermarket is happy to provide wilder versions.

It also looks fun if you repaint it :)

In reply to maschinenbau :

I suspect the problem is in the AA/CarPlay integration, as I've never had one act that badly. 

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to dyintorace :

You can buy all of the parts from Mazda. I know our BBS/Brembo Club car (which no longer has BBS wheels or Brembo brakes) came with it. We purchased it for at least one of our other cars. The aftermarket is happy to provide wilder versions.

It also looks fun if you repaint it :)

 

Good to know! And, damn, that is a killer looking car!!

The lack of foot space on the passenger side is due to the subwoofer in the foot well.  IIRC it is removable but you wouldn't want to if you actually listen to the stereo.

The infotainment system is adequate, but not great.  Mine has the Carplay module installed.  It charges my phone properly.  It does take a while to boot but I haven't had any issues with it crashing, and it's not terribly laggy.  My biggest complaint is that it makes me use that stupid wheely gadget when I'm driving instead of just letting me touch the screen.  I've adjusted to it but I don't love it.

In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :

I've never had mine crash,  just slow to get up and running.

I'll take the opposite stance on the knob interface, though, I feel it's vastly superior to using the touchscreen while driving, like I have to do in my Chrysler.  Hitting small icons while driving over bumpy roads is hard.

In reply to maschinenbau :

Wow, that's way worse than my experience, sorry you're having that!  Glad to know I'm not crazy with the boot times and such, though.

The majority of the time it is well behaved and adequate. But when it goes wrong, it's very irritating. I have my connected 95% of the time and it's a true daily driver so if anyone's going to find a problem it's me. 

IIRC there's a way to enable the touchscreen while driving but it has some weird side effect, like killing the compass. It's been a long time since I looked into it.

In reply to Andy Hollis :

Thanks for clearing that up Andy!

This thread is making me feel like Jimmy Carter thinking about orange juice...

Keith Tanner said:

IIRC there's a way to enable the touchscreen while driving but it has some weird side effect, like killing the compass. It's been a long time since I looked into it.

It was only possible on the early firmware. Later firmware locks you out of the unit. 

Snrub said:

I guess I'm questioning whether those colors did drive sales. Miata buyers might have preferred cool colors, but if there were no other options would they have still bought a miata in grey/white, or do they head over to the competition to buy their CUV designed by chatGPT?

As someone who took a spin in a press ND at an autox in 2015 and loved it, but said I'd wait until Mazda offered it in a color I wanted, I'd say there are some of us out there who are not interested in shades of beige or grey.  Mazda would love to sell me another Miata but I am completely uninterested in the current colors.

So I just had to leave to go to a customer site. My car has been off for approximately a day and a half.  It was left on FM, without Android Auto connected.

From the moment I hit the start button, until the moment that the control knob allows me to interact with it( such as getting past the safety screen, or choosing applications instead of entertainment) was 53 seconds. That is without Android Auto connected at all.

During that time, I backed out of my garage spot so the camera worked, but otherwise it just hung either on the Mazda logo, or eventually the nag screen, that I couldn't click okay on.

Based on where I was on my street when I got interactivity, I would say this is the normal behavior.

Approximately 10 minutes into the ride, I connected Android Auto to get traffic updates and directions for the last mile. It took approximately 6 seconds for Android Auto to appear on the screen after connecting the USB.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

chicken

It's a 2021 Grand Touring RF,  and they want 32k plus fees for it. I'd just buy new at that point.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

Oof. That's not much less than I paid new in 2021. New prices keep going up though. You can almost get to 40k with the BBR package.

there are a number of threads i've barged into around here and come away with some ideas that would put my savings account in peril, and this is one of them.

must resist urge to test drive an RF....

WonkoTheSane said:

So I just had to leave to go to a customer site. My car has been off for approximately a day and a half.  It was left on FM, without Android Auto connected.

From the moment I hit the start button, until the moment that the control knob allows me to interact with it( such as getting past the safety screen, or choosing applications instead of entertainment) was 53 seconds. That is without Android Auto connected at all.

During that time, I backed out of my garage spot so the camera worked, but otherwise it just hung either on the Mazda logo, or eventually the nag screen, that I couldn't click okay on.

Based on where I was on my street when I got interactivity, I would say this is the normal behavior.

Approximately 10 minutes into the ride, I connected Android Auto to get traffic updates and directions for the last mile. It took approximately 6 seconds for Android Auto to appear on the screen after connecting the USB.

That's definitely not been my experience with the 2016-19 units. They're nowhere near that slow to wake up. Something has changed.

In reply to WonkoTheSane :

Sounds about right to me for my 2021 

The weirdest part of this thread is that people are routinely using in-car navigation in 2023. I've had cars with DVD based nav for over a decade and I think I've actually used it less than 10 times

In reply to calteg :

Well, it's SD based if that's better...

One nice thing about in-car nav is that you don't need a cell connection, and the interface is better integrated with the rest of the car than simply projecting a phone on the screen. I know the kids want to use their phones for everything these days, but there's no need for the extra effort if the car already knows how to do something. Actually entering a destination into the Mazda nav is pretty straightforward - and I'm proud to say they know how to get to Flyin' Miata from the factory :)

We use the nav in our 2019 EV regularly - for one thing, the car knows where we're going so it can prepare for a high speed charging session if necessary, and it'll give us proper range estimation. That's the sort of integration you can't get with a projected phone app. We don't use the nav in our 2002-era car very often because it's a bit clunky and it hasn't been updated for over a decade. When I'm driving cross-country in my 2010 truck (doesn't even have bluetooth streaming, gasp!), I'll often use my old (old!) Garmin for primary navigation as I move in and out of cell service, and switch to my phone in built-up areas where I need up to date and traffic info. When I drove the 2017 Miata cross-country, I used the built-in nav.

In reply to calteg :

For the record, I've never actually used the Mazda navigation system. I tried to use it once shortly after I got the car, got a bit annoyed since I was already used to AA, and just plugged in my phone.

I'm literally talking about the time it takes to interact with the system, like changing the radio station, or starting to stream a podcast from my phone or Pandora.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

The weird thing is, it doesn't really bother me in the day today. It's only those edge cases like where I need navigation to be up and running really quickly that it becomes a hindrance, but for my life that isn't reality.

There may be an update out that fixes it too, I've never had the car back to Mazda because I've never had a problem in the past. 19,000 mi.

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

chicken

It's a 2021 Grand Touring RF,  and they want 32k plus fees for it. I'd just buy new at that point.

I had an excellent experience using the s plan pricing, that I got by being an SCCA member. SCCA membership is 75 a year, and will get you reduced entry fee into track night in America...