Rate It: Dodge's Attempt at a Miata-Fighter

volvoclearinghouse (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

" It is amazing that a small little automaker like Mazda is willing to engineer a one-off platform (it's their only RWD car!) for a $25k convertible. "

If they'd had a $25k wagon on the same platform I'd have bought that instead of my 3.  And I got the 3 for $16k.

If they seriously want to be a BMW fighter, they need to out-BMW BMW. 

At the rate that BMW is moving away from the Sport in "Sports sedan" Mazda could have done really well for itself with a RWD mazda 3 sedan and wagon

mad_machine (Forum Supporter) said:

volvoclearinghouse (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

" It is amazing that a small little automaker like Mazda is willing to engineer a one-off platform (it's their only RWD car!) for a $25k convertible. "

If they'd had a $25k wagon on the same platform I'd have bought that instead of my 3.  And I got the 3 for $16k.

If they seriously want to be a BMW fighter, they need to out-BMW BMW. 

At the rate that BMW is moving away from the Sport in "Sports sedan" Mazda could have done really well for itself with a RWD mazda 3 sedan and wagon

Glad someone else agrees with me on this.  The redesigned 3 has been a sales diaster.  Hell, small car sales in general aren't so hot- but also some of the small makes are getting out- Focus, Fit, Dart...possibly more to come.  If Mazda's going to compete in that space, why not build something unique?  The 3's proportions already lend itself to a RWD layout.  Square it off, give it some better visibility and actual usable cargo area, make the back seat not a time-out place for rotten youths, stick the Miata platform under it, and give it a base price around 25k with a 6 speed.  I might even trade in my 2018 3 Sport for it. 

EDIT: if they really want to be saucy, they could offer an electric variant, and compete with Tesla, too...

Isn't Mazda planning an I6, RWD Mazda 6?

Unfortunately, with cute ute's not taking much of a mileage penalty, sporty cars are going to be fewer and fewer. 

SO START BUYING NEW YA CHEAP ASSES!

That corporate Dodge nose ruined pretty much every car to which it was applied.  I understand the idea of an image, but that one does not work for me.

z31maniac said:

Isn't Mazda planning an I6, RWD Mazda 6?

Unfortunately, with cute ute's not taking much of a mileage penalty, sporty cars are going to be fewer and fewer. 

SO START BUYING NEW YA CHEAP ASSES!

Believe me, it's been on my radar.  Manual wagon version and I'm sold.

Vigo (Forum Supporter) said:

I will never stop mourning the Dodge Copperhead. Never.

 

Came here to post this. 

Also I think a lot of you are failing to do research on the Sky/Solstice death. Remember when GM needed a bailout back in 2008? Remember they killed off a bunch of brands such as Pontiac and Saturn? Remember Penske tried to buy the tooling and rights to the platform and GM say "nah." Instead of rebranding it as a Cadillac or a Chevy - GM just decided to kill it instead. Some bean counter probably said "It pulls away too many sales from the Corvette anyways"

Chrysler pumped out a lot of cool concepts back in the day. I've always enjoyed them for the fact that they've deviated from the norms (prior to Daimler and FCA mergers). Now its just "let's see if we can fit this monster engine in this 20+ year old E-class chassis.....oh wait we know we can hahahaha.....Make one with 800hp now!!!"

KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) said:

It's just that the market for small "toy" cars is pretty small.  Very few people are buying 2 seat convertibles as their primary transportation so you either have buyers with so much money they don't care what it costs or people buying used and cheap.  I can't imagine taking on a car payment for a new Miata, and I can't imagine I'm that unusual.

That's the rub. Manuals kind of suck in stop-and-go commuting, especially if you have a lightweight flywheel. 
 
If COVID doesn't eat my job I'll be buying a house next year and after that I'll have more room in the budget for toys. I could sell my NB Miata and get a new or newer one. But I could also keep the NB and buy a tow pig and a 4-stroke racing kart for similar money. If I make it to the track 10-15 days a year I can log 2-3000 laps a year and participate in real wheel-to-wheel racing. At that point it's real hard to justify a new Miata unless I aggressively jump the pay rungs.

DirtyBird222 said:

Also I think a lot of you are failing to do research on the Sky/Solstice death. Remember when GM needed a bailout back in 2008? Remember they killed off a bunch of brands such as Pontiac and Saturn? 

I think I was the only person to bring it up, but I guess you didn't read the sentence where I said:

"Look at the Sky/Solstice twins, but I guess their parent companies were also on the way out. "

z31maniac said:

DirtyBird222 said:

Also I think a lot of you are failing to do research on the Sky/Solstice death. Remember when GM needed a bailout back in 2008? Remember they killed off a bunch of brands such as Pontiac and Saturn? 

I think I was the only person to bring it up, but I guess you didn't read the sentence where I said:

"Look at the Sky/Solstice twins, but I guess their parent companies were also on the way out. "

 

Nah I juts generally skip over your comments since you backed out on sending me a six pack. 

DirtyBird222 said:

z31maniac said:

DirtyBird222 said:

Also I think a lot of you are failing to do research on the Sky/Solstice death. Remember when GM needed a bailout back in 2008? Remember they killed off a bunch of brands such as Pontiac and Saturn? 

I think I was the only person to bring it up, but I guess you didn't read the sentence where I said:

"Look at the Sky/Solstice twins, but I guess their parent companies were also on the way out. "

 

Nah I juts generally skip over your comments since you backed out on sending me a six pack. 

That was completely unintentional on my part so I apologize for forgetting, email is the same as the screen name at gmail. shoot me your addy

I'm just really, really hoping that Mazda throws some interesting colors on the Miata.  I'm going to be in the market for a (new) ND in about a year, and I'm really not feeling excited about their palette.   Pllllleeeeasse let them release a BRG & tan 2021! 

That orange one they had was awesome, but also unobtainable without a horrific markup.  The only ones I saw that a normal person could get ahold of were automatics..

The orange doesn't really look that good in person - the intensity of the color blows out the surface detailing. The 1992 yellows had the same problem. A metallic orange would have been more effective, like the (expensive!) Chrome Orange from Lotus.

But I'm with you. I really don't understand why the ND doesn't get a good color pallette. Even BRG is boring, let's get some fun blues and bright greens.

Besides the prominent proboscis, it simply doesn't make sense to bring an inferior American car to market with practically the same specs as the Miata. Miata owns a tiny market.  If they were to do something with super-cool coupe styling, or a lot more power, or ideally both, then at least they'd have a fighting chance at success. Think Solstice GXP coupe.

I feel like the stylists only really put in the time on the Demon concept's front end styling and by the time they got to the rear quarterpanel & wheelarch situation they said "eh, just put something round back there, it'll be fine".  I imagine this would have been built off of the mk1 Merc SLK chassis like the Crossfire was which wouldn't help in the weight, pace, or cost departments. 

Maybe this would have worked if it like the latest Fiat 124 Spyder, only based around the NC MX-5. 

About that 124 Spyder...looks like there hasn't been one sold since March. Or FCA just isn't reporting sales.

Year    sold
2016    2,475
2017    4,478
2018    3,515
2019    2,646
2020    96

If you want an alternative NC Miata, the Ibuki was a pretty interesting concept. You can see some of the watered-down styling in the first NC, but it would be really fun to recreate it. It's an actual car, not a rendering.

Keith Tanner said:

The orange doesn't really look that good in person - the intensity of the color blows out the surface detailing. The 1992 yellows had the same problem. A metallic orange would have been more effective, like the (expensive!) Chrome Orange from Lotus.

But I'm with you. I really don't understand why the ND doesn't get a good color pallette. Even BRG is boring, let's get some fun blues and bright greens.

I'm disappointed to hear you didn't like the orange :( I know you're not a fan of BRG, but I'm in love with it on an Elise, which I think has similar proportions an lines (although a mx-5 is not as extreme), so I'd totally buy one!

I'm in the minority, probably, but mettalic viper green would be great as well, but with black interior, not tan.

But yeah, I love the phantom blue Mica that my RX-8 is, for example.

I think BRG is boring on an Elise as well :) But it'll sell well, because I am definitely not in the majority here. I've been told by Mazda insiders that the ND doesn't wear it well, but seriously guys, it's the color of money. Maybe we'll get one in 2021, because there was a 1991 and a 2001 in BRG.

Lotus does color really well. I always go to the Elise color pallette when I'm looking for a custom Miata color and the ND Miata is very similar in surface treatment to the Elise. They do spend the money on paint with good highlights - Chili Red is spectacular in person and impossible to capture in photographs.

I found this and seeing it actually on the road really makes me like it.

Yavuz said:

I liked the Demon concept, but if you go back a few more years - I was completely on board with the Dodge Razor concept. It used the 2.4 turbo out of the Neon SRT-4, weighed under 2500lbs, and was supposed to have a target price of under $15k. I doubt they could have actually sold these for 15k, but then again - the SRT-4 was only $19,999 when it came out. I bought an SRT-4 new back then and would have been first in line to put a deposit down on this thing if it ever went into production.

 

Nothing to add, but happy to see Yavuz posting again. We haven't seen you around these parts in quite some time.