Mazda MX-5 Hardtop Convertible
 

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../60619013/1024

New Brother to the Soft-top MX-5

http://i5.tinypic.com/153a5cp.jpg
http://i5.tinypic.com/153a69y.jpg

*sigh* When the fuck are they just going to make a proper coupe? They had a concept coupe of the last gen Miata and it looked spectacular. Not only that, but a coupe would cut down a hell of a lot on the 'girly' factor that so many people associate with the MX-5, and it would more than likely be the best performing MX-5 ever.

As much as I agree to you, this convertible does looks pretty good tho. There are hardcores MX-5 roaster fans out there that tracks their car alot, but there are also the girls that drive them to malls for a facial. I guess Mazda believes the second group accounted for more biz.

I'm not saying get rid of the roadsters, just add a proper coupe to the lineup as well. I know when I posted the photos of the coupe shown at SEMA (I believe) a few years back, on a few message boards, even the Miata haters came out and thought it looked great. A nice light, affordable, great handling, RWD coupe, do you know how many people want that? A lot from what I can tell haha.

Same can be said for S2000

The MX5 is quite a lot cheaper than the S2000 though. In the US, the MX5 starts at $21,000, while the S2000 starts at $34,000.

And the Miata coupe I was referring to before...

http://i5.tinypic.com/153kwlv.jpg
http://i6.tinypic.com/153kydi.gif

I think the Coupé was on sale in very limited quantities in Japan... or that were the rumors on miata.net...

So finally the first pics of the vario roof version, nice *thumbs up*

This should cause some commosion on miata forums ;)

/me goes on to reading the article wondering if they'll mention the weight of the new version.

Yea I believe the coupe was available in Japan for a short while, but I don't live there so... :P

I want a coupe in Canada damnit! :puppydogeyes:

looks pretty good with hard top but the MX5 will always be a convertable its just the way they intend to market them. The retractable roof looks great and will certainly help with that

Soft tops are of course a lot lighter, and there are still countries where you can park a softtop and not end up having the top slashed with a knife...

Unfortunately, lots of bastards exist that do it in order to steal, or worse. Shame really... Over here I've only seen one car with a slashed top. It was an S2000. Maybe an accident, who knows... Still a bit shame.

Vario roofs do however have a lot of advantages.

ABSLOLUTLY! An S2k coupe would be so nice! It would be the one I would get. I'm generally speaking not a convertable fan. I know people have been talking about an s2k coupe for years and I have seen many photochops of what they might look like. I Hope honda will do it sometime. But since they got rid of the Prelude they dont have anything in that market and of course the Prelude was stupid anyway because it was FWD.

A coupe s2k or a new RWD Prelude with the s2k engine would be absolutly TITS!! And I would choose it over an RX8 or Z (or a lot of other cars) anyday!

I hear ya brotha.. I'm still crossing my fingers that Toyota will remake the AE86..

I wonder just how much this trick roof top will add to the "cheap" miata..

What is the weight added by this solution??

They did remake the AE86...they called it the IS300

How does a four-door semi-lux high-priced car like the IS have anything to do with the Corollas of old? The Supra is closer to it than the 300 is.

well the RSX type-S essentially replaced the prelude and some people say that the Prelude changed into the Accord Coupe V6. Don't be suprised if the S2000 replacer has a hard top but I wouldn't count on a Coupe anytime soon. It seems Acura is getting all the attention this year (07)
I do think someone needs to make a coupe in this size though wether it be from Mazda, Honda, Pontiac, Saturn...

No, not really at all.. I had a RSX for 4 years. Good car. I think its a stretch to call it a replacement for the prelude because first of all the RSX is just a luxury civic and secondly the civic/rsx has a little "snub-nose" type body style that is more conducive for a FWD car as apposed to the elongated front of the Prelude. And of course the RSX really can’t be a replacement for the prelude at all because the RSX is just the new name for the Integra and the Integra has been around the same amount of time as the Prelude, more or less. The Prelude was Honda's answer to the RX7 and 240/300zx in the 80s and 90s. But they went FWD because that has always been Honda's thing. The civic-si/integra/rsx was their answer to the Celica for the most part durring this same time frame. If anything the S2k was the Prelude replacement.

My whole point it that the S2k and Prelude have a similar body style. Both are also similar to the RX8, MX-5, Z, etc. being a long front end and hood. But of course that design is really only good if the car is going to be RWD and the Prelude never was. Infact the S2k (and NSX) are the only RWD cars Honda has ever made. They really should do another RWD and make it a non-roadster/ convertible. The NSX doesn’t really count because it is so far out of the price range of all their other cars.

Well the base RSX is a piece of shit I will say that but the Type-S was the closest thing to the Prelude that Honda had to offer, but like I also said the Accord Coupe acctually shared the same design as the prelude and with the V6 that car is far from slow. I've driven a V6 coupe 6-speed and it is a screamer. and in all fairness the NSX was roughly 20 grand more than the next step down for Acura so it wasn't to a whole other extreme but yes it was up there in price. There will be some AWD 2 doors in the near future though so you can look out for them, and that SH-Awd is definitely a tail happy system with ASC off.

I had a base RSX and it’s actually the better car if you get the manual. First of all its 100lbs lighter and secondly you get more power down lower. The Type-S makes less power than the base manual until you rev above 6000! That means for almost anywhere but highways and tracks the type-S was just a dog. I had a loaner S for a week and it was fun to take out on the highways and rev the hell out of but was a dog anywhere in the city. But yeah the base -auto was terrible because the tip-tronic crap was terrible.

The RSXS may have been the closest thing to the prelude as far as engines but that’s about where the similarities end. And yeah I have seen something about the AWD cross over car thats comming, what are they calling it the RDX? Supposed to have the first Honda turbo and "SH-AWD". Sounds good but I saw it was going to weigh like 3600-3800lbs!!! :o


Anyway we are way off topic. Back on topic, the mx-5 is a cool car and I guess the hard top is good. But then again if I wanted a true Mazda coupe and not a roadster I would just get the RX8.

Edit: I guess they already have the RDX listed on their website... 3925lbs with 240 HP!! It’s a 2.3L 4-cyl Turbo with 240lbs-ft torque.

I don’t know about this thing. It’s just a heavy CRV with a turbo and Acura badge slapped on it and a price tag +8 to 10K!

I've heard that before, but I just don't buy it. And I think you mean the Toyota Altezza (Lexus IS200/300).

Maybe if they made it a 2 door...

Someone say my name ;) .

Back to topic. . . yeah I definitely think this hardtop version of the MX-5 looks good. I think this is probably the best version of the car. Now the question is how will it affect performance w/ the added weight?

They finally made the Miata I was looking for. I wasn't too crazy about the soft top.
This way the car can be used in the winter around here without any worries.

Performance won't be too effected. This is a Miata afterall. It's not made to be a powerful over-the-top sports car. It's a great handling car and will remain that.

Can't wait to see it in the flesh!

lates,

it looks pretty good i must say i like the idea but its going to weigh it down

To the contrary, I think it looks worse than the soft top with the top up. It's a good idea, and a lot of Paris Hilton wannabes would buy it for the novelty factor, but I think the soft-top matches the car a bit better. That said, it's still a great looking car.

I think this is a very good car for those who like a car like the MX-5 but don't like the softtop.