Year: 2003

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

My thoughts on my 4 days with a 2003 Miata…

The Good:
1) That new car smell. There is just something about the aroma given off by the outgassing of still solidifying plastics.
2) That new car feel. Everything is still tight and rattle free.
3) Black leather from the factory. Finally Mazda has eliminated the need for having an ugly exterior/interior combination just to get leather seats.
4) Round Knobs for the HVAC controls. The sliding levers of the 1st generation Miata are so 1950’s.
5) Remote electronic trunk release. – This may have been inevitable, see the bad #1. Coupled with a gas strut this would be awesome.
6) No zip back window. Eliminates a step in putting the top down.

The Bad:
1) The keyhole for opening the trunk is too low. It is hard to get the key in and turn without squeezing your fingers.
2) No zip back window. Reduces the headroom, so tall drivers will now hit the fabric panel used to automatically raise/lower window.
3) The speedometer is calibrated in 20 MPH increments with little ticks every 2 MPH, this makes it hard to tell your speed at a glance. I don’t know about your town, but where I live, we have speed limits of 25 & 45, not 22 or 48.
4) 6-speed transmission. Always seems like I needed to shift. I know with more use I would have adjusted to it, but why didn’t they leave the 5 speed ratios as is and make 6 a real overdrive? (At least here in North America.)

& The Ugly:
1) Splash Green Mica. Who you kidding, it’s teal. Looked odd but interesting in the mid 80’s on other cars, but why now on a Miata? The color grew on me, by the end of the 4 days I no longer gagged when I looked it.
2) You call that carpet? This stuff can only be charitably called floor covering. Makes the cheap loop carpet of the 1st generation Miata seem like a $50/yd plush Saxony.
3) Where the heck is the exhaust note? When the Miata first appeared they had an ad that ran in magazines about how they tried 100s of mufflers to get just the right sound (and they did,) but it is all but gone now from the factory.
5) Plastic brushed aluminum trim. Looked exactly like what is was, an afterthought and tacked on. The interior door handles would have looked a lot better in that finish had they did the cups behind them that way too.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2485.39
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 251

Newly Lubed Up

Went over to John’s house this afternoon so he could help me swap the old dirty oils for new fresh ones in the transmission and differential. When I say help me, I mean he did most of the work. Rudy was there too, so I hardly did a thing. You’ve heard of Click & Clack of Cartalk fame, well these two guys billed themselves as Clunk & Thunk. What we did is not hard, but requires a couple of things that my chintzy tool box doesn’t contain. Actually the hardest part is putting the new fluids back in. They are fairly viscous and the fill holes are up inside the car. John rigged up a squeeze bottle and some tubing so one person could hold the tube in the hole and another could squeeze. Really would have been nice to have a pump.

Purchased Today: $13.50 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2485.39
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 251

F*ckin Cry Baby Manny

I had a rant all laid out for here tonight, but I’ve moved it out until tomorrow.

So much for the big showdown in Fenway this afternoon between Roger Clemmens and Pedro Martinez, what was billed as a pitchers duel turned into a mini brawl between the two teams. Started when Pedro hit a Yankee player. He took exception and when he slid into 2nd base he went out of his way to try and level Tod Walker of the Red Sox. Next inning Roger throws something high and inside to Manny Ramirez, not real close, but Manny gets upset and starts towards the mound – the benches clear. The low light of the whole thing (and quite possibly the funniest) was Pedro Martinez putting 70 year-old Don Zimmer in a headlock and wrestling him to the ground.

Later in the game some cluck of a fan drops into the Yankee bullpen and starts wailing on a player. I know hockey season has started, but aren’t the combatants supposed to be on ice skates.

A Clean Top Is A Happy Top

Made a bagel run this morning, because of the rain we did it with the top up. I spent the rest of the morning futzing around with the car in the garage. I cleaned the convertible top with vinyl cleaner and then sprayed it with some 303 protectant. I dismantled the center console to fix the AWD A/C Panel that had taken to sliding down on one end. Two small screws that will be out of sight once the console is reassembled should take care of that. After having driven the new car for a half a week, I decided to unclutter my car by removing some of the stickers I had plastered all over it. I puled a couple of the vent window, relocated one to the windshield. I even took the Warning! sticker off the dash. I think I might go for some coco mats as my next mod. Hard to go wrong at that price.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2451.97
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 250

Receipt Inside

My least favorite thing in the world happened to me this afternoon, after finishing pumping some gas using the debit card, no paper receipt came out. “Receipt Inside,” said the LEDs. Fuck. What made it really bad was I had bought just $2 worth of gas (enough to make it back to Rader with the loaner car.) I trudge into the store and get in line at number 3.

#1 finished quickly, but #2 was not so lucky. The woman in front of me can’t get her pump to work right using her credit card. The LEDs keep saying, “See Cashier” when she scans it. The kid behind the counter has trouble grasping this. Finally she says just run my card for me in here. The kid says, “I can’t prepay with a credit card. Use the pump.” She tells him the pump says see him. He says again I can’t prepay with a card. Finally, she gives up and storms out in disgust.

My turn. “I need a receipt.” “What pump number?” “I dunno, that one.” “OK, 4.” He starts mashing buttons and gets nothing but error beeps it seems. I say, “I got $2 worth.” More beeps. Kid say, “This says $12.25.” “That ain’t mine. Two bucks.” more buttons, more beeps. The cash draw pops open and the register reads, $5.47. He closes the drawer, more buttons more beeps. My turn to give up, I say, “Forget it.”, and walk out.

Of course I catch hell from the wife because of no receipt and then even more grief when she thinks that I’ve been charged $12.25 for two dollars worth of gas – we’ll see.

Home Again, Home Again

The old car is back in the garage this evening after sleeping around for the last 8 nights. God, it is good to be back in a real Miata again. I always just clucked when confronted with the Father of the Miata, Bob Hall’s, quote, “The NB is a better car, but the NA is a better Miata.” but now I know how right he is having spent 4 days in a second generation Miata. A good part of the “better car” is admittedly that it had 120,000 fewer miles on the clock, but it is structurally stiffer, the interior & dash construction are better thought out and the trunk, while just marginally bigger, is a lot more usable due to the relocation of the spare. Driving a new car is seductive and had this one been a laguna-like blue, I might have been tempted.

The first two or three shifts back in the old Miata I almost hurt my wrist. The new Miata had a pistol style shift lever and the normal short Miata throw, but my car has a smaller round knob and a short shift kit, so I was trying to push too far.

I also missed the audible feedback, the new Miata has a much quieter muffler. The 1st generation has a sweeter sports car rumble, not rice-boy annoying, but just enough to let you know what you are driving.

Purchased Today: $0 on new timing belt
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2451.97
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 249

Too Late

Kelly called at 5:00 PM to tell me the Miata is ready. Unfortunately it was too late for me to get it and get back for when I wanted, so I told her I’ll get it tomorrow. I went out to run a lunchtime errand and stopped at an old warehouse building and took a couple pictures for posterity.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2451.97
Started up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 248