Alfa Miata

I have a first generation Miata (aka NA). I was never really tempted by the next two (NB and NC) because each one got a bit fatter and flabbier. There’s been a rumor going that they were going to put the ND on a diet and get it back to the feel of the original. The problem is that since Ford divested themselves of their 35% share, Mazda has been dealing with a bit of a cash crunch. As a result, it has been getting hard for them to bring new models to market. There was a real risk that this would derail the Miata in favor of something boring car with a better ROI.

As a result, I was pretty interested in today’s news that Alfa Romeo has signed up to do joint development of the next Miata. Each company will sell it’s own version of the resulting car with their own drivetrain. That’s exactly the sort of thing Mazda needed to get this project through the pipeline. This seems to be a bit of a trend these days for low volume cars, doesn’t it?

Both companies have really interesting engines in the right range for this project, so it’ll probably be hard to choose. Do you go for the Multiair or the SkyActiv?

The bad news is that it looks like this means that the car won’t be ready until 2015. Do you think that my ‘93 can keep going until then? Here’s Peter posing with it back when they were both a bit younger.