Mazda MX-5

The Mazda MX-5 is one of the Mazda entries the open record knows by name and by date — in 1989, and by little else. That is not nothing: a name in the catalogue is where a car's story starts to be recoverable.

The background

The Mazda MX-5 is a lightweight two-seat sports car manufactured and marketed by Mazda. While in most markets it is called the MX5, in Japan it is marketed as the Mazda Roadster or, previously, as the Eunos Roadster, and In the United States it is sold as the Mazda MX-5 Miata (). The name miata derives from Old High German for "reward", and the MX-5 nameplate was derived from it being the fifth vehicle produced by the Mazda experimental division. Produced at Mazda's Hiroshima plant, the MX-5 debuted in 1989 at the Chicago Auto Show.

It was created under the design credo Jinba ittai, meaning "unity of horse and rider". Noted for its small, light, balanced and minimalist design, the MX-5 has often been described as a successor to the 1950s and 1960s Italian and British roadsters, with the Lotus Elan serving as a design benchmark. Each generation is identified by a two-letter code, beginning with the first generation NA. The second generation NB launched in 1998, followed by the third generation NC in 2005, and the fourth generation ND in 2015. More than one million MX-5s have been sold, making it the best-selling two-seat convertible sports car in history.

Where it sits

In the Mazda line-up the Mazda MX-5 has a clear place: the factory was Hiroshima (Ujina Plant No.&nbsp. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Lexus LS, the Subaru Legacy, the Honda NSX. Its Mazda stablemates include the Mazda BT-50 and the Mazda T2000.

Owning one today

Buying one now means $17,900–$72,500 for a typical example, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $3,041–$6,746 a year. Insurance sits around $1,610–$4,100 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.