The 2024 Mazda MX-5 Miata Is the Cure for What Ails Us

It seems like every car person has a story about a Mazda Miata. Maybe they owned a beat-up old NA that they wish they hadn’t sold or perhaps their now-spouse took them out on their first date in an NC Club Spec. Mazda’s little roadster has somehow become a part of all of our lives as automotive enthusiasts. This is true even for me, a giant man who really doesn’t fit comfortably in any of them: Mazda’s fourth-generation MX-5 Miata, aka the ND, was the first press car I ever got.

That was in 2017 and the car was a Soul Red Metallic Club trim with a soft top and a six-speed manual because that’s just the right way to do things. At the time, I was hosting a podcast for the Petersen Automotive Museum and working for the museum’s PR agency, but I wasn’t a journalist—yet. The week I had the Miata I got two pieces of bad news: First, I was being fired from my main gig at the agency. Second, my daily driver—a 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280SE—was going to need a new cylinder head after what I thought was a blown head gasket turned into serious galvanic corrosion. This repair would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $6,700.

Getting either one of these pieces of news independently would be a gut punch. Getting them within a day of each other? Devastating. I was in sheer panic mode, thinking up all kinds of wild, stupid, and dangerous ways to get money to keep living in L.A. (How much blood do I really need to live?) But then I went for a drive and here’s the thing—the Miata made everything feel just a little better.

Why am I telling you this story? Because the ND Miata, with its almost unreal proportions, ultra-light curb weight, and a zippy little naturally aspirated 2.0-liter engine producing a not-that-whopping 181 horsepower and 151 lb-ft of torque is getting what will likely be its last updates before being sent off to a farm upstate in favor of a new, more eco-friendly hybrid replacement. It’s the end of an era for a car that’s universally loved and we should celebrate it.

The updates for the 2024 Miata aren’t numerous but they are notable. Chief among them are a new steering rack with revised electric power-assisted steering (EPAS) calibration and a new limited-slip