Will The 124 Spider Save Both The Miata And Fiat?

Mazda is a band of idiots. The Miata sells so poorly because it does not give consumers what they want. Power is abundant everywhere today--except in the Miata. Put some major horsepower in the Miata and hold the line on the price and sales would be a multiple of what they are now.

The MazdaSpeed Miata is in the works I'm sure, give it some time. They're working through the turbos on other applications (CX9) and once they have that nailed down, it will be modified appropriately for the Miata.

uhhh...Miata saved Fiat! Ordering the Miata! Sometimes you just want slow fun...not maniac crazy kill other/self fool pos!

I sense some "tough love" here.

Mazda doesn't need to be saved, at least not yet. It is such a cool niche brand. The new CX9 will sell.
Now, to Darringer's point, I would love to see more turbos and a 6 v6

Mazda will be absorbed by Toyota anyway.

The Miata needed Fiats collaboration so it could keep building the Miata. Sports cars are low volume affairs. What is the next least expensive RWD convertible on the market now. Probably Mustang or Camaro.
They both cost well into the mid to upper 30's stripped out. At the 25 to 30 grand price point there are no other RWD convertibles available. You have the Beetle and Mini convertibles. Neither of which are available in the most powerful engine versions and neither which are really sports cars. By joining with FCA Mazda can keep building a unique vehicle that really is the only one of it's kind at a reasonable price point. As for other Mazda products they do build what people want. The Mazda CX9 is a definite Jeep Grand Cherokee competitor as well as an Explorer and Edge competitor as well. The CX5, Mazda 3 and 6 are great vehicles. The only misstep they have made is with the CX3. That is they made it a bit too small. They are not at the top in sales primarily because the general population is frankly dumb and stupid!

The Mustang convertible does not "cost well into the mid to upper 30's stripped out". You obviously misinformed about the equipment levels of the base Mustang. It most decidedly is not stripped out. Quite the contrary. A V6 Mustang convertible can be had for $30K which is often the sticker price of the Miata. Mazda doesn't do many base models.

If FCA had any brains--and they don't--they would have reskinned Mazda's entire line and created Alfa Romeos in the near-premium price band letting Maserati focus on BMW/Mercedes.

Mazda was great for Ford and could have been brilliant for FCA.

On a side note, a guy in the UK did a body kit for his Miata that makes it look like a TVR (Sagaris + Tuscan) and under the hood is a 2.3 Ecoboost. If I can get my hands on a duplicate kit, I'll definitely build a Miata 2.3.

I rented a new v6 Mustang convertible recently, and compared to a Miata, it no where near a pure play sports car. Poor visibility with the top up, lots of road noise, poor interior quality, and the most unforgivable from a sports car perspective - - - steering felt like I was driving a container ship.

@Terry989 quelle predictible

Mattie - - - O felica, your Ford check is in the mail.

Well Darringer- I forgot you are a Ford guy so I guess you would know. However I just got off the Ford.com sight and did a "build your own" for the 2017 V6 convertible. Guess how much the starting price was for the standard car V6, 6 speed manual in Oxford White, standard 050A package and 3.15 LSR. $30,145. So you are correct for a car with out any options. If you add an automatic you have to add $1,100 plus if you want to rent it from Hertz or Budget. But lets be clear the V6 is not the "sportscar" of the Mustang fleet. To get that you really have to go to the Ecoboost model. And that car starts at $35,145 minus zero options. This is right off the Ford web site.The problem with the ecoboost is the engine offers no real performance advantage in a straightline over the V6 and sounds like crap. Why Ford has not put the updated ecoboost from the Ford RS into the Mustang I cannot figure out.
Bottom line-Yes technically the V6 is a convertible and is RWD. But it is no sports car and still costs 4 grand more than a base Miata or 124 Spider and is still $1,500 more than Miata Club or 124 Abarth. Now true the V6 will out drag both of these cars. However as soon as the first real corner shows up both the Fiat and the Mazda will run away from a V6 Mustang.

Bullsh!t

The V6 Mustang is better than the Ecoboost version and LESS expensive.

You've also not driven a new Mustang. I love terrorizing Miatas at the track with the V6 automatic Mustang.

Miatas are for squishy men pure and simple. They are NOT as good as the hype around them suggests.

The Ecoboost has the better suspension on it then the V6. Why Ford chose the Ecoboost as their mid line car still baffles me. A properly developed car like the V6 Camaro would really be the ticket. The Ecoboost is total crap in my book. I did drive one of those and was disappointed. So your saying I should check out the rent-a-car special. a few aftermarket parts might be the way to go.

But back to the original premise. Yes I think teaming up with FCA does help Mazda and brings some sales back into the Fiat portfolio. Now if Fiat would just replace the 500 Mini car with a 4dr, ditch the 500L, and add a Fiat version of the Jeep Compus replacement to the fleet then I think Fiat has a chance to greatly improve their car sales in the US. The 124 Spider will be a definite hit.

I apologize for insinuating in another post that MDarringer was a middle manage for Buick. Based on what I've read above I am now convinced he is a high school student pulling down a solid 1.8 GPA.

@carloslassiter Because you are incapable of debating factually, you resort to personal attacks, which is what the unintelligent do.

Thought Mazda is a chick's car, now it's also for squishy men? Ahh, the possibilities of a new market are endless!

It's quite popular with the rainbow daddies in Palm Springs.

As a sports car, the Miata simply isn't taken seriously by anyone other than a tiny band of squishy men who think its a sports car but ar thankful it's so underpowered that it will never get going fast enough to get them in trouble.

Well a lot of squishy men take them out auto crossing on a regular basis. In fact there are Miata racing series all over the country. Nope the Miata does not hold a candle to any Mustang in a straight line. However on tight track courses and autocross I would guess the Miata might do quite well against a Mustang when there aren't a lot of long straight's where a high powered car can take advantage.

I've heard it all now. The genius whose contribution to this article is to tell us the Miata is for "squishy men" and "rainbow daddies", and who earlier described Elon Musk as a "moron" is telling me that I am unintelligent. Can someone ban this idiot MDarringer before he hurts himself?