The Miata looks cool, but not as cool as an XKE.

There is almost nothing on Earth that looks as cool as an E-type. Have you ever seen the RX-7 Mk III? That might come close. That looks better than any production Corvette, with the possible exception of the C2 Sting Ray coupes. The new Miata looks O.K., not as good as the original, but even with E-Types the original looks the best (the Corvette is an exception!) The Miata looks like a good starting point for a new RX-7, with a concept similar to the first.

Miata looks like an accident waiting to happen! I actually don't like the look that much. Now... the new Mercedes created to compete with BMWs smaller car... I could play fast with that!

I love the old muscle cars of the 60's. I have a 68 Cougar of my own. They are very fast, very loud and can be very unique. There is nothing like a FORD powerplant!

Welcome. Check the Cars with muscles topic! 68 Cougars are rarely seen now, eh?

Stacey: Miata looks like an accident waiting to happen! Now why exactly is that?!? I actually don't like the look that much. Well, that I'll accept! (we'll just agree to disagree here...) Now... the new Mercedes created to compete with BMWs smaller car... I could play fast with that! A few words about the Mercedes-Benz SLK (I have many, but most aren't printable!): i: The retractable hardtop (a la '50's Ford Galaxie Starliner) is an affront to every sports car fan who ever embraced the Robert Browning quote "Less Is More" as their motto (and copied architect Mies van der Rohe in doing so) Maybe with a real convertible top (unpowered, please!) or with the hardtop welded in place and the retraction mechanism tossed in the bin where it belongs, I'd like it. ii: No available manual transmission. iii: About as little sporting cred as the Honda del Sol, which is mercifully extinct! I'd hate to hear Stacey's opinion of the Lotus Elise (if she's ever heard of it, that is.) THe SLK is one of those cars that just generally angers me whenever I think about it. Kind of like the Toyota Supra, the anti-RX-7, the ugliest, least inspiring, and last surviving Japanese muscle GT.

Whoa Sam! Surprised you don't like an Elite lookalike or the Elite itself. i thought the +2S was cool but fragile. The SLK is a car for the affluent poseur I admit, but if i woke up with one i wouldn't throw up (kinda like Cindy Crawford?). The Supra was a great example of Jap engineers gone nuts, like the 3000GT/VR4. All that techno-effort for what? Always makes me wonder what the real reason ws for the demise of the 2000GT.

i saw a miata get crumpled in a parking lot -- low speed and lots of fender damage. what do you guys think of the mazda rx6, which is supposed to be child of rx7?

I didn't say that I didn't like the look of the Miata, I said that I'd accept that Stacey doesn't, and agree to disagree with her! I won't accept the "accident waiting to happen" without elaboration, however! Miata Rules! This mainly because Toyota stopped making the MR2, which was probably a better sports-racing platform and maybe a better handling car, but the Miata just enchanted everybody. The main thing I have against the Miata, actually, is that it is the car that killed the Alfa Romeo Spider, one of the most beautiful cars ever made, but it couldn't compete against the Miata, which was just as good at half the price! If I woke up with an SLK in the driveway, the first thing I'd do is find the owner to move it away. If by some miracle I am the owner, I'd drive it to the M-B dealer and have them weld the roof in place (maybe adding a rollcage at the same time) and remove the retraction mechanism. Then box changing time! The RX-7 Mk III was a pure sports car! Power, lightness and beauty, it had it all! The 3000GT and Supra only had one, and one out of three is bad! I have never heard of an RX-6. RX-2, RX-3, RX-4, there may have been an RX-5, but I'm not sure, but those were all in the Seventies. Where have you seen this RX-6?

i called up the mazda dealers and asked them, ok they don't make the rx7, but i want the closest thing. what would you sell me? so he said they got the rx6, which is like a toyota something or other (i forgot) & i should go to this dealership in capitola ca to see it... maybe we should all go to the mazda site??

Are you sure it wasn't an MX-6? BTW, the MX-6 has been discontinued, as has the Ford Probe, based on the same platform. What's Mazda's address? I guess it would be http://www.mazda.com but I'm not sure.

Probably thinking MX6-GT? A very beautiful car with decent, safe performance. I looked at them before I bought the Integra. Turn-off other than the sewing-machine-like motor was the noticeable light gauge of steel Mazda uses.

http://www.mazda.com is the address. yes the light gauge of steel was immediately visible when i saw the miata crumple in the very very lowspeed parking lot crash. the miata crumpled like a weak beer can. does the integra still have that hatchback kind of look to it, like the old supras?

I have a 90 Hatchback GS. I believe they produced them until last year, now it's a straight 2 door coupe. I'm one of the apparent minority that loves hatchbacks; it's been used like a pickup truck several times! I looked at the entry BMW for the same reason. Integras are wonderful cars. Built properly. Yes the lite weight of the Mazdas is definitely a sore point, and the tight quarters of the Miata are easy to improve upon if they'd like.But to be honest, any small car folds up pretty badly nowadays, they all do with the exeption of Volvos and Mercedes.

Accident waiting to happen: c'mon Sam it's a freaking fiberglass car! How much more info do you need. You can punch your fist through it, nevermind a little 20mph fender bender! Yes, I know of a Lotus. Albeit I've never seen it in the "flesh" if I may. S'ok. Goes fast, similar designs. Gues I just really don't like the look. The del Sol: now THAT is something we can agree on!

The Miata is NOT made from fibreglas! You're thinking about a Lotus or Corvette! Unsafe at any speed? I think not! We agree on not liking the Del Sol. You probably don't like it because it looks like a sports car. I don't like it because it looks like a sports car...and isn't! I dislike it even more because it replaced a sports car, the Honda CRX.

Oh, and by the way, an "accident waiting to happen" is something that is likely to cause an accident, not someting with questionable survivability in one. A huge sedan or van with defective steering linkage (or front suspension, or brake lines etc. etc.), now that's an accident waiting to happen!

well I like the little bullet-del Sol. Throw $1000 at a used one, its a screamer!

How much would you have had to throw at a CRX?

Depends; could always use better rubber than stock, an exhaust/airbox mod, maybe shock/strut mods for start. Those nylon motor and suspension mounts add a nice feel also...about $1300 all told? The delSol Si already had the rubber, leaving money for the rest.

Well if I intended to mean it was going to 'cause' an accident, I would've stated such. *stick out tongue and blow!* *smile* I specifically said it was waiting to happen. And waiting it is.

That's what the phrase "An accident waiting to happen" means, something that will cause an accident, but just hasn't caused it yet! So, basically, you did state such! And I don't have to make faces at you; the truth supporting me is doing a good enough job of that.

i drove a volvo wagon for a long time up and down highway 17 in california ( a famous Nasty Road commuter highway through the Coast Range that washes out every winter) and i must say that my opinion of cars is to some extent conditioned by the little "count the dead cars by the side of the road" exercise that i used to perform during the rainy seasons and during the san jose santa cruz memorial summer let's go to the beach parking lot exercise that took place every weekend in the summer. what i noticed i that more mercedes ended up dead by the side of the road in the summer than i thought might. few volkswagens, lots of big american sedans (we came to refer to them as the "grandpa cars"). few bmws. hardly any hondas and i only saw one volvo. the cool open jeep sort of cars rolled over often enough for me to remember it, and we won't get into the kinds of cars most frequently found disguised as pancakes at the beginning of long snakes of irritated and horrified commuters.

Sam, where's take your face outta the cliche book. It doesn't mean anything but what I want it to mean!! (and I obviously can't stand on my sound arguements so *phhhhhllllllllltttttt* (that was the stick out tongue and blow sound!) *smile*

So if what you say means anything you want it to mean, how are we supposed to know what you mean? Or maybe you talk just to hear the sound of your own voice? (Is everyone clear as to what that means?)

Well, Sam that would be true except, as I was born deaf, I've never really learned to speak and certainly never heard my own voice.

This is a bit of a surprise, I would more have suspected a lack of vision! (and by that I don't mean sight...)

Saw a Suzuki Capuccino this morning. Silver with black hardtop. For those not in the know, a Capuccino is a roadster about halfthe size of a Miata (but it's ALSO not fiberglas!) It has a turbocharged 660 cc engine and is what the Japanese call a Kei car, which has special low rates in Japan for road taxes, licence fees and highway tolls. Stacey would hate it, which means it's a nice car.

Sounds interesting but impractical for US roads, unfortunately. Is it a screamer or an econo-type car? Or both, a la Mini.

From what I've read, it seems to be a screamer. It's a pity they don't make a 1200 cc aspro version; I don't trust small, turbocharged cars that much.

Considering the size of the 660 cc Kei car market, it's interesting that Honda and Suzuki haven't come up with 660 cc bikes that use Kei car engines. Then again, maybe their Kei car engines are based on their bike engines!

I think they are Sam. I thought Honda had one or two in Japan only?

so is this one of those cars like the teensy austin healey of long ago which provides various and sundry opportunities to smear yourself all over the highway while having lots of fun?

you mean sorta like a vw beetle?

Well, the opportunities are always there (just around the corner?), but I've driven a great many small sportscars, many considered "horribly" primitive and outdated, and never been "smeared" anywhere.

What's your favorite small sportscar?