Replacement For The Miata - Open Season

[John V]

There's a guy around here who autocrosses one of those. I think he took the muffler off or something. It kind of sounds like some sort of industrial toilet.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by John V

There's a guy around here who autocrosses one of those. I think he took the muffler off or something. It kind of sounds like some sort of industrial toilet.

There's lots of gold foil in the engine bay. And it has a cage or something with interior netting.

[Pinecone]

Originally Posted by John V

There's a guy around here who autocrosses one of those. I think he took the muffler off or something. It kind of sounds like some sort of industrial toilet.

There is no muffler to take off.

Turbo, cat, and straight pipes.

[John V]

Oh. Maybe he removed the cat. I hope that isn't how it sounds in stock form. It's really horrible.

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by John V

Oh. Maybe he removed the cat. I hope that isn't how it sounds in stock form. It's really horrible.

If it sounds completely ridiculous, it's probably stock.

[JST]

You were probably not expecting it to sound so much like an Alfa.

[John V]

I was probably not expecting it to sound so much like a bowel movement.

[lupinsea]

Thanks for the feed back in this thread, guys. Any other thoughts I'd love to hear. I'm finding it a fun thread and a good exercise to rethink some things.

Something to note, though, is the timeline has shifted.

Getting rid of the Miata RIGHT NOW isn't as critical as it was ~10 days ago. :roll eyes:

My wife is having a bit of a melt down with her new job. What was looking promising a few months ago is turning out to not be such a great place to work. I won't share all the details but the stress and anxiety she's under is nuts. And the work culture / environment isn't lining up to what she was lead to believe.

Point being is that until her employment situation has stabilized we won't be swapping out the Maita. However, it's still very much on the chopping block and I suspect we'll be in the replacement car market within the next 2-4 months. Of course, with in another months (or so) I'll probably be well enough to drive the Maita again so . . .

Sorry to wind everybody up about this. From a mental standpoint I'm ready to move on but, uuunnngh. Life. I'm much more concerned that my wife find a better balance with her job whatever that may be.

That said, . . . .

Can't remember if I mentioned it but my wife's parents are very much interested in buying the Miata. My MIL is looking at it as an upgrade from her NA Miata and frankly if she's still going to be driving "a" Miata I'd like her to upgrade. I had a chance to drive her NA and it was very scary uncomfortable. My NC will have almost 2 decade of safety improvements, not to mention much more usable torque and power for safely getting on the freeway. So . . . My NC will probably remain in the family if I want to visit it now and again.

[lupinsea]

I'm back to driving the Miata again. My shoulder is well enough (and the car is easy enough to shift) that I started driving the Miata at the end of last week.

Nonethelss, it's still on the chopping block and while its replacement might be a couple months off it's still in the not-to-distant future. Given that, I did some test drive's this past weekend with some surprising findings.


Ford Focus SE hatchback w/ Manual
Based on my preliminary research everything has been pointing to the Focus SE hatchback. It's held in good regard for it's chassis and decent handling, I like the styling, it's available in the trim level I want (cheapest) with a manual, and the hatchback form factor. And on paper it looks pretty decent.

But after the test drive I was very underwhelmed by the car. The whole thing just felt . . . mushy.

The ride was softer than I was expecting. The shifter felt vague and rubbery. And while the engine seemed pretty smooth, it didn't seem to have much pull. I'm used to the Miata's engine and the need to wind it out but it at least feels playful and willing to shove the car along. I didn't get any of that from the Focus. IIRC, I think the Focus is off about 3/4 second or so from the Miata's acceleration numbers so I wasn't expecting it to be that much different but it was, it felt much slower and perhaps it was simply the way the engine went about it's business. But perhaps not surprising when you have 7 hp and a few less ft-lb of torque and then add 1/4+ ton of weight. And yet, there was the *^&$@ torque steer I don't like. Made the steering feel wobbly at launches.

Also, I was expecting there to be more room than there was for some reason. Frankly, I figure almost anything will feel a little more spacious than the Maita. Sure, it's a hatchback with 4-doors and 5 seats plus rear cargo area but the front cabin area still felt snug. Which isn't necessarily a knock against the car, just slightly surprising.

I still like the styling both inside and out. Though slightly let down by the interior. The Miata's is a plastic interior but it feels / looks a little nicer than the Focus. The Focus plastics . . . man, hard to describe. Felt cheaper, oilier, slicker or something. Just more clunky with a little less finish on them.

Probably the biggest thing about the Focus is that I had been reading such superlatives about the car that my expectations were probably too high. I'm not going to knock it out of consideration but it was more meh than I was expecting.


Nissan Juke AWD w/ CVT
I hadn't really though much of these before but the Juke sort of popped into the forefront of my mind a night or two before I went out for test drives. If anyone mentioned it in the earlier posts that's probably where I got the idea. In any case, it was more of a "what the hell, why not test drive it" decision.

Wow. This was a surprise.

Where as I was very underwhelmed by the Focus, I was very pleasantly surprised by the Juke. Possibly because I went into it with out any expectations whatsoever.

The ride is quite firm for the JUKE. It felt fairly stiff and I liked that. I wouldn't say it was sports car like. But probably as firm as the Miata (known for it's "soft" suspension), maybe a touch firmer. In any case, I liked it significantly more than the Focus.

Also, compared to the Focus, I think the JUKE posts longer 0-60 times (by ~3/4 sec or so) but it didn't really matter in this case because the JUKE feels like it pulled harder than the Focus. Probably not surprising when comparing the power ratings and peak torque:

Juke
3146 lb.
1.6L 4cyl turbo DI
188 hp @ 5600 rpm
177 f-lbt @ 2000 rpm

Focus
2907 lb.
2.0L 4 cyl
160 hp @ 6500 rpm
146 ft-lb @ 4450 rpm

I'd heard bad things about CVT transmissions in the past but hadn't really driven one before. I gotta say that I didn't think much about the Juke's gear box. . . . good or bad. Felt like a normal automatic to me. I might have detected the odd out-of-sync engine revving to keep things in the right power bad now and again but it otherwise seemed completely normal. But then, I think Nissan has been doing the CVT thing for probably longer than others so it wouldn't surprise me if theirs were more refined.

Looking into this car more I found out a few things about the AWD system. There are three drivetrain settings: FWD and two AWD modes on the Juke, AWD-V and AWD. The AWD-V setting turns on the torque vectoring. Nissan tuned this to help the car rotate quicker through the corners by shunting more torque to the outside rear wheel. The AWD is more like a normal FWD-biased AWD system where power goes tot he rear wheels if they start to slip but without the bias toward the outside tire. It's supposed to help with more slippery road conditions (like snow) where you wouldn't want to put more torque than necessary.

Sadly, I wasn't paying attention to this during the test drive and left it in FWD . . . which surprised me slightly in that while I was able to chirp the tires on launch, I didn't notice any of the torque steer that I did on the Focus.

The Juke sits up about an extra 2" vs. normal road cars and with it's AWD system I think it's the dirt road bomber I'd be interested in. I've seen videos of it running on mountain roads similar to what we have here in the NW and it handles them perfectly fine. So getting out to mountain bike trail heads or scouting future camping / target shooting locations should be a breeze.

The styling is obviously out there. I don't really find the car pleasant to look at but it's interesting, certainly not boring. Kind of like the BMW Z4 in this regard. I know people really don't like the Z4's styling (Ed and I excepted) but I kind of dig it for being different. Same with the Juke. And the view out over the hood is weird. You have those two huge bulging lights / lenses popping up above the long curving hood right in your field of view. Not bad, just different.

There is much less interior room than the Focus, or at least less cargo volume. The steeply sloping rear hatch really eats up rear cargo space when the rear seats are up. And with the seats folded, well, it's a high cargo deck with a sloping top roof so again, not much volume vs. the Focus. But it's fine. The car will seat 4 adults in a pinch and will work for my family in a pinch.

Not surprising, the Juke doesn't get as good of fuel economy as the Focus but it's only off by 3-4 mpg, if that. Both cars are up in the 30 mpg range which suits me fine.

In any case, I'm liking the Nissan Juke a whole lot more than the Focus. It feels more fun to drive around town and I think it'll offer more down the road than the Focus, too, in terms of where I can go.

[lupinsea]

.

Mazda CX-3
While I think I'd like to get one, they are too new and way outside of our price range. However, I stopped at the Mazda dealer this morning to get some of their special FL-22 coolant for the Miata and of course they had a few CX-3's. So I sat in one.

Wow, talk about a nice interior. Not sure what trim level I sat in but everything felt and looked great. Reminiscent of our E46 but with better styling.

Probably the best interior I've been in in years with the exception of Kognito's S4 vert I drove a few months ago.

Hopefully, Mazda did good with the rest of the car.