Gadgetory

I live in New York a city where no one but cabbies and rich people drive their own cars this is no place for a roadster Roasters are cars built for people who love driving this year Moz is introducing the fourth generation of the Miata a car that's become something of a legend the Miata is the iconic two-seat roadster a tiny unapologetically impractical ragtop that worships the Sun and makes even the worst commute tolerable so Mazda wanted to build a car that brought the untarnished driving experience back to those of us they can't afford a Porsche or BMW but in this age of self-driving cars hybrids and uber are people still looking for an economy sports car to find out I took a trip to a city that loves its roadsters Los Angeles this is Los Angeles all 500 beautiful celebrity-filled square miles of it and this is my friend Emily hello you may know Emily as Lindsay from ground floor or from Bojack horseman or from her stand up on Conan Late Night with Seth Meyers and point being Emily's the most la person I know which made her the perfect accomplice for my LA adventure absolutely are you excited to see my Los Angeles when the Miata debuted in 1989 nothing like it existed an economy front-engine rear-wheel-drive roadster the Miata was built using approached the company dubbed in by a Thai Japanese for horse and rider that sounds high-minded but the idea is pretty simple luxury comfort even performance all take a backseat to the connection between car and driver the pure driving experience within a couple decades the Miata became the best-selling roadster of all time the 2016 Mazda mx-5 is shorter lighter and with only 155 horsepower slightly less powerful than its predecessors this is the leanest and definitely the meanest looking Miata Mazdas produced in decades depending on the trim the Miata goes from about 25 to around $33,000 so even if you spring for the GT option there's still moments when you can't help but notice this is an economy car well I lost my cup holder where to go oh no you're not paying for luxury within yatta you're paying for a reminder that when done right the very act of driving hands on the wheel awesome to see pavement stretched out ahead can be a blast so Emily and I spent a whole day driving around la doing what Angelenos do first we went to the hills hi Emily yes what do you thing about the car the car is great what's your first impression first impression this looks like the car I want it as a kid it's like it almost feels like it's a practical car for Los Angeles do you think so yeah cuz people will see you seems like you'll be safer in traffic you mean because it's pretty right and it's like I always feel kind of stupid driving around with so many seats in my car because it's usually just me I just want to point out that we are in traffic on a mountain this feels very la we're on a mountain and yet we're somehow still in traffic we drove past the church Scientology and then I got to see some Scientologists in their natural environment all these people that look like flight attendants yeah these are all Scientology people why don't we then do adults jeez Louise why are they dressed like fighted were they flying to where do you think man outer space get this that guy on a bike wearing uniform just saw that car with a camera on it and he radioed some Oh oh we're gonna get like identifying them oh man this is all happening this is all happening we are setting off all kinds of alarms really in the belly of the LA beast yeah here's the thing about cars more and more people I feel like using cars in a very utilitarian fashion right there just want to get from point A to point B don't actually want to drive as a result we don't really care about driving you just want you know you want yeah you want to be able to do you enjoy driving love driving you do and that may be the single most important reason oh absolutely all right the honking though could do with that oh I love honking I do it a lot I'm always like have you honked the horn on this car yet have I would have a Greek horn yeah you ready for it yeah okay I like that yet ask anyone who's driven the latest Miata and they'll tell you Mazda did good on their promise the Miata is pure for driving experience as you can get for under $30,000 it's a frivolous impractical toy everything a roaster should be it may not be right from New Yorkers but Los Angeles I think you may have just found your new ride Amiata is like the perfect la car cuz it's like a hot girl with a really annoying voice and that's like LA in a nutshell I think you just summed up her entire story