Here's Why the NC Mazda Miata Is Better Than You Think

this is a 2014 Mazda MX-5 Miata yes the NC Miata the black sheep of the Mazda Miata world but but I happen to think the NC Miata isn't so bad in fact I think it's pretty good today I'm going to review this NC Miata Club and show you why and I'll also show you all of its quirks and features before I get started big news this NC Miata is currently for sale and it's being auctioned live on cars and bids this is a final year NC Miata 2014 and it's a rare Club model with some desirable upgrades manual transmission of course and it's offered with no reserve on cars and bids so once you've finished watching this video click the link in the description below to visit the live auction for this Miata where you can bid on it and buy it only on cars and bids all right time for the quirks and features of the NC Miata and I'm going to start with a general overview of this car and then I'll move right along to what makes it so controversial in the Miata community so let's start with the basics the NC is the third generation Mazda Miata it came out for the 2006 model year the n a and NB models have been on sale throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s then the NC showed up and it was sold all the way through 2014 before the ND Miata arrived that's the current one now this NC is a 2014 model that's the final model year and it also means it has the facelift you see in 2009 Mazda updated the styling of the NC Miata and they added a different front end design gave it a bit of a smile face as you can see and that is part of the controversy so let's just move right on into that part of the controversy about the NC was indeed about its styling that smiley face which was on all of them after 2009 was not particularly well received this car already had kind of a reputation for being a cutesy little fun Roadster even though car people know it's a serious sports car but the smile didn't really help project that image and a lot of enthusiasts didn't like that and it wasn't the only styling complaint about this car people felt it looked cartoonish even before the smile the general look the flared wheel arches kind of gave it a little bit of an odd design it wasn't tremendously well received and even less so when the smile showed up and then there was the weight of the NC Miata made the serious mistake of weighing around 25 2600 pounds which seems tremendously light because it is but by Miata standards it was a pretty heavy car the earlier Miatas had weighed about 2200 pounds so this had gained weight it was big and bulky compared to other Miatas even though 2500 pounds is pretty light that was another criticism of the NC now the reason this car gained that weight is it became let's call it a little bit bit more of a legitimate car it was a little larger it added more interior space more safety features more General convenience equipment compared to the earlier Miatas but that meant more weight and a lot of people didn't like that especially paired with the styling now thankfully NC Miata models had a pretty potent engine to make up for their Grace increase in curb weight 2500 pounds they had more power than earlier Miatas all the NCS sold here in North America had a two liter four-cylinder as you can see here still a pretty small engine but bigger than what it had before about 170 horsepower which was a relatively healthy number in a vehicle this size now I mentioned all the NCS in North America had this engine because overseas Mazda also offered the NC with a 1.8 liter four-cylinder that made about 125 horsepower and that engine was generally criticized for just being a little too slow for the NC's great heft okay that's kind of ridiculous but it was a little overmatched by this car thankfully this engine was in all the US models and this particular NC is especially desirable for its sportiness because it's a club model for the last two model years of the NC and only the last two Mazda created the club trim level which added a lot of desirable sporty upgrades specifically a limited slip differential which was a nice benefit also Sports suspension with Bilstein dampers which was another Improvement these Club models also had larger Wheels which was nice and they had front and rear Splitters front splitter you can see here and rear splitter here all big upgrades compared to the standard NC which makes the club particularly desirable and there were quite a few nice cosmetic touches too for example those larger Wheels were painted this dark gray black that was special to the club versions I also had black mirror caps as you can see and black headlights well not the headlight itself but the surrounding part was black which added to the cool look on the outside you also had this badge on the front fenders says club and it shows a picture of a club like the suit in playing cards which added to the coolness factor of this special Miata inside there were some upgrades too red dashboard trim as you can see to match the exterior color of the car whatever color you got that was the color of your dash which is a pretty pronounced change over a standard black plastic one and you also had red stitching in here to emphasize the sportiness like I mentioned the club is the most desirable NC model and it's rare since it came out near the very end of production after the Subaru BRZ was already on sale this thing was getting old and then they come out with this sport version that's more focused and pretty desirable now the other interesting notable thing about the NC Miata was the roof situation you'll notice a hard top here now a lot of people know the newest Miata the ND is offered with a hard top it's called the Miata RF and it has this cool trick folding top that gives it a different look and less noise it's a neat option but most people don't know the NC Miata offered something similar like I said earlier this car came out for 2006 and at that time it was only offered with a soft top but for 2007 Mazda started offering a power convertible hardtop they called it the prht which stood for power retractable hard top not exactly very creative but functionally it was pretty cool it would fold into the same space that the soft top would so the hard top didn't rob you of any extra storage space you still had the same the p r h t also made the car A lot quieter at highway speeds when it was in place you were driving along on the freeway you didn't hear as much going on with the hard top and it went up and down pretty quickly in just 12 seconds as I'll show you in a bit up and down so it moved pretty fast the only drawback was weight but even then not much it added 77 pounds to the car not a huge penalty considering some of the benefits of the prht but anyway next up let's climb into the NC Miata and talk quirks and features starting with that roof well actually I'll start with turning the car on the radio display gives you a little welcome message it says hello then exclamation mark kind of welcoming you to the car I'm not sure why it does that but it's a cute little NC Miata Quirk anyway the roof operation at the top of this Center control stack that has the radio on it you can see two buttons one the car car and a roof and an arrow in the other of the car and a roof down and the arrow going the other direction of course this is how you operate the roof to start the process you unlatch the roof manually on the ceiling you pull this down and then a little red warning light comes on at the top of the center console to let you know that this process has been started and the roof isn't latched in place from there you push the roof button and you watch it go down or you can see the power retractable hardtop retracting in the NC Miata like I said it goes into its little home and it takes up the same space as the soft top and the NC so there's no penalty and by the way one other little benefit of the pr HT and the NC Miata when it's down the panel that houses it has a little like bump up as you can see the soft top cars didn't have that but the hardtop ones do I guess to make sure it fits under the panel and it looks kind of cool almost gives it like a hump Vibe like a baxter spider not quite that far but a nice little touch of the NC with the power hard time anyway to put the top back up as you can imagine you press the top up arrow button you push it and then the top does its thing going in the other direction as you can see the hard top hard topping and then once it gets to the place where it's over the interior and the windshield you just latch it back into place manually and you're right back there in your cocooned prht now as far as the NC Miata goes by far the most interesting Quirk related to the roof situation is on the climate controls because this dial that lets you direct the airflow has a special mode for if you want the climate controls on with the roof down and it's called open mode you can see the description here and you can move the climate controlled air Direction dial to open mode and then the air air comes out a different set of vents than normal you have your standard dashboard vents these little circles here as you can see but if you go into open mode the car will start to use these vents mounted lower near your knees so they're more effective when the roof is down obviously if air conditioning is coming out those upper vents it's just going to go out into the ether with the roof down but the lower vents might actually get it on your knees and lower body and so there's two separate vent locations depending on roof up or roof down never seen that before kind of a cool idea next up another interesting item in the NC Miata some clever storage compartments in here you have a glove box over on the passenger side of the dashboard pretty standard nothing unusual there you also have door storage although it comes in the form of netting because this car is small the door panel is small and there wasn't room for real door storage but some Nets are there you have this little storage compartment garment to the left of the steering wheel on the driver's side of the dashboard where you can stick smaller items if you want and same deal on the sun visors you drop them down and you can see little business cards storage slots that also double as the lid for the visor mirror so a clever little integration of two things in one for even more storage go to the center console where you have this switch press it and you can slide this whole panel back for access to a storage compartment in the center console which is kind of cool and there's another one between the seats between the seat backs this panel is a locking storage compartment you can see the keyhole lock pull on the latch and it opens up for another storage compartment in here and another locking one if you want to keep valuables safe Beyond just the glove box which is pretty cool also worth pointing out this storage compartment has a little Loop in here that you pull that opens the fuel door there's no like button or electronic release you pull a loop in the storage compartment for your fuel door and that's how you get it open next up also in the center between the seats is a wind deflector you can see it here I guess it's supposed to guide wind over the cabin when the roof is down to keep it out of your face and hair it's a very simple piece if you don't want it in place just fold it down and it goes away if you want it just fold it right back up no power operated situation here it's just folding plastic now in the center one thing you won't find is cup holders I showed you that little storage compartment before but you can't put drinks in there instead there's cup holders on the door panels you can see right here on the passenger side and over on the driver's side same deal a cup holder a small one and a weird spot to integrate it but there there this car does have cup holders one other item worth mentioning here in the center the gear selector manual transmission of course and this desirable Club performance model and it's a 6 speed manual as you can see although that wasn't true of all NC Miatas you could get an automatic transmission in this car or if you got a manual in a base model you had a five-speed manual only the upper trims the sportier ones the luxury ones got the six speed like this club has other than that stuff there's not really all that much to talk about in this interior it looks like the interior of a Miata which is to say small but focused no extraneous stuff no added weight for no purpose style or wood or aluminum trim it's all basic focused functional in here the materials are fine a lot of plastic but the goal wasn't to make a really nice interior luxury car it was a simple sporty basic Roadster and that's what you get in here you don't even have a screen in this interior it's old school stuff with buttons the closest you you come to a screen is this button in the gauge cluster that says info you push that and it Cycles through a tripodometer a second trip odometer the exterior temperature and your fuel economy that's the closest you get to an infotainment system in the NC Miata basic strip down the Miata ethos and next we move on to the cargo area in the NC Miata the trunk as we call it here in North America pretty small although that's basically what you'd expect from this car it's a small car not intended to be practical with a huge trunk but it's got enough space decent storage back here where you can stick stuff just nothing excessive one thing I like in the trunk it has this tire changing kit from the factory which also includes this bottle of tire sealant which Mazda calls the instant Mobility system you have a flat tire it doesn't have a spare but you can patch the tire with this sealant and then get back on the road in an instant at least according to this bottle although probably not practically in reality anyway aside from the trunk since I'm outside this car other exterior Crooks and features not really all that many I do like the positioning of the front reflector it's mounted on the side of the front fog lights as you can see there's a U.S government regulation that all cars must have a side orange reflector in front and red reflector in back and this is a very clever place to stick that side front orange reflector it's a neat touch also worth pointing out this antenna you don't have a power retractable one and they don't bury it in the glass like in some cars this is a cheap but low weight and simple solution which is in keeping with the ethos of the Miata other than that nothing particularly interesting on the outside except for the styling itself which like I mentioned is quite controversial especially with that smile all right driving the NC Miata Club now people have been asking me to review the NC for a long time and I'm glad I held off because this is kind of the dream and see very final couple model years the club model is kind of the most desirable one with all of its you know upgrades and added benefits low mileage like this is a nice this is the nicest NC this is like the dream NC and of course the NC gets some hate from the Miata Community for its styling for it being a little bigger and so if you're gonna drive one if you're gonna see if the hate is real you want to drive the best one so let's talk NC Club first off everything about this car I still love as a general rule of the Miata you know saying that this is like the worst Miata is laughable that's like saying the worst picture of noodle it still looks great I don't know anyway the point that's my dog the point is you yeah it's a bit bigger bigger than a regular Miata it looks not as good as an n a or an NB but it's still a Miata and it's got all the stuff that makes a Miata good oh it's bigger well it's 2600 pounds or 2800 pounds or whatever these days cars automakers say a car is lightweight if it comes in at 3 400 pounds this car is still like light and little and it feels light and little to drive you can toss it around just like you toss around any other Miata it's got that like little character to it even though it might not be quite as small as an N A it also has you know like side airbags and some other stuff that maybe doesn't get you quite as worried that's one of the things I like about the NC and always have it's it's relatively cheap and affordable it's not as cheap as like an average n a or an NB but it's not that much more expensive and it's a lot more of like a legitimate car it feels like this is a power hardtop and side airbags and it feels like a more realistic overall car I admit it's been a long time since I've driven a regular NCR I was thinking about it it's been almost 10 years since I've driven one so I don't remember how the regular ones Drive quite as much but I will say this club is incredibly fun to throw around the steering has amazing Precision especially for a mid-2000s car I feel like I don't have this level of steering responsiveness from my Ford GT now obviously this is a much later NC Miata than the early ones in the mid-2000s but it still has its roots in that era and the steering feel is fantastic obviously the handling too amazing like I said doesn't feel heavy feels tossable throw a roundabout this is a fun little Roadster just like all Miatas are and anybody who complains about the NC in my mind has never really gotten behind the wheel of one and throwing it around because this car is fun to drive and then there's the other important Miata stuff one of the biggest being the shifter and clutch are Sublime the clutch is perfectly smooth very easy to figure out instantly when you get behind the wheel of this car the shifter is wonderfully notchy goes into gear absolutely perfectly with no vagueness or play you can easily rev match you can easily downshift and it's and it's that's important because you've got to kind of ring the power out of this car in order to get going fast and so you are often downshifting and rev matching to get acceleration up especially in the mid-range and it does a great job of that and I love deriving it I love driving a Miata I know it doesn't have the same feel is the n a i get that but if you were to drive this car wholly separate from an NA or NB you'd say this is a great sports car it just so happens that it's a little lesser of a great sports car than an m a or an NB but it's still great now there are drawbacks to this car I want to say it's important to mention a couple of them number one it isn't fast it's not slow it's not as slow as I was expecting but it is not fast they've never really pursued fast in a straight line they've always gone after performance around curves and it's great at that but it is not fast in a straight line it's also important to point out that it's pretty tight in here not incredibly so I'm six foot three six foot four and I've got space but like not much the other drawback to this car is I do think it looks weird I always have I think the NC is definitely the least attractive Miata but not by much and it's still a great car I mean I that wouldn't that wouldn't deter me I'll tell you that and yeah the worst Miata but again that's that's not that bad of a thing the Miata in general is such a special car and this one does a great job doing what the Miata is known for doing just maybe a slightly worse job than other Miatas but it's still fantastic and so that's the NC Miata Club no it's not as Bare Bones stripped down lightweight sports car as the original Miata or the NB and it's not as attractive or as modern as the new ND but it's still a great car a great sports car it is a Miata after all anyway now it's time to give this NC a Doug score and the Doug score is here 52 out of 100 which places the NC Miata Club here against some other cars it seems relatively mediocre but really most of the cars on this list are in a different League than the NC Miata the RX7 and the RX8 for instance and the Honda s2000. in reality I love the NC Miata especially for the bargain it provides it's like the 996 Porsche 911 the unloved version with the slightly odd styling but it still drives fantastically and you can get it for a discount it's a Miata through and through and the club model is certainly the NC you want [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 274,188

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Id: YeU2xgjjL6E

Length: 22min 27sec (1347 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2023