Yeah - I drove my miata through THREE Shiattle winters with NO ill-effects. I rarely locked the doors in public and left nothing inside of value (easier still to replace a radio than a radio AND a top.); even still, the car was never touched.

2800lbs rwd couple w/ low miles for less than $15K: Nissan 240SX.

 

Well, Seattle isn't so much a "break into people's cars" sort of place. It's more of a "people bury their emotions deep down until one day they go apeshit crazy and go on a shooting rampage" sort of place, but I digress.... the point is that the PRHT provides a significant increase in security and protection from the elements for a relatively small price and weight increase.

As for the 240SX, it is a wonderful car, but the newest one is almost 10 years old, they weren't exactly a good seller to begin with and they've become popular with ricers. Good luck finding an unmolested low mileage one nowadays.

 

That's what she said!

 

keep in mind that the Sky's are in limited production. Dealerships are typically on waiting lists for them, much like the owners.

I think if more dealerships were better stocked with Sky's, they'd be out-selling miatas

 

I had the fortunate opportunity to drive a Saturn Sky Redline last week after my friend at work got one. I'd agree with the Top Gear on a couple points. You do feel very confined. Comparing two cars I've owned in past, a 10AE Miata and RX8, I would say the steering does feel a bit numb compared to those cars. Gear box is good. The boost did hit at about 3500-4000 RPM, but below that, as expected, it was a dog. Even with boost, I was expecting a little more pull from a ~3050lb car with 260hp peak. To wring a "magazine" time of 5.5 second 0-60 out of it, I would expect you have to thrash it hard, sort of like trying to get a 5.9 out of an RX8.
Anyways, its a nice car, looks really good, runs fine, but the storage space and trunk are really limited, and the chassis/steering/brakes didn't overly impress... I don't know... it's sort of a "first time sports car owner" kind of car.

 

I don't get this redline/GXP/GT vs MX-5 comparision. Compare the base GM roadsters to the MX-5.

The PRHT has a great design. Only 70 lbs more! I wouldn't mind having one of those tops on my S2000

 

More like 2nd/3rd car.

 

Yeah, we don't have any of that nonsense here where I live.

I did actually see a cloud this afternoon, but it was really far away.

The dealers here have a couple on the lot, but it is generally a 6 week lead time.
Part of the problem is that half of the domestic production gets shipped off to Europe to be re-badged as Opels.

 

Says GTO owner, lol.

 

How much are:

Miata:

Sky:
Sky Turbo:

Solstice:

 

This should help.

 

You can say the same thing about the PRHT.

 

umm?? What the hell is that?

I can come up with a few off-colour meanings for that acronym, but I shant for my mother would be ashamed of me.

 

you sure have a lot of lesbian/bi teenagers though, huh?

 

Mx-5 Power Retractable Hard Top....

 

Gotta love the power retractable hardtop. TOO SWEET. However, there's a problem I have with the Miata now. Thats the look. I think they have severly downgraded the looks. The front end turns me off so much, that I would not buy one for that reason. They most certainly downgraded the car in that department and the Sky/Solstice absolutely look far better. The car looks girly to me now, so I can't own one. Of course looks are subjective, and I'm sure MANY MANY people love the new Miata look. This is just my opinion, so don't flame me. I just think the car looks hideous now. Wish I didn't feel that way, but I can't accept it at all. I never buy american cars, but I would actually buy a sky/solstice before a Miata now. However, that means nothing because at this point I'd buy neither. My S2000 ROCKS!!!!

 

Yea...and I don't think they really want the Saturn division to make much money either.

Saturn gets dick for marketing. I think I've seen one saturn commercial this year and it was the "Is that a Saturn" commercial. It was cute and delivered a good message. Saturn has changed A LOT and I think their lineup is more appealing than anything of it's Pontiac counterparts.

Pontiac is sorta the flagship for GM now (I guess), with their new GXP lineup e.g. Solstice, Torrent, G6, is there a G8?

 

I noticed in the article they called it a "twin scroll turbo." Anyone know anything about this? I've never heard of a twin scroll type turbo. Just twin scroll superchargers.

 

Should I take that as a compliment?

 

You're thinking of twin screw SCs, so called because they use two rotating screws to compress the air. A twin scroll TC has a split turbine inlet (the hot side inlet), so that cylinders (or rotors ) that fire one after another push their exhaust into separate passages. So, for a 4 cylinder with firing order 1-3-4-2, this means that cylinders 1 and 4 will be hooked up to one side, and cylinders 3 and 2 will be hooked up to the other. This reduces the chance that a cylinders whose exhaust valve timings overlap will "contaminate" each other by sending exhaust pulses that could interfere with exhaust or intake processes of the next cylinder that fires. In short, a twin scroll design reduces lag, improves fuel economy, and is generally a good idea. The Evo's turbo has been a twin scroll since the Evo IV (~1996, IIRC), and there are several other cars that use this technology as well. A quick Google search would probably get you pictures and better explanations than my quick one here, but I hope this helped.

 

Great explanation.

 

I haven't read through the entire thread yet, so at the risk of repeating:

Top Gear doesn't like U.S. cars. Naturally in a matchup they're going to go with the one that's not from the U.S.

Also, wouldn't a more rational comparo have been the speed version vs. redline?

 

what speed version?

 

Mazdaspeed MX-5 Miata

 

Amen to every point stated, including the s2k comment