2024 Mazda MX-5 Miata Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata, known by the faithful as the ND, remains just as appealing today as it did when the automaker last redesigned the car for the 2016 model year. Remarkably, 2024 marks the most significant styling update since the arrival of the hardtop Miata RF (retractable fastback) body style in 2017.

New headlights incorporate the running lights, formerly housed in the lower corners of the front fascia. New LED taillights debut and both the Club and Grand Touring models get new multi-spoke 17-inch wheels in a black (Club) or machined face with a black (Grand Touring) finish. The fresh paint color for 2024 is Aero Gray, a warm tone with a subtle metallic glow. Aero Gray replaced Platinum Quartz, one of the only free paint colors for the car.

The 2024 Miata roadster continues in Sport, Club, and Grand Touring trim levels. Our test car arrived in Grand Touring specification with the new Aero Gray paint and a Tan interior with premium Nappa leather.

Sport versions come only in black or red paint colors with black 16-inch wheels and a black cloth interior. Club trim triples the number of available paint colors and adds 17-inch wheels, but dark gray is no longer available on this model. Grand Touring trim comes in six colors, including dark gray, but you can’t get dark blue, which is a Club exclusive.

That’s a shame because the dark blue would be perfectly matched to the newly revived tan interior color. Fans of high-contrast interior treatments will like the Grand Touring’s tan interior, which includes premium Nappa leather seats and tan surfaces on the center console, lower dashboard, and door panel inserts. Inexplicably, Mazda offers it only with Snowflake White or Aero Gray exterior paint, and it doesn’t look so great with the gray.

Regardless of which interior color you choose, the Miata’s interior benefits from improved padding on the center console and subtle instrumentation revisions for better legibility. In addition, the new 8.8-inch infotainment display modernizes the car with enhanced graphics and a more intuitive user experience. Club models gain new artificial suede inserts for the black cloth upholstery.

Overall, our enthusiasm for these minor but meaningful design updates is decidedly mid. A greater opportunity to mix and match trims, paint, and interiors would be nice. We’re not talking about BMW Z4 and Porsche 718 Boxster levels of personalization, but since buying a frivolous sports car is a purely emotional decision, it’s critical to passionately love rather than begrudgingly accept what you’re getting.

If the 2024 Miata’s cosmetics miss the mark, the performance could not be better. We didn’t think the ND’s dynamics could improve any further, but we were wrong.

Previously, the ND exhibited relatively light steering feel both on- and just off-center. It didn’t ruin the fun, but depending on the situation, it could make the car feel a little less precise and stable than might be desirable. But the 2024 Miata gets a new steering rack and revised electric steering assist software that eliminate this light sensation. This makes the car feel more secure at higher highway speeds and better glued to the road when accelerating hard out of corners and curves. The added confidence in what was already a superlative sports car makes the 2024 model the best Miata yet.

There is another contributor to this newfound sense of stability. The Club and Grand Touring have a new asymmetric limited-slip rear differential that Mazda says improves the Miata’s stability when cornering. It, combined with the Kinematic Posture Control technology Mazda introduced in 2022, effectively controls the car’s slightly squirrely rear end.

The only other mechanical change for 2024 is a new DSC-Track mode for the Club and Grand Touring. This mode adjusts the dynamic stability control to intrude less often without eliminating the technological safety net when driving the car hard and fast on a closed course. Naturally, you should not use it on public roads.

Every chance we get, we take a new Miata into the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles, which features some of the best driving roads in the nation. Here, we validated the effectiveness of the new steering and limited-slip rear differential while spending a sunny afternoon driving every ribbon of blacktop in the region, reveling in what makes a Mazda Miata so dang special to true driving enthusiasts.

The car’s smooth and refined 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine continues with 181 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 151 pound-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm. Before you dismiss those numbers, remember that a Miata’s base curb weight is 2,341 pounds.

A six-speed manual transmission is standard; Mazda offers a six-speed automatic only with Grand Touring trim. The power flows to the car’s rear wheels, and because Mazda mounts the engine behind the front axle, the weight distribution is 52/48 front-to-rear (51/49 for the RF).

Our Grand Touring test car had the manual gearbox, and it remains one of the best we’ve ever used. Short positive throws that snick decisively between gears, a light clutch, and pedals perfectly placed for heel-and-toe rev-matching engage the driver in ways the optional automatic simply can’t. However, past experience with the ND’s six-speed automatic demonstrates that it doesn’t sap all of the fun out of driving a Miata. Just some of it.

The engine loves to rev, and unless you come to a stop or need to exceed 80 mph, you can run the Miata solely in second and third gears. We did that for nearly 100 miles, occasionally employing other cogs, and that resulted in a dismal observed fuel economy number of 24.1 mpg, well below the official EPA rating of 29 mpg in combined driving.

Unfortunately, a screw in the left rear tire brought the fun to an early end, and we never got a chance to run the test car on our usual evaluation loop. Past experience suggests that in typical driving situations, a Miata comes close to matching the EPA rating in combined driving.

Though we couldn’t pile as many miles on the 2024 Miata as we wanted to, we confirmed Mazda’s assertions about the new steering and limited-slip differential. The latest version of the Miata is the most rewarding to drive ever, especially if you get a Club equipped with the Brembo performance brakes, lightweight forged aluminum BBS wheels, and Recaro sport seats.

Miatas are about driving fun, not practicality. They have two seats, scant in-cabin storage space, and a small 4.6 cubic-foot trunk (4.5 cubic feet for the RF). Sitting low to the ground, they’re hard to enter and exit. Once you’re in, there isn’t any room to stretch out. And if the roadster’s soft fabric roof is raised, the car feels claustrophobic.

Despite all of this, unless you’re over six feet tall and 275 pounds, you can make your peace with driving this car. For example, the standard seats are exceptionally comfortable and include a height adjuster for the front portion of the cushion. That adds leg support, which makes longer drives more comfortable. With Grand Touring trim, they’re also heated, extending the top-down driving season before winter arrives.

Bracing your legs against the door panel and center console isn’t painful, though doing so repeatedly in a short time results in some discomfort. The steering wheel rim is somewhat thin, but thanks to the improved steering, it no longer feels delicate in your hands.

The Miata is loud inside, but wind buffeting with the top down isn’t as bad as you might expect, especially if you raise the side windows. In our experience, an open Miata RF suffers more intrusive wind in the cabin. But opening the RF to the elements is easier, thanks to its power-operated targa-style roof panel. The roadster’s manual soft-top takes more effort but remains a model of simplicity.

Mazda locates the glove compartment on the back wall of the cabin between the front seats. The car has a tiny tray under the center armrest, a small shelf forward of the gear shifter, and fun-size storage in the door armrests. The cup holders are mounted below the glove compartment, right where your elbow bangs into them. You can relocate one of them to a slot on the right side of the console, but it can interfere with front passenger comfort.

The trunk liftover height is high, and the cargo space is deep. It holds two airport roll-aboard suitcases and a backpack or two. Depending on the model and transmission, the maximum payload capacity is around 400 pounds, including the passengers and cargo. So, if you take a road trip in a Miata, pack light or go solo.

Mazda has finally replaced the Miata’s old infotainment system with the latest Mazda Connect technology. It has an 8.8-inch display with touchscreen operation for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. With Club and Grand Touring trim, Apple CarPlay is wireless.

In addition, the 2024 Miata is the first Mazda to get Alexa, followed by the all-new CX-70 SUV. We’ve used this feature in the CX-70, and it worked great, representing a significant step up from Mazda Connect’s simple, non-conversational native voice recognition technology. Unfortunately, in the Miata test vehicle, Alexa wasn’t functional because it required an active Wi-Fi hotspot. That feature wasn’t set up, so we couldn’t test its effectiveness in the louder MX-5 Miata.

Overall, the new Mazda Connect system improves the Miata’s technological vibe thanks to modern graphics and touchscreen capability when using smartphone integration platforms. The Club and Grand Touring models have a decent nine-speaker Bose premium sound system with speakers mounted within the head restraints, and it remains audible with the top down at freeway speeds.

We had no trouble pairing an iPhone 15 to Mazda Connect, streaming tunes from Apple Music and Pandora, or launching Apple CarPlay. However, since the car doesn’t have a wireless phone charger, you’ll still want to have a cable handy to plug into one of the two USB-C ports.

Mazda equips every 2024 MX-5 Miata with low-speed forward-collision warning with automatic braking, lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert.

Upgrade to Grand Touring trim, and the car adds more safety features. They include an adaptive front lighting system that can help you to see around corners and curves after dark, an automatic high-beam headlight system, and a traffic sign recognition system. With the optional automatic transmission, an adaptive cruise control system is standard on the Grand Touring.

During our evaluation of a Grand Touring with the manual transmission, we experienced the lane-departure warning system’s subtle steering-wheel vibration numerous times, occasionally in error. When it activates, a graphic appears on the left gauge’s digital panel. We also received a forward-collision warning urgently requesting that we brake, but this alert was due to a pickup truck parked on the shoulder of a curve in the road.

There aren’t any crash-test ratings for the Mazda Miata. However, the laws of physics apply. The heavier the vehicle that hits this lightweight sports car, the more damage the Miata will sustain. Bigger, heavier vehicles offer better crash protection than smaller lighter vehicles, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) notes.

When the original MX-5 Miata went on sale in 1989, Mazda revived the classic roadster and rejuvenated interest in two-seat sports cars with convertible tops. In the decade that followed, competitors arrived, some more successful (BMW Z3, Porsche Boxster) than others (Honda Civic del Sol, Mercury Capri).

Now, 35 years later, the MX-5 Miata is one of the last remaining models in the segment. The BMW Z4 and Porsche 718 Boxster are still for sale, but the Jaguar F-Type convertible exits stage right at the end of 2024, and the Audi TT Roadster took its final bow at the end of 2023.

Prices for the 2024 Mazda Miata range from $28,985 to $34,285, not including the $1,185 destination charge. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for our test vehicle came to $36,220, including the destination charge. Mazda restricts the RF variant to Club and Grand Touring trim. The RF Club has a mandatory Brembo/BBS Recaro option package, making it the most expensive Miata. Prices for the 2024 Miata RF run from $37,010 to $40,210, plus destination.

You’ll notice the two remaining alternatives to the Miata carry higher price tags. The BMW will set you back slightly more than $55,000, while the Porsche is more than $75,000 to start. Essentially, the Z4 and 718 Boxster are in a different class even though they’re classic roadsters.

That leaves the 2024 Mazda MX-5 Miata in a class of its own. It is the most affordable way to have open-top driving fun on public roads or a race track, and we highly recommend it. Only the Subaru BRZ and Toyota GR 86 coupes offer similar performance and driving dynamics at a competitive price. However, neither the Subaru nor the Toyota is as refined or outright fun to drive as the Mazda Miata. And neither is a roadster with a drop-top opening the car to its surroundings. That’s half the enjoyment of driving a Miata all by itself.