Mazda's special MX-5 Miata sells out in a flash

Parkway Family Mazda is blown away at the sales numbers on the 25th anniversary MX-5. All it took was 10 minutes for Mazda to sell out of the entire allotment of 250 anniversary edition MX-5 Miatas.

Miata has been hyping the sale of the MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition models ever since the New York Auto Show in April. It's microsite started taking orders at 1:25 ET and within 10 minutes, poof, all were claimed.

"It is no secret the MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition is a specially-crafted 'Thank you' to every MX-5 fan — former, current and hopefully future," Jim O'Sullivan, CEO for Mazda North American Operations, says in a statement. "Enthusiasm surrounding the MX-5 since its debut in 1989 has been nothing short of phenomenal."

The cars won't arrive in dealerships until later this summer. Each one is numbered, and we checked out 0000 last week in Malibu, Calif. Each was priced at $32,205 for the manual transmission. Buyers also get a fancy Swiss watch.

2014 Mazda MX-5 Miata Nürburgring 24 Hours race car

Parkway Family Mazda is excited for the upcoming iconic race. Mazda will be taking its MX-5 Miata to the Nürburgring next month for the annual 24-hour race that takes place on the arduous German race track. The move is part of Mazda’s 25th anniversary celebrations this year for the MX-5, and to mark the current-generation NC model’s departure from the market. An all-new ND model is due to bow in next year, and we’ve already been given a preview of its new SkyActiv chassis.

For its Nürburgring 24 Hours entry, Mazda is teaming up with JOTA Sport. The British outfit will prepare the MX-5 race car and manage the team. Drivers include former Formula One driver Stefan Johansson (he also drove for Mazda in the 24 Hours of Le Mans) as well as Wolfgang Kaufmann, Owen Mildenhall and Teruaki Kato.

The car they will be driving will be a regular NC MX-5 modified only with safety upgrades for motorsport use. It will compete in the V3 class for production-spec cars with naturally aspirated engines displacing 2.0 liters.

The 2014 Nürburgring 24 Hours will run the weekend starting June 21.

Mazda6 wins again at the 2014 Motorcheck.ie Fleet Car Awards

Parkway Family Mazda could not be more proud of the brand. Mazda6 wins top award for second year at the 2014 Motorcheck.ie Fleet Car awards
SKYACTIV-equipped model recognised for combination of style, performance and efficiency
Mazda6 provides a competitive corporate package, boosting appeal for fleet customers
For the second year in a row, Mazda6 has scooped the top award at the annual Motorcheck.ie Fleet Car Awards. The sixth generation Mazda flagship model beat tough competition in the D segment category including; Hyundai i40, Opel Insignia, Peugeot 508, Toyota Avensis and Ford Mondeo.
Not alone was Mazda6 crowned winner in the D segment category but the all-new Mazda3, Mazda6 Tourer and CX-5 were also shortlisted for C segment, Estate and Crossover categories respectively.
Tony Howarth, Mazda Motor Ireland Managing Director, was delighted to collect the award on behalf of the innovative automaker at yesterday’s (12th May 2014) glittering awards presentation at the Carton House Hotel, Maynooth, County Kildare.
Motorcheck.ie is Ireland’s most comprehensive used-car history resource, specialising in vehicle data and intelligence. The panel of nine motoring experts put each of the shortlisted cars through their paces at a two-day review at Carton House. The judges marked the vehicles on a range of criteria, including driving performance and fuel economy, quality feel and finish, equipment levels, residual values and aftersales packages.
Explaining their selection of the sixth generation Mazda6 as segment winner once again, the expert adjudication panel said some of the key factors in crowning the Mazda6 winner once again were its “exciting driveability and dynamic looks together with driver comfort and an ultra-efficient drivetrain”.
Tony Howarth added: “The Mazda6 is the perfect blend of style, driving dynamics and efficiency, three attributes which are of utmost important to fleet buyers and operators. We’re proud even to be shortlisted for the prestigious Motorcheck.ie Fleet Car awards; it underlines the industry’s trust in the quality, reliability and desirability of our products.”
The Mazda6 was also recently awarded ‘Best Family Car’ at the Irish Car of the Year awards 2014, voted for by the Irish Motoring Writers Association (IMWA), as well as being crowned ‘Best large family car’ by CarBuyer.co.uk. Winning this award for a second year in a row was yet another accolade for the flagship Mazda model which has won over 200 awards globally to date.
The Mazda6 2.2D 150PS Executive model is affordably priced from €29,495 (from €365 per month via Mazda Choices Finance package) and offers a high level of specification with 17” alloy wheels, a Multimedia system featuring a 5.8” touch screen display, Bluetooth with voice control, cruise control, fog lights and start/stop functionality to name just some of the features. With CO2 emissions from just 104g/km and combined fuel consumption from 3.9L/100KM (annual road tax from €190), it is also one of the most efficient yet powerful models in its class.

Mazda’s marvellous mileage

It's delivered the world's best two-seater sports car and has been making surfers smile since the Sixties – and there's no sign of Mazda breaking down any time soon.


Parkway Family Mazda is extremely proud of the Mazda brand. Given that most people associate Mazda with the most popular two-seater the world has ever known, the MX-5, one could argue that Mazda as we know it was born with the birth of that model, the Eunos Roadster as it was first known, in 1989. The familiar corporate M symbol came even later, in 1997. But the company can trace its origins back to 1920, when it began life as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co, producing machine tools, which fairly swiftly moved on to three-wheel trucks. I love the evolution of a car company: from boring old rock drills in 1935 to a nippy little convertible that inspires love wherever it goes, in a the flash of a few decades, and all from the evolution of one company. If any brands demonstrate the ability to survive through adapting to the demands of the market, it’s car companies.
And so we have Mazda: by 1961 they were working on the innovative Wankel rotary engine, and in 1966 the company introduced its Swinging Sixties Bongo minivan, for surfing dudes who wanted something with a crazy name.
In 1978 there was the RX-7, and by 1991 they achieved the staggering feat of winning Le Mans with the 787B, which was the first victory for a Japanese car, and one with a rotary engine to boot.
The same year, the company showed off its first hydrogen rotary-engined vehicle, followed by a natural-gas powered passenger car in 1992 and an electric-powered MX-5 in 1993.
In 2000, the “Mazda Roadster” as the MX-5 was by then, was recognised as the world’s top-selling open-top two-seater sports car by the Guinness World Records, with 565,779 cars sold.
Skip forward via many new models and styles to 2011, and Mazda was still simply updating the Guinness World Record title, which no other manufacturer has come close to challenging. That year it built the 900,000th MX-5, and filled in a bit of paperwork to update the record for best-selling two-seat sports car. The recipe for success for the MX-5 model remains a brilliantly smart one: affordable fun through clever, dependable, simple technology.
This fits in neatly with the famous “Zoom-Zoom” brand philosophy of delivering “fun and exhilarating driving experiences to customers who remember the emotion of motion first felt as a child”. It’s been a winner so far.

2015 Mazda MX-5 Miata Rendering

Parkway Family Mazda is excited for the latest information regarding the new upcoming 2015 Mazda MX-5 Miata. The upcoming generation of the Mazda MX-5 has been recently rendered and its body looks simply appealing.

Reports and official details on a new generation of the Mazda MX-5 have been around for quite some time now and it seems that the upcoming roadster is closer to its future owners than originally thought, because it will be officially presented towards the end of this year and it will become available for order in early 2015. The upcoming MX-5 pictured above has been virtually created by Theophilus Chin, who has used the Kodo design language to give it a very attractive styling and character.
The Mazda Kodo design language has been seen already in the new Mazda6, Mazda3 or even in the Hazumi Concept. The upcoming rear-wheel drive drop-top will be considerably lighter than the current one, losing some 100+ kg (220+ lbs) from its body, and it will also be smaller, with a lower center of gravity, a more rigid body and some other tweaks which will help it around a corner but also make it safer in a collision. More details on the upcoming Mazda MX-5 will probably be announced close to its official debut.

Mazda RX-7 to Possibly Return in 2016

Parkway Family Mazda is wanting to give some wishful info on the re-imagined Mazda RX-7. Word on the street has Mazda resurrecting the Mazda RX-7, this time as an agile, lightweight, two-seat coupe with a next-gen 250-hp rotary engine. The company penciled in a 2015-16 launch date. The price will hover around $30,000 -- cheaper than a Porsche Cayman, more expensive than a Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ.

The sporty coupe isn't fully signed off on yet, but its rotary engine is under development, and the project is planned as the MX-5's platform mate. The MX-5 goes on sale in 2015.

Mazda's official line on the new RX-7 is a typically Japanese “no concrete plans.” Privately, though, executives admit the car and new rotary are underway. They also say the launch date is included in Mazda's long-term product plan; it calls for “five new cars by the end of financial year 2016.” The company announced the plan at the Tokyo motor show.

We've heard a few styling and technical details. Sources confirm that Mazda's Advanced Design team is working on the RX-7. While it's built on the same simple design philosophy as the new MX-5, we're told final design is a long way from being production-ready. Mazda chief designer Ikuo Maeda is supervising the work, and he has an RX-7 family link: His father was design boss in the '70s when Mazda created the original.

Maeda says he doesn't “yet know what a new coupe should look like, but I want it built before I retire,” sometime in the next five to seven years. He adds that retro styling is unlikely.

Technical specifications have emerged. The new rotary engine won't have a turbocharger, limiting ultimate power output, but it falls in line with Mazda's longer-term powertrain strategy to concentrate on highly efficient gas engines. For example, Mazda rules out downsizing and low-pressure turbocharging in its inline fours, opting in favor of efficiencies with its 1.5-, 2.0- and 2.5-liter Skyactiv family. Mazda also showed a new compact 330cc swept-capacity single-chamber rotary at a Tokyo technical event -- a Mazda 2 EV with a rotary range-extender. Don't panic: The production RX-7 isn't a sporty Volt. It has a conventional powertrain.

Global marketing chief Masahiro Moro says building the new coupe's business case is already proving tricky. “I just don't see the right numbers in the equation yet,” he says. Still, Mazda's rotary development continues, and we hear engine capacity is around 600cc per rotor, slightly smaller than the RX-8's 650cc. Mazda is still deciding between twin or triple rotors; one source suggests a twin rotor is most likely, making the new RX-7 engine a 1.2-liter, roughly equivalent to a conventional engine's 2.4 liters. Power output, fuel efficiency and reliability likely improve; sources suggest about 250 hp, similar to the RX-8.

Given the new RX-7's potential rivals -- the next-gen Toyota GT-86 (FR-S, BRZ) and next-gen Nissan 370Z -- the Mazda must blend relatively low-power output with a lightweight chassis to keep the enthusiasts happy.

That's where the MX-5 comes in. It will likely end up weighing 2,400 pounds, so the RX-7 should weigh about 2,800 pounds.

The new Mazda MX-5 features “very clean and simple” styling to make what a company veteran describes as “our best-looking car ever.” Sources say it has muscular proportions, a more forward-mounted front axle and a longish hood. They say it is recognizable as an MX-5 with clean styling.

As with the RX-7, Maeda says the MX-5 design is not retro. He wants to distance the new car from the soft, round original 1989 MX-5. He says we shouldn't look for the Mazda 3 and 6's five-point grille, for example.

MX-5 engines are normally aspirated 1.5- and 2.0-liter fours. Power outputs aren't confirmed, but we expect conservative horsepower numbers to go with that 2,400-pound curb weight.

On sale in 2015, the new MX-5
is scheduled to debut at next year's Chicago Auto Show, where the original was launched in '89.

The Next Mazda CX-9 to Launch Could Have a Turbo

Parkway Family Mazda has been keeping its ear to the ground. Mazda has a lot going on these days, what with launching the new Mazda6 and Mazda3, with the new Mazda2 just around the corner. We know the new Miata is also on the way, and after that it looks like the next vehicle in its lineup due for an overhaul is the CX-9 crossover, due to launch by 2016. The move makes sense because the CUV is growing long in the tooth. It was first introduced in 2007 and was refreshed twice since then.

The next-generation CX-9 will move away from Ford-derived components like the V6 in the current model and will likely use a turbocharged four-cylinder engine. However, a final decision hasn't been made yet. "If I ask Mr. Hitomi, our top guy of powertrains at Mazda, he believes the downsizing turbo solution costs more. But real downsizing means six-cylinder to four-cylinder turbo could make sense from a cost point of view," said Mazda's global marketing boss Masahiro Moro to CarAdvice at the New York Auto Show. The executive said a hybrid powertrain option would be unlikely, but markets outside the US could get a diesel, as well.

Moro also tipped his hand at future Mazda model plans. He hints that the Japanese automaker is considering building a luxury vehicle with a six-cylinder engine. "It's too early, we don't have a car yet. But we are collecting advice as to V6 or straight-six," he said to CarAdvice. Parkway Family Mazda will definitely be watching.