Mazda MX-5 Miata Grand Touring

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to drive around in the Mazda MX-5 Miata Grand Touring. This adorable little two-seater was so fun to drive! I will admit, I felt like I was dislocating something in my body trying to get in and out because it is so low to the ground, but by the third day, I was getting in and out like a pro! I got the car on Friday afternoon, right before I had to pick my son up from Middle School. I told him to look for the sports car in the parking lot. His face, when he walked out of the building, was priceless! We drove out of the school with him yelling out the window to all his friends, making sure EVERYONE saw who was riding in the “sweet ride”!

*I was loaned the Mazda Miata for the purpose of this post. Unfortunately I was not allowed to keep it*

Isn’t it cute?!? I wish I would have taken a picture of it with my 11 year old next to it. He was taller than the car! He found that very funny! The biggest thing I was surprised about with this car is the fuel economy. Now I’ve never driven a car like this before so I really had no true idea, but I really thought it would get poor gas mileage. However, the Mazda Miata gets an estimated combined city/highway mileage of 30 MPG.  There are a few other things that surprised me about this car.

• Despite the size, there was a nice size glove compartment located between the two seats.
• The seats were super comfortable…once you got in them!
• The trunk size was small, but it fit an entire weeks worth of grocery bags in it.
• The headlights are excellent! I was afraid I was going to have a hard time seeing at night…not the case at all!

All in all, I really did enjoy driving the car. It’s totally not practical for me right now with two young kids, but they got a huge kick of taking turns riding in it and getting to drive with the top down! It also comes standard with a lot of features. The safety features that I liked that it comes standard with are:

• Blind Spot Monitoring System
• Rear Cross Traffic Alert
• Dynamic Stability Control
• Side-Impact Door Beams
• Lane Departure Warning System

Be sure to check out MazdaUSA.com for more standard features than the few I highlighted above. The particular car I drove has a MSRP of $31,27.

One other thing that I would like to mention that is great about Mazda is that when they dropped this car off, they also gave me a $25 Giving Card for me to donate $25 to the charity of my choice. I ended up choosing St. Jude’s. This is part of the Mazda Giving 4 Good campaign. Great campaign!!