One car life

Okay, maybe I’m cut out to have more than one car at a time.

For past month or so, I’ve been caretaking my brother’s Mazda Miata. That is in addition to my own car, the BMW M2 Competition. As with most new things, it was fantastic at first. I love driving the little roadster, and best of all, it had a manual transmission. Top-down cruising in the mountains on a sunny day is just about as perfect as motoring gets.

But the reality is, I don’t have the time nor energy to upkeep both cars. I don’t put enough miles on the M2 as is! Having yet another car to put miles on means taking away seat time in the BMW. And I am paying way too much in insurance to simply have it sit around looking pretty in front of my home. Cars are meant to be driven, and sadly I don’t have the capacity to drive more than one.

I don’t know how other car enthusiasts who owns multiple cars do it. Either they apportion more time towards driving, or they let some cars sit for long periods. I love cars immensely, but I have other hobbies as well, so it can’t take up my life entirely. While it is indeed nice to have some variety in the cars I have access to, I just lack the bandwidth. I already don’t like washing my own car, imagine now having two to do!

So it is with some surprising relief that I gave the Miata back to my brother earlier this week. It’s off my hands (for now), and more time to concentrate solely on the M2. I reckon I am going to remain a single car owner for the foreseeable future, now that I’ve had a taste of the dual-car life. Be careful what you wish for, as they say.

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What are you thinking of doing?

Long live the roadster

Due to adverse circumstances of my brother, I am going to be taking stewardship of his Mazda MX-5 for awhile. It’s quite the fortuitous timing, because I’ve been pining drive a manual transmission car these days. I can now give up dreams of buying a Honda Civic Type R, and enjoy one of the purest sports car experiences money can buy.

And I’m reminded of just how sweet the Miata is. I am no stranger to the ND generation of the classic Mazda roadster, though it’s been more than five years since I sold mine. My brother’s MX-5 is the improved “ND2” version. The primary difference from my 2016 “ND1” is that It’s got a more powerful engine, with a higher 7,500 RPM redline. There’s a federally-mandated backup camera now, which in a car the tiny size of a Miata it’s rather superfluous.

The other bits of the car are largely the same, which is just fine. The manual gearbox is just as satisfying to row as I remembered. This rod-actuated AISIN six-speed unit is truly one of the best available on the market. The feel is solid, yet it snicks into each gear with precise ease. Ultimately, I don’t regret getting the M2 Competition with the dual-clutch automatic instead of the manual, but barring having my brother’s MX-5 around, I really want a manual car in my life.

Maybe the Type R dream isn’t dead after all.

What else? I was surprised at how little steering feel there is. The rack itself doesn't transmit much information, but because the MX-5 is so small and light, sensation from the suspension can be felt directly in the hands on the steering wheel. Therefore, I don’t bemoan the lack of actual steering feel. I’ve yet to drive an electric-assisted rack that can hold a candle to the hydraulic unit in my old Subaru WRX STI. And that includes a bloody Porsche 991 GT3.

If pure sports car is what you are after - no requirements for any utility factor - it’s hard to imagine why you’d spend any more money than an ND2 Mazda MX-5. I’m glad Mazda makes it, and I’m glad my brother has bought one. Long live the roadster.

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I am titanium.

New car unlucky

It seems my somewhat rash action of trading in the 911 GT3 for a BMW M2 Competition have inspired my brother to do the same. He recently sold his Audi A3 to CarMax for a surprisingly large sum (the used car market is absolutely on fire) and is now the proud owner of a brand new Mazda MX-5 Miata.

Emphasis on owner, because he’s not really driven the car much since he bought it home some two weeks ago. On a cruise to Monterey during the weekend of purchase, the car threw a check-engine-light on the highway and went into limp mode. A brief stint at the dealership found everything to be okay, though after a few days the CEL returned, and as of writing the car is still at the servicing department, on a hoist with the transmission taken out.

At least they’ve provided my brother with a courtesy car.

Sometimes the luck of the draw is just not in your favor, but that’s not something my brother can control. Good news is it’s a brand new car, so the MX-5 will get repaired to proper standards without costing him a dime. The powertrain warranty covers the next five years of driving, so there’s really nothing to worry about. If my brother’s car buying patterns continues (I certainly hope not), he won’t even see the end of that five years with the Miata anyways.

If the dealership cannot fix the problem, then Mazda will be compelled by California lemon law to buyback the car. If that comes to pass, my brother will simply get another MX-5. The ND2 generation of the iconic Mazda sports car is indeed too sublime and fun to forsake just because the sample he purchased happens to have a few gremlins to sort through.

I look forward to many blasts through the local mountains with my brother once his new car is fixed.

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This is not going to help my wanderlust.

Do I really need a car?

Is there a thing super low-key bothering you? Is it taking up head-space causing subconscious anxiety, stress, and otherwise in the negative?

It shall do you well to get rid of said thing, even if you have to alter your lifestyle to fit such an arrangement. Having that gnawing feeling taking rent at the recesses of your brain isn't healthy, and you won't realize this until you've done the deed. 

I realized it when I decided to sell my car. What was once my ultimate expression of freedom and joy, vehicle ownership have turned into a something quite unpleasant. 

For someone who have loved cars since I was cognizant of what they were, it's super weird to say that I'm going car-less for the foreseeable future. Public transport and various ride-sharing apps will get me around San Francisco satisfyingly beyond an adequate facsimile. 

How did car ownership sour on me? Ironically (and perhaps not coincidentally) a large part of it is San Francisco. With an extra 200,000 people crammed into this seven square-miles city within the last decade, and many more making the commute from the Bay Area, driving is not an advantage. Our traffic hell is notoriously ridiculed by outsiders, and the lack of parking is so dire that I've known people to have parked some ways from home and had to bus the final part. 

It's practically Manhattan around here. 

I simply don't drive enough to justify the hassle of dealing with all that. On weekends I'm an absolute homebody so the car only gets used for commuting. In the nearly three years I've own the MX-5, it's barely got 17,000 miles on it. 

Commuting in San Francisco is devoid of any driving fun, and when that's the case, the ancillaries to ownership like periodic detailing and taking it to the dealership for maintenance becomes a grinding chore. 

All of the aforementioned have slowly accumulated into a burden that was subconsciously dragging me down. The weight did not fully occur to me until the latest parking violation I received a few days ago and I finally have had it with the whole enterprise. 

So it'll be public transport to work for the first time since high school. The Miata will be sold; for sure there'll be another car in my future, but for now I'll be super happy to get back my peace of mind

The whole stadium to himself. 

Downsides of driving a Mazda Miata

Taylor Swift has a new album coming out this November, and my ear chambers are ready for the magnificence. Red and 1989 was such spectacular standouts that I expect no less greatness from reputation, though someone please explain to me why the letter r isn’t capitalized in the album cover.

One of the downsides to owning a minuscule car as the Mazda Miata is that other drivers in modern behemoths such as the typical sports-utility-vehicle or Toyota Camry absolutely cannot see me alongside them. Worse, because of the MX-5 diminutive size, I can hide completely in another car’s blindspot, where even with an over-the-shoulder check the other driver cannot see me at all. I’ve lost count on how many moments I had to do emergency evasive maneuver simply due to people merging directly into me. 

Perhaps a 2,300 odd pound car isn’t meant to be daily-driven when the average vehicle weights nearly 1,000 pounds heavier. Needlessly to say, I run a dash-cam - as the Russians do - at all times, though I’m not sure how useful the camera footage would be if I’m squashed dead by another car. The Miata is a convertible, after all. 

Excellent choice of car, Healy. Simply masterful.