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2020 Mazda MX-5 Miata RF Automatic Road Test | Cue the sad trombone

Somewhere in Hiroshima, a parade of nearly finished Miatas glides along a track waiting to receive their beating hearts, the powertrains that'll let them ply their road-carving talents the world over. One – let's call him Fred – is eager to begin his new life as a 2020 Mazda MX-5 Miata, bringing joy to his future owner and just generally being awesome, even if the RF power targa-ish roof that's already been applied to him is a tad dweeby. Visions of hairpins and power slides and expertly executed heal-toe downshifts dance in his head Â… and then it happens. He is given the one thing every new Miata dreads: an automatic transmission. Poor guy. This will not, entirely at least, be yet another diatribe in the ongoing Quixotic campaign to Save the Manuals(!). Automatic transmissions can be quite good and even beneficial in sports cars, especially on the track where removing the need to operate a clutch and expertly execute those heel-toe downshifts lets you better focus on the steering, what the chassis is doing and just going faster. That the computers can shift quicker than you can is another obvious advantage. The trouble with the Miata, and why Fred is now shuffling off the line like George Michael away from the Banana Stand, is that the Mazda six-speed automatic just isn't appropriate for a sports car. The automatics in the rest of Mazda's fleet are actually quite excellent, delivering superior response than rival transmissions, and delivering comparable fuel economy despite possessing fewer gears. However, what works well in a compact crossover like the CX-5 or CX-30 is not necessarily appropriate for a sports car like a Miata. Unlike the dual-clutch transmissions or even some sport-tuned conventional automatics of various performance-oriented cars, this one doesn't downshift adroitly when braking into a corner, anticipating your imminent need to get back on the power. The plastic paddle shifters lack the reassuring, mechanical feel of the best examples, and then don't produce quick-enough reactions from the transmission when up- or downshifting. I found using the shifter itself, which is at least oriented the correct way – with downshift forward and upshift rearward – to ultimately be more rewarding as it has a more involving action to it. Still, it's nothing compared to the solid, snick-snick action of the six-speed manual.

Miata buyers prefer a manual gearbox, says Mazda

Earlier, we wrote about Toyota's underwhelming 2018 manual transmission sales figures. To recap – as Toyota's representatives told CarBuzz – the automatic Corolla outsold its manual equivalent to a ratio of 100 to 1, and just one in three Toyota 86 buyers picked a manual version of the rear-drive coupe. What about the other famous rear-wheel-drive offering from Japan, Mazda's MX-5 Miata? A case can be made that an 86 buyer cross-shops the Miata, and vice-versa, but what kind of split do Mazda's sales figures reflect in comparison? We reached out to Mazda for some sales data, and PR program manager Tim Olson told us 76 percent of Miata soft-top buyers go for the classic stick-shift option, leaving just 24 percent of buyers preferring the automatic. Both transmission options for the Miata are six-speed. The figures are based on year-to-date sales data for the 181-hp 2019 Miata, from July 2018 through April 2019. Interestingly, the more coupe or targa-like, retractable hardtop RF variant takes a step towards the 86 when it comes to transmission choices. While RF buyers still preferred the manual, the split was far closer to half and half: 52% went for the manual, and 48% chose the automatic. Perhaps this reflects the RF's more grand tourer-like image, and it might also be indicative of the RF's higher pricing. If you're going to spend nearly $34,000 for a Miata, another $600 for an autobox doesn't necessarily mean that much – choosing the auto on the base, Sport trim level soft top roadster is a $1,350 bump instead. While the $26,650 base Sport isn't exactly spartan, on a roadster it's fine to have less cushiness. With the higher-specced Club trim level, the auto's price tag shrinks to the aforementioned $600, as it is on the RF Club. There's no base Sport for the RF, as the cheapest RF is the $33,865 Club. But still, the manual shifter's snick-snack feel is one of the Miata's classic traits that has been with it since its inception 30 years ago. Sources say fewer than 5% of the original first generation Miatas were made with an automatic gearbox, but it's obvious trends and tastes are changing – although to be fair, automatics are getting much better as well.

Takata airbag recall spreads to China with 42k Mazda sedans

The scope of the problem with the faulty airbag inflators from Takata continues to broaden and is now reaching China, as well. Mazda is recalling 42,732 Mazda6 units there, produced by its local joint venture partner China FAW Car Company, to replace the front passenger airbags. It comes as part of Mazda's recall of nearly 160,000 vehicles worldwide, including about 34,600 in the US, according to Reuters.
This is the same problem that caused seven automakers in the US to recall an estimated 2.1 million vehicles in late June. The airbag inflators can potentially explode instead of deploying the airbag, which hampers the bag's inflation. In some cases occupants are also hit by the metal shrapnel, which can cause further injuries. In the US, Mazda is repairing the 2003-2007 Mazda6 (pictured above), 2006-2007 Mazdaspeed6, 2004 MPV and 2004-2008 RX-8 originally sold in or currently registered in Florida, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii.
This is hardly the first instance of this issue. Since 2001, there have been 20 recalls tied to the exploding airbags supplied by Takata. The problem is possibly linked to the propellant in the inflators, but there's no conclusive evidence of that yet. Most of the automakers in the US limited the most recent recalls only to a few humid states because moisture potentially exacerbated the problem.