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2017 Mazda MX-5 Miata RF Quick Spin | Elevate yourself

It's unusually hot in Western Washington; the early August sun beams through skies rendered hazy by fires a few hundred miles to the north. If you're not moving, it gets a bit oppressive, since there's just enough humidity to feel it and not enough wind to relieve it. Instead of huddling inside, window shades drawn, fan blowing hot air around impotently – this is how most Washingtonians, 75 percent of whom don't have A/C, handle the heat – we're taking our fan on the road. The best way to beat the heat, it turns out, is to climb into the forests. For this adventure in body temperature regulation, we've got a Mazda MX-5 RF, the Miata's semi-targa-topped variant, and a few hours of time. And the Cascade Mountain's foothills, thickly coated with Douglas firs and, higher up, subalpine firs soaking up as much sun as they can in the short growing season. I've lived near the foothills nearly all my life, but there's a lot of the Cascades I haven't explored. One area is Chinook Pass, a mountain road that crests at 5,430 feet. Looming almost 9,000 feet above it is Mount Rainier, so close you can almost touch it. Just about 100 feet below the summit is Tipsoo Lake, startlingly clear and sporting enough wildflowers to make The Sound of Music look like a movie about Rommel's North Africa campaign. But that's jumping ahead a bit. Between me and the summit is about 90 minutes of driving, through the suburbs and into the Enumclaw Plateau, and then along the chalky White River and up into the mountains. Plenty of time to focus on nothing but the surroundings, and the quality of the cooling action provided by the little Mazda. A quick word about the car, and my own biases – I love Miatas, but I have a complicated relationship with the latest MX-5, having owned a much more visceral (and much slower) first-gen car for about six years. On paper, it's this perfect modern interpretation of the original. It's light, it's a momentum machine, the steering's just a tad overboosted, and it has a playful amount of body roll while maintaining a healthy amount of mechanical grip. It looks aggressive enough, too, a major complaint of many folks about the last-gen car's Joker smile. The interior is largely brilliant, amazingly simple and interesting for such a lithe car. And yet, I have never found the new car to be as charismatic as my old Miata, with all its flaws. This puts me in the minority; most MX-5 fanatics find the ND to be a great compromise.

2019 Mazda CX-9 gets Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, slightly higher price

Now that Mazda finally launched Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in the 2018 Mazda6, the company isn't wasting time proliferating the infotainment upgrade to the rest of the lineup. The next on the list is the 2019 Mazda CX-9 large family crossover SUV. It's standard on Touring, Grand Touring, and Signature trims. But if you choose to go with the most affordable Sport trim, it's an option. Up-to-date infotainment isn't the only upgrade to the new CX-9. Every version receives thicker floor mats and a thicker headliner meant to further reduce the amount of noise that enters the cabin. The transmission is also retuned, and Mazda says the new tuning is meant to provide a smoother, quieter driving experience. We'll be interested to see how effective it is the next time we have a CX-9 in the office. Each individual trim level also gets some new options and features. The base Sport trim has a Sport Package available that adds heated front seats, a power driver's seat, heated mirrors, lane-keep assist and departure warning, adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking. The package rings in at $1,290. The Touring trim gets the fewest new features with its only new addition, besides the infotainment, being a frameless rearview mirror. The Grand Touring trim receives the 7-inch screen in the instrument panel also found in the Mazda6, along with new power side mirrors and a 360-degree camera system. The top-level Signature trim gets new badges, rosewood interior trim, and accent lighting in the grille and around the shifter. With all these new features come new prices, which are naturally higher than last year's. The smallest price increase is between base Sport models. The new one is just $150 more than the old one. The largest increase comes with the Signature trim, which now costs $1,050 more than the 2018 model. You can see the entire price list and changes below. Trim 2019 2018 Sport (FWD) $33,275 $33,125 Touring (FWD) $36,325 $35,955 Grand Touring (FWD) $41,835 $41,465 Signature (AWD-only) $46,360 $45,310 AWD Option (Sport-Grand Touring) $1,800 $1,800 Related Video:

The 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata Has Arrived

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata. The highly anticipated fourth-generation (ND) model made its official debut in Monterey, CA this evening, and while details are slim (as in, we have practically none), there's one big thing to talk about: less weight. Yes, Mazda has confirmed that the new Miata sheds some 220 pounds over the model it replaces, and is "the most compact of any generation MX-5 so far." For those keeping track, that means the new MX-5 should weigh in somewhere around 2,200 pounds. Mazda's Kodo design language is obvious here, with a seriously wide and low demeanor, and a mix of flowing lines and sharp angles. We don't have any powertrain details to report as of this writing, but Mazda says the full suite of Skyactiv technologies are onboard, and the motto in creating this car was "Innovate in order to preserve." Click the image above to see the new MX-5 Miata in high resolution, click below for the press release, and stay tuned to this space for more details as they break. UPDATE: Want more Miata details? Please check out our in-depth firsthand report from the Miata's reveal event by clicking here and see the first-ever rolling footage of the car in our brief video here. Mazda Unveils All-New Mazda MX-5 HIROSHIMA, Japan-Mazda Motor Corporation today celebrated the unveiling of the fourth generation Mazda MX-5 (known as Roadster in Japan) together with fans at events held simultaneously in Japan, USA and Spain. The all-new MX-5, which adopts both SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY and Mazda's KODO-Soul of Motion design language, will be rolled out to global markets starting in 2015. The MX-5 is an iconic model representing Mazda's vehicle-engineering philosophy-the pursuit of driving pleasure. "Innovate in order to preserve" was the motto for the fourth generation, as the development team searched for innovations that go beyond simple evolution. Environmental and safety demands are much more stringent than they were when the first generation MX-5 was introduced 25 years ago, but the fourth generation stays true to the model's original aim of offering the pure driving fun that only a lightweight sports car can. It achieves this through the adoption of SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY and refinement of its appeal to the senses and sensations through which people enjoy cars. The design of the all-new MX-5 reveals another layer to Mazda's KODO design language.