I left work early on Thursday to take the Miata down for a new top. I asked for a loaner and the dealer let me pick between a 3 or a brand-new CX-5 with all the trimmings.
Wasn’t a hard choice. I spent a solid minute frozen in indecision.
First off, it’s not a Miata. Despite what the commercials tell you, this is not going to rip around corners even if you leave it in Sport mode. You won’t be pulling 1g nor will you be lighting up the curves with it, though that didn’t stop me from trying...
This SUV is comfy. It’s quiet. It makes LA traffic seem less like the endless hellish gridlock it is. You can see things! There’s no crushing sense of vulnerability that either the Kardashian-clone in the leased BMW two lanes over or the rapidly approaching Uber will accidentally turn you into a pasty goo against a guardrail where 14 meets I-5.
No soft top, obviously, but there’s a moonroof. There’s a Bose stereo controlled with by worst infotainment system (seriously, Mazda). There’s leather seats that had a bit of coffee splashed onto them during that ill-advised 2nd-gear corner. Heaters in the seats and heaters in the wheel. MSRP was a cool $32k 2018 dollars, with the customary $300 charge for metallic paint.
It’s a great car that spoils you.
But at the same time I feel like I’ve jumped ahead ten years into the future. Not just because of the heads-up display and lane departure systems. No, it begins when I put on my baggy jacket before stepping out of my house and stews in the back of my mind when I think about what I have to pick up at the store as I get behind the wheel.
And then it clicks as I stop for the kids leaving the school down the road. I’ve become that thirty-something dad like the people in my office. The one who listens to dad rock on one of the midteens/twenties XM stations. The one whose daily routine is to walk into the office, joke about the game last night, and work on some spreadsheets before the bi-weekly 10:15 with the East Coast.
And the weird thing is, I’m okay with it.
I can’t wait to get the Miata back, but I would be okay if they spent a little more time with it.
