An anxiety I have in buying back into a 2026 Mazda MX-5 is of other drivers on the road. The Miata is a tiny car, and with the trucking monstrosities that are out on the road these days, the little MX-5 can absolutely disappear. Heck, it was already tough 10 years ago when I had my first 2016 Miata. In the farewell post for the car, I wrote that a major con is other drivers cannot see me. SUVs and trucks have only gotten bigger and wider subsequently. The Mazda roadster? Exactly the same.
It doesn’t help that the main Miata subreddit seemingly serves up daily posts of MX-5s getting rear-ended. Usually the culprit is a modern truck with too tall of a front-end that the Miata can completely hide in front of. While thankfully I don’t live in the land of pickup trucks (hello, Texas), the modern SUVs aren’t that much better when it comes to visibility. It’s a size arms race that I am intentionally forfeiting by buying such a small car.
The anxiety does take away some of the fun from driving. When stopped at an intersection, I can’t help but scan the rear-view mirror to see if there isn’t some truck or SUV dominating the view entirely. Not that you shouldn’t drive defensively in any car, but with a Miata, defense driving is a requirement. Like riding a motorcycle, you have to assume all other cars on the road are liable to bump into you at anytime.
However, I think it’s important to remember that social media platforms like Reddit serves up confirmation bias constantly. Live in r/miata long enough and you might never want to take your own MX-5 out on the road. Frequent r/gr86 and you may think most owners are idiots who cannot drive. Surely every person on r/bmw is paying $1,500 a month on their car note whilst making minimum wage. Worst, the more you interact with those type of posts, the more you get fed the same by the almighty algorithm.
So yes, it seems like lots of Miatas are getting wrecked from behind, going by social media. But there’s no way to know if it isn’t any worse than any other car. I will of course continue to drive defensively - in any of my cars, though I shall keep reminding myself that just because there’s some noise on social media, doesn’t mean it’s representative of real life.
Ready, set, board.