The Mazda Miata Trims: Which One is for You?

The 2022 Mazda Miata is rightly heralded as one of the best-designed convertibles you can buy. It has brilliant handling, superb acceleration, and a competitive fuel economy, making it suitable for commuting and leisure. It has long been popular among sports car enthusiasts, and the most recent version comes in three distinct trim levels. This article will take you through these different trims, highlighting the various benefits of each. The best approach is to have a look at these online or in person at Mazda of Orange, California.

Sport

The Sport trim might be regarded as the basic trim, although on a car like this, it’s anything but basic. This trim offers 2.0-liter dual overhead camshaft four-cylinder engines, supported by SkyActiv technology to provide the solid performance of 181 horsepower. Combined with the Mazda’s light weight, this translates to sprightly acceleration that achieves zero to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds. The Sport trim has a six-speed manual transmission, which has been widely praised as offering an excellent level of smooth action, particularly with the short-throw shifter that makes moving up through the gears a quick and easy task.

The Miata Sport has excellent braking technology. Smart City Brake Support, blind-spot sensing, and rear cross-traffic detection are how the system is integrated. A discreet warning sounds if it detects that you’ve departed the lane to improve the driving experience. For comfort and style, the tilt-telescoping steering wheel and the power windows and door locks are a nice touch. The Sport trim has standard LED front and rear lights and twin exhausts. It comes in three paint colors: Platinum Quartz Metallic, Soul Red Crystal Metallic, and Jet Black Mica.

The climate control system is easily adjustable with physical knobs and is relatively intuitive in its design. The Mazda Connect infotainment system offers a 7.0-inch touch screen, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto smartphone integration, and voice recognition. There’s also a 12-volt outlet for charging, Bluetooth connectivity, keyless entry, push-button start, SMS text messaging, and dual USB ports, which really add to the effect. The stereo system is six speakers, and the driver’s side headrest speakers are a particular boon, allowing you to hear the music while riding with the top down.

Club

The next stage up the Mazda trim ladder is the Club. The Club trim isn’t a more powerful car, but it handles better than the Sport. Bilstein suspension dampers and the front shock tower brace improve balance, and a limited-slip differential means no loss of traction when the car accelerates. The 17-inch alloy wheels strengthen the car’s handling, and aerodynamics are improved significantly by adding a rear lip spoiler and the front air dam, providing a better driving experience. The Club is also available in many colors, including Polymetal Gray Metallic, Deep Crystal Blue Mica, and Snowflake White Pearl Mica.

The interior of the Club trim offers you a few more perks. Heating functions are available for the front seats. The infotainment system has a couple more features, such as wireless Apple CarPlay. A Bose premium sound system offers nine speakers in total, including a headrest speaker for each seat and a subwoofer to give the bass an extra boost. Whereas the Sport Trim offers HD radio, the Club trim gives you satellite radio with a global range of stations.

This suggests that if you prefer comfort and interior style, this would be the version to choose over the Sport trim. However, there isn’t a great deal of difference in power, but it certainly offers better handling overall.

Grand Touring

The Grand Touring gives you a significant upgrade on the Club in interior and exterior design. The Grand Touring trim has a leather-appointed cabin with terracotta Nappa leather seating that gives an upscale feel to the interior, and dual-zone automatic climate control, which helps separate the heating experience for drivers and passengers, allowing for a personalized ride.

Some safety upgrades include adaptive front lights that scan the road ahead for potential hazards when making a turn at night and rain-sensing wipers that allow the driver to concentrate on the actual driving experience without adjusting the speed. LED daytime running lights, auto-dimming mirrors, and high-beam assist make your driving experience much more manageable.

The Grand Touring offers a six-speed automatic transmission not available in the other trim levels, although it’s noted that this does reduce the overall performance. Drivers might end up at zero to 60 mph without significant efficiency gains. This trim produces 26 mpg in town and 35 mpg on the freeway. Although there isn’t a significant improvement in power, handling is improved with an integrated suspension system that allows better cornering.

Which Trim Is Right for You?

The Club trim is a fantastic choice for drivers looking for a more serious sports car. It offers better handling, particularly if you go for the Brembo BBS Recaro Package, in addition to a more comfortable ride with heated seats. The Grand Touring offers an automatic transmission option that isn’t available on the other trims and has more driver-assist features. Essentially the Club gives you more comfort, but the Grand Touring adds to this with improved handling, which may be a consideration if you wish to take it to the track at any time.

Overall, the choice of trim depends on you. There are no substantial differences between the exterior design. The alloy wheels, LED lights, and stylish interior are all provided as standard. The Sport trim doesn’t have a retractable hardtop; otherwise, it’s an excellent choice. A retractable hardtop is offered in the RF versions. It’s a great choice for driving in all weather conditions, so it’s worth considering the Club or Grand Touring trims for this reason alone.

The best approach is to see them in action, which you can do in person or online at Mazda of Orange. Stop by for a test drive and find out which Miata trim is perfect for you.

Mazda Miata by Chris Yarzab is licensed with CC BY 2.0

2019 Mazda Miata MX-5 GT in Eternal Blue Mica by SoulRider.222 is licensed with CC BY 2.0

Image by Ömer Haktan Bulut is licensed with Unsplash License