Almost none, and it is the single most underrated thing about this car. One catch releases and the whole thing folds away behind you while you stay seated, so it opens in the time a signal takes to change. A roof you can drop in seconds is a roof you actually use. Owners open it on journeys they would never have bothered with in something slower to operate.

Is the trunk genuinely useless?

Small, not useless, and the shape is better than the volume suggests. A weekend bag for two people goes in, a supermarket run goes in, and a set of golf clubs does not. Turn up with the bag you genuinely travel with and try it for size. Two people who pack lightly manage a weekend away without much difficulty at all.

Is it bearable in a Lowcountry summer?

With the roof up and the air conditioning on it behaves like any other small car. With the roof down, the honest answer is that midday in July is not when you want to be out in one. Early morning and evening are when this car comes into its own here. The middle of an August afternoon flatters nothing with an open roof, and nobody should judge it then.

Could I use one as my only car?

Some people do, and they tend to be the ones who thought hard about it first. Two seats and a small trunk rule it out for most households, and anybody carrying passengers or cargo regularly will find it wearing. Kept alongside something practical it demands very little. Insurance, fuel, and tires on a car this light sit well below what its character would suggest.

Is it fast enough to be interesting?

That question misunderstands the car slightly. The appeal lies in balance, in steering feel, and in how little speed it takes to have a good time, and that is what keeps owners holding onto them. Drive one on a road with corners and the point becomes obvious immediately. Nothing written down has ever persuaded anybody of this car, and ten minutes behind the wheel usually does.

Have Additional Questions?

Nobody asks practical questions about a Miata for long, which makes these unusually enjoyable conversations.

Say where you would drive it and whether it is a second car, and the reply gets useful fast.

If it would be your only vehicle, Stokes Mazda will ask some awkward questions first.

The Roof Is the Whole Point

Everything else about this car follows from a roof that folds away in seconds. It releases with one catch and goes back over your shoulder without leaving the seat, which sounds like a detail and turns out to be the entire ownership experience.

A roof needing effort comes down on planned afternoons only. The kind needing a moment opens at a signal, on the way to the shop, and any time the weather turns pleasant without warning.

One catch and a shove over your shoulder is all it takes, and doing it without leaving the seat is what turns an occasional treat into a daily habit
Look closely at the roof mechanism on any car you consider, because it gets operated more often than any other moving part on the vehicle
Ask what the roof is made of and how it should be cleaned, since fabric rewards the right products and suffers badly from the wrong ones

The fabric arrangement also keeps the car light and the folded roof compact, which is why there is still a trunk at all. Every solution to a folding roof costs something, and this is the one that costs least. Anybody who has tried to pack a car with a folding hardtop understands exactly which compromise is being avoided.

Put the roof down and up a few times before you drive anywhere. Ten seconds of that explains more about the car than a specification page. Everything else you weigh up follows from how willingly that roof moves.

What Two Seats and a Small Trunk Actually Mean

The practical limitations are real and they are also smaller than people assume. Two seats means two people, which rules out a household that regularly carries more, and the trunk holds a weekend for two rather than a week for four.

What it does not mean is impracticality in daily use. Groceries fit, a laptop bag fits, and the cabin has enough storage for the things you actually carry on a commute. What does not fit is a third person, and that is the limitation worth being honest about.

Cabin storage is limited by design, so work out where a phone, a wallet, and a drink actually live before committing, because a cabin this small offers nothing spare to discover later
The trunk takes a weekend for two comfortably, so bring the bag you genuinely travel with and settle that question out in the parking lot
Cabin storage handles what a commute actually involves, which surprises people who arrived expecting a small sports car to be hopeless at every ordinary thing

Getting in and out is the other thing to try honestly. It sits low, and anybody with a bad back or stiff knees should find that out in the lot rather than on the third morning of ownership.

Sit in it, get out of it, and do that twice. It is a brief test that saves a genuinely expensive mistake. Nobody enjoys discovering a seating position on the third morning of ownership.

Heat, Weather, and Open Air Down Here

Open air driving in the Lowcountry has a rhythm to it, and newcomers work that out within a season. Midday in high summer is not the moment, and early morning and the hour before dusk are when this car is genuinely at its finest.

Spring and fall are close to ideal, which is a long stretch of the year here compared with most of the country. That is a real argument for owning one in this part of the state. Owners further north leave theirs parked for months at a time, and nobody down here has that problem.

Sun exposure punishes an interior here more than it would further north, so a cover or a shaded space repays the small amount of trouble quickly
Spring and fall run long down here, which hands an open car far more usable days in a year than it would ever collect somewhere further north
Sudden afternoon rain is a fact of life, so practice raising the roof quickly before you need to do it at a stoplight in a downpour

Rain is the other local certainty. Afternoon storms arrive quickly in summer, and being able to raise the roof in seconds from the driver's seat stops that being a problem worth worrying about. A car that handles a downpour without ceremony is a car you take out on a doubtful morning.

Ask for a drive early in the day if you can arrange it. That is the car at its most persuasive and the traffic at its lightest. Judged at noon in August it flatters nobody, including itself.

Roads Worth the Detour

A car like this needs somewhere to be used, and the country west of Summerville supplies it more generously than people expect. Two lane roads, low traffic, and enough bends to be interesting sit within a short drive of town.

SC-165 and the lanes out past Lincolnville are the obvious starting point. None of it is dramatic driving and all of it is pleasant, which is precisely what this car was built for.

Fuel consumption on a car this light stays modest even when driven enthusiastically, which is a large part of why these get kept for a long time instead of traded on
Ask about tire choice before anything else, since rubber decides how a light car feels through a corner more than any other single component
Sunday mornings before the town wakes up are when these lanes are emptiest, and an empty road changes a drive more than any option on the car

The point of this car is that it does not need speed to be enjoyable. A modest pace on a good road with the roof down is the entire proposition, and it is why owners keep them for years rather than months. Very little else on the road offers that at anything like this size.

Ask to take one somewhere with corners instead of around the block. This is a car that makes no sense at all in a parking lot. The entire argument for it lives on a road with a bend in it.

Owning One Alongside Something Sensible

Most Miatas live in households that also own something practical, and that arrangement works better than either extreme. The sensible vehicle handles the passengers and the cargo, and this one handles everything else.

As a second vehicle it asks remarkably little. Running costs are modest for something this entertaining, the maintenance is ordinary, and it takes up less garage space than almost anything else you might buy for fun.

A household with something practical already parked outside gets the most from one of these, because nothing has to be compromised on either side of the driveway
Parts and servicing for this nameplate are unusually well supported after decades in production, which is worth establishing before buying any car built in small numbers
Two people can lift the folded roof mechanism into place if it ever fails, which is not something anybody could say of most folding roof arrangements

Resale is the quiet part of the argument. These hold value in a way that most enjoyable cars do not, which narrows what owning one actually costs across a few years. That figure matters a great deal more than the sticker does, and it is the one buyers most often skip past.

Be honest about whether this is a second vehicle or the only one. Stokes Mazda will ask, and the answer changes the whole conversation. Anybody with a sensible car already in the driveway has a far easier decision.

Drop the roof, take one out on a two lane road early in the day, and see whether the case for it makes itself.

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