Back in the 1980s it looked as if the small old fashioned or traditional open top sports car was dead, the sort of car that bore British badges such as MGB or Triumph TR-7. Its extinction had, in fact, a lot to do with the decline and fall of the British car industry.
Surprisingly European car manufacturers didn't show interest in reviving the species. Mazda stepped in where the other makers hadn't bothered and now the Japanese marque is celebrating no less than 15 years of success with the MX-5, known in the US as the Miata.
When it had its European launch in 1989, orders came in faster than the cars being imported from Japan. Some resourceful customers even got the idea of importing from the US. For a while the Miata badge on the rear was a status symbol.
Mazda developed the MX-5 mainly for the Japanese and US markets, believing that the European environment wasn't that favourable. It was a wrong assumption. Before long the old world had overtaken the new world in terms of numbers sold annually and not-so-sunny countries such as Britain and Germany led the sales stats.
What Mazda originally conceived as a car to fill a specific niche in the market has now become the best-selling roadster of all time, a fact detailed in the Guinness Book of World Records. More than half a million were built during the first 10 years to 1999. By the end of 2003, the 700,000th model rolled off the production line.
The 2004 models have had a reworking but essentially they don't look much differentl. Modified front and rear lights are probably the most obvious external changes. It's an open secret that we will see an all-new MX-5 in autumn 2005.
The MX-5 retains a 1.6-litre 110bhp engine but those intent on fun and performance will opt for the 1.8-litre 146bhp unit which promises 0-62mph in just over eight seconds and a top speed of 129mph.
David Moran, marketing manager for Mazda here, regrets that, despite good safety credentials, the MX-5 isn't much liked by insurance companies. Yet in its 15 years, we in Ireland have bought 501 of the cars. By contrast, Germany bought 77,995.