Can a car fan graphic designer with journalism skills properly review a sports car? Of course! Let’s start with the world’s favorite little roadster.

As a kid, and later as a teenager I was very much into cars. I could pinpoint the make and model of every single car I saw on the road. These days, I go through phases. There are times where I have car fever and times that I don’t. But overall, you could say I’m car fan. Right now, I’m going through a car fever phase. I’ve always been a fan of sports cars in general more than any other type of car. I’ve always had a special love for Corvettes and certain Porsches. On the other end of the spectrum, I have an affinity for pickup trucks as well. I read a lot of car magazines and I’m quite a fanboy of the UK TV series Top Gear. So, after reading the raving comments by Consumer Reports and hearing what all the magazines had to say in their feature videos about the Mazda MX-5 Miata, I had to get a hold of one and test drive it. The Consumer Reports article I read was based on the 2011 model. So I went and hunted one down.

“If you still need to prove to the world that you have a big penis, then by all means buy a big, big car.”

Being a big fan of Corvettes and 911 Porsches, I lean towards a slightly bigger, more powerful type of sports car. Having recently bought a Ford Mustang, that large car inclination didn’t stray very far from the norm. While I’ve always liked the little Miatas to a certain extent, I was never a big fan of the first and second generation body styles. I thought they looked too small, the driver looks like he’s sitting on top of the car instead of inside it, and the standard single exhaust in the rear didn’t strike me as very much fun at all. However, this new body style that came out a few years ago is a whole other story! Now this is more like it!

Before we proceed, please keep in mind this is not a typical car review. Don’t expect me to start feeding you all kinds of tech numbers such as horsepower, torque, RPMs and all that other stuff. You can always search for that info yourself. This is my original “judge’s impression” of the car. And being a Top Gear fanboy, I might just comment on how incredibly stupid, little and girlie the car is and then completely shock you when I say how much I love it and want to buy one. Or maybe it’ll be the other way around. I don’t know yet.

Top of the Line MX-5 Grand Touring

First impression

A Thursday afternoon, after leaving the office, I finally tracked down a 2011 red Grand Touring edition with the power retractable hard top roof (PRHT). The first thing that struck me as awesome was the roof! What came to mind when hearing the words “Miata hardtop” was that I would have to remove the entire roof and hang it on the wall in my garage ala 911 996 Carrera Cabriolet if I ever wanted to go drive away as a convertible. On the other hand, I’ve never been a fan of rag tops. Where I’m from, if you have a cloth top, it will most likely get cut open and your car stolen. Even though I don’t live in such a place anymore, the fear stays with me. So, when I saw that the MX5 hardtop actually folds down and hides behind the seats I immediately fell in love with the thing. From then on, it was just a matter of exploring more of the goods.

Now let’s try and get past the fact that half the population labels the MX-5 Miata as a girl’s car, or a gay car. Let’s try and put that aside first by mentioning a few things: The body style on this car is astonishing! The car is still small, but unlike the older models, it looks bigger, faster and more like a little cheetah ready to jump and attack you. The extended and pronounced fenders make the car look wider and the bold shape makes it look stronger. The entire car looks like Mazda finally improved the newer body shape to near perfection. The larger 17″ wheels are also a welcome addition. If you still need to prove to the world that you have a big penis, then by all means buy a big, big car. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, we can proceed.

Awesome interiors! Photo courtesy of MazdaUSA.

The interiors

Once I got over playing with the fold down hard-top, I concentrated on the interiors. I find car interiors extremely important. The interiors are almost as important as the exterior of the car and the engine performance. I mean, that’s where I’m going to spend most of my time! As a comparison, I find the interiors of the Ford Mustang brilliant for the price. In contrast, one of my favorite cars of all time, the Corvette, has interiors that are generally, well, crap. Unfortunately, GM has never been that great at designing interiors and I don’t really think they are going to change any time soon. The fact that they put the same steering wheel in the Corvette as they did on the Chevy Cobalt just tells me they don’t know what the heck they are doing. But the interiors in the MX-5 Miata are very well thought through. Everything seems to be done just right. The steering wheel is of great quality and the shape is actually something worth having your face in front of all the time. The car feels spacious even for bigger guys. The controls are very well laid out and the manual shift knob sitting inside that perfectly round tray with chrome bezel is amazing to say the least. It’s absolutely perfect inside.

Being such a fan of manual cars, I was taken aback by the perfect shift lever setup.

Not a Jag, not exotic, but we’re not comparing apples and oranges here. When sitting inside you look and feel nice and low too! No more of that sitting on top of the car look that bystanders get to see. It’s absolutely comfortable. I sat in a Pontiac Solstice and couldn’t get over the fact that my right elbow kept banging against the back of the center console. Not the case in the MX-5. The bottom line is the car has GROWN UP. The quality of these interiors is miles ahead of the old Miatas and miles ahead of many other cars in that category and price range. Some people say, “What? Almost $30 grand for a Miata!” But, just look at this new car and compare it to the old Miatas. There’s a good reason for that. The inner door panels alone give it away.

Another thing I found amazing is the smile theme the car seems to have. Mazda seems to have finally got this right. It’s like if designers of the front grille started with a little round mouth a few years ago to have the car saying “ooooh” and slowly started modifying the shape into a full blown giant smile. Same goes for the Mazda 3. This looks like it has a real purpose, with the complete intention of going all out. That’s a lot to say when compared to some of the previous year’s grilles that make the car look like it’s shy, or constipated. This newer one’s bold and not afraid to be the center of attention. And it’s happy – happy to be awesome. The eyes make it look like a little alien; but a happy alien at that.

MX5 Top down, on the road. Photo courtesy of MazdaUSA.

The drive

I can’t comment on drift-ability, sheer top speed and super tight cornering because I didn’t get a chance to drive the car in such a way. So, let’s go for the real-world approach. If I ever get a chance to burn rubber properly on one, then I might come back and append an update to this thing.

First of all, the car is fun. I know, at this point, that’s a cliché when it comes to MX-5 reviews. But I don’t care. I had fun in it. The car does not accelerate like a Mustang or a [place your V8 car of choice here]. But it still feels quick. Since it’s so lightweight it responds fast to the gas pedal. The fact that the one I drove is a 6-speed manual makes that statement even more true. It just responds quickly to whatever you do. It feels nimble (another cliché), balanced and ready to do whatever you ask it to do. The test drive took me up a hill and then racing back down again. Brakes were great, the transmission and shifting superb and the overall feel of the car was right in line with the awesome interiors and the overall amazing looks. There’s no two ways about it. I loved the car.

Absolutely inviting! Photo courtesy of MazdaUSA

But hey, it’s a car for driving pleasure. You’re not in it to cause an impression on others like you would in a plus $50K car. It’s the most expensive Miata to date at around $30,000 (or so I think) but it’s not as impressive in nature as a similarly priced Mustang. Obviously, just opinions as there are plenty of folks that hate Mustangs. If you are a guy, the people around you, including your girlfriend or wife, are going to give you crap about it being a girl’s car. Keep in mind you’re not going to land a better job because of it either. That’s a Jaaagg’s job! The car also seems to depreciate more than other vehicles in that price range. But the car is simply awesome! What does this mean? Well, it means that if you want a car to be enjoyed from the inside out, this is the car for you. But, if you need everybody else’s approval before you can enjoy it, then either look elsewhere or buy one for your wife and drive it when you feel like having fun.

To conclude

As for me, I’d be happy to buy one. I do like the car THAT much. I’d drive it on the road exclusively for a year or two. Then, given the vast amount of performance parts available for them, I’d work on it a little bit and then take it to a nice, tight winding track every so often. I will still have my wife and a number of my friends giving me a hard time about buying it over a Corvette or Porsche, but who the heck cares right? I can always buy a Corvette later. They’re all over the place. Nice thing about it, it’s got 2 seats! That’s not a whole lot of space to bring a bunch of complaining critics along for the ride!

Ah, What the heck! Here are some numbers for you:

• Engine: 2.0 Inline 4 Cylinder
• Horsepower: Manual 167 HP – Auto 158 Hp
• Torque: 140 Lb-ft at 5,000 RPM
• Curb Weight: 2,593 pounds (PRHT) as tested
• MPG: Plenty

View of Point Loma from the San Diego Bay channel

Yes! Right now I’m writing a nice post about whatever the heck I want! I don’t care if it does well.  I don’t care if it ranks well on the search engines.  I just want to write for the sake of writing.

It’s Sunday.  The very day before Memorial Day.  I participated in a regatta yesterday from San Diego all the way up to Oceanside.  With all the years of experience I have in the ocean and on boats, I got seasick nonetheless.  I got cold, tired and miserable.  I felt sleepy.  The dang race took like 6 hours and that’s not counting the time it took to get to the starting line and the time it took to run the starting sequence.  Needless to say, I spent 9.5 hours on the boat.  Sick for 5-6 of them!  Depressing.  But hey, we all have our bad days.  I’ve spent thousands of hours aboard all kinds of floating objects, both fast and slow.  So, I guess I shouldn’t be complaining too much about this one.  I love sailing and I’ll be back!

Well, I’m busy working on a few sites.  A particular one is driving me nuts right now as I can’t quite get it the way it needs to be yet.  But it’ll get there.  On the other hand, I’m quite happy that I’m home.  I’m nice and warm, wearing some PJ’s and a hoodie jacket.  I’m listening to Led Zeppelin and the occasional Eminem rap.  I’m not cold or seasick.  Just drowning in work, that’s all.  :)  But honestly, I couldn’t be enjoying my day more.  I think I’ll have another cup of espresso!

Tweet! Tweet! I'm watching you too!

Photo by: Johan J. Ingles

(This post is part 2 of the article, New Twitter Followers – Reasons Why it’s Harder to Get Them Now. Part 1 Here. It’s based on an exchange of emails between the author of this reply, Jane and myself.  It offers quite a bit of insight on the situation on Twitter and the difficulty of acquiring legitimate new followers these days.  I suggest you read the first part of the article as well in order to get a complete idea.)  -Danny (Editor)

Hi Danny,

Thanks for the email and blog post about Twitter follows. A lot of what you’re saying makes sense. I haven’t thought enough about Twitter implementing restrictions nor its effects but I do see a difference in Twitter all around from 3 years ago. It has a ton more users, businesses, too many “bots”, and just a different flow of communication with so much more noise. But I think Twitter still works. If users genuinely want content, or want to see what you’re up, to they are going to follow. It might just take more time. I may be restating you but I’ll share a little of my experience with Twitter and follows.

1. Saturation: Twitter is saturated with new users who don’t really understand it and with a ton of new business accounts. This changes the experience of Twitter, how it functions and our access to content. It’s interesting that what seemed like this underground niche (blogging and Twitter) has turned into something everyone does. This can be a great contribution to connections and content, but it has its annoying downside. In my adult community I’ve seen a lot of cyber pressure to have specific worldviews or political views and a lot of stuff that probably isn’t thought through before it’s published. I don’t enjoy that aspect of saturation in social media when it starts to affect individuality because it feels homogenizing. But these users probably follow and inform themselves inside of a small community so it won’t affect follows directly. But it has affected the number of users and noise to sift through.

Twitter is way more saturated with businesses and spam bots than when we started. I have many friends trying to promote their companies and it’s really hard to differentiate the clothing lines they create and advertise from their personal content. To resolve this I’ve suggested they create separate Twitter and Facebook accounts for business, or to simply restrain from spamming with ads. This way I can be in the know on what’s happening in peoples’ lives but don’t have to get 30 real-estate listings in my feed when I’m not in the market. Otherwise, they just need to be a little more thoughtful about it. You are awesome with this! [Thank you! -Ed] Twitter could be reaching that arc in its growth where if it doesn’t retain a little structure then not only will the content suffer but the company itself could. This may be why they are restricting 3rd party applications and adding promoted tweets- ways of control and monetization for an expanding business.

2. The “follow-for-follow” issue: Like you, there are people I’ve done this with. Some of them I don’t particularly seek out their content but most I enjoy seeing in my timeline. And then there are the people I follow whose tweets I read every few days. I agree with you, “If you’re following everyone then you’re following no one.” I think this exchange can work when used with discernment. If Twitter is involved in payment for followers I think they are only doing themselves a disservice by, like you said, diluting content.

3. Keyword search: You mentioned keyword use to search through Twitter and having to really thin through the bulk to find contacts of interest. I don’t know if everyone does this because it does take time. I still like this method on Twitter’s platform because it works and I believe it will push us to be more creative. There are so many different reasons why people use Twitter and we are all looking for content we feel is relevant as individual users. By looking through trends and hash tags, then following or retweeting, this all seems to aggregate. Often the best content/tweets find their way up.

4. How could I forget #FF. Follow Friday was something I paid attention to 3 years ago. But, when someone lists 500 followers in my feed it’s clear they aren’t giving a shout out to a friend or a contact that inspired them. After I was included in several tweets and felt all special, I checked the page and saw the account Follow Friday’d their entire follower list. So again, I think it works if it’s used with thoughtfulness.

5. Being female: I won’t disagree on that except for, I don’t have a preference over female vs. male Twitter users. There are so many other issues women would probably rather have an edge on. [Refers to the edge that girls can have over guys in collecting new followers.  Read part 1 for more on this. -Ed]

On the whole, I think the best ways to maintain the followers we want are by taking the time to actively seek contacts and content, retweeting what we really like, tweeting well (there are many blog posts on that issue), and giving a shout out to friends without spamming the timeline.

I continue to try to present substantive, fun information and be a part of the online conversation (I’ll try harder haha). I’m incredibly grateful for the friendships and connections I’ve made through Twitter. Part of what makes you unique and interesting, Danny, is that you genuinely have a lot of talent and passion and a fascinating variety of interests in life. [Again, many thanks - Ed]. So I guess this is where I feel like those accounts that don’t have authenticity will fall away. I trust people will find ways of getting to the good stuff they are looking for and we can rely on who we follow to show us new and interesting information. I don’t think numbers really matter much by themselves. Who wants 5000 followers bots anyway? The quality of information and connections we make are so much better. I think if the integrity of the user is there then the right people will follow.

Best to you!
Jane

About the author:  Jane Michelle studied philosophy and religion, then found her way to acting, film & new media.  She seeks to balance the creative with the analytical.  Click here to follow Jane on Twitter.

Tweet, Tweet! I'm watching you!

Photo by: Johan J. Ingles

Recently, I had a discussion with a friend about what seems to be a loss in momentum of acquiring legitimate new followers on Twitter.  The email also brought up the current issue of the saturation of Facebook pages.  I felt the information was too interesting to keep to ourselves so I decided to publish it.  Read on…

Hi Jane,

I was scratching my head yesterday thinking about what seems to be a slow down of new followers on Twitter.  While I’m still a bit puzzled I have a few theories as to why.  At first I thought it had something to do with the hordes of people joining.  It seems they would be taking up all the new potential follows.  However, you would also think those new people are new potential followers as well.  So figure that.  Anyway, my thought is that’s it’s due to a combination of things.  Don’t quote me on any of these as they are just speculations:

1. Twitter’s tighter control over 3rd party software. 3rd party following/unfollowing software used to be more free to do whatever people wanted. It’s not that open anymore.  Twitter has imposed a number of rules as to what this software can and cannot do.  While searching for followers by keywords can provide some nice contacts, it’s all bulk, so in the end you have to thin out the crowd and separate the weeds from the good stuff. Seems like many people are starting to realize that.  However, this 3rd party following software issue I think is the least of the causes of the loss in momentum.

2. Not new anymore. Remember when Facebook first launched “pages” – I opened http://facebook.com/sixstringsensei and http://facebook.com/rightisbackside around that time.  Not only was I able to get about 200+  ”likes” (at the time “fans”) on one page, and 150+ on the other within a week, but they also allowed me to set a custom URL for each of them.  Nowadays, with everybody and their mother having “pages” you’re lucky if you can get 100 likes unless you’re famous or are pumping money into them.  I created a page for the bike accessory company I do work for and another for the their high-end bike line.  After months they only have between 20-60 likes. This is a company that is  fairly known.  Anyway, I went on a tangent there.  Point is, people are not gobbling up new followers on Twitter as they were in the beginning just like Facebook pages are not producing as many “likes” as when they first started.  Now, there are the new guys who follow just for the sake of follow backs and then you have the veterans like us who are a little more cautious as to who you follow.  Which leads me to…

If you are following everyone, you are following no one.

3. Follower saturation. This has to do with following people just the sake of follow backs.  This is very similar to what was happening with Myspace when the idea first started.  People were following anybody and everybody just to get more “friends.”  This has been happening on Twitter the whole time I’ve been there.  I’m as guilty as the next guy when it comes to following certain people only because they follow me back.  While, I do read their tweets sometimes, I keep a private list (my little black book if you may) of people who I really care about  and check their tweets on a daily basis.  When you are following so many people at once it’s almost impossible to keep up with everyone.  In cases like that Twitter loses a lot of it’s effectiveness and the quality of your followers also decreases.  I mean, how good is a follower if he or she doesn’t read your tweets?  Right?  I think people are starting to realize this and are slowing down the pace at which they click the follow button.  You could say Twitter is maturing.  I guess it can be summarized like this: “If you are following everyone, you are following no one.”

4. Paying for followers. Another thing I noticed is that many new Twitter users are showing up with a ridiculous number of followers when all they have is a few tweets.  I haven’t looked too much into this, but I guess they are paying to get those followers.  While it’s fine that Twitter make some money, the down side is that it dilutes good content.  It also frustrates the people that actually post good content since there are others posting junk that can simply pay their way in.

As a guy, I had to employ the follow to get follow backs deal at first in order to grow.  However, I kept that under control and didn’t overdo it.  As a girl with talent, you have that edge when it comes to gathering followers that don’t mind if you don’t follow them back.  It is what is is.  Pros and cons of being either male or female.  But, I don’t regret the time spent on Twitter.  I have met amazing people and have made genuine friends.  I have been able acquire more knowledge in all my varied interests and have also been able to help others.

Cheers,
Danny

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Consider this a warning.  Well, more like a call for your attention; an alert.  Today is Thursday.  Also the first week of May 2011. What’s so important about that?  Last month was my 10th wedding anniversary.  I managed to pull something off that most people cannot.  And I’m happy to say that thanks to that, my wife is driving around in a brand new white Mustang.  How about that?  But, that’s not why I’m writing this post.  This site has been up since 2002; since late 2009 in it’s current form.  Today marks the day where I’m going to aim at scheduling my blog posts.  What does that mean?  It means that from now on and until further notice, I will be posting a new article on my blog every Thursday.  This alert is my excuse for a blog post this week.  However, next week expect the first in a sequence of posts all on the same great day of the week that marks the close proximity of the weekend.  Stay tuned and subscribe. Yes, right now.  Subscribe.  Find the little link on this page that says subscribe, click it and join me.  You’ll make me happy and I will be eternally grateful.  Because writing for others is better than writing for yourself.  Until next week… -DC

Yet another year has blown by! Faster than we can even understand.  It seems like only a few months ago we were buying Christmas gifts for what is now last year’s holidays! Here I am at almost 10PM on Christmas night writing my second post on what is going to be the new incarnation of dannycruz.com.

At the moment of this writing, the website is as white and plain as snow itself.  But it won’t be like that for long.  So if you are reading this post at a much later date, or simply want to reminisce on how the site looked at it’s early stage, I’m attaching a photo.  This photo represents the site at the moment of this writing.

I’m keeping this short… I hope you all had a great holiday.  I hope your Christmas made you feel like a kid again.  I certainly saw myself as a kid all over again when I took my son to the beach today to try out his new skimboard.  First steps in surfing on a beautiful day in SoCal.

Merry Christmas and good night! -Danny