Okay people, here's the lowdown. I found the answer in the owner's manual -- section 3, page 32 (who woulda thought?!). The Miata has a button in the trunk that disables both electric releases (the one on the dash and the one on the key fob). According to the manual, this is to prevent "...anyone in the vehicle from opening the trunk." That seems odd to me. Let's say you lent the car to a friend, in that case they'd have the key and could open it manually. If you were driving and had a passenger, I guess that means that if you stopped for gas or to run into the 7-11, you wouldn't have to worry about them reaching over to the other side of the dash, popping the trunk and running off down the street with your valuable trunk contents in their greedy hands.
My guess is that the button got pushed (thus deactivating the remote releases) while someone was loading up the trunk. After I opened the trunk with the key and pushed the button, both of the remote releases worked again.
John DiPietro, Automotive Editor
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