On Saturday morning, the Miata's odometer was 750 miles short of the 20,000-mile mark. On Sunday night, it was 67 miles beyond it. In-between, the MX-5 went on an 800-mile tour of central California, because, well, this is the kind of car that gives meaning to otherwise arbitrary milestones and makes you want to celebrate them. So I found a bunch of empty, twisty roads -- CA Hwy 146, CA Hwy 25 and Panoche Rd...
The roadster's folded vinyl top offered itself as a makeshift picnic table. No problems surfaced during the trip, aside from a recurrence of the foggy radio display during 80-degree weather in the Central Valley. Also, there's now a mysterious rattle in the vicinity of where the soft top meets the windshield header on the driver's side. You can only hear it with the top up. Of note is the fact that it started after my run on the J1, which has more mid-corner bumps than it does smooth pavement.
I wasn't able to record the exact 20,000 milestone, as it happened on an exitless stretch of Interstate 5.
Erin Riches, Senior Content Editor, 20,067 miles
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