I Found One Of The Ultimate Accessories For The Mazda Miata, And It Doesn’t Even Add A Single Horsepower

Earlier this year, I finally figured out why so many car enthusiasts say “Miata Is Always The Answer” when I picked up a 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata ND1. The honeymoon is still going strong nearly a year into ownership as I remain simply infatuated with the car. I even love the car just as it is, and I’m not trying to mod it out. But there was one exception. The car came with absolutely pristine carpet, and I intend to keep it perfect for as long as I can. I took a chance and bought some mats that took months to arrive from China. Forget parts that add horsepower; I think I found my favorite accessory for the Miata.

My time being only a recent inductee into the Miata fray has been an adventure. It wasn’t long at all before the driving dynamics of the ND1 alone had me hooked like it cast a spell. The Miata is such a well-balanced car, one where it feels like it’s pivoting roughly around where my seat is. It holds corners better than any other car in my fleet and, honestly, there’s never a time when I feel like the 155 horsepower on tap is not enough. There have been times when I’ve been able to keep up with bigger, heavier cars with bigger engines.

People also seem to see the Miata as a much more expensive car than it actually is. It gets compliments everywhere, and the attention my Miata gets is not much different from the gawking I experienced when I had the key to a Lotus Emira for a fleeting moment. Nobody knows it’s a ten-year-old car. It’s awesome to think that, at least on the used market, you can get one of these for under $20,000 and, at least to people who aren’t enthusiasts, you look like you spent much more.

I especially love my Miata because its first owner lovingly took care of it while adding some tasteful mods like better leather, additional seat padding, and the silver trim from the Fiat 124 Spider. Since getting it, I’ve added only a couple of personal touches, like a custom wood shift knob and, of course, the requisite windshield stickers that all of my favorite cars get. Yes, I now count the Miata as one of my favorite cars, right alongside the likes of the Saturn Sky and the MG F.

Yet, unlike many of my other cars, the Miata isn’t just a weekend car that comes out of hibernation only sometimes. My wife and I scoot around in it somewhat frequently. This means that, like my cars that get more use than the others, I put some extra work into keeping the Miata nice.

My Obsessive Ways To Fight Wear

My first obsession was with protecting the convertible top. I have to move some cars around before the Miata can sleep in the garage I have at home. That means the car will have to live outside for the time being, with its fabric top open to the elements. I’ve seen how some convertible tops age after spending years outside, and I want to slow that degradation down as much as I can.

I took a two-pronged approach here. For cleaning and treating the top, I picked up a 303 Fabric Convertible Top Cleaning & Care Kit.

I’ve been using this stuff on my Smart Fortwo Passion Cabriolet‘s top, and it looks as beautiful as the day I brought it home. I’ve also been using it on my MG F‘s roof, and while that roof was already slightly worn, the wear doesn’t seem to have advanced. I didn’t even know that 303 Products existed until so many enthusiasts recommended the stuff to keep my roofs looking good. So far, it seems to be doing its job with the Miata, too.

Here’s what my poor roof had to go through last winter:

My other approach is to keep the roof under cover. Now, car covers are a tricky thing. Cheap ones can destroy your paint, and car covers in general can be annoying if you just want to jump into your car and go, or come home and go inside. That doesn’t even mention how much space a cover could take up in your trunk. A good 50 percent of the already nearly unusable space in The Autopian‘s Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet is just one big car cover.

So, I split the difference. I scoured various Miata forums and found one brand that kept showing up. Moss Miata sells a half cover that goes over just the roof and windows. Given the price of only $52, I figured it was worth taking a chance on, and I’m happy I did.

The cover keeps my top and my windows from getting dirty from sitting outside. At the same time, it’s so small that it takes me only a minute to get it off the car and store it neatly in the trunk. It also keeps my HOA happy, as they normally see cars with covers on them as being abandoned. But here? The nosy HOA is fine with it.

Another bonus is that the Moss Miata cover is compatible with every generation of the Miata.

Keeping a daily in decent shape is such a big deal to me that I’ll even try to keep the keys perfect. When I was shopping for my Miata, I noticed that so many examples had key fobs that looked like they had been run over or dropped from the top of a skyscraper. I saw a similar thing happening with other Mazda fobs. I suppose it’s not limited to Mazdas, either, as this is what our Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet’s original fob looks like right now, next to its cheap replacement case:

I’m not sure if the fobs aren’t very durable, if people abused their keys, or both, but my Miata came with perfect keys, and I don’t want to see them suffer the same fate.

My solution to that worry was to get a pair of TPU cases for my fobs for $10 each, which spice up the looks of the fobs while also protecting them.

Thus far, I have no complaints. I even accidentally dropped one of the fobs once, and it came out entirely unscathed. Apparently, the decoration on these cases does have a knack for wearing out over time, but I got the cases primarily to protect the fobs; I don’t care if the cases themselves get a little scratched up.

The Mats Matter

Then, I took aim at the car’s carpet. I have seen what could happen to a daily-driven car’s carpet, and it’s so sad. The car comes home from the dealership with luscious carpet and, over 100,000 miles or more, the carpet gets beaten, worn, stained, and threadbare. In some situations, I’ve even seen carpets with giant holes in them. Unfortunately, factory floor mats, if you get them at all, cover only so much carpet.

The previous owner — the original owner of my Miata — took as good care of the carpet as he did the rest of the car, and I want to make sure I carry that forward. He had a set of custom mats made for the car that covered every inch of the carpet. When he sold it, he put the set of OE Mazda mats back in.

Usually, my carpet-saving solution is much more low-budget. My Smarts have perfect carpet because I’ll take the floor mats out, lay down the kind of clear plastic you’ll use before painting the walls of your house, and then put the floor mats down on top. This method, while not pretty, has worked every single time.

But I felt the Miata deserved better than that. Besides, I thought that getting a set of really nice mats could add more color to my interior than just my seats.

One of my favorite parts about the Miata world is that the modding community is simply immense. You can get everything for your Miata from Ford Fusion engines to cutesy LED lights. There’s even a boutique, RedlineGoods, that makes custom leather interior parts for your Miata. That’s how my Miata has special leather A-pillar trim. If you can dream it, someone in the Miata community has probably made it, and I’m not exaggerating.

The Miata’s fun-loving culture is how I discovered Commune DIY, the skateboarders who take discarded boards and turn them into works of art that also happen to be shift knobs.

The folks at CarbonMiata sling so many of these parts, and I’ve found it hard to go through the shop without spending money. On July 12, CarbonMiata captured my heart with its quilted floor mats.

Now, I’ll admit, quilted mats and seat material don’t do much for me. I couldn’t care less for quilt patterns. However, what drew me in was the fact that these mats covered basically all of the most vulnerable areas of the carpet and then some. The bonus was that they were sold in a brown that’s pretty close to my seats. I also liked the contrast stitching.

CarbonMiata charges $199 for these mats, but after shipping and tariffs, the actual cost was $254. Then there was a long waiting game. The mats are made in China and then shipped out. This takes months. I placed my order on July 12, and the mats didn’t arrive until September 11. It took so long for the mats to arrive that I almost forgot that I bought them! Apparently, I’m lucky, because some folks have complained about CarbonMiata orders taking even longer to arrive.

Slow shipping aside, I’m so happy with these mats. They’re surprisingly thick and seem to be made out of high-quality material. Installation was as simple as sliding them into place. Apparently, I should be able to tuck the material under my interior trim. However, it seems that my mats are a bit too stiff for that right now, as the mats don’t want to bend too much to fit under the plastic.

I’ve been told that the material will soften and “break in” over time, and then I’ll be able to tuck it under the panels without too much of a fight. Until then, I’ll clean up the look using Velcro.

But even without the mats tucked in, I’m stoked.

Admittedly, I am one of those weirdo barefoot drivers, and the mats feel oh so good under my feet. Sheryl reports that these are the nicest mats she’s ever encountered. I’ve been in high-dollar motorhomes that had floors that didn’t feel as good as this. Here’s an image of what these mats look like when they’re properly tucked under the plastic:

CarbonMiata says that the material is waterproof, scratch-resistant, and washable. It doesn’t get in the way of the pedals, either. Apparently, the mats are supposed to help shut out some noise, but I haven’t really noticed a difference.

One potential downside I do see is that the material doesn’t have ledges on its edges, so if I were to get in the car with slush on my shoes, it’ll probably flow over the tops of the edges of the mat and make the carpet wet near the pedals. However, I don’t drive the Miata in winter or in the rain, so that won’t be a problem.

But for my mission of keeping the factory carpet looking good while also complementing my seats? These mats do a stellar job. It’s shocking how much a floor mat could make just being in a car feel nicer. I feel like I added 60 percent more color to my interior, and I didn’t turn a single screw. Call me weird, but at the end of the day, I’d rather have accessories that make cruising more comfortable over any power-adder. So, between the shift knob, the seats, and the carpet, I think I have my favorite Miata mods.

So, if you’re looking for mats for your Miata, I highly recommend the CarbonMiata ones. Amazingly, they even have these mats for NAs, NBs, and NCs! If you have a car that isn’t a Miata, I think something like a set from TuxMat or Witamats will get you pretty close to what I have here. Both of those brands have lots of positive reviews, and TuxMats might even be better at protecting from spills and slush than the mats I have.

Whatever you do, treat your carpets well! Once they get ragged, it’s hard to get them nice again, so just make sure that doesn’t happen in the first place. Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to go back to CarbonMiata and drool over some parts.

Ed note: This post contains an Amazon link, so if you buy something we may get a little cheddar.

Top photo: Mercedes