For much of the past decade, if you’ve wanted a new, standard-model Mazda MX-5 in an actual color, you only really had one option. Okay, yes, there’s Deep Crystal Blue, but it lives up to its name in being a blue from the depths. No, if you wanted a shade that couldn’t be confused with greyscale, it was Soul Red or bust. Now though, there’s a new green. Hang on, hang on, don’t get too excited yet.
See, Mazda’s in a bit of an interesting spot right now, because most of its offerings occupy a sort-of value-premium space. Generally, models like the CX-90 and Mazda 3 aim to be a bit nicer than their mainstream equivalents, and that usually results in subtle colors, materials, and finishes. Outside of the bewitching Soul Red Crystal, Mazda’s color lineup is full of muted tones, and this latest hue is no exception.
It’s called Zinc Green Metallic, and while the offer of a green sounds rather promising, Mazda’s gone with an interesting shade. The marque claims this color “takes its inspiration from the color and texture of zinc chromate primer,” but I’m not quite seeing it. Historically, green zinc chromate primer serves up an incredibly ’70s hue. Sort of like if Harvest Gold and Pea Green had a baby. It would look bizarre on an MX-5, but strange is almost always better than dull. This isn’t that.
Instead, it’s essentially a grey with a touch of green. Sort of like how a LaCroix was placed near a fruit at some point in its manufacturing process. This would be a spectacularly tasteful shade on a large crossover, suiting something with gravitas and volume and a somewhat somber image. I can’t wait for it to be offered on other Mazdas, but Zinc Green Metallic feels anticlimactic on an MX-5.
A small roadster is supposed to be joy with licence plates, a four-wheeled expression of lust for life driven with a beaming ear-to-ear smile. It doesn’t do nonchalant; its disposition is simply too giddy for muted expression. It’s the mate that won’t stop snickering, the inside joke that has you cracking up like an absolute nut. The fun that everyone else is too self-serious to have, which means they’re going to miss it all. Sure, you can order a car like this in a neutral tone, but MX-5s have always suited saturated hues.
Just look at how orange the 30th Anniversary MX-5 was. It was like driving a pumpkin, which fits perfectly because Halloween is a time to dress up, and toy roadsters like this make you feel like a racing driver. There’s absolutely nothing understated about it, nothing demure. The 30th Anniversary Edition model may be the size of a shoe, but it refuses to shrink its personality for anyone. I love that.
Flash back a generation, and you were briefly able to get the NC MX-5 in yellow, motion blur sold separately. Between that bright color and the smiley-face grille, it’s hard not to feel a little bit better just looking at this thing. If it was a dog, it would have a very waggly tail.
Okay, but what about a great green? You only need to look across the Mazda showroom to find one, with the CX-50 crossover available in brilliant Cypress Green. Admittedly, this isn’t a Mazda shade as such, but rather a happy appropriation from Toyota that comes from the CX-50 and the Corolla Cross sharing a production facility. The flipside, of course, is being able to buy a Corolla Cross in Soul Red Crystal. Given how Toyota and Mazda share equity stakes, could a fax from Yokohama be sent that goes along the lines of “Love that Cypress Green color, can we borrow it?” happen? If you can special-order BMWs in Porsche colors and Porsches in BMW colors, why not Mazdas in Toyota colors?
Don’t get me wrong, Zinc Green Metallic is an interesting color in isolation, but the MX-5 deserves something more vibrant. Dare I say, bold hues are becoming more and more premium by the day. Mercedes-Benz offers multiple cars in yellow, dentists will go to war with each other for a paint-to-sample Porsche 911 allocation, and BMW’s Individual program remains a hot ticket. Come on, Mazda. You make the happiest car on the market, why not paint it equally vivacious colors?
Top graphic image: Mazda
Since when have such muted colors = premium? I pass by Lamborghini dealership everyday on my way to work, and they have the brightest colors of any other brand out there. I don’t care much for Lambos newer than the Countach, but dayum do they make great looking purples and greens.
Boo. I already own a Cactus-Grey-but-kinda-green Maverick. (The only “green” option in 2022.) I’ve been watching Miatas hoping they bring back a nice green… I guess I would have to settle for a Zinc-Green-but-mostly-grey version. Why do auto designers hate vivd green?
1st Gen Miata came in bright yellow too.
And that nice French Racing Blue enamel – before they went with a French Blue Metallic.
There was also the special edition in British Racing Green. And another in a maroon metallic.
But this?
This is so lame.
It’s the least green ever.
“German Military Lost WWII Green”
“Depressed Swamp Creature Green”
“We Parked a Grey Car Next to Some Trees Green”
“I Mashed All My PlayDoh Together And This Is What I Have Left Green”
It looks like a grey car parked next to a forest green wall and we’re picking up the reflection.
Look, my ND2 is machine grey and I love it. I support the availability of cars in bold colors but just driving an MX-5 makes me stand out more than I would prefer.
That said, when I first saw the headline my interest was momentarily piqued. Unfortunately, that shade just…it’s fine. I do question the judgment of whomever decided to pair the color with those wheels and that top.
it looks like what happens when you eat too much birthday cake.
That doesn’t look nearly light enough for the green zinc chromate I’ve seen on old aircraft or for the car it’s on. Didn’t they have a beige metallic last year? WTF. Every year should come with a new, bold color to maintain interest cheaply.
You also had the choice of its stablemate the Fiat 124. That came in a proper blue, a different red and bronze which was more grey with a hint of brown.
I do not know that I would use the yellow NC as a positive. That generation looked best in the bright blue, in my opinion.
I’ve been looking for Corolla Crosses in Soul Red, but I haven’t spotted one yet. Unless I just mistook it for a Mazda. It’s a great paint finish.
It really is. I loved it on my old 6, and even just yesterday a CX-9 in SR caught my eye while it was parked at a gas station and I was driving past. If the sun hits it just right you can’t help but admire it.
You can even recognize it in middling light with the car dirty. The depth and the way it works with the curves is just nuts.
You can get a Mazda in a beautiful red color, or something ugly. Take your pick!!
Audi’s Nardo Grey has the “we clearcoated the primer” look and it’s so famous that vinyl wrap sites list it as a color (next to light grey, dark grey, and black) on their drop-down menus for the SEO gainz. It’s just different enough to be edgy while remaining anonymous to anyone not in the know, and as a result has an unshakeable grip on German Car Bros everywhere.
Maybe Mazda is trying to do that.
They need the engine to be further in front and dial in some understeer.
Then maybe.
I suppose it’s better than Audi’s only other color, German Leasing Silver.
You want to make this color snap a bit? Get rid of those boring black wheels, they suck the color out of everything. Hate black wheels.
I don’t hate black wheel, but I agree with you. Black wheels work on brightly colored cars, and aren’t working on this one.
Black wheels are the best!
It just happens to be that THOSE specific black wheels aren’t great.
If you want to spend all your time wiping brake dust off wheels, then that’s on you, but if I buy a car with clear-coated aluminum wheels, I will paint them black because I ain’t dealing with brake dust.
Black or that shitty machine face with black. Machine face is a little better because it’s not so dark, but it’s far too common and will always say Pep Boys accessory aisle to me.
black wheels work well on specific colors this is not one of them.
It kind of has that same muted quality as some of the greens used by Aston Martin, especially that light shade inspired by some of the ’50s Le Mans cars. That’s a lot lighter than this shade but it’s similar in saturation.
That said, I’d like to apologize on behalf of the Millenial generation, we don’t like our stuff getting stole’d, so we like subtlety. I say “we”, I prefer my life in fun colors but I digress.
The saturation was about the same, but it was more definitively green, like sage, while this is almost too afraid to be green. A more modern version AM used was called “Almond green”, but I don’t know if that was the original shade or not. Either way, it was a great classy color. I think the Miata is a bit small for that subdued shade, but would be a lot nicer than this.
Kudos to Mazda to admitting that a new color takes inspiration from primer. There are so many cars out there now that look like clearcoat over primer, but I don’t think they admit that primer was the inspiration.
But I’d buy a MX-5 in actual primer before I’d buy this.
About a month ago I came very close to buying a brand new MX-5 1.5 with 16” forged RAYS wheels.
Everyday I regret not doing it.
Being a MX-5 ND owner, I am booing loudly from the back while being dragged away by the Mazda press release security team.
If it was the CX-50 green I’d be thinking about trading in my ND1, even though I really can’t afford to.
I am red-green color deficient, those pictures look black and white and that color to me is just grey!
I am on the edge of having red-green color blindness (enough to fail the standard FAA color vision test but pass an acceptable alternative test) and I can see it if I really look at it, but at first it looks dark gray…
The gray top and muted photo background doesn’t do the color any favors.
I was thinking that the top color being gray went well with this color, but really emphasizes how that green is mostly gray.