Apparently, the traction/stability control system in about 12,244 Mazda Miatas (2024 and 2025 models) does not work and – oh, the humanity! – the warning light does not come on to let drivers know. The cars are being recalled to be “fixed” but some owners might consider their cars not broken since traction/stability control is a fun-killer many of them would have skipped had it been an option they were free to not buy.
The Miata is a sports car and not being free to spin the rear tires at will because of the unwanted interventions of an electronic nanny defeats the point of owning such a car. Put another way, people who buy Miatas and cars like them like to spin the tires. Not just in a straight line, either. That is not the Miata’s main thing. It is to spin them – more accurately, to slide them – in the corners. Getting a little sideways is what it’s all about and traction/stability control does to that kind of fun what early returning parents do to a high school kegger at the family home. With the difference being Miata owners are adults and ought not to have to worry about Mom and Dad putting the kibosh on their good time.
It would be very interesting to see how many Miata buyers would choose to buy traction/stability control were it optional. A safe bet is not many.
So why, then, is it standard? More finely, why is it that you cannot opt out? This raises some interesting questions few seem to want to ask, the chief one being: Why do vehicle manufacturers like Mazda not offer vehicles based primarily on what their customers want? Even specialty cars like the Miata? People who buy sports cars are people who like to drive, after all. This means being the driver – active tense – as opposed to a passenger who sits behind the wheel. The distinction is an important one. The Miata was originally designed as a more reliable incarnation of the Lotus 7 – which the driver put on to go for a drive. The Lotus was extremely minimalist and so extremely light and that made it extremely fun to drive. You were part of the drive rather than along for the ride.
The Miata did its best to reincarnate that.
The original 1990 model weighed just over 2,100 lbs. and a big part of the reason why this was possible was because back then, Mazda did not have to build the car around four air bags, which the 2025 model has – two of them embedded in the seats. Unsurprisingly, the ’25 Miata weighs several hundred pounds more than thew original 1990 model and that is not small penalty in a sports car – which above all other things is supposed to be light. As light as possible.
A Lotus 7 was much lighter. The original 1957 model weighed less than 1,000 lbs. – or not much more than many current motorcycles. Of course, 1957 is why. Back then, car manufacturers made cars and people who wanted them bought them. If people did not want them, they were free to not buy them. No one was forced to buy anything they did not want by deprivation of choice. Options were just that. Items you could buy if you wanted them and skip if you didn’t. The market thus sorted out what people wanted.
The government began to put the kibosh on that beginning in the mid-1960s, at the instigation of professional busybodies led by Ralph Nader, who purveyed the silly idea that the manufacturers were not offering what the market wanted. What Nader and his busybodies wanted, of course, was for the government to interfere with the market. They wanted “safety” – as they always try to sell it – to be standard. The pre-Nader cars (the apotheosis of which was the Lotus 7) were not unsafe. They just did not have things like air bags or even seat belts. This did not mean they were unsafe. It just meant that that they did not have things like air bags and seat belts 5 MPH bumpers and traction/stability control and back-up cameras and “pre-collision assistance” and so on.
The distinction is lost on some people.
Is a chainsaw “unsafe” because the chain is capable of cutting off a leg as easily as a limb? Some of course would say, yes. But this is silly. A chainsaw can be dangerous but it is not unsafe. That is the distinction – and it is the same one as regards cars like the Lotus 7 that lacked “safety” features such as air bags and traction/stability control and a car like the current Miata that has them.
Either car can be dangerous in the hands of a reckless idiot, incidentally. The Lotus is just less forgiving of reckless idiots. That does not, however, mean it is unsafe.
It just means it’s a lot more fun.
. . .
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
If you’d like a Baaaaa hat or other EPautos gear, see here!
Politicians like Bernie Sanders (and his ilk) doesn’t like consumer choice. Remember when he was complaining that there were too many choices of shampoo at the grocery store? He should be mocked and run out of town on a rail for saying something that stupid. Instead he gets to limit our choices at our expense.
So far the government hasn’t limited shampoo choices but it sure has with many other products. For some reason people don’t see the very limited choices in new vehicles. If you need a vehicle that isn’t a crossover, large suv or pickup truck, you are largely out of luck. Minivans, small and medium cars are getting rare. Forget about small pickups, large cars, muscle, convertibles anything sporty, and anything else, they no longer are made new.
I keep getting recall notices on my 2016 Mustang’s backup camera. I think I’ve gotten about 4 letters and a few emails from the dealership I usually go to for regular maintenance. The notices have a nagging tone, implying my safety may be at risk if I don’t bring them my car and get this thing fixed.
The problem is I don’t give a shit about the backup camera and am unwilling to inconvenience myself to go get it addressed. My free time? Now that, I do care about.
As of now, it seems to be working fine anyway. I only really paid attention to it after being informed something might be wrong with it.
Well-done, Amy!
I love it when a plan comes together.
The lane keep assist on my 2024 has not worked since I took delivery. I’ve not bothered to have it fixed by the warranty since I see that as a feature and not a bug. Keeping fingers crossed one of the air updates doesn’t fix it. But I think I am safe there since those updates just seem to fix stuff they broke with the previous update (software defined vehicles are really gong to suck!)
Now I just hope NHSTA finds out.
I believe PJ O’Rourke predicted that America would go Marxist, not is a Lenin type revolution, but in a slow but steady march of a safety nanny state rules, until nothing could be done without a safety committee approving it.
Big Bidnezz LOVES Big Guvnment.
With today’s technology there is no reason cars cannot be made to individuals orders, with any option ordered a la carte. But that means you actually have to pay attention to the needs and whims of hundreds of thousands of individual customers.
Far easier to lobby and create a legal framework that allows you to shove things that easier for the you, down the customers’ throat.
“You can order your car in any color as long as it’s black” – I wonder why Henry Ford stopped short of lobbying for a law to that effect.
Light vehicles are something many know nothing about. I used to DD a sand-rail with a self-built plexi body. I could get it into 3rd gear on an on/off ramp approaching 40MPH in the tight turns. Steered like a porsche with the light front end / swing axle rear, paired with a 1835 lopey cam VW engine. Steering brakes = manual stability control. Just brush the brake pad on the inside wheel and up your max speed in a tight turn. Good times!
To me the ideal sports car weight is under 1,800lbs or it isn’t a sports car.
Who wants to drive a heavy crate in the tight turns? Sure the weight adds it’s own grip by torturing the tires, but if you were to loose grip for any reason, you’re definitely not changing direction. The opposite of darty.
Even the modern mechanisms have a different feel thanks to all the electronic gizmos and control modules.
My ’21 Tacoma’s LSD isn’t an actual mechanical version – but automatically applies brake – to accomplish the same task. Flung it around a corner too hot recently and it kicked in and felt really odd.
Meanwhile, the Eaton G80 posi in my GMT800 Silverado feels far more natural and predictable under identical circumstances.
Learning to straddle analog and digital cars will keep you sharp – and possibly drive you insane.
‘the traction/stability control does not work and – oh, the humanity!‘ — eric
Passenger aircraft are far more automated, with more elaborate safety systems, than cars. Yet tragic errors still occur, as in today’s crash of an Air India Boeing 787 in Ahmedabad.
https://x.com/ETNOWlive/status/1933089721565303075
Air temp was 37 °C (99 °F), with a full fuel load bound for London — already challenging conditions requiring plenty of runway. But the pilot apparently lifted off halfway down the runway. One observer claims that the flaps were not down to increase lift. The video shows the doomed aircraft failing to gain altitude before it crashes and burns.
This crash likely will be blamed on pilot error — an error that killed hundreds. ‘Oh, the humanity’ indeed.
Looks to me this plane it is landing.
So much for track days. I’ll keep my ’91, ’92 & ’02, thank you very much.
‘More finely, why is it that you cannot opt out [of traction/stability control]?’ — eric
BEEP! Thoughtcrime detected!
The suspect is advocating an overt violation of FMVSS No. 126, Electronic Stability Control Systems, which reads in pertinent part:
‘The final rule requires passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles (MPVs), trucks, and buses that have a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 4,536 kg (10,000 pounds) or less to be equipped with an ESC system that meets the functional and performance requirements specified in FMVSS No. 126.
‘In addition, the rule requires manufacturers to install an ESC malfunction telltale and allows manufacturers to provide an optional ESC Off switch (and associated telltale) to temporarily disable the ESC system. Specific symbols and/or text are required to be used for the malfunction telltale and ESC Off switch.
‘Throughout this analysis, we assume that an ESC system combines two basic technologies: Antilock Brakes (ABS) and Electronic Stability Control.’
https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/fmvss/ESC_FRIA_%252003_2007.pdf
Recommended case disposition: indefinite administrative detention for re-education and treatment of suspect’s Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).
I was a butcher cutting up meat
My hands were bloody, I’m dying on my feet
I was a surgeon ’til I start to shake
I was a-falling ’til ESC put on the brakes
— Rolling Stones, You Got Me Rocking
Our 2010 Mazda 3 has a button you can press to shut off the stability control but of course you have to do it every time you start the car.
Usually that only partially turns it off.
Meaning traction control kicks in slightly later, but you still can’t pop the clutch & do a burnout.
If you’re lucky you can chirp the tires slightly, but it helps if the tires are worn and the pavement is wet.