10/08/2026
The Miata Coupe that never was...
In 1996, Mazda did something that still seems slightly wrong when you look at it: it put a roof on a Miata.
The M Coupe was unveiled at the 1996 New York International Auto Show as a styling exercise from Mazda's North American design team, led by Tom Matano. It wasn't simply a Miata with a hardtop fitted. Everything behind the windscreen was reworked, including the fastback-style rear bodywork, rear glass and decklid.
The details are where it gets interesting.
The roof used a subtle double-bubble shape, influenced by the sort of design traditionally used to create helmet clearance without making a roof unnecessarily tall. The rear window and sweeping door line also carried visual cues from Mazda's RX-7. The spare wheel was moved underneath the car, creating roughly one extra cubic foot of luggage space, while the wider stance and 16-inch wheels gave the little Miata a considerably more purposeful look.
Underneath, though, it was still fundamentally a Miata. The concept used the same 1.8-litre four-cylinder as the roadster, with the same double-wishbone suspension. The fiberglass roof added weight, so despite the more rigid feel of the closed body, it wasn't actually faster than the roadster.
And that was ultimately the problem.
Mazda never put the M Coupe into production. For all its extra practicality and intriguing proportions, the company was reluctant to compromise the purity of the open two-seat roadster that had made the MX-5 such a success.
Which is probably why the M Coupe remains so interesting.
It wasn't a better Miata. It was an answer to a question Mazda never quite decided to ask.
Would you have bought a fixed-roof Miata?
