You can call it a Miata if you want -- Mazda just wants you to buy it

When BMW came out with the Z3 as the upscale answer to Mazda's Miata, execs at Mazda weren't all that worried — BMW didn't nail the "affordable" part of Mazda's secret sauce of an affordable, inspiring and timeless roadster. Now that GM has offered up two beautiful, similarly-priced and comparably-equipped roadsters with the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky, however, the Japanese company scaled down projected sales for their famous little car and has declared that Europe will replace North America as the continent that sells the most MX-5s due to the new North American competition.