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Every so often a first-generation Mazda MX-5 surfaces that reminds you exactly why this little roadster rewrote the rules on cheap driving fun, and this 1997 M-Edition currently live on Cars & Bids is one of them. Finished in Marina Green Mica with a color-matched factory hardtop and a tan leather interior, it shows roughly 31,300 miles and has spent its whole life garage-kept and out of the salt.
The M-Edition badge matters more than most special editions do. Mazda built roughly 3,000 of them for 1997, each one wearing that exclusive Marina Green Mica paint over a tan leather cabin, riding on polished 15-inch wheels, and carrying a Torsen limited-slip differential. It was also the last time Mazda would use the M-Edition name on a Miata, which makes this the closing chapter of a run that started back in 1991.
Under the hood sits the 1.8-liter inline-four making 133 horsepower and 114 lb-ft of torque, routed to the rear wheels through the five-speed manual that is the only transmission anyone should want in one of these. The numbers look modest on paper and completely miss the point in practice. The NA Miata has never been about output; it is about a low curb weight, quick steering, an engine that loves to rev, and a shifter that remains one of the best ever bolted into a production car.
What makes this particular car appealing is how little has been done to it. Pop-up headlights, air conditioning, leather upholstery, the removable factory hardtop, and the original soft top are all present. The only modification the seller lists is a manual soft top with a glass rear window, which is the single upgrade almost every NA owner eventually makes anyway, since the factory plastic rear window yellows and cracks with age. Two keys, the owner's manual, a spare tire, and the hardtop all come along with the sale.
The ownership story is refreshingly simple. The seller reportedly leased the car new in September 1997, bought out the lease, and has kept it ever since, registering it in South Carolina and later Wisconsin. Carfax records back up the maintenance, with a fuel filter, spark plugs, and an oil change handled in August 2025 at just under 31,000 miles, and a battery and oil service in September 2022.
It is not a concours car, and the seller does not pretend otherwise. There are some paint chips, a few scratches on the hardtop, wear on the driver's seat, a radio volume knob that occasionally adjusts itself, and tires carrying 2009 date codes that a buyer should plan to replace before doing anything enthusiastic. Those are honest, inexpensive flaws on a 29-year-old car, and none of them touch the mechanical core of the thing.
Clean, unmolested NA Miatas in desirable colors have been climbing steadily for years, and low-mileage M-Editions sit right at the front of that curve. With bidding at $8,500 at the time of writing and the auction running through September 18, this looks like one of the more compelling ways to buy into first-generation Miata ownership without inheriting somebody else's project.
Images and listing details courtesy of Cars & Bids.
