winkyl

I think the hardness or hard to get into gear issue is related to the direct shift on top of the transmission. Consider most of the car you guys drive (FWD, AWD, and FR) how many of those car have a shifter on top of the transmission for direct shifting? most of them have linkage, rods to filter out those harshness or grinding feel when you shift.

Usually after cold start (I think it's common on NA, NB, and on your case, NC too) the car, I clutch in and shift the shifter into 1st and second gear a few times before I actually drive it on the road. It helps for my 5spd gear box that came with my NA 18 years ago. And on my 6spd, it actually helps as well. Give that a try and see how it goes...

winkyl

I change my transmission fluid about 2-3 times a year (consider I track my car once a year and do spirit driving). Many people on miata.net recommend redline 75-90w for the transmission fluid. my friend's NA miata tried before. It was good for the first 2-3 months (about 3000km) and then it started to get hard to shift in the morning (cold). I use motul myself, it's a little bit better, but it's pretty pricy...

I agree, Miata or MX5 is just a slow car, UNTIL there's lots of corners... that's when and where you start to laugh to say bye bye to those 200hp+ cars... of cuz, lots of them are still pretty fast in corners