- Rarely seen these days, this sporty Mazda hails from a time when sports coupes were plentiful.
- The second-gen MX-6 debuted for 1993 alongside its platform mate, the Ford Probe.
- The Mazda’s exterior and interior design were entirely unrelated to the Ford’s, and the MX-6 still looks good 30 years later.
In the winter of 1992, Car and Driver gathered together five sports coupes for a comparison test, this on the heels of an earlier test in the year that featured 10 competitors. Held today, such an attempt would boil down to a fratricidal battle between the Toyota GR86 and the Subaru BRZ. But in the 1990s, coupe fans had actual choice.
Up for auction on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—is one of those cars, a 1993 Mazda MX-6 LS finished in verdant Hunter Green Mica, and it has an incredibly low 13,000 miles on the clock. It is an endangered species from a time that seems like just 10 years ago—but was actually three decades.
The second-gen Mazda MX-6 and its sibling, the Ford Probe, were front-wheel-drive coupes built alongside each other at a joint-venture plant in Flat Rock, Michigan. Both were available with either a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine or a buttery-smooth 2.5-liter V-6. This LS example is the latter, although that 164-hp six is paired with a four-speed automatic transmission. The lack of a rear spoiler emphasizes the slippery and elegant shape of the MX-6. In its day, this car might have been the daily driver parked next to a high-strung RX-7 twin-turbo.
Of the two siblings, the Probe was the more dynamically aggressive, with larger wheels, stickier tires, stiffer springs, and a thicker front anti-roll bar. As such, it won that aforementioned comparison test, while the MX-6, criticized for being too soft, came in last. Thirty years later, though, this MX-6 looks like the ideal weekend cruiser to take to your local Radwood-themed car meet. Odds are, no one will have seen an MX-6 in ages, let alone one this well preserved.
The MX-6 is also one of those cars with an enormous amount of unlockable potential. If Mazda softened the suspension for broader appeal, it did not hold back on the chassis. This is a car engineered by the same people as the NA Miata and the RX-7, and throwing a few aftermarket tuning bits at an MX-6 can make it plenty quick.
As it is, this car is a time capsule, and given its condition, it shouldn’t be meddled with. For those who remember the heyday of sports coupes, seeing this dark-green beauty swooshing along on a Sunday morning will trigger a tsunami of nostalgia. Once upon a time, the roads were teeming with affordable sport coupes—practical, fun, and elegant. Those days are long past. But here’s your chance to relive them—or to see what they were all about.
Contributing Editor
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.
