Yahoo Autos 1993 Mazda MX-6 with Ultra-Low Miles on Bring a Trailer
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.
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