The Mazda Roadster is a snug fitting car and when you sit in one it feels like the car is wrapped around you. The interior seems more like the cockpit of a jet than a car except there’s no joystick or missile launching switches (Which is too bad, the missiles would come in handy when dealing with buses and slow drivers). Although I can’t move around or recline, I still prefer the tightness of the roadster’s interior vs more roomy cars. The downside is that when you buy interior accessories you have to plan carefully where each tiny item will go. There isn’t a lot of real estate on the front panels to stick stuff. Since this is my 3rd roadster I knew exactly how I wanted my setup. This time I didn’t want to put anything on the dashboard or into the aircon vents. I spent part of the weekend hunting down stuff at different car accessory shops and finally got it just right. Although I still ended up buying a bunch of holders and magnets that didn’t quite work the way I wanted. In the first photo, I’ve numbered the gadgets which I describe below. The second photo is a close-up of 1 and 6.

1. CN-HDS940TD Panasonic F-Strada Navigation System. It has a digital TV tuner which broadcasts TV in extremely clear high definition. It is truly amazing. The tuner and diversity unit are under the passenger seat. The audio visual aspects of the navi are great but the navigation itself is a bit disappointing. As an example, on the big thoroughfares like Koshukaido and 246 it will always tell me to take the side roads rather than the bypasses. When there’s considerable traffic, this can waste a huge amount of time. I end up just ignoring it. The maps are very nice though.

2. HotInaZma Pocket. A must in every car!

3. Coin case. It’s a small cheap plastic thing you can fill with ¥100 and ¥500 coins. You can’t really see it in the photo because the case is black too. I used to keep the coins in the centre console cup holders but this time I wanted to use the cup holders for coffee from Starbucks.

4. iPod Nano. The car navi has an iPod connector which allows me to use the navi touch screen to control the iPod. Very convenient. I don’t need CDs anymore.

5. Rubber keitai or remote holder. It’s made of soft rubber and fits in the side bottle holder. That’s where my keitai goes.

6. Yupiteru Super Cat CR920si GPS Radar. I didn’t plan on getting a radar this time but yesterday as I was driving to the dealer the guy in front of me got caught at a speed trap. If he wasn’t in front of me I would have been nailed for sure. Generally, if you’re a safe driver you don’t need a radar, but they also serve other purposes. You can set it to display your speed, it alerts you to spots where there are lots of accidents or other info like service areas, police stations etc. I researched the current radar models and knew I wanted the CR920si but since I wanted to keep the dash and instrument panel clean I bought the Yupiteru Super Cat MR965i Mirror Type Radar instead. It’s basically a mirror with the radar LCD display in the corner and fits over your current rearview mirror. Very convenient and no clutter, so I thought. This turned out to be a big mistake. Even during idle the mirror shakes and vibrates like crazy and I got dizzy just looking at it. When in motion it was even worse and I couldn’t even concentrate on what was in front of me. I attempted a bunch of different things to try and stop the shaking but nothing worked. Finally, I called up Autobacs and said that I couldn’t use this thing and could I exchange it for the CR902si. They said OK and swapped it for me. It usually goes on the dashboard, but I didn’t want it there so stuck it beside the navigation. When moving, the display has this radar scope like you see in submarine movies. Awesome!!

Close-ups of 7-10

7. Clock. This is a cheap LCD clock which is attached to the front windshield with a suction cup. Without the stock stereo the roadster doesn’t have a clock and the one on the navigation is too small to see. This little guy works out just fine.

8. Microphone. In the 2007 model of the Panasonic navigation, you can hook up your bluetooth phone to the navi and use the mic for hands free talking on your keitai. Unfortunately, the model I have (2006) the microphone is only used for voice command and control. It doesn’t work that well. For example, I said 現在地 “genzaichi” which means “current location” and the navi set a route to 築地 “Tsukiji” instead.

9. Parking ticket clip. Previously I used an elastic band. I thought I’d splurge and get a proper one for ¥300;

10. This is one of those ball compasses that’s stuck to the windshield via suction cup. It’s completely useless and I’ll probably throw it away. There’s some kind of magnetic wave inside the car which screws up the compass. Maybe the signal for the Advance Keyless Entry? Anyways, the compass is 270 degrees off. The little black cube on the left is the speaker/antenna for the ETC (Electronic Toll Collection System) The ETC itself is in the glove compartment.

I also got a holder that sticks onto the A-Pillar so I can put my GR Digital in. But I’m still debating whether I want to install it or not.

The day you’ve all been waiting for has arrived, AGAIN!! It stopped raining last night and there were blue skies today. Absolutely great weather! I went to the dealer after work to pick up my car which I ordered on April 1st. It’s been a looong wait. As usual I had my camera ready to take photos. This was the first time for me to see the Stormy Blue colour NC in person and it did not disappoint. I’m in love with this colour car! As you can see in the above photos my RHT was in a big puddle of water when I arrived. Not the most flattering scene for the first pic, but oh well. The dude in the second photo was just finishing up the glass coating I ordered. My salesguy did the usual run through the checklist and made sure I understood how to use the smart key. After that I did my thorough check of the car to see if anything was amiss.

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Just called my Mazda dealer and confirmed that my Roadster RHT will go onto the assembly line on May 30th. Right now, it’s still a hunk of sheet metal and plastic bits. This means that I’ll be able to get my car around June 15th just as scheduled. Yay! Waiting for your car to be built and delivered is almost as exciting as expecting a baby. OK silly comparison. I don’t have experience with the latter but I imagine I would be equally as excited. Perhaps I should take the day off work and fly down to Hiroshima just to watch them build my car on the assembly line. The photo above is of the 1/18 scale model of the RHT by AutoArt.

The coolest Roadster mod of the year. This guy over at Minkara swapped out his tach needle with a F4 Phantom. How neat is that?! I don’t think I could do the same mod on my NC since the gauge cluster is one piece and I can’t open up the individual gauges. Bummer…

OK, this will be the last post mentioning the PRHT (Powered Retractable Hard Top) Roadster until July when I actually get it. As requested by Saffronsaris, here’s another photo of the car. Not mine, but the same color. I love this colour. I liberated it from minkara which is the defacto SNS site for car freaks in Japan. It’s like Mixi about cars. Here’s my profile. Here’s the Roadster Group. And here’s a subgroup for PRHT owners.

Yesterday, I went to the Mazda dealer for my car’s regular check up and 5 hours later ended up trading it in for a Stormy Blue 6AT (6-Speed Automatic Transmission) PRHT (Powered Retractable Hard Top) version. While I really enjoy my stick shifter, I don’t get out into the countryside as much as I would like and driving stick in Tokyo pretty much sucks. It’s stop and go almost all the time and if you visit any one of those shopping centres with the parking lot on the roof (all of them are like this) you always have to wait your turn while slipping the clutch on the inclines going up. It’s not much fun. Since hearing so many good things about the 6AT in the NC it got me thinking about whether AT was better for my needs. I started to discuss this with the sales guy and pretty soon we were doing the paperwork, working the numbers. He offered me a very good deal on the trade in for the 6AT Base Model PRHT in Stormy Blue, which is my favorite colour. I would have gotten that colour if it was available when I got my NC. I signed the papers and will have to wait until July for delivery. I’ve been a firm believer in the purity of MT (Manual Transmission) and connecting with the road, which is what the roadster is all about. I’ve never driven a AT regularly and was thinking that I might regret my decision, but then I thought if I don’t like it I could just go back to MT the next time around :-)

The new Mazda Demio, also known as Mazda 2 outside of Japan, will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March. While I’m not really interested in sub-compact cars like March, Fit, Vitz etc. I do like this sportier europeanish design. It’s not as boxy as the previous Demio and has nice lines which remind me of Honda Civics. I think this version will appeal more to men who are generally embarrassed to be driving these otherwise uncool “housewife” cars.

The traditionally thing to do on the eve of new year’s eve, that’s Dec. 30th, is to clean the house completely. Everyone in Japan cleans their houses from top to bottom. You can hear the sounds of futons being whipped throughout the neighborhood. I opened all the windows in my house today and did my own version of ohsōji 大掃除 but I didn’t wash the windows or wax the floors cause I’m too lazy and there are like 21 windows in my house. That’s a lot isn’t it? Also, I got absorbed watching “Good Night, and Good Luck” which derailed my cleaning efforts. But I did spend a fair amount of time washing the car this afternoon. The roadster hasn’t been getting much love lately, I finally got around to swapping the battery out for a new one, which died while I was in Hong Kong. And took it for a little drive out to a 7-Eleven about 4 blocks away. It’s real close. This drive was an unnecessary waste of gas and contributing to global warming. I know, I feel bad. But as any car owner will tell you, after washing a car you have to take it for a drive. It’s a rule. Anyway, here it is in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven. I had to get one more roadster post before the end of the year.

This past weekend: Saturday, raining and cold. I started the engine of my roadster in the morning to keep the battery from dying. No problems. Sunday, clear blue skies. Wonderful driving weather! I planned to take a leisurely drive out to Alishan Organic Centre in Saitama to buy some organic food stuff. We got in the car all ready and when I turned the key. Nothing. Battery dead. This is the 3rd time for me. Well it was too late in the day anyways so we went to Roppongi Hills and watched Letters from Iwo Jima which was an awesome film but kind of depressing.

Photos: (1) Relakkuma is an essential item for any car. The soft fake fur is very relaxing to the touch and relieves stress, especially during gridlock traffic. And girls dig it (2) My reflection in the car parked beside me.

You think this would look good on my roadster?

Is this a Austin Mini or Austin Cooper or Rover Mini or Mini Cooper? What’s the proper name? I don’t know but this particular one was in very good shape and have a nice leather interior. I’ve always wanted a Mini. If I had one I could pretend being in the “Italian Job.”

Here’s the official promotion video of the PRHT Roadster.