i inducted myself into the mazda family about a year ago with the purchase of my family car, a slightly modded protege5. since then, i have done some new mods and really gotten into the whole mazda tuning scene. now that i have a mazda, that is all that i want to drive. i want to buy a car now that i can mod to make fast but also depend on for high mileage daily driving. my questions are; if i buy a miata, can i make it fast without shortening the life of it significantly and decreasing the drivability? will this car be able to handle mileage in excess of 30k miles a year?
i am aiming for 2002 or newer if that changes any decisions

 

Disclaimer: I can't speak to the NB and NC models from personal experience. My NA (1995, 1.8L) has been very dependable. I bought her used in 1998, according to Carfax she had been a leased car in South Carolina. 26000mi or so on the clock. I've put over 100k on myself, and some of the years were 30k mi/yr as I used to be a field engineer and drove all over southern New England daily.

My understanding is that the newer models have done nothing but improve on that which is already good.

For increasing speed, you may want to check out what Moss Motors and Flyin' Miata have to offer.
http://www.flyinmiata.com
http://www.miatamania.com

I'd buy again from either store in a heartbeat. FM is great with their tech support on their custom parts, and I've never had a bad customer experience with either of them.

 

First off, 30K miles a year! Now that's crazy, I only put on about 5k miles on my cars a year.

As for speed and reliability, the car has plenty of both... and then some! Remember though, the car is really small, so don't put too much power into it. The only thing that will reduce it's lifespan is if you put a really turbo on it without having the proper engine parts (gasket, forged pistons, cams and valves).