The BRIATA Story

From the Original BRIATA to the New BRIATA!

After 26 fun years and almost 213,000 miles, we have an official Changing of the Guard from the Original BRIATA to the New BRIATA in matching custom teal, complete with champagne christening ceremony!

It is hard to part with the original BRIATA after having her half my life, especially since I still prefer her curves, her friendly face, her open feeling, and her trunk space, but my beloved 1999 Miata is now a "project" car which can enjoy a new chapter with a tinkerer, while I enjoy the warranty period and modern amenities of the new 2024 BRIATA, including one-button retractable hardtop! Zoom zoom indeed!

If you know me at all, you know that my favorite color is teal, allowing for some variance to either side with aqua, turquoise, aquamarine, etc. This has been evident enough that I was nicknamed "Aquawoman" in college because of the most prominent color of my wardrobe. :)

Unfortunately for me, the Miata does not come standard in my favorite color, even in 2024. There was a color that was closer called "Splash Green Mica" which was already discontinued for 2004, but still not exactly my color from what I ever saw in person. Keep reading below the video for the entire saga of both BRIATAs, including photos...

The BRIATA Timeline

1989 The original Miatas are released. As a highschool senior working at the local Rax drive-thru in Sacramento, Britta sees her first "live" Miata and hopes she might be able to get her own someday.

December 1994 Freshly graduated from UCDavis and in her first "real" job, at the urging of her mother and after spending her own entire holiday bonus all on old Toyota Tercel hatchback repairs, Britta begins shopping for her first new car ever. With the help of Jeff Ouye, she crunches all the numbers, even sitting in a Miata inside a showroom to be sure she fit inside (!), but alas, even the lowest Miata model was out of reach financially, so she got her beloved Neon instead. At least the Neon was a beautiful teal color and was quite fun while still being practical.

June 1997 The Neon bravely sacrifices herself on the way up to Seattle, leaving Britta uninjured, without car expenses while she was in the UK for the next 5 months, and $4500 insurance settlement in the bank.

Fall 1997 At the London Motorshow, Britta is jealous to see a bright teal right-hand drive MX-5 special edition. "Why don't they have that color in the USA?" she complains as her companions tell her to import one for herself - who cares about driving on the wrong side?

December 1997 While in the UK reading car magazines for lack of other reading material, Britta sees an article that Mazda is redesigning the Miata for the 10th anniversary, including normal headlights vs. the old pop-ups, a glass rear window in the ragtop, and other nifty improvements, to be released in early spring.

February 1998 After purchasing her mother's 1994 Honda Civic as a functional car for her return to working in Silicon Valley, leaving her with no debt to speak of, Britta realizes she just might be able to afford a decent Miata at long last!

March 1998 Britta sees the brand-new Miatas arrive by trailer on Stevens Creek Blvd, the same day the brand-new redesigned Volkwagen Beetles arrive. Later that week, she goes to the dealer to sit inside with a hardtop on the car (to be sure she really still fit inside!) and investigate the colors in person. Green is a no-go (too olive in the sun), but the local San Jose dealer did not have the "twilight blue mica" that looked quite teal on the Mazda website.

April 1998 On Good Friday, home for Easter with her family, Britta goes to her credit union to get pre-approved for a new car loan, just so she has it ready for the next 30 days or so. Since she still hasn't seen the "twilight blue mica" color in person, with loan paperwork in hand she goes to the Roseville Automall just in case they might have a new blue Miata. For the complete story of the purchase and the original Miata webpage with photos, click here.

May 1998 Discouraged by not being able to figure out an amusing vanity license plate (even TLEO was taken?!?), the standard-issue plates remain for the next four years.

March 1999 On a visit to the UK, she sees a hilarious article in TopGear magazine about Barbie reveiwing the MX-5, so the photos and some text get posted on Britta Blvd here.

1999 and later Britta often says whenever the Miata eventually needs a new paint job, she will paint it teal. The Miata travels extensively and is great fun.

February 2002 Realizing she can pay off her 5-year loan early, Britta decides this would be a good time to revisit a vanity license plate. Calling upon her friends for inspiration, Robert Reeves creates "BRIATA" off the top of his head as a combination of Britta and Miata. Britta thinks this is absolutely hilarious!

April 2002 The new plates arrive! After getting the new plates at lunch, she comes back to work and asks a co-worker to take some digital photos immediately to commemorate the occasion.

September 2003 The BRIATA finally had her chance to visit Yosemite, so the classic Britta Blvd home page image with the rented Mustang was duplicated with the BRIATA.

January 2004 It took the whole five years of driving around perfectly safely, but the BRIATA finally got a boo-boo that needed to be fixed properly, including repainting. Britta saw this has her chance to make the BRIATA truly her own! The new color is actually the 1994 Chevy/GMC truck/van standard color "royal teal bright." It is absolutely beautiful! :D

(um...yes, I'm wearing periwinkle so as not to clash with my car. :) Since I had no paint chip with me when packing my clothes for the weekend to go pick up my newly-painted car, I decided to be safe...and purple and its related shades is my second-favorite color!)

March 2004 Unseasonably warm March weather allowed Britta to do the same Santa Cruz - Hwy 1 - Half Moon Bay drive and take these photos of the newly-painted BRIATA at sunset...the hard top is now in the garage!

Doesn't the car by itself with the ocean behind look like it came out of a Mazda brochure? haha...

Teal Briata and the Golden Gate Bridge - Feb 2005

February 2005 An overcast but nice February day tour of San Francisco ended up at Marin Headlands for this lovely sunset photo. Sincere apologies that the dress slightly clashes with the car...*wince*

February 2005 Ta da! Finally - the image to replace the Mustang on the front page of Britta Blvd! As mentioned in March 2004, "it'll have to go back to Yosemite again since it has changed color since last time..." Well, she got her chance February 2005! It was touch & go weatherwise to see if it would be good enough weather to risk driving her into the mountains in winter, but there were chains in the trunk just in case, and it was sunny enough for top-down driving on Hwy 120 with SNOW on the ground...haha!

(No, I did not realize until after seeing the photo that my shirt EXACTLY matches the car...hooray!)

Teal Briata and the Golden Gate Bridge - June 2013

June 2013 My friend Shannon visited from Canada and finally got photos while driving across the Golden Gate Bridge in the BRIATA!

April 2015 One of my favorite photos from my year of documenting my hat inventory!

May 2016 Even after the soft top opened while driving breaking the back window glass all over me, and a couple more accident repairs, the BRIATA is still a blast to drive around California, here at Point Reyes in Marin on our way to a hike to Alamere Falls.

June 2016 Cool panorama angle from inside the BRIATA by Glen on our way to Monterey for a day trip...
...and yes, my clothes still often match my car enough that strangers comment at stoplights and gas stations! :D

April 2017 I painted several accessories to match my car over the years, including an iPod, a Treo smartphone cover, several iPhone covers, my toes, and even my favorite chunky headband that helps keep my hair out of my eyes when top-down driving! Sunglasses are harder to paint, so I buy them teal when I find them, along with clothing...and sometimes the perfect trenchcoat purchase becomes my phone lock screen for years!

April 2018 The BRIATA is TWENTY YEARS OLD! It's hard to believe it has been two full decades since I bought my fun little car! It now has over 200,000 miles, so I am babying it as long as I can, with a few road trips a year, but driving to & from work with the top down is still as fantastic as twenty years ago! :D My friend Teje from Norway came for my wedding, so we got some more Golden Gate Bridge photos and had a fun drive down the coast in my last couple days of being a single woman...Would you be surprised to know that I matched bridemaid dress fabrics to my car?

April 2019 The BRIATA turned 21, legal drinking age, so I drove her to Margarita Friday and gave her fluffy new floor mats...then my dear husband Glen matched a blue zircon to my car color for our first anniversary!

July 2019 On a quick day trip to Castello di Amorosa, I realized I'd never taken the Napa Valley sign photo with the BRIATA...tada! Even several other tourists wanted to pose with my car!

November 2020 After the awful Glass Fire on Spring Mountain, we supported our favorite small-business family wineries with a weekend trip in fabulous fall vineyard colors.

February 2022 After COVID pandemic working from home then retiring from corporate life, the BRIATA isn't driven daily anymore, but even sunny winter days can be fun with the top down!

April 2023 The BRIATA is TWENTY-FIVE years old! Hard to believe I've had this car almost half my life! She hasn't had any covered parking since we moved to our 1890 Victorian home in 2019, so the almost 20-year-old custom paint job is starting to suffer, and the third soft-top has another tear, but she is still fun to drive, including on a 5th wedding anniversary adventure to Napa!

July 2024 After over a year of going through the stages of grief for the original BRIATA, replacing batteries, jump starting & trickle charging overnight, noticing more & more problems crop up, and realizing there are NO new convertibles that are as cute & curvy as the previous millenium, my dear husband agreed the 2024 Miata might be okay, so we test drove locally, found the only "jet black mica" in 300 miles, drove 150 miles to buy it with a giant bow on top, then top-down 150 miles home in 105F(!), then the first weekend we drove it along the coast top-down in June drizzle! :D

Before it truly became the new BRIATA, I patiently waited a month as it was promptly painted the same 1994 Chevy/GMC truck/van standard color "royal teal bright" since I had saved the paint recipe codes. Fix Auto Santa Clara, where owner Sheldon remembered me from repairing minor damage to the original BRIATA many times over the years, did a fantastic job painting a brand-new car, and the color is as gorgeous as twenty years ago when the original BRIATA was painted! My beloved 1999 Miata is now a "project" car which can enjoy a new chapter with a tinkerer across the street, so I may still see her around from time to time...

Thank you for joining me looking back AND looking ahead...

Congratulations if you made it this far! Hope you enjoyed this page as much as I enjoy my car(s)!
I'll keep driving around again taking more photos of my latest pretty BRIATA whenever I get the chance... :)

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