Tom Matano, the Designer Credited as Father of the Miata, Has Died
He was not only a great designer, he seemed to be having more fun than anyone else doing it.By Mark VaughnPublished: Sep 22, 2025 7:58 PM EDT
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Tom Matano
In this world of efficient, competent, but ultimately uninspiring crossover utility vehicles, there is the Miata, a rolling beacon of hope for car enthusiasts and drivers the world over. The guy credited with designing it, Tsutomo “Tom” Matano, passed away Sept. 20 at the age of 77.
Born and raised in Japan, Matano came to America not in a jet plane like everyone else, but on an ocean-going freighter – because of course he did – and started a career that would see him pen one of the coolest and by far one of the most fun sports cars of the late-20th century.
“I remember him as a genine car enthusiast as well as a designer,” said retired Art Center chair of transportation design Stewart Reed. “Not all car designers are car enthusiasts. I spent a lot of time in Detroit and there were a lot of guys who’d lost the fire. But there was this core group that were always passionate about car design. Kind of like (longtime Art Center instructor Strother) MacMinn. That’s how Tom was.”Tom Matano
Matano among the faithful.
He graduated from Seikei University in Japan with a degree in engineering in 1969, before setting out for America the following year. His life’s journey took him all over the country and around the world, first to a language school in New York, then environmental design, Art Center college of Design in Pasadena, and from there to his first design job at General Motors in Detroit. He was soon shipped off to GM’s Holden division in Australia, then took a job at BMW in Europe, before landing at the new design division of Mazda in the US.
“I hired him!” said Bob Hall, who is also credited with getting the Miata into production.
A whole host of designers had a hand in the car, including Mark Jordan and Masao Yagi, long before the project was approved.
“We were doing it on our own,” said Hall.
Miatamania
Matano was eventually put in charge of the project, and he brought in a young designer from China named Wu-Huang Chin, who added his touches.
“Tom is a good designer, but he was even better at putting the right guy in the right seat,” said Hall.
Hall, Matano, and company then assured Mazda that the Miata would take up the space in the market abandoned by the MGB and the Triumph Spitfire and, if amortized over, say, 10 years, would be profitable. Or at least wouldn’t lose money. Whatever they said, it worked, and Mazda, to our everlasting appreciation, agreed, and the Miata revolutionized the auto industry forever after.
It was a fun, two-seater car of the type that had once been made by Europeans, and even the Japanese in cars like the Datsun 1600 Roadster. But this one came with a modern drivetrain that worked every time you wanted to start it and it never leaked oil. It was the best of all possible worlds.
And in addition to that host of enthusiasts at Mazda, we have Tom Matano to thank for it.Tom Matano
Matano, Miata
Seems everyone had a story about him.
“I got to know him when he was head of the Mazda studio in Irvine and I was chief of design at Calty,” said Reed. “Even though he was Mazda and I was Toyota we became good friends. A number of times we went over to his favorite Italian restaurant. He had gotten to know the owner. They had his favorite plate on the menu, it was called, Pasta a la Matano. We’d sit outside and watch all the people and have Pasta a la Matano.”
“I wrote a column about him a long time ago at Autoweek and he related his fascination with American cars that he saw in Life magazine in the 1950s when he was growing up. He was particularly taken by tailfins,” said former Autoweek editor Matt DeLorenzo.
“It was in the early 1990s when Mazda was working on the third-generation RX-7, he was giving Keith Crain, Leon (Mandel), (Automotive News’) Peter Brown, and I a sneak peek in Tokyo. He had these huge Batmobile-like fins sewed on the car cover in my honor. When he pulled the cover off, no fins! He had a great sense of humor, always enjoyed talking to him.”
I myself got eternal friendship from him when I showed up at a car event to which he’d brought his Vallelunga. I happened to have a Diablo that day. Matano’s wife Kako had always wanted to ride in a Lamborghini so I gave her a ride. He always brought that up and thanked me every time I saw him.
“We are heartbroken to share the passing of Tom Matano, the beloved father of the Miata, and an inspiration to our community,” said the group Miata Reunion, on Facebook. “His vision gave us more than a car, it gave us friendships, memories, and a family that spans the world.”
“I just have the highest regard for Tom,” said Reed. “We’ll miss him greatly.”
“He was like brother number two for me,” said Hall, whose brother Jim also had a career in the auto industry. “This has not been a good day for me. You don’t realize how much you love somebody till they’re gone.”
Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed the Blue Oval, all its products and everyone who ever worked there. This was his introduction to objective automotive criticism. He started writing for City News Service in Los Angeles, then moved to Europe and became editor of a car magazine called, creatively, Auto. He decided Auto should cover Formula 1, sports prototypes and touring cars—no one stopped him! From there he interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show and has been with us ever since.
BMW Shows Off Its Tech-Laden iX3
Meet the first of BMW’s new “Neue Klasse,” which the automaker says will grow to as many as 40 new or refreshed vehicles across powertrains globally in two years.By Jim MotavalliPublished: Sep 22, 2025 4:57 PM EDTSave Article
Jim Motavalli
By the time the 2026 BMW iX3 had its US debut in Manhattan on September 21, it had already been shown twice in Europe, including at Munich IAA Mobility. Europeans will get first dibs on this tech-oriented electric crossover SUV a few months before it goes on sale in America next summer.
The iX3 is the first of BMW’s digitally enhanced “Neue Klasse” family, which the company says will grow to as many as 40 new or refreshed vehicles across powertrains globally in two years.
The iX3 will initially be sold only as an approximately $60,000 dual-motor 50 xDrive model with a 108-kilowatt-hour battery (under the floor) yielding 400-mile range, but Nicholas Gerstner, a BMW product manager for the Neue Klasse, said that single-motor versions are in the pipeline for 2027. An iX3 variant will be produced for (and in) China.
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Driving impressions will come later, but BMW said the AWD version of the car will have 463 combined horsepower and an estimated zero to 60 mph time of 4.7 seconds.
The US unveiling brought out Sebastian Mackensen, president and CEO of BMW North America, and Dr. Joachim Post, global chief technology officer, with both of them being interviewed by former New York Times columnist and current CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent David Pogue—who called himself an “EV nerd.”
For the event, BMW stationed a spiffy bright green 1975 2002 on 11th Street, commemorating the date 50 years ago when the company officially launched BMW of North America (after years of distribution by the importer Max Hoffman). Television crews interviewed Mackensen standing in front of the car.Jim Motavalli
Rear view of the BMW iX3.
“You could have chosen to attend Oktoberfest in Munich, but instead you are with us here to be the first people to see the iX3 in North America,” Mackensen told the crowd. “We are proud and excited to introduce the car.”
Post said the iX3 can charge at 400 kilowatts and add 175 miles of range in 10 minutes at an 800-volt DC station. Although one of the pre-production cars in New York sported a J1772 port, the production car will get a standard Tesla-derived NACS (with an adapter for CCS). Post described the iX3 as a software-defined vehicle with four computers that will “bring all the information you need directly in front of your eyes.” BMW calls the user interface debuting on the iX3 Panoramic iDrive, and it includes the ability to project head-up information in the driver’s line of sight across the full width of the windshield, complementing the 17.9-inch central display.
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The 2026 iX3 will also feature “Attentive Light,” which automatically turns on the cabin reading lights when a driver or passenger gropes for something in the dark.
A driver-facing camera tracks eye movements and lets the operator know if signs of drowsiness are present. The so-called “Attentive Light” can turn on reading illumination when front-seat occupants grope for something in the darkened cabin. The driver can also initiate automated lane changes with his or her eyes at speeds over 40 mph by looking at the appropriate rear-view mirror.
Surround-view cameras are there to record the passing scene, producing video that can be played back on the infotainment screen in 40-second snippets. If a collision occurs, photographs are automatically taken to record the event.Jim Motavalli
Inside the BMW iX3.
BMW describes the car’s hands-off self-driving system as Level Two Plus. There’s plenty of technology aboard, and some of it was developed with collaborators. In a pre-debut call, Ignacio Contreras, vice president of product marketing at Qualcomm, told Autoweek that Snapdragon Ride Pilot was a joint project with BMW involving 1,400 technicians on three continents, and making its debut on the iX3. It’s versatile. “It can be one camera, or up to seven cameras, plus five radars, and for both highway and urban driving, and it’s designed to be continuously updated,” Contreras said. The system will be offered to other automakers.
The iX3’s cabin is spacious, with a tall roof that gives back-seat passengers plenty of headroom. Legroom is also fine front and rear.
BMW is emphasizing sustainability on the iX3, including a carbon dioxide-reducing roof that uses natural flax fiber developed with Swiss supplier Bcamp. Some 30 percent of the secondary raw material in the engine compartment cover and front storage is recycled maritime plastic from fishing nets and ropes.
Meanwhile, BMW is still bullish on fuel-cell vehicles. At the iX3 debut, Michael Rath, vice president of hydrogen vehicles at BMW, told Autoweekthat the company will debut the iX5 Hydrogen (a variant of the X5 SUV with Neue Klasse tech inside) in 2028, with the markets offering it as-yet undetermined, depending on available infrastructure. This will be BMW’s first series-production hydrogen car. Germany now has 60 hydrogen stations, Rath said. The U.S. had 54 retail outlets for hydrogen in 2024, the Department of Energy said, almost all of them in California.
Contributing Editor
Jim Motavalli is an auto writer and author (nine books) who contributes to Autoweek and Barron’s Penta. He has written two books on electric cars, Forward Drive (2000) and High Voltage (2010), and hosts the Plugging In podcast.
Motavalli’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, CBS Moneywatch, Car Talk at NPR, Forbes, US News and World Report, Sierra Magazine, Audubon, and many more. In his spare time, he reviews books and jazz.
