Hey John, that is a good question for one of the following Facebook groups: Mazda Miata Club, Miata MX-5 Enthusiast Club, or Miata DIY.

I own an NA Miata with the factory manual rack. The steering is heavy in a parking lot (especially when backing into parking spots), but otherwise just fine. You might find the steering a bit too heavy on an ND because the rack in those is a much quicker ratio, which means you have less leverage over the front wheels. The more caster angle you have, the harder it will be to hold the wheel in corners as well.

Of course I would never trust a dealership to do something so unusual. In the San Francisco Bay Area I’m hoping to find an independent service shop that specializes in Miatas used in competition.

It’s pretty commonplace in newer vehicles since there is no real negative to it (unless you want to make sharp steering inputs at high speeds). Basically, at higher speeds you get almost no power steering assistance for the most direct feel. At lower speeds, you don’t have to get an arm workout. It’s really the best of both worlds.

But if you really don’t want the feature, you’ll have to do some research to see which vehicles don’t offer it. But like manual transmissions, they’re going to be harder and harder to find as time goes.