There is no practical reason for the Mazda MX-5 to exist.
It only carries two people. It’s trunk is too small for your golf clubs. Though it’s tiny, the MX-5’s 167 horsepower, 2.0 liter, four cylinder engine doesn’t save you the amount of fuel similarly sized vehicles might. A tall man like me has to duck to get inside it and keep his head down while the soft top roof closes. It’s sport-tuned makes for a tighter ride that transmits echoes of rough pavement up your backside.
In all reasonable, responsible terms, it’s the sort of car that should no longer exist. In this age of green-obsessed, fuel efficient, safety-obsessed, technologically choked mobile sponges that suck any sensation of driving away from the driver, the Mazda MX-5 is a Velociraptor – a small, quick, aggressive dinosaur.
And that’s why I love it.
All of those sins totaled up make for a car any lover of pure driving sensation will enjoy.Tight, responsive and nimble, the latest MX-5 is a genuine roadster in the truest sense of the word
A quick note: I don’t think we’ll call it a Miata anymore. It’s still called “Miata” on the car’s website. But, the MX-5 feels more cutting edge now with its zippy handling and more refined exterior. It hasn’t looked or felt like the more feminine looking, Malibu Barbie dream car originally called the Miata since a redesign in 2008.
In my imagination, if you do trot out ye olde cheesy, pseudo-Italian name for this little gem, someone from Mazda will walk to your door from Irvine, Calif. and slap you. Twice. Hard. In the face. They’ll be smiling while they do it and hoping you’ll buy a nice, award winning Mazda 6 or something, but the slap will still hurt. MX-5 it is.
While that’s imagination They’ll do the same thing if you fumble the name off of their signature speedway track – Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. So, you need to get all of that phraseology right. But, I digress.
The MX-5 comes equipped with rear wheel drive and a six speed, short throw manual transmission. You can get an automatic transmission for it, but why would you want to if you’re looking to buy a proper roadster?
There are hotter two seaters than the MX-5, but not many with Mazda’s price tag — set less than $30,000. You’ll go faster in a Porsche Boxter for $50,000+. You’ll corner better in a Lotus Elise for $66,000. But, you’ll have a lot of fun in an MX-5 for a fraction of more elitist sportsters. The only car in the similar price range that can provide as much raw enjoyment might be the $25,000 Scion FR-S – and I wouldn’t call that a roadster in the MX-5 traditional sense.
I’m grateful to Mazda for being silly enough to sell this car for as long as they have enough fire in the company’s collective belly and enough flippant insanity to continue building a true driver’s machine that can serve no other purpose than to entertain a man or woman who loves to get behind a steering wheel and misbehave.
In a bubble-wrapped, latte-slurping, Evian for blood era in which “inappropriate” is used so often it triggers a hugged tree-sized pain in the arse, I’ll take two MX-5s and won’t call AAA in the morning.
Note: Mazda in now way endorses driving inappropriately, illegally or irresponsibly in their vehicles, be they purchased or presented for press loan.
I do, of course. Constantly. But, Mazda does not.
