Category: Roadsters 
Price Range: £15,000 to £19,695
Entertaining drive regardless of driver ability, style, "wind-in-the-hair" ability, no true rival, folding hard-top roof now available.
Limited standard kit, soft-edged suspension.
Mazda returns with a thoroughly modern interpretation of the classic sportscar, and with nothing else to compare it to, you really can't go wrong.
The record breaking Mazda MX-5 Roadster returns in its third iteration with an all-new model. The MX-5 has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records since 2000 for being the best-selling two-seat roadster of all time, with over 716,000 sold worldwide - 67,000 officially in the UK - since the original launch in 1989.
So Mazda certainly has a lot to live up to with its new MX-5.
Marginally larger and heavier than the second-generation model - launched in 1998 and revised in 2001 - the MX-5 retains its traditional front-engined, rear-wheel-drive layout and has a perfect 50/50 weight distribution. The latest model has a more masculine design in an attempt to widen its target market and shrug off its "hairdresser" image.
Two petrol engines are offered, a 1.8-litre (124bhp) and a 2.0-litre (157bhp). Five-speed manual transmission is standard with both engines, but the 2.0-litre can be specified in Sport trim which gives a six-speed manual 'box.
A Roadster Coupe version with an electronically-operating folding plastic roof joined the line-up in late 2006 and is reviewed separately.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Mazda MX-5
wrote on 12 09 2007
wrote on 27 02 2007