Category: Roadsters 
Price Range: £15,000 to £19,695
Fun to drive, proper sports car looks, cheap to run.
Ride can be harsh, cramped interior.
This facelift is an improvement, but it's hardly necessary.
The latest generation MX-5 didn't really need a facelift - it looked good anyway - but Mazda felt it had to do something to get us excited about its new six-speed F1-style paddles. Of course, all Mazda needed to do was drop in the autobox without too much fuss - but that's hardly going to grab the headlines. So now you get the Mazda Powershift models in 2.0-litre hard-top and soft-top versions.
Mazda has done a fair bit of tinkering, though. They made the front headlights more swoopy, redesigned the bumpers, changed the sills, made a few cosmetic changes in the interior (they ditched the piano-black panel on the dashboard for a more conservative graphic grey arrangement), uprated the suspension and tweaked the engine.
The overall effect is a more aggressive-looking car. It's also given Mazda the opportunity to make the Roadster Coupe a bit fancier than its soft-top sibling to fully justify the higher asking price. For an extra couple of grand, Roadster Coupe buyers not only get a retractable hard-top, but some chrome around the grille, headlamps with chrome bezels and chrome door handles. More chrome, then.
You can't complain though: the pre-facelift MX-5 is £205 cheaper and it's a capable machine in both Roadster and Roadster Coupe guises. This minor refresh, to go with the new transmission, isn't going to hurt, and you'll pay less for it.
Prices range from £16,345 to £21,695 and the new model goes on sale in April.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Mazda MX-5
wrote on 12 09 2007
wrote on 27 02 2007