With the Mazda MX-5 soon to celebrate 25 years of production, Glenn Brooks recalls its 1989 launch, tries the latest car, and takes a look at what’s coming for next year’s fourth generation model.
“A car that makes driving truly joyful”, is how Mazda program manager Nobuhiro Yamamoto describes the original MX-5, or Miata, the car’s name in the US. And America is where the majority of the more than 900,000 units of this roadster have been sold, with the car having originally been announced at the Chicago auto show in February 1989.
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That first generation model was built until 2005, and to my eyes it was a shame that the pop-up headlights had to be ditched for its replacement (pedestrian injury legislation did for them). It was still a lightweight car, yet the more cautious styling and bigger engine of the gen 2 MX-5 in some ways diluted the appeal of the original. But come the 2005 Geneva motor show and Mazda put things right, as the styling of what is still the current car, nine years on, proves.
The Mark 3 entered production at the Ujina 1 plant in May 2005, and is sold in the home market as the Mazda Roadster. In 2006, it was joined by an additional version which has three names, depending on the sales region. In Japan, it’s the Roadster Power Retractable Hard Top, in North America the MX-5 Power Retractable Hard Top, but thankfully Mazda Europe simplified things: here it’s the MX-5 Roadster Coupe.
Not much has changed on this car since its original launch, and that’s no bad thing. It’s had two facelifts over the years – the first at the 2008 Paris motor show and the second appeared in Japan in July 2012 – but neither needed to be anything more than a nip and tuck. The interior has also had some revisions, as you would expect, but none of the basics has been messed with. You lower yourself in, the doors are light, the instruments are right there in front of you, the ignition fires at the twist of a car, there’s a proper handbrake and you’re fairly close to both the roof and your passenger. The only fault I could find was a lack of reach adjustment for the steering wheel.
Dropping the top on the Roadster Coupe is easy: pull a catch to unlock it and press a button, then simply reverse the process allowing an electric motor to raise it before you lock it into place. Simple. Its two panels descend into the boot, which is then something of a tight fit for anything more than a few soft bags. There again, if you want a larger boot, just buy the Roadster.
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By GlobalDataThe gearchange always surprises anyone who hasn’t driven an MX-5 before. It’s just so precise, or as Yamamoto-san would deem it, joyful. The base car has a 126hp (93kW) 1.8-litre engine and standard five-speed gearbox. You can, however, pay more for a 160hp (118kW) 2.0-litre unit. This gives you the choice of six-speed manual or ‘Powershift’, a torque converter automatic with the same number of ratios.
The soft-top car comes in 1.8-manual form only, and is something of a bargain, priced at either GBP18,495 in SE spec or GBP18,995 for Sport Venture trim. The equivalent Roadster Coupe costs an extra GB1,500, but you can pay as much as GBP23,695, which gets you the 2.0-litre automatic.
In 2014 terms, you can’t really label this a fast car, but the MX-5’s forte has always been its handling balance rather than its acceleration times, right from the first 1.6-litre model back in the late ’80s. And there’s much fun to be had by turning the traction control off. On the right road, with the roof lowered, you can make a case for this being all the sports car anyone could ever need in the real world.
If the styling still works, and the chassis is as sublime as ever, what does Mazda need to do to replace the MX-5? It’s a tough question and a big part of the reason why the company has kept the current model in production for so long. That, and the need to be careful with R&D spending in the years immediately following the global financial crisis and the loss of Ford as an engineering partner and major shareholder.
Mazda is now profitable again after some difficult times, but it has sensibly sought out alliances where it makes sense to do so. The next MX-5 will be the first model not to use the firm’s own Skyactiv vehicle architecture as introduced by the CX-5 and subsequently by the latest generations of the Mazda6 and Mazda3. Instead, project J12A should be the first vehicle for the company’s so-called ‘S-platform’ which it will share with FCA.
Rumour has it that vehicle weight will drop by a hundred or more kilos, allowing for fewer emissions, lower fuel consumption and maybe even smaller capacity engines. How about a rotary? It’s a possibility but doubtful. The Wankel engine is far more likely to return in a new and more expensive sports car – 2017 would be perfect timing as that will be the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Cosmo Sport, Mazda’s first dual-rotor car. Such a model would give the company better leverage for its S-platform too. The model name would probably be RX-9, with a production version of the Renesis-replacing 16X experimental engine under the bonnet.
Both the next MX-5/Miata and a roadster for Alfa Romeo will be manufactured in Hiroshima, though each will have its own engine. The Mazda should come first, with a likely debut at next year’s Chicago auto show, to be followed by the Alfa, which might well revive the Spider or Duetto model names.
Can there be another car out there which will still be a first rate driving experience as it hits its tenth birthday? I’m struggling to think of one, which is probably why I was so captivated by the MX-5 during my week with it.
