MAZDA MX-5: Mazda's new MX-5 has oodles of personality
It was a pub quiz type of question, and surprisingly none of the five assembled petrolheads had the answer with the basic information that it's Japanese, around for more than sixteen years and in the Guinness Book of Records.
They had to get supplementary clues like nearly 250 worldwide enthusiasts' clubs and sales heading for three quarters of a million, before cracking it. Clearly the Mazda MX-5 is not in all our thinking as a great automotive success story.
And yet that's what it is, being in the Guinness book as the best-selling two-seater open sports car ever built. Back in 1989 when the MX-5 made its debut, the omens were not good. Affordable sports cars appeared to be on the way out. They were mostly British like the MGB and with questionable build quality. Mazda's Japanese pedigree brought reassurance and almost instant appeal in markets everywhere.
Now there's a third generation MX-5 that will be making its Irish debut early next year and taking the badge beyond the magic one million mark. We were driving it last week in sunny Portugal, enjoying the open-top charm.
Predictably, the new version is bigger, being 40mm wider, 20mm longer and taller and with a 65mm longer wheelbase than the predecessor. The extra dimensions have translated well in the cabin: six footers or people as tall as 1.86m can fit in comfortably. Whereas the old car was undoubtedly cramped, the ambience now is cosy comfortable.
There are two petrol engines, a 1.8 and a 2-litre developing respectively 124 and 158bhp with top speeds of 196 and 210km/h and 0 to 100km/h times of 9.4 and 7.9 seconds. Both sit in a smarter, bolder profile that still pays homage to the original. The 1.8 will, of course, be the big seller in European markets. Originally MX-5 was mostly a 1.6 litre affair, especially here in Ireland, but that has disappeared. Likely Irish price for the 1.8 will be just below €40,000.
Sports cars like the MX-5 are not, contrary to some notions, all about high-powered performance and getting there faster. Indeed, they are almost the antithesis of this thinking. The little Mazda on a sunny day and with the hood down can instil a wonderful feeling of well-being and around the back roads of the Algarve region, it provided oodles of fun and smiles-at low speed. A couple of times, we did seek out the 1.8's livelier character: we actually seemed to be going faster than the speedometer suggested. But the car sat on the road with taut and reassuring composure.
Open sports cars used to give us a shake, rattle and roll experience, but suffice to say the Mazda Japanese pedigree has it nutted and bolted together with precision and integrity.
We enthusiastically embraced the five-speed gearbox just to tease out extra vroom - or should we say zoom-zoom. It's slick and very compliant, adding to the driving pleasure. It doesn't make the engine wildly vocal: there are times in a car like the MX-5 you have to be not just seen but heard!
Amazingly in the sunny Algarve, we saw no other open top sports cars or cabriolets. Topless driving is the preserve of colder and more volatile climates, like Britain and Ireland.
If there's a perfect antidote to winter motoring blues, then maybe it's the MX-5. It should make you smile in these dark days, by spring you should be grinning and by summer it will have you laughing. That's its personality!
Engines: Two petrol engines; a 1.8-litre 124bhp and a 2-litre 158bhp. No 1.6-litre in new model.
Top speeds: 196km/h (1.8-litre) and 210km/h (2-litre)
Performance: 0-100km/h for 9.4 seconds (1.8) and 7.9 seconds (2.0)
Price: About €40,000 for the 1.8-litre