A rough diamond. (Mazda MX-5 1.8i)

Member Name: zootfroot

Product:	Mazda MX-5 1.8i
Date:	20/11/01 (1101 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great looking, Affordable, reliable fun in the sun, Fine handling

Disadvantages: Thin paintwork, Underpowered, Can be a handful in the wet

I've owned my 1998 new-shape MX-5 1.8i for over a year now so I feel I've gotten over the euphoria that seems to come over anybody who owns a roadster for the first time.

Like many people, I lusted over an MX-5 more than a TVR or a Boxster because its great looks and handling don't have a monster price tag to match. Still, it wasn't exactly cheap when I bought it as the second owner - £13.5K with 18,000 miles on the clock. Those were still the days when main dealers could afford to be sniffy about their customers - MX-5s were genuinely in demand and haggling proved pretty fruitless. Today however, the situation has turned around and dealers are trying hard for your business - so it's a good time to buy! Bear in mind though that the reputation that MX-5s used to have for defying the laws of depreciation has also been tarnished. Mine is now worth about 10K.

So what's the car like? I won't go into great detail on the things that other people have mentioned - suffice to say the car handles like a go-kart, with superb cornering ability and peerless lack of body-roll in its class. With the low seating position and good feedback from the steering it's no wonder you see so many MX-5 drivers with the tell-tale perma-grin - they all imagining they're Michael Schumacher! Be warned though; this car is light and rear-wheel drive, which is a two-edged sword. If you don't know the car really well in the wet, be prepared to lose the back end at some time or other. Honestly folks, if you get an MX-5, get some good all-weather tyres (eg. Goodyear Venturas) because believe me, spinning on a wet corner or roundabout is no fun at all. All the MX-5 drivers I know have done this at some point, and we know from experience that the dry cleaning bills can be expensive!

If the sun ever does come out though, the top goes down in a jiffy and you can pose to your heart's content. I've heard some people complaining th
at the roof is not automatic. Crazy talk! The roof is secured with two catches which are easily clipped and unclipped from the driver's seat - which means I can safely drop the hood in less than a second or raise it one-handed in two seconds. Many is the time I've seen other convertible drivers gape as I drop the hood like lightning at traffic lights - their slow automatic systems take so long they can't afford the wait (raising or dropping the hood while driving in any convertible is NOT advised! :) The season doesn't matter too much either. I've had country drives on crisp sunny winter days with roof down and felt snug enough with the powerful heaters stopping my toes from getting frostbite. Let me emphasise - the heater on this car is REALLY good. Also, the dinky fold-up windblocker which comes standard on 1.8 cars is quite effective.

Just another quick point about the soft top - since 1998 a heated glass rear window comes as standard. This is superior to the naff plastic windows that can still be found misting up on other cars twice the price of the humble '5. And the roof doesn't leak in bad weather either. Thanks Mazda!

The achilles heel of the mk2 MX-5 is the engine. A very rough and ready unit, it doesn't provide much torque at the low end of the rev counter. To get any gutsy performance out of it you really need to keep the revs up - and even then expect to be taunted mercilessly by anything from a TVR Cerbera to a Golf VR6. It is only a 4 cylinder 1.8 litre after all. The engine never sounds great either - you certainly won't be impressing anyone with the exhaust note.

Another thing that really ticks me off about my car is the colour, which in 1998 was called Twilight Blue and I believe is now called Racing Blue Mica. A dark metallic blue which looked fabulous in the showroom, I quickly found out this is a terror to keep clean. Given the choice now, I would definitely favour a light metallic.
Also, the paint is very thin and at 37,000 miles my bonnet seriously could do with a respray due to stone chips.

Other points to consider for my year and model are :

- Fuel consumption isn't that great (seems to be ~30 mpg for me)
- The seats aren't very comfortable for long journeys
- The stock headlights aren't very powerful
- The boot, while being appreciably better than the original MX-5, is still very shallow. (Still way better than those new MR2s though!). You can't go on holiday for two for more than a long weekend without getting a boot rack.
- Lots of road noise, especially on motorways
- Very hard suspension which can rattle the bones on badly finished roads
- ABS standard on 1.8iS only

In conclusion then, the MX-5 is an utterly reliable, value-for-money everyday roadster which in good weather can put a smile on the face of even the most miserable driver. It has its down-sides but in the most part these are acceptable given the nature of the car. Less brash and more pure than a (more expensive) Z3, and miles better looking (in my opinion) than the slab-sided MR2, it's still the people's drop-top. And in it's latest revised form, with new seats, interior trim, uprated VVC engine, standard ABS and a new, meaner looking snout, it's in even better form to see off the competition - until 2003 that is, when Mazda intend to replace it with an all-new car.

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