The ND Mazda MX-5 Is A Wicked Little Roadster, But Definitely Not For Me

Let’s get the joke out of the way: the Mazda MX-5 is a hairdresser’s car. It’s a stupid, misguided statement, but the underlying sentiment is legitimate. When the first generation of this iconic roadster burst onto the scene in 1989, the world’s motoring press lauded it as one of the purest driver’s cars out there. This reputation was well deserved, but it became better known for the way it appealed to people who didn’t care about driving and just wanted to pose. This reputation became ingrained as the following generations grew ever further from the original car’s pure driving experience.

Enter the all-new Mazda MX-5 in a blaze of hype. This was going to be the car that returned the little Mazda to its rightful spot as the entry-level purist experience. We heard loads of rhetoric about it using lightweight materials and being wonderfully balanced, its tiny footprint harking back to the original. And the motoring press ate it up. Richard Hammond sat in an ND MX-5 with a Top Gear camera pointing at his face lauding this thing as utterly fantastic, while well known magazines hailed it as one of the cars of the year.

So you can imagine my excitement when I was handed the keys to our new long-term ND Mazda MX-5. Its Mica Blue paint is rather understated, making it blend into the grimy backdrop of a wintry London, which is a shame, because in the metal that front-end looks fantastic. Two weeks later, and my excitement has fizzled out to the point where I genuinely don’t look forward to driving it.

It’s not that I dislike the car, it’s a perfectly capable thing. It’s just that it has nothing of what I look for in a car, so there was nothing to look forward to whenever I slipped behind the wheel. So what exactly is grating on me so much? Let me explain…

I absolutely adore little lightweight sports cars. One of my favourite cars I’ve driven on this job is the Vauxhall VXR220, which has no fripperies and whose only purpose is to feel epic as you scoot across the tarmac. It does that job impeccably, and I totally fell for that car. I knew the MX-5 wouldn’t go to those extremes, but I expected it to at least channel the spirit of those raw road racers.

No such luck. Not even close. With comfy seats, air conditioning and skinny tyres, it was never going to glue itself to the black stuff in the way that VXR220 did, but I wanted to feel connected to the road, I wanted to feel everything that was happening underneath me, and most of all I wanted to feel confident enough to chuck the car about and have a giggle. None of this happened. The reason? It’s just way, way too soft.

We all know that those non-petrolheads are a key demographic for Mazda with this car, but I feel that it has focused way too much energy on appealing to these consumers. That would be fine - Mazda has to make money, after all - I just wish it hadn’t billed the car as something people likes us would enjoy.

It’s time to talk specifics. First of all, it has a weird split personality with regard to how the car feels and how it looks. Your eyes are telling you that this is an upmarket roadster; it has sharp, bold styling, a high quality interior and a comfortable steering wheel. But then you open the door or the boot, and because everything is so light it feels cheap and nasty. I don’t care that the Vauxhall has a mesh engine cover or tinpot doors, because it’s employing hardcore weight saving and the interior is bare metal. In the MX-5 the lightweight clangs and luxury interior grate because they’re so juxtaposed.

If you're looking for an affordable, modern driver's car, you'd be silly to look anywhere other than the Toyota GT86

And then there’s the handling. The steering takes some getting used to, and feels annoyingly artificial. You’ll quickly acclimatise, but there’s always that nagging sensation that you’re not really sure what the front wheels are doing. And then there’s the suspension, which is so ridiculously soft that it feels like you’ll be thrown out of the window under hard cornering.

That’s great when you’re cruising about town at 30mph, because it means that road imperfections barely register and speed bumps will worry you not. So it’s nice and comfy at slow speeds, which makes it a little less fun on the limit - another sign indicative of the fact that this car has been tailored to non-petrolheads.

Now I know it probably doesn’t sound like it, but I don’t really care that it’s not as good a driver’s car as I’d hoped. Yes, it bugs me that it had been hyped up to be something that I don’t think it is, but that’s not the end of the world. Sometimes it’s great to just cruise about in comfort. Unfortunately, the MX-5 does nothing for me here either.

The seats are comfortable, even on long trips, which is impressive given my long frame, but the steering wheel doesn’t adjust for reach which means I have to stretch for the wheel; long trips are hard on my arms. The multimedia system is clunky, the touchscreen isn’t particularly sensitive, and the satellite navigation system doesn’t allow postcode input. The speakers are pretty terrible quality, and the wind/road noise at motorway speeds make long distances at 70mph far from relaxing.

It’s not all negative, though. The gear change is sweet, and clicking each gear into place is a joy. We’re running the 1.5-litre engine, which means with 129bhp it’s by no means fast, but the engine’s delivery is smooth and predictable, and it’s fun keeping it high in the revs.

Look, I can totally understand why some petrolheads might like the car, but for me it doesn’t do one job well enough to make me think it’s anything other than too compromised. It’s too soft to be a driver’s car and it feels too cheap to be a luxury ride for posers. Unless you literally only care about how you look to others in your car, I wouldn’t recommend buying an ND Mazda MX-5.

At the end of the day, if you’re looking for an affordable, modern driver’s car, in my eyes you’d be silly to look anywhere other than the Toyota GT86. Few cars deliver such a connected driving experience or provide such capability at this price point, and while the interior might not look so flashy it feels a lot better put together. It’s the price you pay for a heavier car, but the Toyota’s such a fun thing to throw around you won’t notice the weight penalty.

The ND Mazda MX-5 is a decent car, but that’s all it is: decent. I’ll no doubt draw the ire of the community for saying this, but the car in these pictures might just be the most overrated car I’ve driven in years.