I recently had the feeling that I might „need“ a new car, a new toy, a convertible, a Roadster. And when you start thinking about Roadsters, at least at some point you will see the MX5.
But to be honest, I never thought of the Mazda MX5 as a car that could be of any interest to me. It’s for women (sorry for this stupid bias), it’s too small, it’s just a Mazda and maybe most important to me, there are just so many MX5 that it’s hardly something special.
So I started to investigat, I sat in the FIAT 124 Spider (Abarth) that is basically the same as the MX5 but a bit more Special but then realised that it was not really better, it even was not continued due to a lack of success… So I just passed by a local Mazda dealer and saw the MX5 RF for the first time. The one with the „retractable hardtop“. And to be honest, I was Kind of in love with the car. It was the successful, solid MX5 but with the RF, it is somehow a bit special. It Looks a bit like the Targa Roofs from Porsche.
I had to test the car, because especially the 184hp were a bit concerning to me.
A sporty car with less than 200hp? Could this even work?
Yes, it can work. And yes, it does work, at least in the „Miata“ MX5 (RF). The car is relatively light, even lighter than the previous genaration (which is very rare as cars tend to get bigger, better equipped and therefore more heavy) and is now at 986kg (1120 as RF).
So power is not everything and the 184hp are okay with the RF. It’s not that you feel like kicking a Porsche (Targa 😉 ) out of the next sprint race at the traffic Lights, but it feels a bit like you might catch it in the next sharp corner. The lightweight helps you to stay on track even in really fast driven sharp Corners without any real effort.
The Mazda MX5 RF is not a sports car for a track or even the German Autobahn. But it’s a great Roadster to go into the alps, look for some serpentines and be happy.
Recommended car for having fun
In terms of what you get for your money (an almost fully equipped Mazda MX5 RF is priced at around 34.000€), it is really fun. Don’t talk about practicallity (the trunk is just for a small bag) or comfort if you are more than 1.85m tall. But apart from that, I can really recommend the MX5 to anyone Looking for a fun car for the weekend drive on the countryside. If you look for other Roadsters that might offer a similar amount of fun, you usally have to spend twice the amount of money.
