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Mazda MX-5 1.8i
Rating 
Verdict Hairdressing just got butch
The old MX-5 was a phenomenon. The bestselling sports car the world has ever seen. Probably because it always felt just a teensy bit gay. That’s why we all liked it so much. It wasn’t threatening.
With its wider body and flared wheelarches, the new version looks a bit more beefed up, as though they haven’t evolved the old one so much as sent it to the gym. It now looks like it means business.
What’s really brilliant is that despite the stronger body and the greater number of toys, it weighs only 45kg more than the old one. Computer geeks didn’t do that. Engineers did.
And it was engineers who did the roof. Oh I’m sure there was pressure to fit an electrically operated soft top, but this would have added weight. So what you get is a canvas top that can be raised and lowered, using one hand, from the driver’s seat.
And because they’ve kept the weight down, the new car still feels gay, in both the new and the old sense of the word. The balance, the poise, the gearchange, the exhaust note: they’re all spot on.
Everything about the new MX-5 is perfectly judged, so that what you end up with is a slightly more practical, slightly better-looking version of something you loved anyway.
Current price £15,730
Price when tested (Feb 2006) £15,600
Engine 1798cc, four cylinders
Power 124bhp @ 6500rpm
Torque 123 lb ft @ 4500rpm
Transmission Five-speed manual
Fuel/ 38.7mpg (combined) / 174g/km
0-62mph 9.4sec
Top speed 122mph
I wonder what George Roberts drives? A Toyota Celica GT, perchance?
The sales figures of the MX5 speak for themselves - mind you, a bit more poke wouldn't go amiss....
Johnny, Sherborne,
The best affordable sports car ever made. Always has been, and based on what's being launched at the moment, probably always will be.
To suggest the Celica, convertible or not, is a rival simply illustrates how spectacularly George Roberts misses the point. The wrong wheels are driven for starters, and the Celica by comparison is overweight, over complex and far, far too big.
The MX-5 is the very essence of what the Japanese car industry has done across the board in the last 30 years. Take all the good bits of the old British sports cars (lightness, simplicity, chassis balance, "feel"), add the same reliability as you'd find in any Japanese family hatch, and sell it at an extremely reasonable price.
It's a fabulous car. If you're secure in your sexuality, and can at the very least smile and flip the bird at the chavs and simpletons who mock, it's a brilliant car.
Dan P, Yateley,
Gee a Mazda MX-5, Mazda RX-8, Mazda CX-7 and a Mazda 6 MPS in Jeremy's TOP 25...Four Mazda's.
I glad you have finally realized that at the moment Mazda makes the best range of Drivers cars that you don't have to sell your home for.
No wonder Mazda have sales records in Every country, can not make enough and are the only truly profitable maker with Toyota and Honda.
What happened to your lovely" Mondeo's JC.
Zoom ZOOM
Ash Grant, Seaford , Australia
Gerorge Roberts. Have you actually driven one?? Until then you wouldnt possibly know that this car is superb
Peter Wood, peterlee, England
Seriously Mr Clarkson, the MX5, in your top 25, such a limp plastic mock of a 'sports car' up there with the likes of the Brera V6 and the RX8, there are cars that rival the MX5 in the same category such as the Toyota Celica GT convertible, 2.0 GT engine which makes a satisfying growl when you get it up to 7,000 rpm. Unlike the MX5 the Celica GT has space for at least two dwarfs in the back witch always good for a laugh, or you can at least put your children on the back seats. The MX5 is the best selling sports car which means it fits into allot of what people want and it must tick allot of boxes with everyone who has bought one but this is not exactly a good thing. The best selling car in the world is the ford F150 and we all know what a heap that is, plastic, badly made and all American. So I’m guessing that this list isn't a really your favourite list just everyone else’s favourite list or else you would not of included the MX5.
Gerorge Roberts, London, UK