It was September 2019 and I had just taken our Mazda 3 in for a service , I had looked at the Mx5 s when we were in the garage but honestly I cant say I was blown away, a bit of an impractical sports car and anyway all modern cars drive the same ( don’t they?)
It was only because my son was looking to change his car that we took an Mx5 for a test drive , and I must say it was a bit of an epiphany. I almost did a complete 360. This drove like my Mk 1 Escort when I was 17 ( in a good way) it was old but modern at the same time .
I was just wondering if others were sceptics or had friends that were sceptics but had completely changed their minds, one way or another when driving one.
I’d never even considered an MX-5 until I drove one back in 2006! I was working at a Mazda dealership, and one of my jobs was to assist in doing customer demonstrations. Once driven, I was hooked, and last year I finally got my own - a 2018 ND2 2 litre in Ceramic… Will never be as practical as a Mazda 3 for example!, but it is truly a wonderful little sports car
Never considered one - although I’d admired the NA on its launch, I was very much a biker back then - but a colleague at the bike shop I worked at in the early noughties always raved about them.
Then a friend bought an MR2 roadster and I started thinking that I’d never bought a car that I really desired - rather than ticking the box marked “practical” - since my 20’s. Did a bit of research and decided on an MX5, then bought a lovely low-mileage NB. My wife has a Qashqai for carrying the dogs and going on holiday, so I’ve decided never to sell my current NC; I’m even planning to buy a Yaris or similar next year as a winter car, so I can garage my “baby” when the roads are salty.
Oh yes.
I used to believe I needed 5 seats for me and my mates, a hatchback for my mountain bike, and I expected the fuel consumption to be sky high.
All these reasons for not buying an MX-5 when I sat in my mate’s NB 15 years ago disappeared in the rear view mirror during my first drive.
And proved to be unfounded anyway.
Yes, to stick with my very comfortable roomy old NC. But…
Hoping at least one would suit me and with extremely unusual amounts of ready money burning my pocket, I had a drive in three different NDs; Goodwood hill climb pre-production 1.5 (10mins tent to tent with a Mazda minder), dealer demo 1.5 (30mins on my own cut short to 20 by my back ache), dealer 2.0 (a year later same again better seat but still cut short by my back). I also sat in a Recaro and a 30AE a few times at various places for a couple of minutes each and played with al possible position adjustments, each time with the same reaction.
In each case it was the seat wrecking my lower back, compounded by the lack of space in the cramped driving position for arms and legs and shoulders. The back pain totally swamped the three superb drives I had in the otherwise brilliant ND. If I was smaller, younger and less arthritic I’d be driving one now.
Following the untimely demise of SWMBO’s trusty old Vextra, and to pass the time while the NC was being serviced, we did an unplanned test-drive of a Mazda3. This resulted in the money I had saved for an ND rapidly burning right through my pocket; SWMBO now drives that Mazda3 and I’m skint again.
That’s bad luck RichardFX, at least you tried! There’s absolutely no point in buying a car in which you don’t fit and can’t get comfortable, no matter how good it is. The ND is indeed compact, luckily at 65 and 14 stones , a bit stiff (especially after gardening) and with a bad back (off and on) I can get comfortable in mine. The longest trip so far is only about 2 hrs and I was still OK after that distance. I’m not sure what it would be like after a longer trip, but I tend not to do many of those these days. I have my Focus which is very comfortable and I tend to use that. Mrs MX2000 prefers that one anyway. It’s horses for courses I suppose…
Well, I test drove SWMBO’s then 4 years old 2002 Sport.
She bought it.
And she kept the keys.
This lead to me having to buy my own.
Life’s a bee-hatch.
I keep my keys.
It has been thus for 14 years.
Still have them both.
And our keys.
When I first drove an ND after owning an NB for a few years I was amazed just how good it was. The dealer was with me and I think he could tell I was very interested to say the least. So the test drive confirmed it was time to trade the NB (I got a fair price for it) and buy an ND.
Quite.
IanH here, myself and a few others in Scotland were so called VIP guests at the pre-launch day to test drive the Mazda demo fleet.
I described them at the time as “the 21s century Mk1 reborn”.
It seemed you just morphed with the thing and became part of the car.
I did feel the tiller was a bit feeless, disengaged even and too light but at the time I did not know it was not connected to the tarmac as such.
They really are visceral in a refined way…which is an oxymoron I guess.
So much so, driving our tip-top Mk2.5 1840cc Sport home…it felt heavy, sluggish, and unresponsive by comparison but I got used to it again after a few miles.
You obviously did it the wrong way On various trips to car dealerships with my son I sat In a Lotus Elise, I honestly thought I was going to have to spend the night , when I sat in the Mx5 afterwards it felt like an SUV in comparison.
Never been in an Elise, but about twenty years ago I enjoyed a couple of hours as passenger in a 26R Elan with a safe but very fast driver, its builder and only owner.
No comfort issues there with the harness seats, and earplugs under the helmet.
It was alright when I was in it , the rear engine layout means plenty of legroom, but with the tub chassis the sills (cills?) are so high I had to put my hands on the floor and pull myself out , much to my wife’s merriment
It was definitely the test drive to at did it for me. I wanted something faster, more upmarket and was prepared to pay more, but killing a bit of time between testing other cars and one drive in the NC and I was hooked. Grinning from ear to ear all the way and far more balanced than the earlier cars (yes I am a heretic).
8 years later and I still love it and am always impressed by the feel and balance. (With Eibach suspension of course )
Plus it has lost hardly any money. Double bonus.
I bought my Five without ever test driving one- yes, I know! But I was determined it was the car for me. However, two friends of mine are waiting on a shot to test drive mine. One has ‘soft top lust’ and the other is sure he will buy a Five in the future, just a question of when but he’s never had a shot in one. I think it’s more SWMBO needs some convincing
I was interested because the test drive totally changed my perception of the car. We probably all know someone who thinks they know “ hairdressers car, not as good as Porsche “ without ever driving an Mx5 , now if I gave them my keys
I had already ordered my ND 1.5 at this point and the VIP experience allowed me to validate the choice as the first opportunity to drive one, had a play in the ND1 2.0 at the same session and the 1.5 is the (IMHO) purer and more engaging driving experience.
Now I have an ND2 2.0, a different machine which I didn’t intend to buy until I had the chance to run one over a familiar route, more power than the 1.5 obviously, both are fantastic driving experiences when you have the environment to play in properly
I didn’t test drive one either - I have only ever test driven two cars in over 40 years of owning cars. I did go and sit in one at the dealers to make sure I would fit comfortably, turns out it was a perfect fit and the rest is history.
)
