Can’t vouch for the 1.5 but i can say that the 2.0 makes for easy higher end speed progress. I’ve done 3 european trips in ours this year and to get onto an autoroute, set the cruise to 135kmh and just leave it. It easily pulls up the hills and will return decent mpg while doing it.
But then you get to the twisty stuff and it’s just great fun.
Agree with Barrie as over the last 20 years have had 12 MX5s. Loved them all.
2 x Mk1 1.6 and 1.8
3 x Mk2 one MK2 and two MK2.5s
5 x MK3 one MK 3, three MK3.5 Roadster (including Kuro with BBR super 200) and one 3.75.
2 x MK4 Recaro and current 2019 2.0L GT Sport Nav.
All very different even between the Recaro and current GT Sport Nav. Loved them all but current is my favourite as very comfortable on longer journeys but also has plenty of power and fun factor. Also as a pensioner is economical to run with ave 48mpg and standard £145.00 road tax.
…having both a 1.5 and a 2.0 ltr is very much “having your cake and eating it !”
…if there were enough variants you could always get one for each day of the week!
Although we have been MX5 owners for 20+ years we only ever had 2, (just on our third the last couple of months).
The last one we kept for 17 years, our new one will probably be a lot shorter, and I may well consider a 2.0ltr “hard top” as I prefer the looks over the soft top, but I prefer the “full on” top down experience which you don’t really get in the RF. (Although the 1.5 I test drove was an RF version and in general it still seemed plenty quick enough for me).
I think a lot depends on the type of driving you plan to do, for longer “faster” cruising roads I expect the 2.0 ltr is more suited, for short and “twisty” bits I find the 1.5 fine, it’s only on the occasional hill that you do have to get used to changing down a gear or two…
What would give the benefit of both worlds would be if Mazda did a small turbo, I have owned 2 Skoda 1.4 turbo petrol engine cars and the engines are really good giving both reasonable economy with performance and also low down torque almost on par with previous 2.0 ltr diesels I had. But obviously Mazda don’t like small turbo engines, (I know they had one in the Fiat version, but not as good looking a car IMHO, and no longer sold anyway…)
Don’t mind the looks of the Fiat but was following an Abarth version last week. As he accelerated away the exhaust note was horrendous. Reminiscent of when as kids we used playing cards and clothes pegs to rattle on the spokes of our peddle bikes.
The exhaust on the Arbarth Fiat 500 is just as bad, must be an Arbarth thing, sounds like a scorpion f*****g, in a tin bath!
Perfect description Roger. I’d got the f*****g bit but wasn’t sure of the animal or location.