Driving my 1.4l manual fwd Jazz in wintry conditions was a doddle compared to any rwd I’ve used.
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Back to the original post, so long as the multi-storey car park is not icy (in which case see other comments about rear wheel drive cars on ice/snow:-)) there is no way this should happen. If you can reproduce this at will I would take it back to Mazda and ask them to fix it… In good dry conditions you’d have to be really trying to break traction in one of these cars.
Maybe there is another friendly MX-5 owner close by you could compare car behaviour with?
Good luck, peter
The advantage of 4wd is , in my experience , a helluva lot less than the quick and cheap win given by a set of winter tyres. 4wd and winters is great , but I’d rather 2 wd and winters than 4wd on summers any time . And yes , I have tried back to back !
So far as winter tyre brands is concerned - having tried everything from very pricey Michelin and Vredestein to cheap as chips far eastern stuff over thirty years usage there isn’t a huge amount of difference in snow , they all will take you places summers wouldn’t even get near . But a lot more difference when it warms up a bit, with some cheapos under/ and torque steering like pigs
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I agree with the above, tyres are what allow most of northern europe to drive all manner of vehicles through winter. Inexperience, idiocy and uhp summer tyres are more usual in the uk.
Absolutely.
4wd only gives you more traction for getting up hills etc.
Winter tyres give more grip for everything.
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Agreed. See this video
Maybe a change of tyres might solve the problem the OP is experiencing. (Or even lower pressures?)
My experience of the abysmal Bakelite-hard OEM-fitted Bridgestone Potenza tyres on my car when I bought it was similar to what OP describes, but those were six years old. Problems vanished with a set of new Dunlop Maxx.
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Brings back memories of my GP father in the late 50’s through the 60’s when we still got mansized winters …chucking on “Town & Country / Mud & Snows” knobblies on his Crestas, Victors, Super Snipe cars to get to patients in snow up to the number plates sometimes.
Rears only of course (cough). I used to jump in for fun…my job to hold the green flashing light onto the roof.
Never got beaten as I recall, but Dad seemed to be an expert ( to any son’s eyes) of drifting and not losing momentum.
Looking back, I was probably a potential shovel operative.
Then we changed to Beetles.
They were OK if you remembered the windscreen washers were pressured from the front spare wheel, you not mind getting your wedding tackle frozen, or scraping ice the inside screen.and six volt leccies swept the screen every other minute…if it could be arrssed. Had to leave the radio off and only use the added Bosch spots sparingly…or the battery would call it’s Union Rep up and walk off.
We really have become a buncha saps! You kids have nae clue!
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Now we’re going back to the days when heaters weren’t built into the car but were optional extras made by Smiths…
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And The Wummin 
were in the kitchen supplying bacon sarnies & tea while the “Blokes” did oily Blokey Stuff 
adjusting brake shoes ,gapping plugs, dizzy contacts & condensers, and spraying the 'ol SU’s with carb cleaner before topping up the dash pots.
All with the left hand only, the right was for holding the tea.
Bygone days…
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Ahhh, topping up the dash pots , how you forget!!!
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Spray carb cleaner?? Did that exist in those days??
I still have a square fitting double-ended tool for adjusting brake shoes somewhere in my toolbox…
Don’t forget the grease nipples!
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I think…just think…back then you got aerosol carbon tetrachloride ( or derived of) for these wee jobs.
Just think…killer compounds over the counter.
“Fatal if Swallowed” as it says on the tin…
Anyhoo, back on topic.
Switch off all yer driver aids lads and drive the ruddy thing yourselves.
No charge.
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. . . and a fuel system was a lump of metal with holes in it, not a box with more computing power than an early moon mission.
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I think ABS extending stopping distances in snow is analogous to TC making uphill progress difficult when there is little grip. In both cases, very low friction and unavoidable slip is the problem.
On a very slippy surface, ABS virtually stops the brakes functioning unless you can brake so gently that you don’t trigger it.
On a very slippy surface, TC interferes with progress unless you can demand so little friction that slip is actually avoided.
In both cases, if there are circumstances when some slip is better for stopping or progress than either no brakes or no propulsion but the invisible hand doesn’t want to allow it, you can be worse off.
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Surely the OP’s issue sounds like an ESP sensor problem, likely the yaw sensor? It seems to me highly unlikely it’s actually a traction issue judging by the examples given.
Neil
I don’t think that is likely - if the sensor was out of limits then the car would show a fault and/or disable DSC/TCS.
Presumably I’ve misunderstood but to me, it sounds remarkably like a slipping clutch.
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Since you mention it…I’d ignored the bit about the burning clutch because it made no sense. What I couldn’t work out was why, if the clutch wasn’t slipping in a normal situation, it would slip with virtually no load - being that the wheels were slipping. Maybe the DSC/TCS was actually braking the rear wheels to stop them spinning? I still can’t make it add up but who knows what the invisible hand is doing in that situation? Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to be helpful!
I’m not a Luddite, but I hate automation when it creates that “what’s it doing now?” feeling.
EDIT:
Thinking about this some more, if
- the driver were to take the view that the way to use traction control is to give it the beans and let the TC sort things out; and
- the TC just used braking to prevent wheelspin
then you could have a situation where high power was being used against the brakes and the clutch started to slip. The revs would rise, and smoke would ensue.
The problem I see with this hypothesis is that I would expect TC to cut the power as well as mess about with the brakes.
Question for the OP - were you giving it the beans? If so I’d suggest using minimum power, with or without TC switched on - whichever works best. And check out the clutch, which might be worn out, contaminated, or glazed.
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Looking back at the OP’s OP, it would appear to suggest that this happens in icy conditions.
The only cure for that is winter tyres…
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Paul_MK says he always uses winter tyres in winter. But I do agree. Winter tyres even on an MX-5 probably beats 4WD without them.