Mazda MX-5 2.0 SE-L 2d Owner Review

50,000 miles and 6 years of ownership. It's perfectly reasonable as a daily driver, comfortable, well equipped, reasonable running cost; it's been my households only car for several years now. So long as you don't need to to do Ikea or Facebook marketplace trips with it, you don't need to carry more than one passenger or pet, and you're not over 6 ft 2 inch, it's an absolute hoot you can use every day. But reliability is not to typical Japanese standards, expect issues.

It's a fantastic car and I'm considering buying another but Mazda's reputation for bulletproof reliability doesn't apply to this car: right now the roof's front edge is rubbing against the roll over hoop when the roof is folded down and I'm not sure how i am going to fix that, both electric window regulators failed last year and replacing them is an arse because they get all tangled up (costs about £200 per side at a main dealer) plus whilst they're broken you can't open the door easily or you get a wet interior, rear hub bushing/bearing carriers failed and replacing them was expensive (over £500 for non-OEM, you're looking at over £1000 for genuine Mazda fitted), the slider pins in the brake calipers seized causing uneven pad wear, the Panasonic battery didn't last 5 years, the rear view mirror has started to delaminate internally and the edges of the sun visor mirrors are tarnishing, the leather is not very nice and damages easily (my steering wheel is covered in grazes, the gearstick gaiter split under warranty and the coating on the gearknob has worn off). There are many horror stories of third gear stripping teeth on pre-facelift cars, they went through 5 versions of gearbox so I am praying my version 1 holds out! Oh and the paint is made of butter, I've owned 6 cars and this picks up stone chips like no other, you only have to look at it and it's scratched! Third party paint repairs have proved to be difficult, the lacquer peeled away after a few years from three separate repairs and smart repairers can struggle to get a good colour match. The warranty is only 3 years and Mazda UK have a poor reputation for dealing with problems.

So the ownership experience has not exactly been smooth. But all is forgiven when you drive it, it's just joyful. Yes most hot hatches will be quicker but the MX-5 is so much more engaging, 40 mph in it feels like 60 mph in anything else. A hot hatch feels like a normal car but faster, whereas the second you sit in a true sports car like the MX-5 it just feels special, sat low with the long bonnet and your legs in front of you, and stubby gearstick at elbow height. Once driving it feels alive and responsive, perhaps a bit skittish when pushed hard but rarely scary except if you're an idiot on damp roads, then it will bite. The controls are instantaneous and well weighted: the accelerator feels a bit offset to start with but you soon realise it's not and also perfect for heel-and-toe, the purity of a non-turbo engine means rapid and linear pickup and the electric power steering has decent feedback (although it'll never match a hydraulic rack). On the whole you get actual feedback, you feel what the car is doing and where the limits are and it's very rewarding to drive even at 7/10ths. It benefits from decent tyres (go for a wider 215) and a custom alignment by someone who knows they're doing - it's very sensitive to setup and tyre pressures. The gear lever is weighty with a wonderfully short throw, you'll be swapping gears for fun. I went for the 2.0 car because it has some overtaking grunt and doesn't need down changes on the motorway; I've never driven a 1.5 but I'd imagine they're fine until you need to get past a caravan and then you'll be wanting for more power. The 160 hp 2.0 is alright, but I think the 180 hp of the facelift is a figure more suited to the car, and 200 hp is probably the sweet spot before you have to go about upgrading tyres and brakes etc. The Fiat 124 with the extra torque of its turbo is probably fine, despite only having 140 hp, but you lose the natural aspirated purity.

2.0L benefit from a limited-slip differential (basically when you floor it, the rear wheels are made to turn at the same speed even when cornering) so you can tail slide out of almost any junction if you want to be a yob and can U-turn on a sixpence - no hot hatch will do that. This is an organic driving experience that is a very rare thing these days, you feel like you are doing the driving and the car is telling you how it's reacting although the ESP has saved my blushes a few times.

And of course, you can drop the roof at almost any time, if it's more than 5'c and dry, I WILL have the top open for any journey over 15 minutes and the heaters will keep up. The roof can be operated from inside the cabin, it's not electric nor does it need to be, you can get it up or down with one arm in about 3 seconds. It's a lesson in simplicity, quicker than any electric roof.

The seats are comfortable despite not having much adjustment but pre-facelift cars don't get reach adjust steering which is a bit of an oversight. Apparently they are basically hammocks with elastic material stretched over a seat frame, this might be why leather seats in older cars can look a bit baggy. You can hear the engine particularity when pressing on and it aurally rewards you for revving it out a bit but I wouldn't say it's outright noisy or boomy, I do 4 hour motorway drives in it without issue and can hold a conversation when the roof is up without raising my voice - if you are buying a used one aftermarket exhausts may change this. The engine note itself is good for a 4 pot but it's not amazing and definitely not a patch on any 6 cylinder, although it's unaugmented by digital trickery which is nice. The ride on the non-Bilstein setup of my SE-L is more comfortable than it has any right to be, but the trade off is car rolls quite a lot by design and it takes some getting use to, although it all adds to the sensation of speed and being on the edge. The Bilstein cars (Sport models) do not get new springs to match the firmer dampers and apparently this leads to a jiggly and unsettled ride.

The interior looks modern and is well screwed together but the centre console and dashboard plastic is hard and also tinny in places (top spec models get padded versions). Ergonomically it's fantastic, the controls are very logical and you can operate them all with gloves on. If you turn off the lane-keep assist it stays off! The infotainment systems is amongst the easiest I have used wherever touchscreen or control knob, the navigation guidance and routing is good, the audio quality is reasonable - although I have used AIO Tweaks to make the touchscreen work on the move and a few other improvements. Android Auto is an expensive option (about £500 dealer fit). You get speakers in the driver's headrest which are handy for phonecalls and navigation, but they are poor quality for music - might be better on Bose equipped models where the passenger also gets headrest speakers. However the infotainment is sluggish to start and it can be a couple of minutes until you get USB or Bluetooth music or even navigation, and it only finds my USB playlists about 1 in 15 drives! I don't have reversing sensors, cameras, blind spot detection, lane keep assist or rear cross traffic detection on my SE-L so can't comment on those. The climate control does a fine job with the roof up, but with the roof down in cooler times you'll want to manually set things to be more comfortable, but it is very easy to do with the physical controls. There are no heated seats with the cloth seats but I can't say I have missed them, what i would like is a heated steering wheel but that isn't even an option.

There are ergonomic niggles though. The only 12V socket is located deep in the passenger footwell and it's not illuminated so you will need to bend down through the passenger door to find it! There are two USB sockets up front that power a dashcam and charge my phone but officially they only output 500 mA so it's a slow charge on big phones. The glovebox is between and behind the seats, it's deep but access is not easy especially if you're using the cupholder in front of it (there are only two small cupholders, and one can be swapped between passenger footwell and rear centre console). There's some storage under the central armrest too. But that's your lot, there is no other cabin storage, no door bins, no seat pockets, nothing - you learn to travel light. Behind the seats are two mid-size cubbies but accessing them requires getting out the car and tilting the seat backrest fully forward. The cabin and boot lights are weedy, and use normal bulbs not LEDs. Fortunately the headlamps are LED and superb.

Then there is the elephant that can't fit in the room, the cabin is "cosy". Drivers upto 6 feet tall should be fine, but beyond this you could struggle to get comfortable and may end up with your head poking above the windscreen ! The passenger footwell is less spacious and for 6+ footers you'll need to move the cupholder otherwise the passenger is constantly whacking their knee in to it. The cabin could really do being 3" longer so the seats can siide back further. Although I would say size/weight is probably more important that height in being comfortable in the car as it's not all that wide sandwiched between the transmission tunnel and door, if your BMI is the wrong side of 30 you are going to struggle getting in and out too. Watching tall or large people unfamiliar with the car is hilarious, if I'm feeling kind I lower the roof which makes life a lot easier for them; if you are a regular user you will soon develop a technique that suits you, roof up or down. The other issue 6+ footers suffer from is more wind buffet as the final couple of inches of seat travel push your head into the turbulence a bit when the roof is down, whereas me at 5 ft 7 inch the wind is tolerable for hours even at motorway speeds with the roof down.

The passenger seat doesn't have tilt adjustment of the base which seems stingy - there is no height adjust on any of the seats but the rails are inclined so the more forward you go, the higher you'll sit. The arm rests and controls all sit at a perfect height though, I often use the handbrake as a temporary and surprisingly comfortable armrest that offers quick access to the gear lever and infotainment control knob. The window sill is too high to comfortably rest your arm on for any period of time, if you are so inclined.

The boot is a reasonable shape and the size is just about okay, however it is scuppered by the small opening; lots of things that would fit in the boot itself can't get through the aperture. There's also no lashing or attachment points in the boot, so things just fall about with gleeful abandon. I can get two large bags for life in the boot, or two small suitcases plus a couple of soft rucksacks - it is important to load the boot carefully if you want to have a couple's weekend away in it, think Tetris. The bootlid rack is expensive at over £700 from Mazda and is severely weight limited (I think 10 kg) as the panel is aluminium so anything more risks deforming it. It's not like there's any room behind the seats to put big items either. Even if you're travelling alone, the gap between the top of the windscreen and headrest isn't that big so large boxes might not be able to get to the front passenger seat. Again, if the car was a few inches longer in the boot and footwell it would be more usable for more people, as much as I appreciate it's compact external dimensions.

Outside of the seemingly myriad repairs, it's not an expensive car to run. Servicing is about £300 a pop at a main dealer, an indie expert may actually charge more as they do more - especially with the diff and gearbox fluids where Mazda seems to set very long intervals. I average about 38 mpg in mixed driving, but roof up on the motorway not speeding it will get 45-47 mpg. The tyres last about 8,000 on the rear and perhaps 18,000 on the front but I do drive it hard, as they're only 205-215/45 R17 they're not particularly expensive, a nice set being under £100 per corner. Insurance will be under £400 per year for most people.