STYLISH ’18 MAZDA MX-5 RF MIGHT BE WORTH THE PRICE
It’s certainly not cheap, but this quick little roadster brings plenty of driving cheer
The Mazda MX-5 is not a car for the relentless grid of the city. Sure, it rides with satisfactory softness, and its lustrous Soul Red metallic gives the little Mazda loads of curb appeal. But its magic just can’t be found on city streets.
To understand the MX-5, you have to leave the confines of the city and really drive it.
During its nearly 30-year production run, the MX-5 (née Miata) has become a household name for car enthusiasts.
It’s loved by flat-brim-cap-wearing high school students, retirees and seemingly everyone in the middle who wants an affordable droptop sports car.
Never particularly fast, but always fun, the Miata seemingly prides itself on its lack of power.
Our test car is the RF model, which Mazda says (with a straight face) stands for “Retractable Fastback.” Notably it comes with a power folding Targa-style hardtop that doesn’t encroach on trunk space when the top is up or down. It can be raised or lowered at idle or on the go below 10 km/h.
The top looks stylish when up, and Mazda says the entire car weighs just 32 kilograms more than the standard manually-operated cloth top on the “regular” MX-5. With the top up, the RF doesn’t do a 100 per cent convincing job of being a closedroof car. There’s still a fair amount of road noise seeping in through its many joints and rubber seals.
But shame on you for driving a Miata with the top up.
With the top down on an empty road with lots of curves, nothing beats it. It begs for gear after gear of redline shifts. The rear end rotates playfully around sharp turns and there’s actually a lot of body roll in the equation.
Yes, the whole “slow car fast” thing has been rammed down our throats for years, but in this instance, the tired adage actually rings true. The tires are ho-hum passenger-car spec units, measure just 205 mm across the tread, and afford predictably meagre amounts of grip. This is good. The whole point of an MX-5 is that its limits are low and easily explored. If you put semi-slicks on, it just wouldn’t be as fun.
Altogether, the MX-5 chassis is absolutely brilliant and makes a Subaru BRZ feel clunky by comparison. In my opinion you’d have to go all the way to something like a Porsche 718 to get a chassis this competent. It is an absolute joy to drive fast.
Sadly, the engine is another matter altogether. While it must be commended that Mazda has made this car very fuel efficient, the 2.0L DOHC I4 in the MX-5 just doesn’t impress. At 155 horsepower, it’s not particularly powerful, though it does make 148 pound-feet of torque.
The low power was to be expected, but the low 6,500 redline is a disappointment, and the engine doesn’t make any soul-stirring noises. In fact, it hardly makes any noise at all. With the top down you can faintly hear the exhaust back there.
Part of the reason the MX-5 is so darn fun to drive is that its clutch and shifter are some of the best in the business. Rev hang seems to plague every manualtransmission car in 2018, but not the Mazda. The revs fall quickly for the next gear and the shifter itself is tight and engaging. The gears are closely spaced.
But once the fun driving for the day is done you have to get out of the car and grapple with the sheer price of the thing.
The RF starts at $39,100 and our well-optioned tester featured the Grand Sport package that jacks the price by a full $3,600.
It’s a lot of money, but the components that come with the package are excellent. The amazing red paint is also a $450 option, but one that’s well worth it. And
those nice options bring the total MSRP to a staggering $48,145 for our tester. Think about it — $48,000 for 155 hp. True, the RF packs a world-class chassis, a well-appointed interior and a sophisticated folding hardtop, but nearly $50K is a hard pill to swallow for an MX-5, even if it is this good.
But on some lonely back road in Ontario’s Muskoka district with the top down and the revs up, it might just be worth it.