The little car that could
Nothing seems to diminish the easygoing joy of living with the MXš5. Not winter, not even an annual service. By Mark Walton
THAT DELICIOUS new-car smell is beginning to fade, and as our Mazda MX-5 RF long-term test car turns one year old it’s time for a first service (due at 12 months or 12,500 miles, whichever comes sooner).
Handily, there’s a Donalds Mazda dealership in my town, part of a big retail group in the area, so I booked it in there. They were polite and efficient and it was all done on time, and the bill came to £195, which I didn’t think was too bad for a year’s driving.
The actual service itself was listed on the bill at £99 (including VAT), but the additional parts doubled that. In particular, the oil – two litres of fancy OW-20 Supra Skyactiv black stuff, as recommended by Mazda, cost £72! Just to put that in perspective, Asda does five litres of its own-brand semi-synthetic engine oil for a princely £13, or £2.60 per litre. Still, hopefully all that special Skyactiv tech- nology is currently working wonders in my 2.0-litre engine…
The service was a sign that our year with the Mazda is quickly drawing to a close, and I’ve been getting reflective about my time with it. It’s true, I haven’t put the roof down in months, and I still think the soft-top makes more sense, but sometimes I look out of an upstairs window and see it from a high, front-threequarter angle, and I do think it looks good. Yes, the fake rear quarter glass remains an embarrassing detail, but otherwise it kind of reminds me of a ’70s third-gen Corvette Stingray. If you squint. And you’re looking down from my bedroom window. Which hopefully you’re not.
Anyway, as I go into my final few weeks with the car, I’m preparing myself to miss it when it’s gone – the compact proportions, the revvy engine and the sideways fun when I drive home late on a winter’s night. Next month we’ll round it all up as we say goodbye.
The service wasn’t too bad, except two litres of Mazda’s fancy oil cost £72