Hold the line
Report 3 Mazda MX-5 RF £27,795 OTR/£28,815 as tested
Iwas at an automotive awards do the other week, at which my good friend the comedian Ed Byrne, was the ‘turn’. As we live near each other, and I was driving, he decided that it would be a good idea for me to chauffeur him home. As it happens, there was a Lamborghini Huracán parked next to me, which Ed naturally assumed was in my custody. When I pointed to the Mazda instead, he said something along the lines of, “You must be bloody joking”, only a bit more sweary.
Coming from a man who owns a Jeep Renegade, this is a bit rich, but there’s no doubt that the MX-5 RF is, erm, an unfashionably small car. This has its upsides, of course. It’s an excellent city car, although those rear buttresses hamper rear three-quarter visibility. Parking it is a reminder of how bloated even something as supposedly compact as the Barlow family transport, a Mercedes-Benz GLA, is.
On the other hand, being on a motorway sandwiched between two artics leaves you feeling imperilled. The Mazda’s windscreen has a nasty crack on the passenger side, an injury it’s likely to be prone to given its height. And the combination of modern LED headlights and the preponderance of full-size SUVs makes night driving tricky, too.
There are a few other foibles. In pursuit of winning Euro NCAP scores, the MX-5 has all sorts of safety devices, including something I’d stick straight in room 101: the lane departure warning. Sorry, but if the road ahead is clear and I’m matching my speed with vision, then I’m going to cross the white lines. Not a racing line on a public highway, just plain efficient. The MX-5 either issues a low-frequency grumble or a higher-pitched chime. Both are annoying; fortunately they can be switched off, if you remember.
Climate control is another problem. Happily, this is done by simple and wonderfully effective rotary knobs, rather than tedious push-buttons or anything with horrible haptics. But the car seems to steam up whatever the weather, so the fan’s always blowing. There’s a punchline in there somewhere.