Setting the pace
Mazda’s 2017 MX-5 is defining the brand
Mazda is a company that understands its place in the world market.
They have no illusions of beating Toyota or Volkswagen on their way to being the world’s largest carmaker. They are perfectly happy filling a niche that will always exist.
Their cars appeal to people who enjoy driving, but aren’t at the point where they can afford to choose driving fun as their primary reason for buying a car. So Mazda defines itself by making compacts, crossovers and sedans that drive much better than their price would suggest.
In fact, they all sort of handle like Mazda’s famed Miata, for some reason renamed the MX-5 a moniker which probably never send serious chills down an enthusiast’s spine. I recently spent a week in a Mazda MX-5 Grand Touring. The car I tested had an MSRP of $31,015. For that you got a tiny trunk in a car that is everything the legendary British roadsters wished they could be.
The most noticeable thing is how analog it feels. Granted, it has many of the same safety features of others, but they don’t disconnect your wheels and bottom from being completely in touch with what’s happening with the wheels and the suspension.
The 2.0-liter DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder engine sends its 155hp. and 148-lb.-ft. of peak torque through a wonderful six-speed manual that snick-snick-snicks through the gears with such precision that you want to shift just to feel it.
It also sends that power to the rear wheels, where physics make the most of the power. I know there’s an automatic, but if you want to own one of these, learn to drive a stick. Since the car weighs in at just over 2300lb. that is plenty of horsepower to have fun with.
If anyone considering one cares, the fuel economy is rated at 27 mpg city and 34 mpg on the highway. With the automatic it gets the same city mileage, but 36 mpg on the open road.
The brakes are huge, 11-in. disks, front and rear. The front suspension is a double-wishbone with aluminum control arms and monotube dampers to reduce unsprung weight. In back there is a multi-link system with aluminum bearing support and monotube dampers.
Driving the MX-5 in the twisties is particularly fun. Since this isn’t a 500-hp. monster, you actually have to use the gearbox to keep the power up. The car stays marvelously flat in the corners and wants to go faster through the corners than most drivers will go. That being said, this is a great car to start someone’s involvement in local auto-crossing events. This kind of fun is addictive, and the Miata is a great way to start out.
While driving the MX-5 is a wonderful flashback experience, what is most important is that it is the benchmark for all the other cars in the lineup.
When Mazda talks about zoom-zoom, they aren’t kidding. No, the Mazda6 doesn’t drive like a roadster, but you can certainly feel the influence in the precision of the steering and the flat firmness of the suspension.
This doesn’t make the ride bad in the car, because Mazda’s engineers have done a good job of translating what you want from a sports car into a family sedan. The Mazda6 is the brand’s flagship, but it makes no pretentions of being anything other than what it is: a mid-sized sedan which doesn’t look like a Toyota, Nissan or Chevrolet.
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