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Mazda MX-5: car of the week

  • By Rod Halligan
  • Carsguide
  • 08 April 2009
image Mazda celebrates twenty years of sales and success of the MX-5. Photo Gallery

The Mazda MX-5 has usurped the MGB as the worlds? most iconic ?everyman?s sports car?...

Celebrating its twentieth birthday this year the MX-5 is universally lauded for its design, performance and sales success.

The MX-5 story began in 1979 when the then Chief of the Mazda Research Department; Kenichi Yamamoto reportedly asked US automotive journalist Rob Hall what sort of car Mazda should be building for the American market. Hall responded with - a classic simple British style roadster. In affect a modenised MGB or Lotus Elan.

In 1981 Bob Hall obtained a role in planning with Mazda US by which time Yamamoto had become Chairman of Mazda, Yamamoto was also a key player in the development of the Mazda Rotary engine, so this is a story filled with success.

 

The car was designed around 5 key criteria;

1. the car needed to be compact and light while meeting all global safety requirements

2. the cockpit had to be comfortable for two large adults but have no wasted space.

3. a classic configuration of front engined rear wheel drive with a 50-50 weight distribution

4. Fully independent suspension

5. a stressed frame connecting engine to rear mounted diff TRANSAXLE to ensure the optimum weight distribution.

Launched on the 10th of February 1989 at the Chicago Auto Show, it received an enthusiastic response and great press coverage. That high profile coverage continued through to the initial road tests with the result that demand outstripped supply for quite sometime.

 

The MX-5 model timeline

1st Generation – 1989-1997 - Pop-up Headlights

  • First sold with a 1.6L straight-4 engine which remained until 1993,
  • 1.8 L from late ’93 to ‘97

2nd Generation – 1998 -2005

  • introduced in 1998 with a slight increase in engine power
  • more streamlined and less rounded design
  • fixed headlights
  • Glass rear window.
  • Variable intake control system

3rd Generation

  • Debuted 2008 Paris Auto Show
  • ‘2.0 L engine.
  • Rear multi-link suspension
  • Option 6 speed auto with paddle-shift
  • Optional retractible hardtop
  • 4 star NCAP safety rating

Interestingly Pixar based the star of their movie “Cars”; Lightning McQueen on the MX-5 as well as Lightning’s twin fans Mia and Tia who are also MX-5s.

The MX-5 is the most successful two seater of all time and a worthy addition to the Carsguide Car of the Week.

Related stories

First drive: 2009 Mazda MX-5

Mazda MX-5: week 3

Mazda MX-5: week 2

Mazda MX-5: week 1

Mazda MX-5 Roadster Coupe: nice!

Find your very own Mazda MX-5

Comments on this story

Displaying 3 of 10 comments

  • Trying to do a fair comparison of cars from different eras is like trying to compare sportsmen from different eras; it can't be done successfully! Those of us who cut their teeth on the classic British sports cars of the 60's are like those who say there will never be another rugby league centre like Reg Gasnier or another tennis player like Rod Laver. It's like comparing apples with oranges. I have owned and driven them all from MG TD to TR3A to Austin Healey 100/4 to Triumph Spitfire to MG RV8 to Mercedes SLK 350. My son still drives one of the many MGB's we have owned, and it is still as much fun to drive as when it was built in 1969. Yes, it leaks a bit in a Queensland downpour, but it starts every time and is reliable as the day is long. At my age, would I still buy an MGB for my everyday transport? NO! Engineering, engine efficiency and so many things have moved on in 40 years. I would have preferred the MX5's folding metal roof and all those other creature comforts. Did I buy an MX5? NO! I bought a Mercedes SLK 350, because the engineering gap between the Merc and the Mazda is the same sort of engineering gap that exists between the Mazda and the MG. I will always have a soft spot for the "B" because it was the iconic car of my youth; let's just admire both, because each in its own era set the benchmark for competitors to beat!

    Mike Butler of Paddington, Brisbane Posted on 15 April 2009 9:57am

  • Trying to do a fair comparison of cars from different eras is like trying to compare sportsmen from different eras; it can't be done successfully! Those of us who cut their teeth on the classic British sports cars of the 60's are like those who say there will never be another rugby league centre like Reg Gasnier or another tennis player like Rod Laver. It's like comparing apples with oranges. I have owned and driven them all from MG TD to TR3A to Austin Healey 100/4 to Triumph Spitfire to MG RV8 to Mercedes SLK 350. My son still drives one of the many MGB's we have owned, and it is still as much fun to drive as when it was built in 1969. Yes, it leaks a bit in a Queensland downpour, but it starts every time and is reliable as the day is long. At my age, would I still buy an MGB for my everyday transport? NO! Engineering, engine efficiency and so many things have moved on in 40 years. I would have preferred the MX5's folding metal roof and all those other creature comforts. Did I buy an MX5? NO! I bought a Mercedes SLK 350, because the engineering gap between the Merc and the Mazda is the same sort of engineering gap that exists between the Mazda and the MG. I will always have a soft spot for the "B" because it was the iconic car of my youth; let's just admire both, because each in its own era set the benchmark for competitors to beat!

    Mike Butler of Paddington, Brisbane Posted on 15 April 2009 9:45am

  • I owned an MGB in 1963.It was unreliable, leaked like a sieve, but at that time i thought it was great.Given the choice, now, if it were possible of a brand new MGB or an MX5, i'd take the Mazda.The MX5 is a well developed, reliable true sports car that can find a place in my garage ,anytime.

    PG of Hurstville Posted on 14 April 2009 4:37pm

  • Only nearly 900,000 MX-5's made, the ONLY sports car in The Guinness Book of Records as the Highest SELLING Sports car Jane?... The MX-5 has been in continuous production for 20 years, the MG has had how many production stops and starts, about as many as the MG's reliable Stops and won't re-starts!. The MX-5 IS an engineering Masterpiece, something the MG will never attain, yes it was groundbreaking but does not compare in the slightest to the Mazda MX-5.

    ashley Posted on 14 April 2009 1:40pm

  • Poor Jane - you must have been living in the Beatles psychedelic world wearing "Lucy in the sky's" rose coloured glasses. Even in it's day the MGB was a 2 seater sedan with pedestrian specs and pedestrian performance compared to it's peers and was only good for the boulevading poseurs. And "10 times the sales" of an MX-5? That figure must have been plucked from that same Lucy's sky! The MX-5 is, and always has been a true sportscar - and was based on a real sports car - the Lotus Elan. It provides spectacular handling, raodholding and braking (the most important aspects of a sports vehicle), moderate power and sophisticated (for the price) reliability. A Mozarted MX-5 or a Monkeed MGB - no cmparison.

    Don from GC of Gold Coast Posted on 13 April 2009 7:38am

  • I had to check the date on the MX5 story to make sure it was not written on April 1st. Certainly the MX5 is a fine car, but it is hardly an icon like the MGB. As your article correctly states, the MX5 copied the MGB formula & the Lotus body. The MGB was revolutionary when released in 1962 & 47 years later is universally respected as a clasic. Let's see how the MX5 is viewed in another 27 years.

    Mike Howley of Melbourne Posted on 11 April 2009 3:01pm

  • Jane Attard, I see you are still hanging around looking for any opportunity to defend a British car. This time it's even more funny as your main issue, that the MX5 has outsold the MGB, was not even mentioned in the article. Your other, that the MX5 copied the MGB's "formula" doesn't add up either as My MX5 doesn't leak water, hasn't broken down and I can put the top up without assistance from the local Scout troop. Since you have mentioned it though The MX5 has outsold the MGB, there is no qualification, it's easy mathematics. And don't get me wrong, I like the MGB, but a match for the MX5? Do yourself a favour, take an MX5 for a drive, you'll forget that English "character" in no time...

    Rod of North Melbourne Posted on 11 April 2009 8:28am

  • Jane needs to get over her MGB hangover. MX5 - the greatest 2 seater sports car

    JC Posted on 10 April 2009 7:47pm

  • The Mx5 has NOT out sold the MGB. When you consider today's larger and more affluent population, the MX5 would have to sell ten times more cars to equal the MGB's achievement. Compare the number of people who drive today to the number of people who drove in the 1960's and 1970's. Also, today people around the world have more money to spend, especially the consumer that these cars are aimed at. MG also never spent the advertising millions that Mazda spends and didn't offer Journalists perks and didn't have car magazine editors working for their company. Also, the MGB had far more other marques competing for the same market; truimph, sunbeam and so forth. The MGB is the original that will never be never be beaten. The MX5 is like the pop group The Monkees, an imitation of the Beatles,the MGB. The MX5 copied the MGB's formula and the Lotus body and sent onto the market with a marketing machine. The Monkees were auditioned, had songs written for them by a recording company team. The Beatles were a group of friends who wrote their own material and succeeded because they were liked. Like the Beatles,the MGB is genuine, an original design by a passionate sportscar duo, Sd Endever and Don Hater, and it sold because people loved it. The MGB is and always be number 1. Jane Attard.

    Jane Attard Posted on 09 April 2009 10:57am

  • Had an MG B and raced a TC. In 2006 bought the wife a 2006 MX5 Roadster. It is magnificent just what we need as we get older wild horses wont tear it away from us. It does everything we want.and the boot don't fill up with the roof when it folds down.zoom zoom and even more zoom.

    Graham of Point Cook Posted on 08 April 2009 8:16pm
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