Mazda MX-5 News

Here's a recap of the year's stars, with impressive arrivals and value added to staples.

There are more than 300 individual nameplates in Australia today. From Abarth to Volvo, the badges sit on vehicles from 46 brands building electric cars, tiny runabouts, hulking SUVs and utes.The gold rush is not over by a long shot, with Chinese brands starting to get very serious about Australia and certain to push the number nearer to 50 in 2016.LDV has arrived via importer Ateco Automotive with a people-mover and delivery van. Haval is making big promises for BMW-style SUVs next year. A brand with British history but Chinese owners will have three new models next year: the MG 3, MG 6 and MG CS.Some brands have been in Australia, often for a long time, and are looking for a fresh start.Fiat is planning a renewed push, starting with the just-landed, family-focused 500X. Next year, it will have the 124 Spider, which it has cloned from the new Mazda MX-5. Having failed in recent years with the Panda and Punto, Fiat believes it can create some excitement with a new generation of cars."The last thing the Australian market needs is another nameplate or brand. I cannot turn up and pretend you need me," says Fiat chief marketing officer Olivier Francois.He is behind some creative work for Fiat Chrysler that features superstars including Pharrell Williams, J-Lo, Eminem and even Clint Eastwood, who starred in a Superbowl commercial.For Australia, he is banking on Fiat's Italian heritage and design, combined with better pricing and quality from Fiat Chrysler — an operation that is starting to get traction here.He is pushing — like the Chinese brands — a change in perception and says: "Think Fiat only builds small cars? Wrong."

The Mazda MX-5 Roadster was one of the 11 finalists chosen to compete for the 2015 CarsGuide Car of the Year crown.

Kia's family seven-seater stands out, setting a precedent in a singular field.

There are few bad cars on the road these days, which made it tougher than ever to pick a field for CarsGuide's 2015 Car of the Year award.The process started in December last year. A week after we awarded the Mercedes-Benz C-Class our gong, we were on the launch of the new Subaru Outback.It was the first of more than 300 new cars we pored over before arriving at 11 finalists. In between there were head-to-head battles and three-way shootouts between the most impressive of the newcomers and the existing benchmarks.Comparison tests are vital because it's easy to come away from a new car launch impressed by Brand X's latest and greatest. But it takes back-to-back testing — on the same stretch of bitumen, same potholes, same freeway — to sort the winners from the also-rans.This year's COTY judging threw up a few surprises. The first was the CX-3. It felt good to drive on the launch and when we tested it against the best in its class, it also came out on top. Up against our other finalists, it felt underdone and overpriced. The conclusion? The mini-SUV may be the new "must-have" automotive accessory but none of the new breed — there have been six all-new arrivals this year — is as practical or fun to drive as a humble hatchback.Next was the BMW X1, which fellow judge Joshua Dowling called "the most un-BMW BMW I've driven". An SUV from a German luxury brand for a tad over $60,000 sounds like a good deal, especially when a Toyota Kluger can cost similar money.While much improved over its predecessors in some areas, the X1 was underdone in others. The seats, usually a BMW highlight, were flat and unsupportive, while the front suspension crashed rudely over bumps.To a much lesser extent the same criticism could be levelled at our runner-up, the Mercedes-Benz GLC. It is still an impressive vehicle but not as well sorted as the C-Class. In their quest for new buyers, are the luxury brands losing their luxuriousness?The surprises weren't all bad, though. The fact that the Ford Ranger made our final five is testimony to the huge advances made in one-tonne utes in recent years. The Ranger didn't feel a million miles off the rest of the field on our road loop.A decade ago, jumping out of a Volvo into a Ford ute would have been like trading the Merc for a Massey Ferguson. Not now.Which brings us to the last — and most pleasant — COTY surprise: the winner, Kia's Sorento. Ever since the Koreans pinched Audi's head designer, Kia cabins have looked a cut above their competitors. Local suspension tuning has made them ride better, while their diesel engines are on par with some of the best for refinement. Add an industry leading seven-year warranty and there's plenty to like.If you're put off by the badge on the nose, it's your loss. 

This year's line-up is a dream team of pace machines, heavy-hitters and all-rounders.

The Fiat 124 has an Italian heart but is made in a Japanese factory. What will enthusiasts make of it?

Drop-top version of production RX-Vision is not part of the plan, according to Mazda. The situation is as predictable as night following day. A car manufacturer reveals a sexy new coupe concept that hints at a future production model, and the media discussion quickly turns to the likelihood of chopping off the roof to create a convertible. Most of the time the eventual answer is yes, given the evergreen demand for such ironically seasonal models, which can inevitably be sold at a hefty premium over their coupe basis. However, car brands tend to leave us hanging ‘til some time into the coupe’s model life, or at least after its production debut to comment on the potential of a soft or folding hardtop version. Not so with the Wankel-engined Mazda RX-Vision concept shown at this week’s Tokyo motor show, with global research and development boss Kyoshi Fujiwara frankly dismissing the idea of a convertible as part of their plan for a new flagship sports car.  “MX-5 is enough I think,” he said before reminding us that the customer is always right by adding; “If huge volume I consider.” Mazda has made similar demand-based decisions before, including the surprise arrival of the heavier but ultimately more successful folding hardtop version of the previous-generation MX-5 twelve months into its model life. Incidentally, Mazda is known to be working on a return of a folding hardtop version of the new ND MX-5, but thankfully retained the purity of the soft-top for the new model’s debut. Mazda also produced a convertible version of the rotary-powered RX-7 between 1987 and 1992, but were hardtop-only for the FD-generation RX-7 and the RX-8. Would you like to see an RX-Vision convertible? Tell us in the comments below.

Toyota, Mazda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Honda and Suzuki will celebrate the fast and the curious at the Tokyo motor show later this month.

"Pets are more popular than children in Australia. The majority of households no longer have kids in them. It's a long-term shift," says the man who's spruiking the new Mazda MX-5.