USED Mazda MX-5 Coupé Cabriolet (05 - )

My car

I love this car! Handling is great, its fun to drive and even reasonably practical!

My car

Purchased in April 2011 with significant discount from Lifestyle Mazda in Crawley. The dealership impressed in the handling of the sale albeit a vehicle manufactured in 2010 and sold on a 2011 plate.

The Mazda MX5 lives up to its reputation as being a really exhilerating car to drive. It makes driving a pleasure in itself whether with the hard top up or down. Even driving with the top down on a motorway it is an enjoyable experience. On country lanes the car's responsive nature is displayed to the full.

At six foot tall I find the driving position comfortable but imagine taller still drivers may be cramped a little for space.

The Miyako is well equipped but a small number of observations prospective buyers might like to note: The steering wheel adjusts for height but not rake and unlike the much less expensive Mazda 2 the wing mirrors do not electrically close for putting in the garage and/or parking.

The Roadster Coupe has no rear windscreen wiper and when the roof is down, judging distance when reversing is not that easy. I decided to have reversing sensors fitted by the dealership which I find extremely useful. Thank you Lifestyle Mazda for the suggestion.

The car is stunning to look at, well built and thrilling to drive. It is unsurprising that it has won so many accolades amongst the motoring press and I would strongly recommend test driving the car to experience first hand its impressive qualities.

My car

We purchased our 2.0i Sport RC (08-reg., 20k miles) for £11k, from a private seller in Nov. 2010 and we have had no problems at all. A set of four new tyres cost £500, though that is hardly the car’s fault! My wife is delighted with the MX-5 and relishes the 10-mile drive too and from work each day. She absolutely loves it! The interior is well appointed and the heater/heated leather seats are superb, as is the (optional) upgraded Bose stereo. There is easily enough room for my 6ft 2in frame, although the steering wheel and seats could be more adjustable. The folding electric roof is superbly engineered and very pleasing to use – it is great that the boot space is not compromised with the roof down. The boot space is okay - it can actually hold a fair bit, though not bulky items, as the opening is rather small. On the move, the MX-5 is great to drive, although it is quite noisy and ‘twitchy’ over anything other than perfectly smooth roads. The steering wheel is always very much ‘alive’ and responds instantly to any road imperfections – again, this (along with the noise and the size of the boot) is only to be expected from a sports-orientated car Performance is good (I ride a Fireblade, so I’m hardly going to be blown away by the performance), though it does need to be revved beyond 4000 rpm to really get going. It is certainly more than adequate though and having a 6th gear really helps on motorway journeys. Overall, we are both really impressed with this superb car!

My car

I've had my MX5 for 3 months now and have to say I am very happy with it. Performance is amazing and its very comfortable inside - the build quality feels so sturdy that I can imagine it going on years without problems. Very little fancy equipment inside but the Bose stereo is all you need though its a shame it is so hard to connect an iPod to it. Sound quality is definitely worth the extra and it may make your ears bleed if you get it up to maximum volume! One good piece of advice is to shell out £300 on the Eibach lowering kit and another £100 getting the geometry set correctly at a suspension specialist; handling is radically improved and it should improve fuel consumption and reduce tyre wear, as well as making it look a stunning car (if you have the brochure, all but 2 pictures show the car with the lowering kit). My wife's main objection was boot space for going on holiday - we survived with two of the smaller suitcases - if you take the repair kit out you can push the first case in longways and slide it over then do the same with the second. Not too sure how I'm going to get around the Ikea problem though :)