I spent a week in the waning days of summer in a most agreeable way: Tooling around in the Mazda MX-5 Miata, the convertible hardtop down, day and night.
2014 marks the MX-5 Miata’s 25th anniversary. Since its introduction in 1989 more than 940,000 units have been produced, and it holds the Guinness World Record for best-selling two-seater sports car.
Soon after arriving on the scene, the rear-wheel-drive MX-5 Miata became widely regarded as delivering the most fun per dollar of any convertible sports car. It quickly achieved cult status that continues to this day.
For model year 2015, Mazda announced production of 100 units of a 25th anniversary special edition version, with reservations being available online. Within 10 minutes of the site going live, all 100 were spoken for. Delivery of those cars started last week, including one purchased by a Bellevue couple in celebration of their own 25th wedding anniversary.
Mazda recently unveiled an all-new MX-5 Miata for model year 2016, available in 2015, but in the meantime my tester was a 2014 model.
The MX-5 is available with a folding soft top or a power retractable hard top, depending on trim level. With the push of a button, my test car’s hard top raised or lowered in just 12 seconds.
MX-5 is available in Sport, Club, and Grand Touring models. A 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine inhabits all three, standardly paired with a five-speed manual transmission on the Sport and a six-speed manual on the Club and Grand Touring. It produces 167 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 140 lb-ft of torque at 5,000 rpm. When equipped with an optional six-speed automatic transmission, torque output is the same but the horsepower delivery is 158 at 6,700 rpm. Those numbers might not sound high, but the MX-5 weighs only about 2,500 pounds, so they add up to a lot of zoom.
Fuel economy ratings are 22 mpg city and 28 mpg highway for the manual gearbox, and 21/28 mpg for the automatic.
Standard features on my tester, a Grand Touring model with automatic transmission, included remote keyless entry, heated seats, a tilt steering wheel with cruise and audio controls, power windows and door locks, halogen headlights, fog lights, stability and traction control systems, and an excellent seven-speaker Bose audio system with AM/FM/MP3 and 5-disc CD changer. Taller people will appreciate another feature: a height-adjustable driver’s seat.
Careful readers will have noticed in that list a lack of telematics equipment typically included on today’s cars. You can have those things on your Miata, you’ll just have to pony up for them. The good thing about them being options is it means more people can afford the car – people who want their driving to be fun, and know that a little two-seater convertible sports car really delivers the goods.
And now, if this review were a video instead of a written one, I would do a fade-out of myself driving the Mazda MX-5 Miata toward a setting sun, with Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” playing in the background.
2014 MAZDA MX-5 MIATA Base price, including destination charge: $31,345
Price as driven: $32,735
Mary Lowry is an independent automotive writer who has been reviewing cars for more than 20 years. She is a member of the Motor Press Guild and a board member of the Northwest Automotive Press Association. Vehicles are provided by the manufacturers as a one-week loan for review purposes only. In no way do the manufacturers control the content of the reviews.
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