It’s hardly surprising, it is the best-selling two-seat sports car in history, after all.
In the What Car? Car of The Year Awards 2021 the still-iconic MX-5 took home the ‘Best Sports Car for Value’ award, stealing it away from competitors such as the Porsche 718 Cayman, Audi TT, Jaguar F-Type and Toyota GT86. Those cars may be better in terms of speed, power or luxury but when it comes to value, the Mazda MX-5 takes first place, according to What Car?.
With the award-winning 130hp 1.5-litre Skyactiv-G SE-L model costing just £24,050, or around the same amount of money as a Toyota Prius, owners can experience the same connectedness that you would expect from sports cars that cost twice as much.
Mazda’s philosophy with the MX-5 was to have ‘car and driver as one’ or in Japanese, Jinba Ittai. Takao Kijima, former MX-5 program manager, said ‘the car should feel like an extension of your being. This is the essence of horse and rider’ – referring to the origins of Jinba Ittai, describing harmony between a horse-riding archer and their mount.
To this day, the MX-5 has successfully stayed tried and true to that philosophy, with the car exclusively scoring top marks amongst critics and reviewers, gaining praise for delivering excellent driving thrills whilst still being affordable, practical and reliable.
What Car? Editor Steve Huntingford said: “some ideas don’t stand the test of time, but others seem to stay relevant no matter how drastically the world around them changes, with the Mazda MX-5 most definitely in the latter camp. It’s a sports car that makes you feel intrinsically involved in the process of driving and yet no rival is anywhere near as affordable”.
Across four generations since 1989, the MX-5 has done more than hold its ground in the sports car market, becoming the world’s best-selling two-seat roadster sports car in 2000. This month, the MX-5 range will expand to 10 models, comprised of four soft-top convertible and six hard-top convertible models with various trim options and two engines to choose from. Also, across the entire 2021 model range, all MX-5s include Apple CarPlay as standard to make it even greater value.
So, do you think the MX-5 is deserving of this title? Let us know in the comments.
If you enjoyed this, you may also like: ‘GR Yaris: Better Than A Golf R?’
For more articles like this, receive our weekly e-newsletter, including partner deals and all things motoring, register your email below.
Please note: You cannot subscribe to Smart-Motoring unless you put a tick in the checkbox below to indicate have read and agreed to our privacy policy.
Should be Mazda not Toyota’s philosophy in 3rd paragraph.
Having owned an ND I do love it but there are some design faults emerging particularly with the rear bush hubs. You can’t buy a single bush so you have to buy the whole unit at over £500 per side before fitting. My car only has 20k on the clock too. Let’s hope Mazda can resolve this issue of part availability soon.
Thank you for pointing out this typo, it has since been amended! We appreciate your owner’s feedback, we will talk about this in a follow-up article at a later date.
Happy Motoring!
“Toyota’s philosophy with the MX-5 was to have ‘car and driver as one’ or in Japanese, Jinba Ittai. Takao Kijima, former MX-5 program manager, said ‘the car should feel like an extension of your being.”
Did Toyota design my Mk2 Mazda MX5?
Thank you for pointing out this typo, it has since been amended!