Mazda MX-5 (2026) Review

IT’S 10pm and the night job has just finished. Heading home the roadmen have closed the duel carriageway. Great.

Next day, it’s 7am and, heading to a job in the east, the roadmen have closed the road. Great.

On both occasions the unexpected road closures have prompted a string of expletives forcing me to divert when I really can’t be bothered. Yet both occasions lead to unparalleled joy and this is why.

I’m in a Mazda MX-5, not the sort of car you’d imagine would be the best or most comfortable commuter.

But how wrong can I be? What the Mazda drop-top does is transform every commute into a sunny Sunday afternoon blast. In other words it puts the fun back into driving, joy that has been sapped from most vehicles by too many luxuries and too much technology.

Let’s be honest, most cars are about as involving as sitting on the sofa playing a driving game. We drift along as mere passengers with little input or interest. It’s a wonder we can stay away.

Mazda’s classic roadster could not be further from this if it tried. It is visceral, thoroughly engaging and utterly brilliant.

You have to grab it by the scruff of its neck and drive it like you stole it. If you do, the rewards are immeasurable.

The driving position is perfect, the legs stretching forward to meet a weighty clutch pedal and responsive throttle. Your feet play these pedals like an organist in a cathedral, while your left hand works the six gears through short throws in a pin-sharp gate.

An easy to reach steering wheel offers the directional changes of a ninja and the brakes scrub off the surprising turn of speed the 1.5 litre engine is capable of offering.

Ride is incredibly compliant and forgiving but body control in exemplary and grip magnificent.

So, back to the post-night job ride home. The A66 dual carriageway is closed so I’m forced to use the roads of Teesdale to head west. Stick on the very useful full beam lights and the LEDs illuminate a veritable test track of twists and turns, the odd hopping rabbit my only company. Anger dissipates immediately to be replaced by exhilaration and joy.

It’s a similar story the following day when the road closure through Wensleydale forces me to take the Buttertubs Pass into Swaledale. No hardship here either, these roads were designed for MX-5 drivers to enjoy.

Later in the week, no road closures this time, but the MX-5 has to transport me to Scotland along M6 and M74, yet the level of driving pleasure fails to drop as this car is so special.

Just when you think life can’t get any better I have to go to Coniston in the Lake District National Park, hood down, following gloriously empty single track roads engulfed by spectacular rhododendrons, to see Donald Campbell’s legendary hydroplane Bluebird K7 take to the water under its own power for the first time in 59 years.

Strangely, this is not even the top spec MX-5. It’s the 1.5 litre, not the 2.0, yet it is so endearing the reduced power seems to matter little, in fact, it seems to be even more fun as it has to be driven harder to achieve the same. Drive carefully though and you can achieve close to 50mpg.

It’s a sports car, yes, but there is no need to speed anywhere at all. You sit so low, skimming the tarmac with your bottom, that the driver is exposed to a sensation of speed at lowly velocities. So it is exhilarating without becoming a law breaker – that’s got to be the best combination in this oppressive and bureaucratic state in which we reside.

The glorious interior is retro featuring analogue dials, knobs and switches. There’s a small screen but you operate it with a tactile mouse on the transmission tunnel. Wonderful.

The motor has a pleasant guttural engine and exhaust note too and when the hood is down and you can bask in the sunshine there can be few cars so lovely to drive. Bring on the next diversion, I say.

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