I like it!

The dealer was great, gave me the keys and let me take the 2.0 out for a 45 min hoon on my own!

Surprisingly fast! More than enough power to have some fun with. Compared the S the torque is instant. Probably a result of drive by wire and being a very sensitive throttle but just seemed to want to rev and take off. I was expecting it to be sluggish but certainly not the case. Only revs to 7k, but you do get a feeling of being pushed back into your seat. I had a 1.8 MK2 RS MX5 a few years ago which was no where near as fast off the mark as the new one.

Handling felt good. Suspension is pretty stiff but compliant. No dramas going over bumps/crappy roads.

Around corners it felt very short wheelbase compared the S. The back end felt playful but in a very accessible way, always seemed to want to swing round which was fun. Steering weighted up nicely in bends but felt generally lighter. Certainly easy to get in and just drive compared to the S.

I like the looks. Interior is just as cramped as S2000, although you can adjust the steering wheel! Seats were my biggest complaint, they don't feel as comfortable nor supportive as the S. I'm 6"2 and if they had made the car slightly longer with a bit more leg room/bigger seats I'd be really tempted. Maybe I'd just need to get used to the seats.

The LSD works well. They even sound quite cool.

It felt light to drive, you can see where some of the interior plastics are a bit cheap though. As are the roll over hoop covers and door arm rests.

Modern infotainment and controls are nice. This thing was averaging 35mpg over it's life so far.









Would I spend the £24k to get one new.. nope. A couple of years down the line I think these would be a great buy.

Actually I've come away feeling sad that Honda isn't making a new car like this anymore. Technology has come along way since our 1998ish design of a car and it can be used for good :-)

 

It's colour-sensitive; looks terrible in dog's-lipstick red but cool in black. Racist...

I get the feeling that the power delivery is more Hachiroku than S-nisen.

The Roadster market is Mazda's bitch; end of. Everyone else has surrendered.

I'm not sure what Honda's market is anymore. Probably the torque-vectored cut-price supercar. They're pretty shit at everything else right now.

 

Sat in their new HR-V at the weekend, Nick - nice enough place but with all the trinkets ... £28k! It will be worth £20k after a year and probably £15 at 2 years ..... the depreciation will be as much of a cliffdrop as the CR-Z was.

Whilst there, a lady in her ( i think ) 60s turned up in an original ( and totally unmolested) bluegreen CRX ( the DOHC one ) - utterly utterly concourse. At least one of Hondas target audience has retained more than a degree or two of cool She'd had it since it was new and said she'd be happy to be buried in it!

They need to stop fecking about and get that S660 over here for < 16k - at a slight loss or not .. it matters not but Honda have an image problem, an aging one at that.

 

Another cool thing is how the roof folds back and clips into place so that it fits flush with the boot :-)

I've been thinking about this car a bit more.

A 5 year old MX5 now is worth about £9k. A bit of man-maths says one will lose about 3k a year depreciation. If I kept the S long-term instead that money would pay for a handful of track days, fixing anything that breaks, some extra mods if I felt like it, etc.

That said, I have always wanted to buy a car brand new and this is probably the most tempted I've been. In the back of my mind I still think once that novelty has worn off I would probably regret dropping that much money.

 

The headline price is of no consequence any more - they are all ludicrously high, as it's all about the monthly payments nowadays.

 

All with a suitably high deposit for a car you will never own - i just can't bring myself to get hocked into something that will never be mine. Guess i am destined to own rusty Mk1 MX5 ... several bikes ... and an Aygo for reliable work duties

 

Buy it with a loan then. No-one other than naive people such as some of the elderly pays list price. My mum would pay list price, take the paint protection, tyre warranty...as long as the salesperson was 'nice'.

 

That's my point exactly - i can get a loan at a really low rate and i'd rather do that then the bank is me. But then that's IF i was prepared to take a loan out for that much .... for a car ..... and i'm not. Within the normal stratosphere of use / ownership and out of my own pocket, i can't bring myself to waste more than about 15k at the very very most.

As a 'one car for all' affair, the MX-5 ticks more boxes than most though.

 

I'm the same, I'd have to buy it rather than PCP it. I wonder how much you could get off the list of one of these.. hmmm

 

Just had the 1.5 on demo from Mazda and it's a big fat no for me. Can see why they are popular and I really like the new look but my diesel DS3 has more umph than this and the most annoying thing, the blooming seatbelt that cuts across your throat. I'm only 5'3 so I get use to it from vehicle manufacturers but Mr CJ had same problem at 5'9.

Order placed for new DS3 Ultra Prestige with 21½% off list price as managed to get the Citroen Support terms that I get for the fleet