OK, now I’m just bragging, but meandering up the coast of California on a sunny morning with the top down in a little Mazda Miata is a pretty damn good way of making a living. The sun’s out, the road is winding and I have nothing to do today other than enjoy the scenery. Though I’m not quite sure why I’m driving the aforementioned Miata. Or, more accurately, I’m sure I’m going to be disappointed, ambivalent or just plain confused about the major change Mazda has wrought to its iconic little roadster for the new model year — a retractable hardtop.
When Mazda announced it would be building a collapsible hardtop version of the MX-5, it seemed like the answer to the proverbial question that nobody asked. After all, nobody much complained about the soft-top, and the electro-hydraulic retracting tops on the market are notoriously expensive, not to mention that, when stowed, they eat up cargo space already at a premium in most convertibles, especially a little one like the MX-5.
Imagine my surprise then when Tony Harold, the product planning guru for Mazda Canada, announced that the power retractable roof would cost but $2,195 extra and that it would be available on all trims levels of the MX-5 from the base GX ($28,095) to the top-of-the-line GT ($34,195). What were Mercedes, Jaguar et al. talking about when they claimed that the high cost of retractable roofs was the justification for their high prices and the reason for not installing such a collapsing top on their expensive convertibles? What makes this even more amazing is that MX-5s ordered with the folding roof also get all-new quarter panels and a taller trunk-lid to blend into the collapsed roof’s silhouette.
As for my second concern, trunk space, it turns out that, when stowed, the entire roof is stored ahead of the MX-5’s trunk so none of the little Mazda’s admittedly precious cargo capacity is diminished. I confirmed this by transferring all of my luggage from the trunk of a soft-top to a hardtop version.
If anything, the hardtop version has a smidgen more cargo space. Once again, I have to ask, why does a much more expensive Mercedes-Benz SLK have to lose so much of its trunk space every time I want to drive alfresco? Surely, if a minuscule MX-5 can accomplish the task of stowing a hard roof without penalty, so can a more expensive SLK.
The rest of the MX-5 stays much the same. The roof and its related gear exact a 36-kilogram weight penalty, but the 166-horsepower (163 in the automatic version) 2.0-litre four handles that without much difficulty. The rear suspension has been stiffened to accommodate the extra avoirdupois so there’s no difference in handling. And the roof is only 10 millimetres taller than the soft version, so the Miata doesn’t look much different with this hardtop than it would with the old-style roof that required stowing in your garage. And there are plenty of bonuses. In situ, the roof adds to the chassis’ structural rigidity, calming the ride and aiding handling a bit.
The big advantage, however, is in the greatly diminished wind noise. Anything over 120 kilometres an hour in the soft-top version makes anything less than a bellow unintelligible to the passenger even though he’s barely half a metre away. With the hardtop up, it’s quite easy to hold a conversation without constantly screwing your face up in the “eh?” mode. For that reason alone, the $2,195 Mazda Canada is asking for the hardtop is a steal.
It also adds to new-found all-round ability of the recently revised MX-5. While the new MX-5’s greater power and sporty handling have been applauded, there’s been an even bigger jump in the roadster’s everyday ability. Not quite as small as it once was, the new MX-5 also doesn’t feel as tiny. The overriding impression is of a teenage runabout that’s matured into an adult automobile. The new MX-5 feels more planted, more stable and less nervous than Miatas of old.
