This is no joke: while I was cruising the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata through the a southwest area just shy of downtown Dallas called the Bishop Arts District a few months back, an email popped up in my phone’s inbox with a subject line that said “2016 Mazda MX-5 Named World Car of the Year at the New York Auto Show”. Very surreal. It was as if the universe could feel the excitement I had driving the MX-5 and decided to reinforce my emotions. The MX-5 certainly deserve the title.
The 2016 MX-5 is the one of the most purely enjoyable sports cars I’ve had the pleasure of testing. It’s everything a compact performance car should be: light, beautiful and a pure joy to drive. The Miata was redesigned for 2016 and Mazda was able to hit that sweet spot between modern and classic aesthetics. There are sexy curves at every angle here and nothing is overstated. Look at it head-on, the vechicle’s wheel wells protrude just enough to make this year’s Miata a bit wider in stance. And I loved that way the hood line makes a dramatic nose dive towards the front, giving the entire car a more aerodynamic profile.
Both front and rear taillights have enough character and movement that also manage to not interfere with the rest of the body style. The LED lamps in the front add a nice, edgy touch and actually accentuate the “smiling” low profile grille.
With a small body comes a small interior and it’s no surprise that there isn’t much room for anything other than a driver and a passenger. Round, cockpit designs in the gauges are perfectly in line with the rest of the car’s classic-yet-modern design. In fact the entire dash, including the gauges, climate control, air vents and the pop-up infotainment screen all flow in a nice horizontal configuration that doesn’t crowd and is easy accessible. I was even pleased with the rotary control dial behind the shifter that allowed me to easily navigate the infotainment menus.
A 2.0 L 4-cylinder engine sits under the hood and kicks out 155 horsepower allowing for a 0-60 time of six seconds. With its small weight, the MX-5 is meant for lightweight, sporty handling and the enhanced SkyActiv engine allows the driver enough precious to accurately transition between gears smoothly. Even in bumper to bumper traffic, the super light clutch allowed me still enjoy the work on a manual transmission. Its small size allowed me to maneuver around corners and through traffic with so much ease it was ridiculous.
It’s important to note that Mazda does offer an automatic transmission option on the Miata but if you were ever inclined to learn and adapt to a manual transmission, this if most definitely the car to do that with.
It’s no wonder that the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata was recently awarded an additional award by the Texas Auto Writer’s Association at their annual Spring Auto Roundup: the Best Performance Compact of 2016. It’s ironic to win that award in a state where everything is bigger, but also refreshing to find so much ingenuity in something so compact. The limited interior space can be a downside but once you’re in the driver’s seat with the top down, you won’t care about anything except the open road. This is a beautiful car for people who love to drive.
Starting MSRP for the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata is $24,915.
