Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

In the golden days of the Internet, before dysfunctional social media, when forums ruled the roost and people formed communities, someone looking for car advice would invariably be told, more than once, "Just get a Miata." For 35 years, the Miata, or MX-5 as it's better known globally, has stuck to the same simple recipe: two seats and a four-cylinder engine in front that drives the rear wheels behind, wrapped in about as small of a body as is possible while still meeting international crash regulations.

Mazda cribbed the recipe from British sports cars of the 1960s but crucially added something those cars lacked—bulletproof reliability and economy-car running costs. Factor in that MX-5s are a joy to drive, and you can see why people online were so quick to recommend what must be the most accessible sports car of all time.

Today, I am going to buck that trend. Well, sort of. Because the take-home from this review is: Buy the 2025 MX-5 Miata, just not the RF.

The Soul Red paint is a $595 option that looks amazing in natural light.
Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

Wait, what?

For the first couple of decades of the MX-5, the car was available as a single body style—a soft-top roadster. The third-generation MX-5 (known as the NC) was available with a retractable hardtop as an alternative, but in 2017 for the fourth-gen (ND) car, Mazda created a whole new model for the hardtop, called the RF.

RF stands for retractable fastback, and the car got some distinct rear styling to live up to the name. Large buttresses extend back from the cockpit and over the rear wheels and maintain the fastback shape even when the roof is stowed. Raising and lowering the roof is motorized, takes about 12 seconds, and can be operated while the car is traveling at up to 6 mph (10 km/h). Any faster and you're driving around with a partially open roof until you find somewhere to stop.

As a former (NA) MX-5 owner myself, I was rather excited at the prospect of the RF. It sounded like all the MX-5 stuff I loved, but with less risk of someone slashing the hood, and maybe a more refined interior.

The weather mostly sucked while we had the RF, so the roof stayed up a lot.
Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

While I am sure the RF is more vandal-resistant, again I have to report that the hardtop makes this car, if anything, less refined to drive. There's a sound-deadening panel that I am sure wasn't fitted to the first RF we drove in 2017, but with the roof up, conversations with your passenger sound tinny, never mind anything played on the audio system. By comparison, the soft top soaks up some of the road noise without turning the interior into a resonating tin can.

Roof-down is not really much better. It's the buttresses, which catch the air behind your head and make noise in the process. Raising the windows alleviates this, but only a little. You have to pay extra for this, too—a bit less than $3,000 depending on spec.

Still a joy to drive

So far, so not-great. But the rest of the MX-5 recipe is still sound, even if the RF remix is a little lacking. Under the hood is a 2.0 L four-cylinder Skyactiv-G engine, with 181 hp (135 kW) and 151 lb-ft (205 Nm), which is a lot more than early MX-5s made. And it's still a relatively modest output, although sufficient for the car's 2,469 lb (1,119 kg) curb weight. The engine revs freely to 7,000 rpm, but you'll have to work at the gears if you're in a flat-out hurry.

For the curious, the trunk release is on the right side of the license plate overhang.
Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

These cars have never been about outright speed, though. Or outright grip, either. Instead, it's a car where making progress is all about maintaining your momentum, and enjoying the balanced chassis, sharp and communicative steering, and the six-speed manual transmission.

Even when manual 'boxes were common, the MX-5's was a good one. Now three-pedal cars are about as rare as payphones, and Mazda could have given the car a shift that had the action of a wooden spoon in a bucket of tennis balls. But the action as you work the six-speed transmission through each gear is mechanical and precise. It almost goes snickety-snick. There's no rev-matching feature like you might find on a 911, but there is a hill hold, despite the presence of an old-fashioned handbrake (as opposed to an electronic parking brake).

Getting in and out gets a bit harder the older or larger you are, and humans over about 6 feet (1.8 m) start to run out of room, but once you're in the seat, the ergonomics are pretty good, mostly because the cockpit is small enough that nothing's too far out of reach. The cupholders are removable and can be positioned next to the shifter or at the rear of the transmission tunnel, between the seats and just ahead of the lockable cubby.

It's a pretty shape, but the buttresses add wind noise when the roof is down.
Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

Once you're in the car, you sit very low to the ground. The suspension is quite firm, and most of the road imperfections make their way through to your butt and your hands, but that mostly adds to the viscerality of the experience. Recently, I've written about a few new cars that do such a good job isolating you from the outside and masking your speed that you're in danger of going way faster than you think. Not so here—the rawness compared to most other cars on the roads, the fact you're 5 inches off the ground, the engine is soaring toward its redline—it all conspires to make you think you're going way faster than you actually are.

Other than a relative lack of visibility caused by other cars, it's a simple car to drive in the city thanks to its tiny dimensions and high degree of nimbleness. Highways can be a bit tiresome, but the payoff is that this is a car where you will always choose the long way home and invariably get there with a smile on your face. Swapping out of an MX-5 and back into most other cars can be quite a shock, though; everything will feel very heavy, wallowy, and disconnected for the first few miles by comparison.

You'll find a few other modern conveniences here that were missing in my old NA MX-5. The infotainment system is pretty bare-bones but supports wireless CarPlay and Android Auto (as well as having Alexa built in). You operate it with the physical controller on the transmission tunnel—no touchscreen here—which is mostly good, although you can accidentally interact with the controller with your upper arm if your hand is resting on the shifter. I was also unable to find a way to open the trunk that wasn't the remote fob, although I have since educated myself and learned where it lives.

Still, you should buy a Miata

Our test car was the Club trim, which comes with Bilstein dampers, a front strut tower brace, and a limited slip differential, plus some rather tasty BBS alloy wheels, and there's a track mode for the stability control system. Expect to get about 30 mpg (7.8 L/100 km), even if you're out for a hoon.

The entry-level MX-5 is the Sport, which starts at $29,530. The Club is the next step up, at $33,030 for the soft top, but you have to pay an extra $4,900 for the wheels, bigger brakes, and the heated Recaro sports seats. The RF Club is a hefty $40,650, but includes those three features as standard. Either way, unless you're dead-set that it looks better—and I did have people come up and compliment the car's looks—it's still almost a $3,000 premium for a roof that compromises the car more than it adds.

Everyone that fits should have the pleasure of spending some time in an MX-5, and after a week with this one, I think "just get a Miata" remains good advice, as long as it's the soft top.