2025 Mazda MX-5 Review

There isn’t much I love more than seeing a Mazda MX-5 drive by.

It’s small, it’s humble, it’s adorable, and, best of all, it’s a sign that I’ve spotted someone out there who’s a bit of a car freak like me. One of the best parts about the MX-5 is how common it is out in the real world, not to mention the variety of people at the wheel. The world of automotive enthusiasm can feel a bit cloistered at times but, for exactly 35 years, Mazda has been uniting us and reminding us that whether it’s someone’s first sports car or they’ve been collecting for years, we’re all out there sharing the road.

Styling 9.5 / 10

What’s so impressive about the MX-5 is that after all these years, it remains utterly approachable. A big, wide, grinning grille suggests not just joy, but friendliness, too. The latter impression is not often associated with performance vehicles — sports cars tend to focus on power and fierceness, instead. By contrast, the MX5’s tiny proportions make it look almost like a toy, perfectly conveying what makes me so happy about seeing one on the road: someone’s gone out to play.

Inside, there isn’t much real estate for Mazda’s designers to work with, but the result is attractive and purposeful. The quality of some materials — the plastic faux-chrome rings around the vents, for example — isn’t that impressive, especially in my tester, the $45,000-ish 2025 Mazda MX-5 35th Anniversary Edition. However, I was surprised by how much I liked the colours selected for this celebratory special.

In photos, the dark red paint (respectfully) reminds me of an old lady’s painted nails, but in person it has surprising depth and lustre. The tan soft top — this commemorative edition isn’t offered in RF guise with its retractable hardtop — is also more complex than it looks, with speckling that makes the material look almost like beige denim. The special-edition model is also the only way to get anything other than a black interior, which is a shame. While the dark leather and cloth upholstery offered in the GS, GS-P, and GT editions are fine, the lighter colour helps the interior shine.

Driving Feel 9.5 / 10

It’s not just the way the MX-5 looks that’s so approachable. Tiny and ridiculously light, the car is naturally placeable on the road. It almost feels like you could pick it up and move it like a Hot Wheels. That impression is only reinforced by the steering, which is precise and direct, but not too heavy. The clutch, meanwhile, is easy to master (the 35th Anniversary Edition model is only available with a six-speed manual transmission). My only complaint with the transmission is that the gear selector feels a little less direct and mechanical than I had hoped.

Power 7 / 10

Thanks to its light weight and small size, the 2.0L four-cylinder engine moves the car in what feels like a hurry, though it isn’t really quick in objective terms; it takes around seven seconds to reach highway speeds. No, the MX-5 doesn’t really shine on the spec sheet, offering drivers just 181 hp at 7,000 rpm and 151 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. Sure, you could get around twice as much power from a four-cylinder Ford Mustang for the same kind of money, but the result would be a very different experience.

What power the MX-5 has it offers reliably, though. The naturally-aspirated engine is smooth and rewards drivers for reaching high into the rev range. My only real complaint with it is that I wish it revved a little more freely, but the deliberate way it responds to throttle inputs makes it easier to get along with in day-to-day driving.

Comfort 8 / 10

It may also come as a surprise to those who aren’t in the know that the MX-5 is quite softly sprung. By no means the rock-hard racer you might expect, the car glides over bumps in the road with shocking comfort. In combination with its low weight and light-but-direct steering, the suspension helps the car feel like a dancer. Enter a corner and the outside edge of the front end bows like it’s doing a plier before shifting weight back and prancing off to the next turn. Hardcore track enthusiasts might want to turn to the aftermarket for something stiffer, but as far as on-road performance goes, the chassis setup allows drivers to feel what the car is doing at all times and it’s well-sorted enough to feel lithe, not floppy.

Features 7 / 10

To say that the suspension is simply soft is to do it a bit of a disservice, though. Just because Mazda doesn’t do all of the traditional performance car stuff (stiff suspension, big power, etc.) doesn’t mean it isn’t concerned with corner entry, apex, and sporty optimization. Indeed, since 2024, higher trim levels have been fitted with an asymmetrical limited-slip differential. The technology better anticipates the needs of the vehicle as it enters and exits a fast corner than a traditional differential. As a result, braking force and torque are applied more to the outside rear wheel than the inner one, making the car more stable through corners. It’s yet another example of Mazda working to make its vehicles easier for beginners to handle, and more rewarding for experts.

Safety 6 / 10

Mazda’s improvements don’t stop with performance. The MX-5 now also comes with eCall, which automatically alerts first responders in the event of a collision. It also gets all the usual safety technology you might expect these days, including blind-spot monitoring, lane departure warning, automatic high-beam control, and forward distance alert, among others. It can even be ordered with radar-assisted cruise control.

Practicality 5 / 10

To be sure, its small size is the big compromise any driver will have to make to buy an MX-5. With just 130 L of trunk space and no rear seats (not even pretend ones that act as a big cargo shelf), there’s room for a weekend bag and little else in the car. Even the cabin is tight, with little more than a pair of removable cup holders for your stuff, along with a little cubby between the seats.

Fuel Economy 9 / 10

On the other hand, there are some unintended benefits to its small size. While we don’t think that most sports car buyers care much about what Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has to say about their car, surely no one minds saving a few bucks at the pump. Estimated to burn just 8.1 L/100 km in combined driving, that’s competitive with an economy car like the Kia K4, albeit in its turbocharged trim. More to the point, it’s leaps and bounds better than its most direct competitor, the Subaru BRZ, which consumes 10.1 L/100 km in combined driving.

User-Friendliness 8 / 10

While the MX-5 manages to avoid one of the biggest pitfalls of sport car driving (big fuel bills), it can’t avoid being a Mazda and the consequent weirdness of its infotainment system. However, the MX-5 is the vehicle in which the automaker’s efforts make the most sense. The 8.8-inch infotainment screen is located high on the dash and far from the driver. That means it’s hard to reach, but there’s a controller knob on the centre console and the information on the screen is close to your line of sight, meaning you don’t have to peer far down and away from the road to change the radio station.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included and are the only way you can use the screen’s touch capabilities, but the display’s location and the lack of a place to put your phone (apart from your pocket, of course) make the rotary knob a more appealing alternative. Fortunately, in a driver’s car, these sins can be forgiven.

Elsewhere, the car is fabulously easy to use. The soft top requires just one pull of a lever and the sweep of an arm to be put down, and retraction times could legitimately be measured in tenths of a second. The steering wheel controls are limited and easy to understand, and there are actual knobs for the HVAC system.

Value 8 / 10

With a starting price of $35,450 for the GS trim, the 2025 MX-5 is among the cheapest sports cars on the road. Regardless of which one you go for, engine output is the same, but buyers must opt for the GS-P ($39,450) or GT ($42,550) in order to get a six-speed automatic transmission. Some improvements to handling can be earned in the higher trims with, say, the asymmetrical limited slip differential or the Bilstein shocks, but neither can be had with the automatic transmission regardless of trim.

When it comes to value, the MX-5’s big problem is the BRZ-GR 86 twins from Subaru and Toyota, respectively. They also start at more or less the same price as the Mazda (around $35,000) but they offer much more power (228 hp), as well as rear seats, and some extra practicality. That does come at the cost of fuel economy and, more importantly, a convertible top, though. As far as I’m concerned, the Mazda makes enough power and can carry enough to be used as intended, so the existence of something that’s technically more powerful and usable, but not meaningfully so, isn’t a big issue, especially if you’re spending less than $40,000.

When it comes to the GT and this anniversary model, which is more than $46,000 before tax, the question of value is a little harder to defend. I suspect, though, that in the case of the special-edition model, the point isn’t bang for your buck, but rather a way for fans of the brand to celebrate their favourite model.

The Verdict

Ultimately, a sports car can’t be measured entirely on data. Neither cost nor performance figures fully capture the experience of a great driver's car, and few have welcomed more new people to the world of automotive enthusiasm over the last 35 years than the MX-5. That’s worth celebrating, and although the model that Mazda has created to honour that ongoing legacy might not be the most sensible in the lineup, it’s attractive enough, fun enough, and just special enough to make the nameplate proud.