Mazda MX-5 Miyako launches

The The Mazda MX-5 Miyako - soft top or folding hard top versions.

The Mazda MX-5 – or Mazda Miata – has been around for 20 years and continues to demonstrate how appealing simplicity and lightness are in a Roadster. You don’t need to keep adding power and weight to have a fun car. It’s rather like a Mazda tribute to the core car making values of Colin Chapman.

So we have no objection whatsoever to Mazda milking the MX-5s 20th anniversary to get some sales under its belt. We had the Mazda MX-5 20th Anniversary Edition at Geneva at the start of the year and a stripped-out ‘Speedster version – the Mazda MX-5 Superlight – at Frankfurt. There have been a number of country specific special MX-5s including the Black & Matte Edition in France. And now we get a summer special – The Mazda MX-5 Miyako.

The MX-5 Miyako – named after the Japanese holiday island of Miyako-Jima (apparently) – comes in two flavours, either the 1.8 litre soft top (0-60mph 9.9 seconds) or the 2.0 litre roadster (0-60mph 7.9 seconds) with folding tin-top. Although this special edition is a cosmetic job the MX-5 Miyako does get a front suspension brace to tighten responses a little.

Goodies on offer include fog lights, 17″ alloys and metallic paint. Inside you get ‘Medici’ black leather with red stitching, a badge or two, posh mats and Climate.

The MX-5 Miyako goes on sale tomorrow (1st July) with the soft top at £18,835 and the tin-top at £20,885.

By Cars UK