Mazda MX5 Long Road Trip Review - 7 Countries - 2600 Miles - 12 Days

preview_player
Показать описание
UK, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland and Italy in a 2020 ND2 Mazda MX5 100th anniversary edition with the 2.0 litre 184PS engine.

What was it like? Did the MX5 have enough space? Was it refined enough to take on 10 hour journeys and what was it like on the German Autobahns, the Swiss Alps, in Paris and around Lake Garda.

Confused Driving Insurance Comparison Website:

The above link is an affiliate link and Richard Fanders may receive a small commission if you use it but it will cost you nothing to use. Thank you for watching and supporting the channel.

00:00 Trip and Luggage
02:41 Switchable miles/kms
03:36 Comfort
04:28 Headlights
05:30 Autobahn & Economy
10:21 Cruise control
12:11 Expensive music & Tolls
15:00 Glove box
15:45 Twisty roads & Burning smell
19:49 Roof off
20:28 Phone storage
21:54 Windscreen wipers & Stiff gears
26:00 Nit-picking
26:30 Impressed
29:47 Warning sounds
31:38 Rev matching
32:31 Variety of weathers
33:13 Driving position
33:45 Top gear revs
34:38 Rough starting sound
35:24 Traffic sign recognition
36:15 Track ready fuel gauge
37:51 End of journey thoughts
Рекомендации по теме
Комментарии
Автор

Extremely good and comprehensive review of this car. Probably the best on YouTube. Well done. 👍

paulstaffordcook
Автор

Regarding the lumbar support I can give you a tip, the back of the leather seats are zipped and if you lift the zips up you can insert a cushion into the frame. The ideal shape of the cushion would be the type that fits on a sunbed i.e. long and thin this type tends to stay in place when you close the zips. I have fitted a fairly firm cushion into the framework and it makes the car much more comfortable for people with lower back problems like myself.

mikemorley
Автор

We just did 1200 miles in the UK in the wife’s ND .
Surprisingly comfortable for a little roadster and we are in our 70s .
Only used a single case then roll pack all the other clothing around it got plenty in what is a tiny boot.
Hers is the original 2016 1.5 and we averaged 49.9mpg, mixed motorway, town and Devon single track lanes

Lee-ish
Автор

I´m from Mexico, i was looking for a review like this, thank you Richard Fanders. You did a good video :)

conradopacheco
Автор

This was great, Richard. Thanks for this video. I'm looking for a secondhand MX5 to go on a similar roadtrip (from NL to Greece) in September. Good to know you're so happy with the MX5!

HoH
Автор

Good and pleasant review. Down to earth. Thanks for the time you put into it!

daveycody
Автор

As a fun car for weekend, mx5 is more fuel efficient than I imagined.

楊展-bd
Автор

Great vid covered all my daily life/travel concerns about the car. Liked and subbed!👍

ajkosolofski
Автор

Excellent review! Thanks for posting a terrific video from your amazing trip.

It's great that you pointed out the negatives in addition to the positives. For the few people who will daily drive and put a lot of miles on a car like the MX-5, it's important to know the pros and cons going into it. If it's just a fun car for nice weekend days, you can live with some negatives much more easily than if you're driving the car everyday. Fortunately, even the negatives on an MX-5 are not huge, and the car can be daily driven if you're willing to live with some compromises, mainly on storage space and trunk capacity.

I should mention I am biased. I daily drove an ND1 for over 4 years and absolutely loved the car. I will probably buy another one sooner or later!

timothycoyne
Автор

38:50 damn I was so confused what was happening in the background and then realised you were on a train lol

zydomason
Автор

This is brilliant mate! I just bought a MX 5 manual and I have very little experience driving a manual transmission. To prepare, I watched loads of Conquer Driving videos which have proved to be very helpful - just got it yesterday and in large part due to you I'm fairly comfortable already. Also, I'm about to take it on a road trip as well in a couple weeks. Clicking on this random MX5 review only to find out it's you, marvelous! Cheers mate!

gerrynorris
Автор

Thank you for this. I've had my MX-5 for a couple months now and am planning a 1500mi, each way, trip to visit family next month. Feeling very confident that it is gonna be a blast

jhonon
Автор

I got my MX5 brand new last May after having a series of Mercedes Convertibles. I love it but had to laugh when you mentioned the noise of the wiper motor. I thought it was just me who’d be irritated by it. Apart from that I’m loving it. Great reviews

jonathansapier
Автор

never seen such an in depth and awesome review! thank you so much for it. i heard everything i needed to know to make me buy one myself! :D definitely worth a sub :D keep it up!

xuro
Автор

All the long trip infos that I needed about this car, this video had all the answers. Thank you! You sir, just earned a new subscriber.

RoadRage
Автор

Very nice review, keep it up!

If I may, I would like to add some personal experiences on the same topic, after 4.5 years of dailying an ND1 2.0 and having had at least 1-2 major (3k+ km) roadtrips every year (mostly in summer) with it.
Here goes, in no particular order (long read ahead):
I never realised until now that the wipers are indeed a bit loud/annoying; thanks for that, now I will be hating on them every trip.
The seat is generally ok but for me (roughly same height as you) it gets a bit uncomfortable after 4-5 hours of driving.
The AC/heater/heated seats work perfectly; maybe also because the indoor space is so small, it's super easy to get the car hot/cold rapidly or to drive with the roof down without feeling cold (it's actually, in my experience, much nicer to drive the car with the roof down between 10-20 degrees C than between 20-30 degrees; after 30 it's roof-up for me automatically).
The general road noise is ok; you don't notice that it's pretty loud unless you also drive another "normal" car on a regular basis (and I don't).
Start/stop is useless because the gearshift knob (and the entire car for that matter) shakes quite violently when the engine starts, so I always turn it off each time I start the car (it's a reflex by now, same as putting on the seatbelt).
Fuel economy is great; I measured it with an app (not via the on board computer) since the very first kilometers and up to almost 60k and it's 7.02l/100km, which I find rather impressive for a daily driven sports car).
I too got tricked into spending 40 EUR (that was the limit on my plan fortunately) on data (in Andorra, not Switzerland) by Android; I guess you just have to learn :)
More than once we drove in the rain and it's perfectly fine unless it's a really heavy rain; in that case, you have to keep it really fast in order to keep the water out and it doesn't feel safe anymore.
We also are a bit scared each time the temperature warning pings; moreover, my car tends to always throw a false tire pressure warning at the beginning of each major roadtrip.
I've used both Android Auto and Carplay and, in my view, Android is easier to use with the controls, but Carplay looks nicer; my (smaller) phone tends to stay put in the little compartment without any extra support but that was a nice tip with the magnet holder.
During spirited uphill driving is also where I've seen the temperature needle moving from it's stable 90 (?) degrees position; so that tends to confirm your theory about the engine running hotter; I didn't notice any burning smell though; and maybe the engine power loss when running hot is by-design, to avoid overheating?
One thing you didn't say anything about: suspension. I have the stock one (not Bilstein) and it is (for me, not a track boi) simply brilliant; it eats bumps and (small) potholes very nicely, but still feels rather sharp once you start pushing it.
Countries and roads: we've been roadtripping to Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Andorra (damn roaming). The best roads for the car are probably (for us at least) the ones in Switzerland; all the mountain passes are great and the vineyard roads around Lausanne/Vevey are wonderful. In Italy I had the same feeling as you did, felt everybody was driving a bit more fast/careless than they should; and the backroads are quite bumpy and bad. In Spain, on the very first trip with the car (it had maybe 5k km), "the devil got into me" one night as I was chased by a BMW on a windy road I was driving for the first time; nothing bad happened but in retrospect I think I should've kept my cool and drive slower (it's still is a very vivid memory since my wife was speechless for a good 20 minutes, presumably because she was a bit afraid). There's some very nice roads in France as well (not the motorway) - even if they're not uphill or spectacular, they seem to have a nice vibe and they're usually quite nice in terms of quality.

We plan to do Norway this year, the usual summer week in Switzerland and maaaybe, if we manage, attempt Scotland (N500 or parts of it). Do you think it's going to be ok driving there with a LeftHand Drive? I did drive before in UK/Malta but with local cars having RHD.

After that, the car will be traded-in for a replacement; we hesitated a lot between an ND2 and a CX-30 but in the end the CX-30 won, just because we like experimenting. Hopefully in 4-5 years when it's time to change again, a new MX-5 model will be available :)

heshtele
Автор

Very good review ! Good idea to review how the car performs on a long trip !

WizardTerence
Автор

The best ‘real’ long term reviews of this car….any car…I’ve seen. Well done sir.

davidhalliwell
Автор

Excellent - thank you. I've watched enough reviews and fancied one for a while so it's time to get serious and buy one.

kevinbessant
Автор

What a well done video! Really enjoyed it and appreciate all the extra effort with conversion constantly on screen! I would NOT roadtrip in my 2004 miata hahaha

RXCody