Mazda is celebrating success at the 2024 Scottish Car of the Year Awards, where the world’s best-selling two-seater roadster received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers (ASMW). Recognition from the ASMW comes in the year that the MX-5 celebrates 35 years since its launch in 1989 and highlights the Mazda MX-5’s multiple wins at the annual Scottish Car of the Year (SCOTY) Awards over the years.
Titles won include Best Drop Top in 2006 and 2007 for the third-generation model, an accolade reclaimed in 2015 when the current fourth-generation car was launched. Recognising the breadth of the MX-5’s appeal, it has also won multiple used car awards at SCOTY, including the overall Used Car of the Year title in 2016 and the Best Used Car for under £15k trophy last year.
Commenting on the MX-5’s recognition, ASMW President Alisdair Suttie, said: “for 35 years, the Mazda MX-5 has been delivering thrills and driver engagement at a keen price. With more than a million sold, it really is Scotland and the world’s favourite sports car. Recently updated, the MX-5 is as brilliant as ever and hugely deserving of the ASMW’s Lifetime Achievement Award.” Adding, “easy to live with and even easier to fall in love with, whether new or used, the MX-5 is a sports car you buy with your head and heart.”
Launched at the start of 2024, the latest MX-5 features a new LED headlight design that now incorporates the daytime running lights, while the rear LED lights have also been redesigned. The eight-model range features four Roadster and four RF models with a choice of Prime-Line, Exclusive-Line and Homura trim grades. Prime-Line cars are powered by the 132ps 1.5-litre Skyactiv-G engine, while Exclusive-Line can be chosen with either the 1.5-litre or the 184ps 2.0-litre Skyactiv-G engine.
As before 2.0-litre cars feature a front strut brace, limited slip differential and Bilstein dampers as standard. The 2024 model year MX-5 features a new Asymmetric Limited Slip Differential – a cam mechanism has been added to the conical clutch, which is lightweight, compact and highly durable. The cam angle is set differently for the deceleration and acceleration side, thereby achieving optimal limiting force of slip during both actions. Strengthening the slip limiting force when the unloaded rear wheel is lightened during cornering enhances stability, moreover tuning the slip limiting force and optimising the set up for the MX-5’s engine, suspension and tyre characteristics ensures the purity of handling balance the MX-5 is famed for.
Drivers will also notice upgrades to the cabin of the MX-5, as inside there’s a new larger central 8.8-inch touch-screen multimedia display and an updated instrument panel. The larger central screen allows for clearer navigation mapping, while the more advanced MZ Connect system helps user functionality, additionally USB-C ports have been introduced. However, as you would expect, Mazda MX-5 retains the same driver focused cabin and driving position, while the range-topping Homura grade now features Recaro seats trimmed in leather and Alcantara.
Over more than three decades and across four generations, the Mazda MX-5 has always been the benchmark pure lightweight sports car with driver engagement at the centre of its appeal. This Jinba Ittai philosophy – of driver and machine working in perfect harmony – is at the heart of every Mazda, none more so than the Mazda MX-5. The current Mazda MX-5 continues to deliver pure open-top driving pleasure while retaining its core values of agility, lightweight and finely-balanced handling.
To date over 1.2 million MX-5s have been produced at Mazda’s Ujina plant in Hiroshima, with over 135,000 of these being sold in the UK – so the place the MX-5 holds in the hearts of UK sports car fans is clear. Plus, with over 25,000 fourth-generation MX-5s sold in the UK since its launch in 2015, there’s huge choice in the used car market as well, where customers buying via the Mazda Approved Used Cars scheme benefit from the reassurance of a multipoint inspection, independent mileage check, a one-year unlimited mileage warranty, one-year roadside assistance and MOT protection to name just a few of the advantages.
Commenting on the Mazda MX-5’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Mazda UK Managing Director Jeremy Thomson said, “when it comes to driver engagement, the current generation MX-5 has established itself as a benchmark sports car and we continue to offer one of the most exciting and satisfying to drive cars money can buy. The MX-5 is Mazda’s brand icon and it embodies all that is great about our products so it’s great the ASMW has acknowledged that with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Mazda’s unceasing commitment to refining the vehicle over its 35-year history ensures that whether you are buying the current car or choosing a used model from across any of the four generations, you know you will be getting an affordable, engaging, world-class sports car”.
