Faults:

In the four years I have owned this car from new, I haven't had to change as much as a light bulb. Routine servicing with no other work required. Exceptional.

General Comments:

An extremely reliable car; it looks good, and drives and handles well. Not the fastest considering it's a 1.8i, but that's not the reason for buying it.

Very economical to run with reasonable insurance costs.

The Euphonic is one of several MX5 limited editions however, this must be the sportiest looking special edition they realised. Striking in Velocity Red (only 500 manufactured in this colour), with matching black and red leather trim finished off with graphite 16" wheels.

My only minor issue is it seams to eat tyres. Would have expected to have got another 5000k miles out of them.

Faults:

I hit the wing of my car, and was unhappy with the quality of the respray from the Mazda dealer. They did do the work again, and I was still unhappy. I did wish I'd taken it somewhere else, but typically if I had done that, I would have kicked myself for not taking it to a Mazda dealer if the respray was crap.

Otherwise, the car seems fine.

General Comments:

My car is a titanium grey Euphonic with the matching wheels. I personally didn't like the MX5 until I saw the Euphonic. People have commented on the look of the car, especially the wheels.

I have looked at the MGF, Toyota and S2000. These were all nice, but the limited edition Euphonic had the black red leather, Sony MP3 player and CD changer, 16" alloy wheels as standard. This made the car very attractive at the price.

Handling is very good, as is the acceleration. Top speed is not as fast as I thought, but saying that, pulling away at traffic lights fast is great.

Overall a great car. The interior looks very good. Look up a Euphonic edition in metallic red or grey, and you will not be disappointed.

Faults:

Someone dented the rear wing in a carpark. I thought the guy who came to fix the dent was going to cry - "they're all curves!" he moaned. He managed to get it almost right, but you can still see a small crease if you look really hard. It's not a fault as such, but it I imagine that a body shop would have a job getting it perfect again if it was seriously bashed, especially at the back.

If you're a bloke and you really care about image there is the 'hairdresser' factor I suppose. It doesn't bother me. My girlfriend absolutely adores it and so do all her mates.

General Comments:

I really love this car. It's not mind-blowingly fast, but what you lose in a straight line you make up for around corners. I've seen the steering described as 'telepathic' and particularly in fast bends your hands barely seem to move.

It's very well made - the doors shut with a real thunk, the switchgear has a quality feel and the roof is completely watertight. It's very practical too with loads of cabin storage and a big enough boot to get the shopping in. I'm 6' 3" with long legs and I find it very comfortable.

The gearbox is exceptional for a car at this money although I find 1st to 2nd a bit awkward sometimes - possibly because I'm tall and have to 'snuggle down' in the seat. My girlfriend has no problem with it. Generally there's a bit of a fight as to who gets to drive.

It handles just like everyone says it does. Seems to be a combination of very well-balanced chassis, razor-sharp steering, good throttle-response and not too much power. Skinny-ish tyres and no traction control means it can be a bit lively in the wet, but what do you expect?

We've got the Euphonic special edition which has red and black leather seats, leather steering wheel and gear knob and a top-notch Sony stereo with interchanger which is pretty much the perfect extras package as far as I'm concerned. If your buying second-hand it's worth hunting one down.