In order to make the following verbal tribute to the Mazda MX-5 with its Bose Premium Sound System understandable, I should first expand a little. The older you get, the greater your hunger for performance often becomes. This may be due to a certain habituation effect, but it certainly also has something to do with the omnipresent explosion in performance. While the development of naturally aspirated engines has progressed rather slowly, at least across the board, the widespread use of turbocharging in petrol and diesel engines has led to a sudden increase in performance.
Even a compact sports car like the VW Golf R, with its turbocharged 2-liter four-cylinder engine, would mercilessly outperform the Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches of my youth. But then the electric offensive recommended by leading world saviors began. Now, thanks to a new explosion in performance, values above 4 seconds from 0 to 100 are not worth mentioning at the regulars’ table. Recently, even the Volvo EX30 electric SUV, which is designed more for individual local transportation, had more power than the 6-cylinder sports coupé I took for a test drive. And it was even heavier.
The naturally aspirated engine is big fun
When I sit in my classic car from the early 80s, I can only shake my head at this development, although there are some arguments in favor of it, from safety to environmental considerations. I don’t usually miss any of the things in my classic car that I consider indispensable in my company car, because I can concentrate fully on driving. And if I do, it’s really only a proper hi-fi sound system with a Bluetooth or USB interface for playing music from my iPhone, a hands-free system and a built-in navigation system.
The cars and my requirements for them are so different depending on the occasion and mood that I am glad to be able to afford “car sharing” in my old age: A light, 42-year-old naturally aspirated convertible and a heavy, but powerful turbo coupé share a driver. But just in case I wanted or had to limit myself to one car: there is a way to combine the essence of my two four-wheeled favorites in one vehicle. And it’s called the Mazda MX-5.
Weight Watchers would probably be proud of the MX-5
With an unladen weight without driver of 1,074 kilos and 184 naturally aspirated horsepower to carry it, plus a range of digital gadgets and a Bose sound system, it is the greatest common denominator of my two vehicles. And it’s even affordable. The 132 hp version starts at just under 31,000 euros. My test car in the Homura version with the 2-liter four-cylinder engine, which is recommended from a sporting point of view, costs 42,440 euros. And the Bose sound system with headrest speakers is already included in the price.
The two-seater roadster, crouching low above the asphalt, has not only been a heartthrob since the first generation in 1989. It is also the wet dream of petrol-heads with a sense of purism, but who don’t have the necessary small change or the uncompromising attitude for a KTM XBow or a Lotus Elise. The performance-oriented among them should hurry, however, because the more powerful version from this test is due to be discontinued at the end of the year.
The legend lives on
The Mazda MX-5 combines everything that purists with a residual desire for comfort appreciate in a sports car. Since I tested it for the online magazine LowBeats in 2016, the timelessly elegant shape has remained largely unchanged. A sporty design that stylishly dispenses with the martial ingredients that are now commonplace in the tuning departments of our southern German brands. I know of only a few Japanese sports cars that quicken the pulse and have such an independent appearance. In addition to the Toyota Supra, these include the legendary Nissan GTR “Godzilla”, which I was also able to test many years ago thanks to its Bose system.
What is striking about the current generation of the MX-5 is that Mazda has given the roadster numerous electronic aids, not least because of the stricter safety regulations. The most striking of these is the speed warning system, which is now mandatory in the EU. As usual, it emits a beep from the first kilometer above the automatically detected limit. The button to deactivate it is located on the left under the steering wheel in the middle of an easily accessible keypad. In the electric Polestar 3, you had to delve into the menus on the central touchscreen to do this. For someone who is very open to modern technology, if it brings comprehensible progress. In my opinion, this is not at all the case with touchscreens, especially in a moving car.
That’s why I immediately liked the new MX-5 even more. Not only does it have the exact color combination to my taste: grey paint (Aero Grey, surcharge 650 euros) and black forged wheels. It also has a kind of iDrive controller. Yeah, let’s go! The touch functions of the central screen are limited to Apple CarPlay, which is available via USB or wireless (and certainly Android Auto, which I couldn’t try out as an iPhone user). Otherwise, you navigate through the menus with the high-quality rotary and push dial and are less distracted than with touch controls.
Old school, but not retro
The cockpit follows a modern design, but at the same time proves to be a Jurassic park for analog instruments with a central rev counter and steering column levers. This is very functional and stylish. Yes, and there’s even a large handbrake lever that you can use to perform 180-degree skidding turns in snowy parking lots in winter. (It also works on tarmac, of course, but then it’s on the material). This is how you build sports cars!
The gearshift of the crisp six-speed gearbox with its short shift travel also proved to be a real joy stick. Mazda has chosen the transmission ratio so that the 205 Newton meters of torque, which is respectable for a 2-litre naturally aspirated engine, does not cause boredom even when driving without shifting.
Yes, that’s exactly to my taste. Although the MX-5 remains faithful to tried and tested ingredients, the Kodo designers have spared themselves any retro airs and graces. That particularly impresses me. After all, the Mazda CX-60 – the report of my extensive test drives will follow soon – also has steering column levers for windshield wipers and buttons or knobs for useful things like the air conditioning, although I wasn’t entirely convinced by their effect.
Bose remains Bose
Although the basic features of the stereo system remained unchanged, it sounded completely different in the 2024 MX-5 than I remembered from 2016. After the facelift, there are still nine speakers in the two-seater cabin. Bose relies on 16.5 cm full-range speakers in the doors, which are supplemented by 2.5 cm dome tweeters with neodymium drive in the A-pillars. For bass support, Bose installed a 13 cm subwoofer with a 6-liter housing in the passenger footwell. The special highlight are the four 5 cm ultra-nearfield loudspeakers in the headrests of the sporty, hard Recaro seats. This makes it possible to create an impressive surround sound in the small, lightweight sports car.
You don’t consciously perceive the near-field loudspeakers as a sound source directly behind your head. The effect, however, is astonishing. The Bose Premium Sound System succeeds in positioning phantom sound sources in numerous recordings outside the cabin, which is cut tightly around the two sports seats. And in a tangibly vivid way. Depending on the piece of music, these can be instruments or choir voices. With the best will in the world, I didn’t remember it being this good from my test drive in 2016. The difference was so great that I even checked with Bose in the USA. It turned out that the current model year had a new, more powerful 7-channel DSP amplifier.
Intoxicating experience in every respect
The Bose system uses AudioPilot 2 technology, which uses an interior microphone to detect driving noise and uses an equalizer to adjust the volume in the individual frequency bands specifically to the driving noise in order to ensure an optimum listening experience even at high speeds. The development team has also tuned the system for driving with the top down as well as with the top up. The equalizer automatically switches between the two preset modes to optimize the sound according to the current driving situation.
But both systems showed their limits. Despite the small wind deflector, the MX-5 is not only quite draughty when open, but also not very quiet. I wasn’t just worried that I might lose my baseball cap if I moved my head the wrong way when driving open-top on country roads. The sound also seemed a little thin, especially in the bass, and suggested that I use the sound control – don’t call it equalizer – to help out a little. However, when using the hands-free phone system outside of city traffic, the only thing that helped was closing the manually operated soft top.
Successful coordination
Even though I was particularly impressed by the spatial representation, especially for a rather purist sports car – also because it was better than I remembered the last generation of the MX-5 – I can only report positive things about the tonal tuning of the sound system. The neodymium tweeters from Bose do seem a little snottier than the aluminum domes of the metal domes of the Harman Kardon hi-fi systems familiar from the VW Golf R or the Volvo C40. In terms of tonal balance and bass punch in particular, the Bose audio system in the small sports car doesn’t need to hide behind the two heavyweights. The staging works very well, especially for this class. It can even be focused on the driver’s seat with a click in the sound menu.
Rock classics such as “Money” from the David Gilmour Life At Pompeii album were particularly enjoyable in the Mazda MX-5, with a live atmosphere that extended far beyond the narrow vehicle cabin, especially at the sides, and acoustic drums with a really rich punch and a proper depth.
Quod erat demonstrandum: The Porsche situation
Of course, it is in the nature of things that men of all ages like to compete with others when they are in a sporty car. I’m definitely not talking about illegal street racing. But to show like-minded people within the limits of reason outside the city limits what’s possible. Such a like-minded person appeared as if at the push of a button when I was heading towards one of my favorite bends: a Porsche Taycan 4 S put all its electric horsepower on one card, came shooting up from behind at high speed and braked itself with its huge Brembo calipers to within touching distance at the entrance to the expressway exit, while I didn’t exhaust the potential of the Brembos in my Mazda.
I didn’t let this affect me and rode the bend quickly as planned, but not in inner “race mode”. To my surprise and amusement, the distance behind the apex of the 180-degree bend was so great that the 2.5-ton truck – a works car, judging by the license plate – had almost disappeared from the rear-view mirror. This demonstration object came at just the right time. At the very moment when I was drawing comparisons in my mind with my equally heavy, or rather light, oldie, with which I once left an M8 Cabriolet almost five times as powerful in the same bend.
German ingredients for the Japanese flounder
Incidentally, after four decades, my original car was retrofitted with its still firm Bilstein suspension, BBS rims and Recaro seats, whereas these desirable features are already on board from the factory in the Mazda. I would also have no objection to a ZF rack-and-pinion power steering system from Germany. The steering feel in the MX-5 is more direct than in most modern cars, if only because of the lower mass and the short wheelbase of 2.31 meters, but it doesn’t quite come close to the kart feeling of my classic car.
Remember: there is no substitute for the absence of weight than the absence of even more weight. The great thing about it is that you can feel the absence of weight not only in terms of longitudinal and especially lateral dynamics. The little roadster is also very economical for its performance class. My consumption during the test with the aforementioned driving style was around 8 liters.
Conclusion on the Mazda MX-5 with Bose Sound System
The Mazda MX-5 has everything that old-school drivers like me appreciate in a sporty classic – lightness, directness, unadulterated driving pleasure and willingness to corner – plus the things we usually miss in such vintage cars: HiFi system from a good manufacturer, navigation system, contemporary connectivity with hands-free system, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, USB and Bluetooth. In addition, there is something that I, at least, longingly miss in my modern vehicle: Brembo brakes from Italy.
You could get all of this, including Bose sound, in a Porsche Boxter or Cayman, but not for anywhere near this price. And that makes the Mazda MX-5 particularly likeable in my eyes. On the other hand, you sometimes have to turn a blind eye to details, such as the tinny sound when closing the trunk lid.
In any case, it is not for nothing that the comparatively inexpensive MX-5 can be found alongside the Porsche 911 and BMW M2 on a list of endangered species worthy of protection recently published by the German news magazine Focus under the motto: The end of the combustion engine is coming – now the hunt for the last real sports cars begins (written in German).
Mazda MX-5 with Bose Sound System – Technical specifications
- Recommended retail price Mazda MX-5: from around 31,000 euros (132 hp version); test car (184 hp Homura with special Aero Grey paint finish) 42,440 euros
- Recommended retail price Bose Premium Sound System: standard equipment from Exclusive Line for around 34,000 euros (132 hp version)
- External dimensions / vehicle weight: 391.5 x 173.5 x 123 cm / approx. 1,116 kg
- Drive power: 184 hp
- Acceleration 0 – 100 km/h: 6.5 seconds
- Vmax: 219 km/h
STEREO GUIDE verdict
Despite its pleasingly low vehicle weight, the Mazda MX-5 boasts a Bose sound system with rich bass and a wide-ranging, spatial sound stage.
The roadster itself has a high entertainment value.
Pros
- Very spacious reproduction
- Full, deep bass with the top down
- The MX-5 is very entertaining even without hi-fi sound
- Bose Premium Sound System as standard in many variants
Cons
- With the top down, a lot is lost, especially in the bass
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Sound quality7.9
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Price/performance sound system9.5
