Mazda MX-5 review: the only new sports car left for this money in Bahrain
4.3/5MotorsSouq Editorial Team
Buy the MX-5 with your eyes open about what it is not — not fast, not practical, not a car for the whole family — and it becomes one of the easiest recommendations on this list. The automatic gives up little of the manual's character while removing the one real objection Bahrain's traffic raises against a sports car, and there is no rational alternative at this price that offers the same thing.
Pros
- Light weight and near-perfect weight distribution deliver a driving feel nothing else near this price offers
- Automatic transmission suits Bahrain traffic without losing much character
- Mechanically simple — no turbo — keeps maintenance costs down
- Strong resale thanks to scarce genuine sports-car competition
Cons
- Boot space of 130 litres is a real constraint, even for two
- Cabin is tight for taller drivers
- Comfortable top-down months are limited outside November–March
- Manual grade is scarce on the local used market
The MX-5 is not a car you buy for the numbers. 181 hp and a 0–100 km/h time in the mid-six-second range are unremarkable on paper next to a hot hatch costing the same money, and none of that matters once you are in the driver's seat, because the ND was engineered around low weight and a perfectly placed engine rather than outright power. It is the only genuinely light, rear-wheel-drive sports car sold new in Bahrain for anything close to this price.
Living with a two-seat convertible in Bahrain
The automatic is the honest recommendation here despite what enthusiasts will tell you: Bahrain's traffic does not reward a manual gearbox the way a mountain road does, and the six-speed torque converter is well matched to the engine, holding gears through a roundabout rather than upshifting early. The soft-top folds by hand in seconds, which matters for exactly the number of months a year it is comfortable to have it down — reckon on the cooler months from November to March, with the air conditioning doing serious work the rest of the year.
Boot space is 130 litres, which is a genuine constraint even for a weekend bag for two, and the cabin is tight enough that taller drivers should sit in one before buying. None of this is a surprise; it is the car being honest about its priorities.
Running one and buying used
Skyactiv-G reliability applies here as much as anywhere else in the range, and the MX-5's mechanical simplicity — no turbo, no complex electronics beyond the safety suite — makes it one of the cheaper cars on this list to maintain relative to its price. Resale is strong because so few genuine sports cars are sold new in this market; a well-kept MX-5 rarely sits long once listed.