Postby Conza » Sat Mar 04, 2017 4:05 pm
Well, it's finally delivered properly, and I've had the car now for about 5 weeks. I wanted to start with what are some hopefully interesting insights on Mazda sports cars, since this is my second one, I wanted to discuss two specific similarities between this car and my RX-8, which are aside from the obvious.
Air conditioning, or specifically, the climate control. I've primarily had European cars in the last 10 years, a Peugeot and a Volkswagen, which to me both had excellent climate control, because they adjusted themselves to suit the temperature I wanted in my car, which is basically 20 degrees, maybe 18 in Winter or 22 on hot days in summer, I would adjust if needed when I got in the car, then occasionally, I'd adjust it for recirculation, otherwise it that was that.
The two Mazda systems I've used are completely different. Firstly their middle/default position is 25 degrees, not 22 like the euro cars, but what this boils down to is, I don't think their idea of 'climate control' is the same as the European cars. Yes, it does alter with outside temperature, so 25 will cool when it's hotter, and warm when it's colder outside, but I wouldn't dare set it to 22 degrees in summer otherwise I'd be in an ice box. So these controls, to me, feel like they may as well be hot/cold dial, it all works on feel. I have been usually setting it at 24 to 26 depending on if it's hot or cold when I'm driving, but those aren't the temperatures I want to achieve in the car.
Fuel gauge / Range prediction. (According to carsales) the RX-8 FE-1 has a 61 litre fuel tank, and the average fuel consumption I experienced was 12.5l per 100kms, however, I would be showing empty after only 350-370kms. Sure enough when I went to fill it, it only needed about 50 litres. First I thought it was a fluke, then it did it again, and again, and I simply put it down to that it was an old car and the sensor must've played up. Ideally, the light should come on when you have only 5 litres or 10% left to let you know to go to the pump. Comparatively to my Golf GTI with a 55 litre tank, that fuel light appeared at 6-7 litres left, so when I filled up I'd put in 52 litres.
Yet the MX-5 with 45 litres is doing the same thing as the RX-8, and it's a brand new car. Light comes on, shortly the gauge shows empty and range reads zero, but my first two fill ups I only put in 36 and 37 litres - doesn't make sense. Surely the light should only come on when I've used a full 40 litres, then show empty at around 42/43 litres. So I took a chance and on the third tank instead of driving 480/490 kms, I drove another 30kms on 'empty' or 'range 0kms'. When I did fill it up, I put in 41 litres. I can "live with it" but I find this to be a design flaw personally, I want to maximise my time away from the pump, and this car's sensors aren't letting me do that, which is a shame.
One other thing I'll mention though, right now it feels like for the first time, the MX-5 is truly the halo car for Mazda, simply because it's the only sports car they make, and I think that really shows throughout the whole car that they really went to great lengths to put extra effort into lots of little details, again, this strikes me as similar to the RX-8 which was also a halo car. This in no means is being critical of Mazda or previous MX-5s for not having this approach before, but so much of the car's qualities remind me of the RX-8, some of the way it looks, the interior styling to a certain degree, it culminates to being the best sports car money can buy.
I'll save my other observations for a full review in another 6-7 weeks. Unless anyone has any questions about my ND or NDs in general, then I'll happily answer those too.
