New 2027 MX-5 proves my mum was right all along! | Editor’s Choice August 2026
No need to panic about Mazda dropping the bigger 2.0-litre engine from the MX-5 range … as Dan’s mum has already demonstrated!
Words by: Dan Trent
Published on 27 August 2026 | 0 min read
Reviews editor Dan Trent writes…
"No secret we’re fans of the Mazda MX-5 here on the Autotrader reviews team. I’ve got an old first-generation one with the pop-up headlights, as has my brother while my mum bought the very first of the current generation the day it went on sale. Catherine here has one of the same … but somehow ‘forgot’ to sell her much-loved previous one. Meaning she trumps us all by owning two at the same time.
“Suffice to say, there was relief in the office when a press release dropped about the ‘new’ 2027 MX-5, demonstrating Mazda is sticking by this fourth-generation ‘ND’ version a decade-plus from the day my mum took delivery of hers. And, somehow in this day and age, selling a convertible sports car powered by a non-hybrid petrol engine with a manual gearbox. For all that’s happened in the automotive world in the last 10 years it seems Mazda has somehow paused time when it comes to the MX-5, for which we should all be grateful!
“But, what’s this, no more 2.0-litre engine version due to the more powerful motor no longer meeting emissions regs? Surely a disaster for fans, and a triumph for MX-5 haters who’ve always teased it for being too underpowered to count as a real sports car? Sounds a reasonable accusation, given the only option is now a weedy sounding 1.5-litre engine with just 136 horsepower.
“Indulge my superfan tendencies here, but I think this is actually a good thing. And it proves my mum right, given she actually chose the 1.5 when she ordered her new MX-5 back in 2015. Have I lost my petrolhead senses, here?
“Absolutely not! The MX-5 has never been about impressive horsepower stats. It’s about the way it makes you feel. And one of the things I love about the 1.5-litre version of the current one is its celebration of what makes my OG Mazda such a gem of a car, it being absolutely no coincidence at all that, though they were developed 25 years apart, my mum’s car has EXACTLY the same power to weight ratio as mine. Whisper it, but I've always preferred it to the more powerful 2.0-litre for exactly this reason. In an automotive world obsessed with making new cars faster, more complicated and more powerful than their predecessors Mazda went the other way, and went to huge engineering effort making the 2015 MX-5 feel … as close as possible to the 1989 original. Can you imagine Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari or anyone else doing the same? Absolutely not. And it’s one of the many, many things I love about Mazda.
“So, buy a new 2027 MX-5. And if you’re out and about and find yourself alongside me in my 33-year-old one we can wave at each other. There will be plenty of time to do so, because you won’t be going any faster than me. We’ll leave that to Catherine and her snazzier 2.0-litre version, disappearing over the horizon ahead of us!”
