2021 Mazda MX-5 Miata

The 2021 MX-5 carries the ND2 Skyactiv-G 2.0-liter four introduced for 2019 unchanged; there is one engine across Sport, Club and Grand Touring, soft top and RF alike. Output is very low in absolute terms because the car is a sub-2,400 lb lightweight rather than a power play.

Peak torque is 151 lb-ft at a high 4,000 rpm from the naturally aspirated 2.0-liter — near the bottom of the convertible band, and the engine's defining trait is that it must be revved rather than leaned on.

Low output is offset almost entirely by mass: at under 2,400 lb the ND2 runs 5.7 seconds to 60, quicker than its 181 hp suggests and mid-pack among convertibles. Scored on the manual, the volume transmission.

Throttle response is immediate and linear with no turbo lag and no hybrid handoff to manage, and the ND2 revision raised the redline to 7,500 rpm with a genuinely eager top end — but the four goes coarse and thrashy near that redline and there is little low-rpm torque, so it is not a seamless delivery in the way a torque-rich turbo or EV is.

The standard Skyactiv-MT six-speed manual is routinely cited as among the best shifters sold at any price — very short, precise throws with a light, clean gate — and the optional six-speed automatic with paddles is praised for quick, sporty programming rather than tolerated. Only mild criticism: the linkage feels notchy and the clutch long-travel until acclimated.

Rear-wheel drive only across every 2021 trim and body style — no AWD has ever been offered on any MX-5 generation, and there is no low range or terrain mode. A limited-slip differential (Club and Grand Touring manual) is the only traction hardware upgrade available, and it is not all-wheel drive.

One engine, take it or leave it: the Skyactiv-G 2.0 is the only powertrain in the 2021 range, with no turbo, hybrid, PHEV or EV variant anywhere in the lineup. The six-speed manual/automatic choice is a transmission option, not a second powertrain.

Scored on the six-speed manual, the standard and dominant transmission on the MX-5. A naturally aspirated 2.0-liter in a sub-2,400 lb car returns respectable but not remarkable economy for a gas car — the ND2's higher-revving tune costs it a little against the pre-2019 engine.

26 MPG city with no stop-start-driven hybrid assistance; the two transmissions rate the same in town, so the manual carries no city penalty.

34 MPG highway for the manual — the small displacement and low mass help, but tall-geared cruising is limited by the short final drive that makes the car feel eager, and the automatic's extra ratio spread nets 1 MPG more.

The limiting factor is the tank, not the engine: the ND packages just 11.9 gallons to keep mass and volume down, so even 29 MPG combined yields only about 345 miles — near the bottom of the convertible band and a real touring compromise.

EPA's estimate is inflated relative to the car's economy because the calculation uses the premium-gasoline price the MX-5 is rated on — 29 MPG on premium costs more to run than 29 MPG on regular would.

Premium 91-octane is recommended for the rated 181 hp, but Mazda explicitly permits 87–90 octane regular with only a slight loss of output — so the premium requirement is a performance preference, not a hard constraint, and an owner can run regular without risk. That is squarely the "recommended but not required" middle band.

NHTSA carries a 2021 MX-5 record but every crash field reads "Not Rated" — no frontal, side, pole or rollover test was run, which is routine for a low-volume two-seat convertible outside NCAP's test priorities. The framework has no encoding for "untested," so the value is held at the same mid-band placeholder every untested convertible peer received (Z4, Mustang Convertible, Mini Convertible all at 4 stars / 50) rather than crediting or penalizing the car on absent data.

The MX-5 has no IIHS crashworthiness ratings at all for 2021 — not merely no award, but no tests run. Mazda's own award release for the year is titled "Every 2021MY Mazda Vehicle Tested Earns 2021 IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ Award" and the winners are the Mazda3, CX-3, CX-30, CX-5 and CX-9; the MX-5 is absent because it was never tested. That places it in the untested band, and it sits below untested peers like the Z4 because of a compounding documented defect: an FMVSS 208 non-compliance recall for front airbags that deploy with excessive force, covering 2016–2023 MX-5s and therefore this exact model year. A 2,341-lb two-seater also carries unavoidable mass-disparity exposure in multi-vehicle crashes.

Mazda standardizes a genuinely useful core on the base Sport trim — Smart City Brake Support, Blind Spot Monitoring, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning and a rearview camera are all in the 2021 brochure's standard-equipment list, so they carry across Sport, Club and Grand Touring alike. But two of the five features this item names are not merely trim-locked, they are unavailable at any price for 2021: there is no adaptive cruise control anywhere in the lineup and no lane-keep steering assist anywhere. The AEB is also the low-speed city system rather than full-range. Standard-on-base breadth pulls it well above the 2019 Mustang Convertible (28); the outright absence of ACC and LKA keeps it far below convertibles that offer both. 2021 is a carry-over year for safety content — the only changes Mazda announced were wireless Apple CarPlay and two new colors — so this matches the 2020 and 2022 scores exactly.

The 2021 MX-5 gets plain Smart City Brake Support, not the Advanced SCBS with pedestrian detection or the full-range Smart Brake Support fitted to Mazda's crossovers. Mazda's own brochure footnote states it operates only between about 2 and 18 mph and is "only designed to reduce damage in the event of a collision"; above that speed the system does not brake, and base SCBS does not recognize pedestrians or cyclists at all. That is the definition of a basic system, and there is no IIHS front crash prevention rating to offset the specification. Scored above the 2017 Mustang (5, no AEB whatsoever) and clearly below peers whose AEB includes pedestrian detection.

The strongest safety item on the car. Blind Spot Monitoring and Rear Cross Traffic Alert are standard on every 2021 trim including the $26,830 Sport — uncommon in a sports car at that price and especially valuable here, because the roof-up rear three-quarter view is one of the MX-5's real weaknesses. Held to the middle band because coverage is alert-only: no active steering or braking intervention, and no safe-exit assist.

The 2021 MX-5 offers Lane Departure Warning and nothing more — an audible/visual alert with zero steering actuation, active only above about 44 mph, with no lane-keep assist and no lane centering at any trim or price. Warning without intervention is squarely the crude-or-absent band. Scored above the 2017 Mustang (10) because the warning system is standard rather than optional, and below the 2019 Mustang (38), which actually steers.

There is no adaptive cruise control on the 2021 MX-5 at any trim level — the car has conventional fixed-speed cruise control only, and consequently no highway-assist layer of any kind. Mazda Radar Cruise Control appears nowhere in the official 2021 brochure for either the soft top or the RF, and it is still absent in the 2022 and 2023 spec decks. Scored at the floor alongside the 2017 Mustang Convertible (5), the same basic-cruise-only case.

Mazda sold no hands-free highway driving system on any model for 2021, and the MX-5 lacks even the adaptive cruise and lane centering such a system would have to be built on. Floor score, consistent with the Mustang Convertible (5) and Z4 (10).

LED headlamps are standard on all trims, which is a solid baseline, but everything above that baseline is locked to Grand Touring: Adaptive Front-lighting System, High Beam Control and even auto on/off headlights are Grand Touring only, and the base Sport gets bulb daytime running lights rather than LED. So the volume Sport and Club trims have no automatic high beams and no adaptive lighting at all. With no IIHS headlight rating published for the MX-5 there is also no external evidence of Good-rated performance to lean on, so it sits just below the mid-band and under the 2023 Mustang (55) and Mini (64).

Two very different cars depending on roof position. Top down the MX-5 has close to the best sightlines of anything on sale — low cowl, thin A-pillars, short hood, nothing at all behind the driver's head. Roof up it is markedly worse: a small glass rear window, thick fabric-covered rear quarters and a substantial over-shoulder blind zone, with only the standard rearview camera and the standard BSM/RCTA to compensate; there is no surround-view camera and no front or rear parking sensors at any 2021 trim. Averaging the two states lands it well above the much larger Mustang Convertible (42) but short of the excellent-sightlines band.

The MX-5 is a strict two-seater: two buckets, a bulkhead with a locking storage box between them, and no rear seat offered on any 2021 trim or body style. Against the convertible band, whose floor is 4 seats, that is below the floor and scores zero — the framework measures absolute capacity, and every four-seat convertible peer here (Mustang, Mini, 4 Series, CLE) carries two more places.

Mazda publishes 950 mm — 37.4 inches — of front headroom for the soft-top body, the volume configuration, with the RF giving up just over half an inch to its hard roof panel and fixed buttresses. That is a little above the convertible band floor of 36 in, but the paper figure flatters the reality: the 2021 seat is manual 6-way on the driver's side with no height adjustment, so an occupant cannot trade headroom against seat position, and reviewers consistently run out of vertical room roof-up above roughly six feet.

The one passenger-space measurement the MX-5 wins outright: 1,095 mm — 43.1 inches — of front legroom, which is more than most mid-size sedans offer their drivers and well up the convertible band (40–44 in). Mazda bought it by pushing the engine behind the front axle line and the cabin rearward, and it is why a tall driver can be comfortable in a car this small provided the roof is down.

130 litres — 4.59 cubic feet — sits barely above the convertible band floor of 4 cu ft and is roughly a third of what the four-seat convertibles in this set carry. The redeeming detail is that the figure does not change when the roof folds, because the top stows in its own well ahead of the boot rather than eating into it; the penalty is that the aperture is small and the box shallow, so it takes two soft weekend bags and refuses a hard suitcase or a folded stroller.

There is no glovebox at all. Storage is a locking console box between the seat backs, two small covered bins in the rear panels behind each occupant's shoulder, a coin holder, a shallow console tray with armrest, and two removable cup holders that mount in whichever of three sockets least obstructs the gear lever — a genuinely clever piece of packaging that is also an admission there was nowhere fixed to put them. No door pockets of usable size, no underfloor bin, no fold-flat surface, and a single 12-volt outlet. Low band: this is minimal storage by design and by necessity in a 154-inch car, and nothing in the 2021 model year changed it.

The 2021 seats are well shaped and hold you properly through corners, and 43.1 inches of legroom means the pedals are never a problem — but the adjustment range is thin for a car people take on long drives. The driver's seat is manual 6-way with no height adjuster, the passenger's manual 4-way, there is no lumbar adjustment on any trim, and the fixed low hip point makes the car hard to get in and out of. Heated seats arrive only from Club up. Reviewers rate the seats fine for a couple of hours and increasingly wearing beyond that. Mid-band, and marginally below the four-seat luxury convertibles here, which offer power adjustment and lumbar support the MX-5 does not.

Better than the 2,341-lb curb weight and 90.9-inch wheelbase suggest it has any right to be. Four-wheel independent suspension — double wishbone front, multi-link rear — and comparatively soft spring rates give the 2021 car a fluid, long-travel gait that absorbs broken pavement rather than crashing over it, and it never gets brittle the way a firmer sports car does. What keeps it mid-band is the short wheelbase: sharp expansion joints and undulating surfaces set up a pitching motion nothing can damp out, and the manual Club and Grand Touring cars carry Bilstein dampers and a sport-tuned setup that tighten body control at the cost of some compliance. Above the Mini Convertible, below the air-sprung luxury peers.

The weakest comfort item and the one owners complain about most. A single-layer cloth top with a glass rear window, no acoustic laminated side glass and no active noise cancellation leave the 2021 car measurably loud roof-up — around 72–73 dB at 70 mph, with instrumented figures for the generation as high as 77 dB — and above 80 dB with the roof down. Reviewers report having to raise your voice to hold a conversation at highway speed. Mazda fits a noise-isolating windshield and a mesh windblocker from the Club grade up, which helps buffeting more than it helps volume. Low band, and the RF is only marginally better because its buttresses generate their own turbulence.

Thin, and trim-gated. Every 2021 MX-5 gets air conditioning, a heated glass rear window and a tilt-and-telescoping wheel; heated seats start at Club; automatic climate control, heated mirrors and rain-sensing wipers arrive only at Grand Touring. Absent at any trim and any price: ventilated seats, a heated steering wheel, dual-zone climate, a neck-warmer vent of the kind the Z4 and Mercedes convertibles use to extend top-down season, and — because the car has no connected-services hardware — any form of remote pre-conditioning. Low band, below every peer in this set.

Mazda's own 2021 MX-5 pricing release puts the Sport soft top with the six-speed manual at $26,830 — a $250 increase over 2020 — and carries the notice that destination and handling rose from $945 to $995 for every 2021 MX-5 released from port after February 1, 2021. Since the model year ran from December 2020 to roughly the following autumn, $27,825 delivered is the figure that applied to the large majority of it. That still made the 2021 MX-5 by far the cheapest genuine two-seat rear-drive convertible on sale in the US and lands it well toward the favorable end of the framework's $22K–$55K convertible band.

Grand Touring soft top with the manual is taken as the representative volume configuration — the same trim used for the adjacent 2020 and 2022 model years, and the trim that carries the leather, navigation, automatic climate control and adaptive front lighting most MX-5 buyers actually order. At $31,770 plus the $995 destination that applied for most of the model year, the delivered figure is $32,765, sitting a little above the middle of the $24K–$58K convertible band.

The MX-5 is genuinely cheap to keep: a naturally aspirated 2.0L four with a conventional manual gearbox, no turbo, no dual-clutch, no air suspension, small tires and a low curb weight that spares brakes and consumables. Published five-year estimates vary widely by what they count, so this is a blended figure on the same basis used for the adjacent model years — Edmunds-style scheduled maintenance plus expected repairs including tires and wear items — which lands well inside the favorable half of the $2,500–$9,000 convertible band. CarEdge's much lower $1,564 counts a narrower basket; RepairPal's annual average implies a little over $2,000.

The 2021 cars are now five years old, so this is observed rather than forecast, and the MX-5 remains one of the strongest value-holders on the US market. KBB has a 2021 Miata down just under $10,000 from new at a resale value around $18,250 — roughly 65% retention on the base Sport — and notes the car lost only about 10% between 2023 and 2026, so the steep loss happened early and then flattened. Two structural reasons: the ND generation changed very little between 2019 and 2023, which keeps a 2021 car visually and mechanically current, and used Miatas carry far lower mileage than mainstream cars of the same age. At 66% the figure clears the top of the framework's 35–65% convertible band outright.

Mazda's new-vehicle limited warranty for 2021 was the industry-standard 3 years / 36,000 miles, matched by 3 years / 36,000 miles of 24-hour roadside assistance. It is exactly the floor of the framework's 3–5 year band, so it scores zero on this item — not because the coverage is defective but because it is the minimum every mainstream brand offers, and nothing here distinguishes the MX-5 from a rival.

Mazda covered the 2021 MX-5's powertrain for 5 years / 60,000 miles — again precisely the bottom of the framework's 5–10 year band, and well short of the 10-year/100,000-mile coverage Hyundai and Kia use as a selling point. The MX-5's reliability record makes the short term less costly in practice than it looks on paper, but as a purchased benefit it is the segment minimum.

2021 is the model year in which this stopped being a flat zero, but only for late buyers. For most of the year a new MX-5 came with 3 years / 36,000 miles of 24-hour roadside assistance and nothing else — no included scheduled maintenance, no charging credits, and only a short SiriusXM trial (3-month on Club, a 3-year package on Grand Touring). Then, effective September 1, 2021, Mazda began including complimentary basic scheduled maintenance with every new vehicle: two synthetic oil changes and two tire rotations with multi-point inspections, good for 18 months or 20,000 miles. That covers a genuine slice of 2021 MX-5 sales, since MY2021 inventory was still selling into late autumn, but it is thin coverage available to only part of the model year's buyers — better than the 2020 car, short of the multi-year included maintenance that would reach the upper bands.

$32,765 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (66% retained, or about $21,625) leaves about $11,140 in depreciation. Add the projected $3,700 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $14,840 in total.

Now five years on the road, the 2021 MX-5 has real owner data rather than a prediction: Consumer Reports rates it above average for its model year and RepairPal scores it 4.0/5 with below-average repair frequency and severity. The reported trouble spots are convenience-grade — infotainment connectivity, a sun visor, an A/C O-ring — with no powertrain or drivetrain pattern.

Mazda has been a consistently strong-to-top-tier dependability brand across the window that covers this car. The study that actually graded 2021 model-year vehicles put Mazda mid-pack-to-good, and the brand has climbed since, while Consumer Reports places Mazda 3rd for used-car reliability — the exact bucket a 2021 car now falls into.

Exactly one NHTSA recall reaches the 2021 MX-5, and it is a software-only remedy on the airbag control module rather than a mechanical defect — nothing touching the engine, transmission, structure or fire risk. Model-year TSBs are cosmetic; the one generation-wide mechanical bulletin is the direct-injection carbon-buildup advisory common to the whole Skyactiv-G family.

The volume drivetrain is about as low-risk as a modern sports car gets: a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter Skyactiv-G and a conventional six-speed manual, with no turbocharger, dual-clutch or hybrid battery to age. The 2019 ND2 revision that carries into 2021 also redesigned the gearbox and resolved the ND1 synchro complaints; the residual caveats are high-mileage DI valve deposits and oil temperature under sustained track use.

Reviewers credit the cabin with soft-touch coverage and faux-leather trim that punch above the price, and 2021 adds an optional white Nappa leather interior on Grand Touring. It stops short of class-leading, though: hard plastics remain in the lower console and door bases, and against the BMW Z4 and Mercedes CLE convertibles it competes with on price it is pleasant rather than rich.

Hiroshima assembly is consistently tight and the manually latching soft top is praised for its one-hand action and seal. Points come off for the convertible-specific complaint pattern — tops that fail to seal properly and wind noise — plus the body-hardware and climate niggles owners report, and Mazda's initial-quality standing is more mid-pack than its dependability record.

Density is the constraint, not quality of service. Mazda runs roughly 548 US dealerships — among the thinnest mainstream networks, a fraction of Toyota's or Chevrolet's — so owners outside metro areas can face a real drive, and a low-volume halo roadster is a car many service departments rarely see. That is offset by service satisfaction that ranks at or near the top of the mass market year after year.

Running costs are low and parts are everywhere. RepairPal puts annual repair and maintenance below both the subcompact and all-vehicle averages, OEM parts are priced as mainstream Mazda rather than premium, and the Miata carries one of the largest aftermarket and used-parts ecosystems of any car sold — with the ND's ten-year production run keeping components shared and plentiful.

The 2021 MX-5 uses a 7-inch Mazda Connect display on every trim, with no larger panel offered anywhere in the range — the smallest center display in the segment, sitting exactly on the convertible band floor of 7 in, so it scores zero. Mazda had already moved the Mazda3 and CX-30 to 8.8-inch panels by 2021 and the CX-9 to 10.25; the MX-5 was left on the older, smaller unit and stayed there until the ND3 refresh several model years later.

Mazda Connect on the 2021 car is logically laid out and driven primarily by the HMI Commander rotary knob on the console, which is the right control for a car with a stiff clutch and a low seat — you can work it by feel without leaning forward. Menus are shallow and the physical volume knob and hard shortcut keys survive. Against it: the graphics and processor date from the mid-2010s, the map and media screens redraw visibly slowly, the touch layer is disabled above a walking pace so passengers cannot use it either, and the 7-inch panel is small enough that CarPlay tiles crowd it. Mid-band — usable and unfrustrating, but plainly a generation behind the peers.

2021 is the year phone projection finally reached the whole MX-5 range: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto became standard on the base Sport, which in 2020 shipped with neither and left buyers retrofitting Mazda's own hub. Wireless is the year's headline addition but is one-trim-deep and one-platform-deep — wireless Apple CarPlay is Grand Touring only, Android Auto is wired at every trim and every price, and the Sport and Club are wired for both. That is squarely the "wired standard, wireless on upper trims" band. It sits above the 2020 car (projection Club-and-up, nothing wireless) and just below 2022, when wireless CarPlay moved down to Club.

Native navigation is standard only on Grand Touring; Sport and Club are shipped "navigation-ready" and need a dealer-sold SD card to enable the maps they already have the hardware for — a paid unlock that reviewers have criticised for years. The Mazda Connect voice system is command-word driven rather than natural language, handles phone, radio and destination entry adequately and little else, and almost every owner defaults to Siri or Google Assistant through the projection layer. Below mid-band: functional, dated, and the feature most owners bypass.

The strongest infotainment item, and the one genuinely well-judged piece of the package: the Bose nine-speaker system standard from Club up puts two speakers in each headrest, which is the only way to make audio work in an open car at speed — the sound arrives at your ears rather than being blown away — and adds AudioPilot noise compensation that raises level with road noise. The base six-speaker system also carries the headrest drivers, so even a Sport is decent roof-down. Held out of the top band because absolute fidelity is ordinary by premium standards and there is no larger or upgraded system above Bose at any price.

There is no configurable digital cluster on the 2021 MX-5 at any trim. The binnacle is analog — a central mechanical tachometer redlined at 7,500 rpm with black faces and white lettering, flanked by analog coolant and fuel gauges — with a small trip-computer readout for distance-to-empty and fuel economy, upgraded to a 4.6-inch color multi-information display at Grand Touring. That is a partial digital readout attached to an analog cluster, not a digital cluster, so it lands in the low band. Every four-seat peer in this set offered a full-digital option in 2021 that the MX-5 did not.

None. The 2021 MX-5 has no embedded telematics modem and is not a Mazda Connected Services vehicle, so there is no channel for over-the-air anything — not vehicle software, not infotainment firmware, not maps. Mazda Connect updates are downloaded to a USB stick or SD card by the owner from Mazda's update site and installed at the car, and navigation map refreshes are a paid SD-card replacement. Floor score.

The 2021 MX-5 has no working companion-app relationship at all. Because it lacks the connected-services hardware, the MyMazda app cannot pair with it for remote start, remote lock/unlock, vehicle locate, status alerts or health reports — the whole feature set other 2021 Mazdas received complimentary. There is no digital key and no remote engine start of any kind, at any trim, even as a factory accessory; owners who want it fit third-party kits. Floor score; every peer in this set shipped a functioning connected app in 2021.

Two USB-A ports and an auxiliary jack in the between-seats console box, plus one 12-volt outlet — and that is the entire electrical provision of the 2021 car. No USB-C anywhere, no wireless charging pad at any trim (there is no flat surface to put one on), no AC outlet, and nothing for a passenger to reach without opening the locking bin between the seat backs. Wireless Apple CarPlay on Grand Touring makes the shortage more acute rather than less, since a wirelessly projecting phone drains faster than it charges from a 2.1-amp USB-A port. Low band.

The strongest convenience item, because Mazda did not trim-lock it: the Mazda Advanced Keyless Entry System and push-button start are both standard on the base 2021 Sport, so every MX-5 unlocks and starts without touching the fob, and an internal trunk release comes with it. What keeps it out of the top band is what is missing — no remote engine start at any trim and no phone-as-key, both direct consequences of the car having no connected-services hardware. Comfortably above the segment floor, short of the peers that offered a digital key in 2021.

A standard wide-angle rearview camera is the whole of it. The 2021 MX-5 offers no front or rear parking sensors, no surround-view monitor and no parking automation at any trim or in any package — the car's only factory package, the manual-only Brembo/BBS/RECARO kit, adds brakes, wheels and seats. The camera itself is a low-resolution feed on the small 7-inch screen. That is the rear-camera-only band. The score sits above the floor for real mitigation: the car is 154.1 inches long with a 30.8-foot turning circle, and Blind Spot Monitoring plus Rear Cross Traffic Alert are standard on every 2021 trim, covering the roof-up rear quarter the camera cannot.

No head-up display is offered on the 2021 MX-5 at any trim, in any package, or as a dealer accessory. Mazda's Active Driving Display was standard or available across most of the 2021 range — Mazda3, CX-30, CX-5, CX-9 — but not on the MX-5, whose low cowl and shallow windscreen leave no room for the projector or the combiner. Floor band; the Z4, 4 Series and CLE all offered one.

A strict two-seater with no rear seat and no LATCH or lower anchors of any kind — there is physically nowhere legal to put a child seat, because a rear-facing seat cannot go in front of an active passenger airbag and there is no second row to move it to. Add a 4.59 cu ft trunk that will not take a folded stroller, doors that open onto a seat cushion inches off the ground, and no fold-flat surface anywhere. This is not a compromised family car; it is a car families cannot use for children at all. Floor score.

The active-safety content is genuinely good for the money and unchanged from 2020: Smart City Brake Support, Blind Spot Monitoring, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning and High Beam Control are all standard on the $26,830 base Sport, which the far more expensive 718 Boxster did not match in 2021. Everything else about the family proposition is poor: there are no NHTSA and no IIHS crash results for the 2021 MX-5 at all (an untested car, not a badly rated one), the AEB is low-speed-only with no pedestrian detection, there is no adaptive cruise control at any trim or any price, no rear-occupant alert, and two seats. Low band; the standard-ADAS credit is what lifts it off the floor.

The item asks about multi-hour comfort for four-plus occupants; this car carries two. There are no rear amenities because there is no rear, no entertainment provision, a single climate zone (manual A/C on Sport and Club, automatic on Grand Touring), and 4.59 cu ft of luggage space for two people — two soft weekend bags and nothing more. Cabin noise compounds it: roof up the 2021 car measures around 72–73 dB at 70 mph, and reviewers report having to raise your voice to converse at highway speed. Floor band, kept marginally above zero only because two adults on a weekend trip is a scenario the car genuinely serves.

Better than its reputation and worse than a normal car. In its favour: a 30.8-foot turning circle, excellent forward visibility over a low cowl, a light and progressive clutch, standard blind-spot monitoring and hill launch assist, and a 2,350-lb kerb weight that makes low-speed manoeuvring effortless. Against it: the manual transmission most buyers choose is work in stop-go traffic, the driver's seat has no height adjustment and sits low enough that ingress and egress become a daily chore, cabin noise is tiring on a highway commute, there is no adaptive cruise control to take the edge off, and the 5.9-inch unladen ground clearance makes speed bumps and steep driveways a real consideration. Mid-band.

Economical for a sports car but not for a commuter, and the premium-fuel requirement is what costs it. The 2021 manual returns an EPA-rated 26/34/29 mpg and the automatic 26/35/30 — respectable figures from a 181-hp 2.0-litre — but the 13.0:1 compression ratio means Mazda recommends premium unleaded, so the EPA puts annual fuel cost at $2,550–$2,600, no better than a much larger car on regular. Consumables are cheap: 205/45R17 tires are an ordinary size, brakes are unexceptional single-piston discs, and Mazda's service intervals and parts pricing are mainstream. Mid-band.

The car's best use-case item by a wide margin, and the one thing about it that is unambiguously easier than a normal car. At 154.1 inches long and 68.3 inches wide on a 90.9-inch wheelbase, the 2021 MX-5 is shorter than a Honda Fit and turns inside 30.8 feet curb-to-curb. Forward and three-quarter visibility roof-down is essentially unobstructed; a standard rearview camera plus standard blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert cover the roof-up rear quarter. Short of the top only because there are no parking sensors or surround view at any price and the low seat makes judging a high kerb harder than it should be.

None whatsoever, and not by oversight. The 2021 MX-5 has no tow rating in the US, no factory hitch, no roof rails and no roof load rating, a 4.59 cu ft trunk with a small aperture, two seats, and 5.9 inches of ground clearance. There is no configuration, package or accessory that makes it carry or pull anything. Floor score — the item measures fitness for real work and this car scores the minimum honestly.

The MX-5 is a durable car in the ordinary sense — the Skyactiv-G 2.0 and the 6-speed manual are long-proven units with strong reliability records, and the nameplate has a well-earned reputation for surviving hard enthusiast use and track days. But this item measures toughness under work abuse, and everything about the 2021 car is wrong for it: cloth or leather trim with no washable option, a carpeted 130-litre boot, no bed, no rubber flooring, no fleet presence and a soft top that punishes anything dropped on it. Low band — well built, entirely unsuited to the duty being scored.

Nothing. One 12-volt outlet, no AC inverter, no onboard power, no tie-downs, no bed, no roof rails and no rack or upfit ecosystem of any kind — the 2021 accessory catalogue for the car runs to cargo nets, floor mats, aero parts, wheel locks and phone mounts. There is no jobsite provision to score. Floor.

The MX-5 is a superb back-road tourer and a poor interstate one, and this item measures the interstate. Roof-up cabin noise around 72–73 dB at 70 mph makes conversation an effort; the seats have no height or lumbar adjustment and start to wear after a couple of hours; there is no adaptive cruise control at any trim to reduce fatigue; the 11.9-gallon tank gives only about 345 miles of manual-transmission range on premium fuel; and 4.59 cu ft limits two people to soft bags. Credit where due — 43.1 inches of legroom, a tilt-and-telescoping wheel and a compliant ride keep it out of the floor band. Low band overall.

Pavement-bound. Rear-wheel drive with no AWD option at any trim, 5.9 inches of unladen ground clearance dropping to 5.3 laden, 205/45R17 low-profile summer-biased tires, a tire repair kit instead of a spare, no roof rails and no factory hitch or bike-rack provision, no tow rating, no AC power and nothing that folds flat. A gravel forest road at low speed is the outer limit. Low band, above the floor only because the car will happily cover a scenic mountain pass — which is a different thing from adventure capability.

The most restrictive cargo arrangement of any vehicle in this comparison set. 4.59 cu ft of fixed boot volume with no seats to fold, no pass-through, no underfloor bin, no roof rails and no hitch means the total gear capacity of the 2021 MX-5 is whatever two soft bags plus the between-seat console box will hold — and the passenger footwell, if you are travelling alone. The one genuine positive is that roof-up and roof-down volume are identical because the top stows in its own well. Floor band.

The reference point for the whole category. A 2,350-lb curb weight with roughly 50/50 distribution, four-wheel independent suspension — double wishbone front, multi-link rear — and a front-midship engine placement give the 2021 car cornering composure that instrumented ND testing puts around 0.90 g on the skidpad, remarkable on 205-section street tires. Manual Club and Grand Touring cars carry Bilstein dampers, a front strut tower brace and a limited-slip differential as standard, so the volume manual has the full chassis hardware. Held just below the top of the band because absolute grip is modest and the 90.9-inch wheelbase makes the car lively rather than planted at the limit — which enthusiasts count as the point, not a fault. 2021 is a carry-over chassis year: the inner-rear-wheel braking system Mazda announced in December 2021 arrived on the 2022 car, not this one.

Among the best electrically assisted racks on sale at any price. Mazda's double-pinion EPAS system is geared at 15.5:1 with only 2.7 turns lock-to-lock, so the car responds to wrist movement rather than arm movement, and reviewers of the 2021 model consistently describe the steering as light, immediate and genuinely communicative — it keeps the driver informed of what the front tires are doing. Short of a perfect score because it is still electric assistance: the fine-grained texture of the NA and NB hydraulic racks is not entirely there, and a few testers find the effort a touch light just off centre.

The weakest dynamics item, and the one place the volume car is under-specified for its ability. The standard 2021 system is a 280 mm ventilated front and 280 mm solid rear disc with single-piston calipers at both ends — adequate hardware that stops the 2,350-lb car from 70 mph in roughly 170 feet, a good figure in absolute terms but one that reflects low mass more than braking capability. Pedal feel is firm and progressive in normal use, but repeated hard stops bring noticeable fade because there is very little thermal mass to work with. Genuine brakes exist only through the Brembo/BBS/RECARO package, which is Club-and-manual-only and costs $4,470 on the soft top, and is not fitted to the volume car. Comfortably mid-band.

Naturally aspirated, direct-injected, and calibrated with unusual care: there is no turbo lag to mask, no stop/start system to shudder, and no hybrid handover to blend, so throttle response is immediate and linear from idle to the 7,500-rpm redline. The 2021 Skyactiv-G 2.0 makes its 181 hp at 7,000 rpm — a peak high enough that the engine rewards being revved rather than short-shifted — and the Skyactiv-MT shifter is the benchmark short-throw manual in production, with a mechanical, positive gate. Marked down only for the modest 151 lb-ft peak at 4,000 rpm, which means real thrust requires revs, and for the 6-speed automatic's ordinary calibration when that no-cost option is chosen.

Character over refinement, which suits the car but costs it points on an item that measures both. The 2.0-litre is eager and clean-sounding as it climbs to the redline, and manual upper grades pipe intake pulses into the cabin through an Induction Sound Enhancer — deliberate, and welcome roof-down. But the four-cylinder is coarse and boomy at part throttle around 3,000–4,000 rpm where highway cruising lives, and with the tall final drive there is a constant drone that the thin soft top does nothing to attenuate. Vibration through the shifter and pedals is well controlled. Upper mid-band: pleasant when you are driving it, wearing when you are just travelling.

Mazda publishes a 9.4-metre curb-to-curb turning circle — 30.8 feet — which is well inside the convertible band floor of 34 ft and scores the maximum. It is a direct consequence of the 90.9-inch wheelbase, the narrow 205-section front tires and a quick 15.5:1 rack, and it is the single spec that most explains why a sports car with no parking sensors is still easy to park.

Excellent for driving, mediocre for living with. The 2021 car puts you low, directly behind the wheel with pedals in line and a shifter that falls exactly to hand — a genuinely faultless relationship between seat, wheel and controls, and the tilt-and-telescoping column (added to the ND partway through its life) fixed the generation's original reach problem. What holds it in the upper-middle band is adjustability and access: the driver's seat is manual 6-way with no height adjuster and no lumbar support at any trim, there is no glovebox and few places to put anything, the 7-inch screen is set far forward, and getting in and out of a 48.8-inch-tall car with a fixed low hip point is awkward for anyone with limited mobility. Roof-up over-shoulder visibility is poor; roof down it is the best in the class.

This is the car the item was written for. Rear-wheel drive, a 2,350-lb curb weight, a naturally aspirated engine that wants 7,000 rpm, the best manual shifter in production, a folding roof that takes one hand and two seconds, and a chassis tuned to be entertaining at legal speeds rather than only at track pace. It is not the fastest car here — 181 hp and a 5.7-second 0-60 are mid-pack — and that is precisely why it scores at the top: the enjoyment does not require a licence-losing speed. Near the ceiling of the band, held a fraction short only because the automatic-transmission version, a no-cost option that also deletes the LSD and Bilsteins, is a materially less engaging car than the manual being scored.

2021 closed the specific gap that held the 2020 car back: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto became standard across the whole range, so the $27,825 Sport no longer shipped without phone mirroring, and Grand Touring got the wireless version. Combined with the active-safety content Mazda had already made standard on Sport for 2020 — blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-departure warning and Smart City Brake Support — plus full LED headlights and taillights, that is a better-equipped cheapest trim than a Porsche 718 at more than twice the money. The comfort side is still thin, though: manual climate control, cloth seats and six speakers at Sport, with heated seats and nine-speaker Bose only from Club and leather, navigation and automatic climate only at Grand Touring. No MX-5 trim offered adaptive cruise control at any price for 2021.

Judged on what the money actually buys in this segment the 2021 MX-5 is the benchmark, and 2021 improved the equation slightly over 2020 for a $250 price rise: about $27,825 delivered put a rear-drive, roughly 2,340 lb roadster with a 181-hp naturally aspirated 2.0L, a short-throw six-speed manual and now standard smartphone mirroring in the driveway. There was no direct rival at the price — the Fiat 124 Spider had ended production, every other genuine two-seat convertible cost roughly double, and the cheaper drop-tops were front-drive. Content per dollar is only average; engineering and driving capability per dollar are class-defining, which is what this segment is bought on. KBB independently rated it the lowest cost to own of any sports car for the third consecutive year, which is value per dollar measured over the whole ownership period rather than at the window sticker.

2021 is one of the broader years of the ND lineup: three soft-top trims and two RF trims, and — unlike 2022, when Mazda restricted the automatic to Grand Touring — the six-speed automatic remained orderable on every single trim including the base Sport, so every buyer had a genuine transmission decision. The manual-only Brembo/BBS/Recaro package sat on top. It is still one engine deep with no AWD and almost no standalone options beyond paint and a $300 leather colour, and unlike 2020 there was no limited special edition, which keeps it out of the upper band.

2021 was the ND generation's best US sales year: 10,470 units, up about 19% on 2020's 8,807 and the only year of the generation to clear ten thousand, achieved while the wider market was supply-constrained by the chip shortage. It also effectively owned the affordable-roadster space outright, with the Fiat 124 Spider gone after 2020 and the BRZ/GR86 pair being coupes. In absolute terms this is still a small-volume niche car, which keeps it out of the upper band, but a rising trajectory to a generation high is the strongest market-acceptance read of any year scored here.

Mazda carries unusual enthusiast credibility for a mainstream badge and rates near the top of brand reliability tables, and the MX-5 nameplate is its halo — a genuinely beloved icon with an enormous owners-club and aftermarket ecosystem, a one-make race series, and residuals to match. It lacks the status cachet a Porsche crest or BMW roundel brings to a drop-top, which keeps it below the premium rivals, but as a nameplate people aspire to own it clearly outperforms its parent brand's tier.

2021 is the year the buyer's market closed, so it splits in half. Early in the model year the pandemic-era support was still running — Mazda Financial Services subvented low and zero-percent financing across the lineup and dealer stock was adequate — and an MX-5 could be bought at or near invoice. From roughly midyear the chip shortage collapsed inventory: J.D. Power put the average new-vehicle discount at a record-low 4.8% of MSRP in July and about 4.3% by September, less than half the prior year, and industry incentive spend fell around 43% year over year. MX-5 markups and waiting lists began appearing late in the year, the conditions that would define 2022. Scored on buyer benefit, that averages to occasional modest incentives — clearly better than the 2022 car's markup market, clearly worse than 2020's blanket 0% APR.

2021 is the sixth model year of the ND generation, which launched for MY2016 on the same platform, engine and cabin architecture, and the 7-inch Mazda Connect screen was already a generation behind rivals. Unlike 2019 (the 181-hp ND2 powertrain update), 2020 (standard active safety on Sport) or 2022 (standard Kinematic Posture Control), 2021 was a paint-and-trim year: standard CarPlay/Android Auto, wireless CarPlay on Grand Touring, a new Deep Crystal Blue colour and a White Nappa leather option. Redesign risk was real but not imminent for a 2021 buyer, since the substantive ND3 refresh with new lighting, an 8.8-inch infotainment system and a revised steering rack was still three model years away for 2024.

Few cars in any class have a stronger critical record, and 2021 was one of the MX-5's better award years: Kelley Blue Book ranked it #1 among both best convertibles and best sports cars of 2021 at 4.8/5.0, and separately gave it the 2021 5-Year Cost to Own Award for sports cars — its third consecutive win in that category. Car and Driver named it an Editors' Choice pick in sports cars, and US News scored it 8.5/10 and #1 in affordable sports cars. Reviewers continued to treat it as the reference point for affordable driving pleasure. It is held out of the top band on one specific fact: the MX-5's long 10Best run had already ended, and it is absent from Car and Driver's 2021 list, which gave the sports-car places to the 718 Boxster/Cayman, GR Supra and Corvette Stingray.