2022 Mazda MX-5 Miata

2022 sits inside the ND generation that began in 2016, running the ND2 powertrain hardware introduced for 2019: a 2.0L naturally aspirated Skyactiv-G rated 181 hp at 7,000 rpm on Sport, Club and Grand Touring alike, soft top and RF. There is no optional engine, so the model-range maximum is the same 181 hp; against the convertible band (130–520 hp) that sits near the floor because the framework measures absolute output while the MX-5's premise is a ~2,341-lb curb weight.

Peak torque is 151 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm, identical whether the car has the 6-speed manual or the Grand Touring automatic. This is the MX-5's weakest hard number — the engine makes its case at the top of the tachometer rather than in the midrange — and 151 lb-ft sits just above the convertible band floor of 120.

Instrumented testing of the 181-hp manual soft top clusters at 5.7 seconds and the heavier RF at 5.8 — quick in absolute terms on modest output, because the car weighs roughly 2,341 lbs. The manual is the scored configuration: for 2022 it is the only transmission on Sport and Club, with the automatic confined to Grand Touring.

Naturally aspirated with no turbo in the way, the Skyactiv-G gives essentially instant throttle response and a linear pull to its 7,500-rpm redline — the benchmark for delivery among these convertible peers, ahead of the turbocharged BMW Z4 and the Mustang on responsiveness alone. Held below the top of the band because the four turns audibly coarse in the last 1,000 rpm and there is little to lean on below 3,000 rpm.

The standard 6-speed manual is widely treated as the best shifter on sale at any price — very short throws, a light precise gate, well-matched ratios — placing it above every convertible peer in the set. Kept short of the mid-90s because the optional 6-speed automatic is an old design with only six ratios and unremarkable responses; for 2022 Mazda narrowed it to Grand Touring only, so the great majority of cars sold are manuals.

Rear-wheel drive only, with no all-wheel-drive option on any 2022 trim and none anywhere in the nameplate's history — the bottom band by the item's own definition. Club (and Grand Touring with the manual) add an asymmetric limited-slip differential, which helps put power down but is not AWD.

One engine, full stop: the 2.0L Skyactiv-G is the only powertrain across the entire 2022 range, with no turbo alternative, no hybrid, no PHEV and no EV variant. The only drivetrain decision a buyer makes is manual versus automatic, which is a transmission choice rather than a powertrain one — well below peers like the Z4 and Mustang that each offer two or three distinct engines.

The 2022 MX-5 runs the ND2 2.0L Skyactiv-G with no electrification, EPA-rated 29 MPG combined with the 6-speed manual — the volume configuration, since the manual is the only transmission on Sport and Club. That is genuinely frugal for a rear-drive sports car and sits mid-band against other gas convertibles.

26 MPG city reflects a roughly 2,341-lb curb weight and a small-displacement engine, but with no hybrid assist there is no stop-and-go advantage, so it lands mid-band rather than near the top of the gas-convertible range.

Highway is the MX-5's strongest efficiency figure — light weight and a tall top gear yield 34 MPG with the manual, 35 with the automatic — and it is the number where the car most clearly beats the larger, heavier convertibles in the peer set.

Good economy is offset by a very small 11.9-gallon tank dictated by the packaging of a 154-inch roadster, so total range lands near the bottom of the convertible band despite the car's efficiency — a real touring limitation, not a rounding artifact.

The EPA's published annual cost for the manual car is $2,600 at 15,000 mi/yr, and it is the premium-fuel requirement rather than consumption that drives the figure — at 29 MPG combined the MX-5 burns only about 517 gallons a year, but every one of them is 91-octane.

Mazda recommends 91-octane premium for the high-compression Skyactiv-G to reach its rated 181 hp, but regular unleaded is permitted with reduced output — a real yet avoidable cost penalty, which places it in the 'premium recommended, not required' middle band. No E85, diesel or charging considerations apply.

NHTSA carries a 2022 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 — not merely no award. Mazda's own 2022 award release is titled "Every 2022MY Mazda Vehicle Tested Earns 2022 IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK Award" and the winners are the Mazda3 sedan and hatchback, CX-30, CX-5 and CX-9; the MX-5 is absent because it was never run. That places it in the untested band, and it sits below untested peers like the Z4 because of a compounding documented concern: an open 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 — Blind Spot Monitoring, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning, Smart City Brake Support and a Rear View Monitor are all in the 2022 brochure's standard-equipment list, so they carry across Sport, Club and Grand Touring. But two of the five features this item names are not merely trim-locked, they are unavailable at any price for 2022: 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 the 2023 Mustang (65), which offers both.

The 2022 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 autonomous brake intervention operates only between about 2 and 18 mph; above that the system does not brake, and base SCBS does not recognize pedestrians or cyclists. 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 2022 trim including the base Sport — uncommon in a sports car 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. Matched to the 2023 Mustang Convertible (75), which standardizes the same alert-only pairing.

The 2022 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 2022 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 2022 brochure for either the soft top or the RF, and it is still absent a year later in the 2023 spec deck. Scored at the floor alongside the 2017 Mustang Convertible (5), which was the same basic-cruise-only case.

Mazda sold no hands-free highway driving system on any model for 2022, 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 three 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 Rear View Monitor and the standard BSM/RCTA to compensate; there is no surround-view camera and no front or rear parking sensors at any 2022 trim. Averaging the two states lands it well above the much larger Mustang Convertible (42) but short of the excellent-sightlines band.

The 2022 MX-5 is a strict two-seater across Sport, Club and Grand Touring in both the soft top and the RF: two buckets, a bulkhead behind them, and no rear seat offered at any price. Against the convertible normalization band, whose floor is 4 seats, that is below the floor and scores zero — the item measures absolute capacity, and every four-seat convertible peer (Mustang, Mini, 4 Series, CLE) carries two more places.

Mazda publishes 37.4 inches of front headroom for the ND soft top — the volume body style — with the RF giving up just over half an inch to its hard roof panel and fixed buttresses. That sits a little above the convertible band floor of 36 in, and 2022 brought no packaging change (KPC is software only, with "no mechanical changes or added weight"). The figure flatters the car slightly: the seat has no height adjustment, so a tall driver cannot trade headroom for anything else.

43.1 inches is genuinely good for a 154-inch car — near the top of the convertible band (40–44 in) and the one interior dimension where the MX-5 beats its reputation, because Mazda spent the ND's packaging budget on the driver's footwell rather than on cargo. Tilt AND telescoping steering is standard on every 2022 trim, which helps taller drivers find the figure. The caveat is that it is a maximum: seat rearward travel is limited, so drivers much over six feet end up reclined rather than short of legroom.

Mazda's own 2022 brochure prints 4.6 cubic feet for the soft top and 4.5 for the RF, effectively the floor of the convertible band (4–14 cu ft) and the smallest trunk in this comparison set — roughly two soft weekend bags, with no seat-folding, no parcel pass-through and no underfloor well to extend it. The one real mitigation is that the number does not shrink when the top goes down, because the ND's roof stows in its own well above the trunk floor.

The ND MX-5 has no glovebox at all — a genuine omission rather than a small one — and no door pockets. What remains for 2022 is a locking console box mounted behind and between the seatbacks (awkward to reach while belted), two small covered back-panel cubbies, and a two-piece removable cupholder set that mounts either side of the transmission tunnel and fouls a knee or the shift hand wherever it goes; one 2022 reviewer's verdict on them was simply "the cupholders are crap." One 12V outlet, no wireless charging tray, no underfloor storage, no fold-flat surface. That is the sparse-and-poorly-designed band by definition, and it sits below every four-seat peer, all of which at least have a glovebox and rear seatbacks to throw things on.

Well-shaped and properly bolstered for the way the car is driven, and the telescoping column standard on every 2022 trim removed the ND's worst ergonomic complaint — but adjustment is thin for the money and reviewers split hard by trim. Consumer Reports found the cabin's "thin and unsupportive seats" fatiguing on the highway and judged the Club buckets "designed for weight savings, not comfort," while allowing that Grand Touring's leather seats help. Adjustment is manual fore/aft and recline with driver-side tilt only, no height adjustment and no lumbar at any 2022 trim, so occupants cannot dial out a long-stint ache. Heated seats are at least standard from Club up for 2022. Mid-band, and below the Z4 and 4 Series, which offer power seats with lumbar.

Better than the spec sheet suggests, and 2022's KPC was explicitly engineered not to cost anything here — Mazda's own fact sheet claims it "does not sacrifice everyday ride and handling." Mazda gave the ND unusually long suspension travel for a sports car, and reviewers report it absorbs mid-corner bumps without the brittleness of a stiffly sprung rival. Held to the middle band because a 91-inch wheelbase still pitches over expansion joints, the car is firm by any non-sports-car standard, and Consumer Reports specifically counts the stiff ride against it as a commuter; Club and Grand Touring add Bilstein dampers that trade away some compliance.

The clearest comfort weakness on the 2022 car. A single-layer fabric roof, no acoustic glass and minimal underbody deadening mean wind, road and tire noise dominate at highway speed — Consumer Reports describes noise that "permeates the cabin and invades the thinly insulated top" — and there is audible buffeting behind the driver's head with the roof retracted even with the standard mesh aero board fitted. Roof down the aerodynamics are well managed and conversation is possible, but that is airflow design rather than quietness. Firmly in the notably-loud band and the loudest car in this peer set; the RF is better insulated without approaching quiet.

Sparse, though 2022 spreads the essentials a little further down the range than the price would suggest: the $27,300 Sport gets manual air conditioning and cloth seats, but heated seats with three settings are standard from Club up, and Grand Touring adds automatic climate control and heated leather. Above that nothing exists at any price — no ventilated seats, no heated steering wheel, no rear climate zone (there is no rear), and no remote pre-conditioning, because the ND MX-5 is not a Mazda Connected Services vehicle. What is standard is the convertible-specific kit that genuinely extends the top-down season: rear window defogger, side-window demisters and the mesh aero board. Low band, below every peer here.

Mazda's own 2022 pricing release puts the Sport soft top at $27,300 before a $1,015 destination charge, making the MX-5 comfortably the cheapest genuine two-seat rear-drive convertible on sale for 2022 — about $4,400 under a Mustang EcoBoost Convertible and well under half the entry price of a 718 Boxster. That sits toward the favorable end of the framework's $22K–$55K convertible band.

MX-5 buyers skew well above the stripped Sport, and the RF power hardtop takes roughly half of US volume in this generation, so the representative car is a mid-to-upper trim rather than the base. Grand Touring soft top with the manual at $33,315 delivered is the fair midpoint of where volume actually sits, still below the convertible band's $24K–$58K midpoint.

The MX-5 is about as mechanically simple as a modern car gets — a naturally aspirated 2.0L Skyactiv-G four, no turbo or hybrid hardware, a hand-latched cloth top with no motor or hydraulics on the soft-top cars, and a curb weight under 2,400 lb that is easy on brakes and tires — and it draws on mainstream Mazda parts and dealer labor rates rather than premium ones. 2022 added Kinematic Posture Control, which is a software strategy running on the existing stability-control hardware and adds no serviceable parts. Published estimates disagree by more than 5x, so this is a reasoned midpoint biased toward the bottom-up sources.

This is the strongest line in the MX-5's ownership case and for a 2022 car it is now largely observed rather than projected. Persistent enthusiast demand, low production volume, a heavy manual-transmission mix, unusually low annual mileage (the MX-5 is among the least-driven vehicles in the US) and no direct rival in the affordable-roadster space keep used prices firm, and the ND's minimal year-to-year change means an older car does not look obsolete. 67% is set below the observed three-year figures to allow for the normalization of the inflated 2022-era used market.

Mazda's New Vehicle Limited Warranty is the industry-floor 36-month/36,000-mile term, matching Ford and trailing the four-year coverage the German droptops offer. It sits at the very bottom of the framework's 3–5 year band.

60 months / 60,000 miles is the floor of the framework's 5–10 year powertrain band — competitive with Ford and better than BMW's four-year term, but nowhere near the 10-year coverage Hyundai and Kia advertise.

Mazda included no complimentary scheduled maintenance in the US for 2022 — every oil change and tire rotation is out of pocket from day one — leaving 3-year/36,000-mile 24-hour roadside assistance as essentially the whole package. The trim-level extras are subscriptions rather than ownership benefits: a 3-month SiriusXM trial from Club up, and navigation with Traffic and Travel Link on Grand Touring. That lands just below the mid-band 'basic roadside only' tier and one notch under Ford's 5-year/60,000-mile roadside term on the Mustang, well short of BMW's or Mini's programs.

$33,315 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (67% retained, or about $22,321) leaves about $10,994 in depreciation. Add the projected $4,000 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $14,994 in total.

The 2022 car is old enough that Consumer Reports is reporting real owner data rather than a forecast, and it lands in CR's top band — "more reliable than other cars from the same model year," derived from its subscriber survey of 2022 MX-5 owners. The structural case behind that is the strongest in the segment: 2022 is model year 7 of the ND generation and mechanically a carry-over year (the headline addition, Kinematic Posture Control, applies a slight brake to the inner rear wheel in high-g cornering — software and existing brake hardware, no added components and, per Mazda, not a single gram of weight), and the car carries one naturally aspirated 2.0L four with no turbo, no hybrid system, no adaptive suspension and a manually latched fabric roof with no motors or hydraulics. Held to 84 rather than higher by the ND 6-speed manual's synchronizer defect, which bites this model year harder than the later ones: for 2022 Mazda cut automatic availability to Grand Touring only, so Sport and Club — the volume trims — can only be bought with the affected gearbox. Scored at the top of the convertible set, above the Z4 (80) and Mustang Convertible (75), which both carry forced induction.

This model year gets the most on-point brand evidence available anywhere in the dataset, because the 2025 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study surveys 2022 model-year vehicles at three years of ownership — it is a direct measurement of this car's own cohort rather than a proxy. Mazda placed 2nd among mass-market brands at 161 PP100, an improvement of 24 PP100 and four positions year over year, and two individual 2022 Mazdas (CX-5, CX-9) took top-three segment awards in the same study. Consumer Reports corroborates on the long-term side, ranking Mazda 3rd for used-car reliability among 5-to-10-year-old models. Held at 84 rather than higher because Mazda's initial-quality standing over the same period is poor (see 6.2.2) — a different measure, but the same brand — and because the brand's more recent slide on the newer CX-90/CX-70 platforms shows the standing is not immovable, even though neither of those models existed in 2022. Judged brand-level, so scored in line with the other 2022 Mazdas in this dataset.

The recall record is close to clean and the service-bulletin record is not, which puts this just below the top band. NHTSA's database returns exactly one campaign for the 2022 MX-5 Miata after four years of exposure: 24V695000, a software error in the airbag control module that could deploy the front bags with excessive force, remedied by a free dealer reflash of the SAS control module — software-only, no parts wait, no reported accidents or injuries. The 2022 car also escapes the ND generation's Denso low-pressure fuel-pump campaign, which covered 2018-2020 production, and owner-complaint volume is very light at five filings for the whole model year. Against that, the ND 6-speed manual's 2nd/3rd-gear synchronizer defect is a genuine systemic pattern rather than an anecdote — Mazda issued a TSB covering warranty transmission replacement, two of this model year's five NHTSA complaints are synchro failures, and one of them states outright that 2022-2024 manual cars are failing at low mileage. Scored essentially level with the 2023 car (82), a shade lower on the airbag campaign applying here while the 2024 car escaped it.

The engine is one of the safest bets in the segment and the gearbox is the one real blemish, and for 2022 the two roughly cancel into a good-but-not-class-leading score. The 2.0L Skyactiv-G (PE-series) has been in continuous production since 2012 across the Mazda3 and CX-5 with a high-mileage reputation, and in the MX-5 it carries no turbocharger, no CVT, no dual-clutch and no hybrid battery — every high-risk driveline component the Z4, Mustang and Mini each carry in some form is simply absent — while a curb weight around 2,340 lb keeps clutch, brake and driveline loads low. What holds this to 82 rather than the 88 the 2024 and 2025 cars carry is that the 6-speed manual has a documented 2nd/3rd-gear synchronizer defect in this era serious enough to warrant a TSB and warranty transmission replacements, and 2022 is the model year where that pattern starts showing up in owner filings — made worse by Mazda restricting the automatic to Grand Touring for 2022, so a Sport or Club buyer has no way to avoid the affected gearbox. The 2019 revision's high-revving state of tune (181 hp at 7,000 rpm, 7,500-rpm redline) is a further mild stress factor relative to the passenger-car version of the same engine.

Judged against price this is the softest quality line on the car, but 2022 is the cheapest model year of the ND's late run and that flatters it. Reviewers of 2022 cars describe an abundance of soft plastics and faux-leather coverings that read upscale, a simple-yet-classy dash, and seats that are a high point — and the execution is thoughtful, with body-color painted door tops, well-damped switchgear, a leather-wrapped wheel and shift knob even on the $27,300 Sport, black or new-for-2022 Terracotta Nappa leather on Grand Touring, and heated Recaros available on Club. Against that the cabin is small and simply trimmed, visible hard plastic remains across the lower dash, console sides and door bases, and this predates the 2024 refresh that brought the larger display, high-contrast gauges and extra console padding. Scored a point above the 2023 car (77) purely because a $32,300 volume-trim MSRP asks less money for the same interior, well above the Mustang Convertible (65) and Mini (72) on material honesty and switchgear feel, but clearly below the Z4 and 4 Series (both 84) and far below the cheaper 2022 Mazda3 (89), whose larger cabin carries much more soft-touch coverage per dollar.

Assembly quality is a real strength held back by a brand-level initial-quality problem. The MX-5 is built in low volume at Mazda's Hiroshima plant and reviewers of 2022 cars report that despite its size the car "isn't flimsy" and is built well with everything feeling solid, with consistently tight panel gaps. The manually latched soft top is the standout detail: single-latch, one-handed operation with sealing and wind-noise control widely rated better than powered fabric roofs costing far more, and with no motors, hydraulics or sensors to misalign — a harder result to achieve in an open body than a fixed-roof one. What keeps this out of the high 80s is specific rather than general: a 2022 press car was reported with a gear lever that rattled around inside its gate, Consumer Reports' 2022 owner data lists body hardware (a malfunctioning manual seat control) and electrical accessories (keyless-entry programming) among trouble spots, and in-car electronics is the model year's most-reported area — consistent with Mazda's below-average J.D. Power initial-quality standing being driven by software and controls rather than assembly defects. Scored level with the other 2022 Mazdas in this dataset.

Network density is the clearest ownership weakness in the whole category and it is brand-level, so it applies to the MX-5 exactly as to the rest of the Mazda range. Mazda's US dealer body sits around 545-548 stores and has been deliberately flat for years — against roughly 2,900 Ford, 1,200-plus Toyota and about 1,000 Honda dealers — because the brand has chosen to grow volume per store rather than add points. That leaves thin coverage outside major metros: a buyer in a smaller market can face a materially longer drive for warranty work than a Mustang owner with Ford's near-ubiquitous network behind them, and it matters more than usual on this car because both known issues on the 2022 model year — the airbag software recall and the manual-transmission synchro TSB — are dealer warranty jobs. Facility quality is genuinely improving through the open-concept Retail Evolution program and service satisfaction sits near the mainstream average rather than below it, but coverage is what sets the score.

The best ownership line in the category and a genuine outlier for a premium-priced sports car. RepairPal puts average annual repair and maintenance for the nameplate at $429 — under the $456 subcompact average and a third below the $652 all-vehicle figure — with repairs both less frequent and less severe than average. The mechanical package is cheap to work on: naturally aspirated with no turbo plumbing, no hybrid hardware, a manual roof with no motors or hydraulics, and small, light consumables. On top of that the Miata carries one of the largest enthusiast aftermarkets of any modern car, with a deep independent-specialist and performance-parts ecosystem and three decades of continuity behind it — and this model year benefits specifically, since its one recall is a software reflash needing no parts at all. Kept below the Mustang Convertible's 92 because Mazda's US volume is far smaller than Ford's, so ND-specific body panels, lighting and soft-top trim have a thinner supply chain and stay closer to dealer-only pricing.

The 2022 MX-5 uses a 7-inch Mazda Connect display on every trim with no larger screen 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-series to 8.8- and 10.25-inch panels by 2022; the MX-5 was left on the older, smaller unit and would not get the bigger screen until a later model year.

A dated system saved by hardware discipline. Mazda Connect's graphics and menu structure are a generation behind, the 7-inch panel is small, and touch input is locked out above walking pace, so the rotary Multifunction Commander control is the only way to drive it while moving — a control 2022 reviewers found "less intuitive than the touchscreens fitted to nearly every other car," even as it keeps real HVAC dials and a physical volume knob that rivals have deleted. The display generation used from 2018 through 2023 also carries a documented ghost-touch and spontaneous-reboot history. Usable with clutter and occasional lag — mid-band, and clearly behind iDrive in the Z4 or SYNC in the Mustang.

2022 is the year wireless projection arrived on this car, and only half of it. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both standard on every trim including the $27,300 Sport, which is the important part. But the newly added wireless connection is Apple CarPlay only and only from Club up; Android Auto is wired at every trim and price for 2022, and the Sport is wired for both. That is squarely the "wired standard, wireless on upper trims" band, and it lands below peers such as the Mustang Convertible and Z4, which had both projections working wirelessly.

Mazda Connect's built-in voice command is a fixed-phrase command system rather than a natural-language assistant — useful for a radio station or a phone contact and little else. Native navigation is worse positioned: the Mazda Navigation System is a Grand Touring item for 2022 (or a dealer accessory), so Sport and Club buyers get no built-in maps at all and depend entirely on a phone. Even on Grand Touring the system is SD-card-based with dated rendering, and the useful traffic layer is a three-year SiriusXM Traffic and Travel Link subscription that then lapses. Below the mid-band because the capability is both weak and largely unavailable.

The best-resolved technology item on the car. From Club up the 2022 MX-5 gets a Bose Surround Sound system with AudioPilot, nine speakers, a subwoofer and — the part that matters in a roadster — speakers built into both headrests, which keeps vocals and midrange intelligible top-down at speed where a conventional door-mounted layout washes out. It is a system engineered around the convertible problem rather than badged onto it. Held out of the top band because the base Sport is stuck with a six-speaker head unit and no satellite radio, so the entry trim gets none of it.

There is no configurable digital cluster on the 2022 MX-5 at any trim. The binnacle is analog — a central mechanical tachometer with black faces and white lettering flanked by analog gauges — supplemented by a small color multi-information display carrying trip-computer data, which in the RF also reports roof status. That is a partial digital readout attached to an analog cluster, not a digital cluster, and it scores in the low band. Mazda fitted the MX-5 a proper TFT meter display only in a later model year; for 2022 every four-seat peer here offers a full-digital option the MX-5 does not.

None, and not merely limited. The ND MX-5 carries no embedded telematics unit, which is the precondition for over-the-air updating — it is absent from Mazda's Connected Services vehicle list entirely for 2022. Mazda Connect firmware for this car is refreshed by downloading a package to a USB stick from Mazda's infotainment update site or having a dealer do it, and map data is an SD-card swap. Floor score: no whole-vehicle OTA, no infotainment OTA, not even maps.

The 2022 MX-5 has no working companion-app relationship at all. Because it is not a Mazda Connected Services vehicle, 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 2022 Mazdas get complimentary for three years. There is no digital key and no remote engine start of any kind, at any trim, even as a dealer accessory. Floor score; every peer in this set ships a functioning connected app.

Two USB-A audio inputs and a single 12V socket, and that is the entire provision. No USB-C anywhere in the car for 2022, no wireless charging pad at any trim, no household outlet, and — because there is no second row — no rear-row ports to add. Mazda's answer is to sell the missing hardware as accessories: a Scosche USB-C charging cable, a USB car charger and a vent-mount wireless charger all appear in the 2022 catalogue. The count is at least adequate for two occupants, which keeps it off the absolute floor, but USB-A was already the wrong connector for new phones in 2022 and the missing wireless tray is a daily annoyance in a cabin with nowhere convenient to wedge a phone.

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 2022 Sport, so every MX-5 unlocks and starts without touching the fob, and remote trunk release comes with it. What is missing keeps it out of the top band — no remote engine start at any trim and no phone-as-key, both consequences of the car having no connected-services hardware. Comfortably above the segment floor, short of the peers that offer a digital key.

A standard Rear View Monitor is the whole of it. The 2022 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, Brembo/BBS/RECARO, adds brakes, wheels, aero 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 genuine mitigation: the car is 154 inches long and turns in about 31 feet, and standard Blind Spot Monitoring plus Rear Cross Traffic Alert cover the roof-up rear quarter the camera cannot.

No head-up display is offered on the 2022 MX-5 at any trim or in any package. Mazda's Active Driving Display was fitted broadly across the 2022 Mazda3 and CX-series but never to this car, and the official 2022 brochure carries no such line for either the soft top or the RF. Floor score; owners who want one buy an aftermarket OBD unit.

Structurally incapable of family logistics. There is no rear seat, therefore no LATCH position anywhere in the 2022 car — the framework's own seating discriminator omits the child-seat item from this vehicle for exactly that reason. A child seat can only ever go in the front passenger seat in front of a live airbag; Mazda's own brochure footnote instructs owners to confirm the passenger airbag deactivation light is lit before doing so, which is the manufacturer conceding the compromise. Add a 4.6 cu ft trunk that will not take a stroller and a 49-inch-tall body that requires lowering a toddler nearly to the ground, and the MX-5 is not a family car in any 2022 configuration. Floor score.

Weak on the terms a family would judge it by, though not for want of standard equipment. Mazda standardizes Blind Spot Monitoring, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning and Smart City Brake Support on the $27,300 base Sport, which is creditable at the price. But there is no adaptive cruise control and no lane-keep assist anywhere in the 2022 range, and the AEB is the low-speed city system Mazda itself limits to roughly 2–18 mph with no pedestrian detection. The car carries neither an NHTSA overall rating nor any IIHS crashworthiness result because it was never tested — the MX-5 was absent from the 2022 IIHS award sweep that took in every other tested Mazda. A 2,341-lb two-seater also carries unavoidable mass-disparity exposure, and there is an open FMVSS 208 non-compliance recall covering 2016–2023 cars for front airbags deploying with excessive force. Low band.

The item asks about multi-hour comfort for four-plus occupants and the MX-5 seats two. There are no rear amenities to assess, no rear climate zone, no entertainment provision, and luggage space with both seats occupied is the 4.6 cu ft trunk — two soft bags. Consumer Reports found the noise, thin seats and stiff ride collectively fatiguing on the highway, and automatic climate control is Grand Touring only. Floor score by construction; this is the item the car is furthest from being designed for.

Genuinely mixed rather than simply bad. In its favour: the car is tiny and trivially easy to place, the clutch is light and the shifter is among the best on sale, roof-down visibility is close to the best of any car, and keyless entry with push-button start is standard even on Sport. Against it: 2022 narrowed the automatic to Grand Touring only, so the volume configuration is more manual than ever and stop-and-go means constant shifting with only 151 lb-ft to lean on below 3,000 rpm; there is no adaptive cruise control at any trim to take the edge off a jam; and Consumer Reports explicitly warns against the car as a commuter on ride and noise grounds. Mid-band, below the four-seat peers that offer ACC and an automatic as ordinary fare.

Average-to-decent, with the premium-fuel requirement doing most of the damage. 26/34/29 MPG is respectable for a rear-drive sports car, but the EPA puts annual fuel cost at about $2,600 because the Skyactiv-G asks for premium — a compact-car economy figure paid at a premium price per gallon. The consumables side is genuinely cheap for the class: modest 195/50R16 tires on Sport (205/45R17 on Club and Grand Touring), a simple naturally aspirated engine with no turbo or hybrid hardware, and roughly $4,000 of maintenance and repair over five years. Mid-band.

The best use-case item on the car and close to best-in-market. At 154 inches long and 68 wide it is smaller than almost anything else on sale, and it turns curb-to-curb in about 31 feet — inside the 34-foot floor of the convertible normalization band, meaning it out-turns every peer in this set. Roof down the sightlines are effectively unobstructed in every direction. The only deductions are the absence of any parking sensor at any trim and the roof-up rear three-quarter blind zone, which the standard Rear View Monitor and Rear Cross Traffic Alert only partly offset.

Not work-capable in any sense the item measures. Mazda publishes no tow rating for the US-market MX-5 — towing is not approved at all — and there is no bed, no cargo bay and no meaningful payload beyond two occupants and 4.6 cu ft of trunk. The engine makes 181 hp at 7,000 rpm and 151 lb-ft at 4,000, which is the opposite of a load-hauling character. Floor score.

The mechanical package is genuinely robust — a naturally aspirated Skyactiv-G with no turbo, an aluminum power plant frame, the MX-5's strong reliability record, roughly 67% five-year value retention, and a chassis proven by thousands of Spec Miata race seasons. But the item measures toughness under work abuse and fleet reputation, and on those terms this is a leisure vehicle: cloth or leather trim with nothing washable, a fabric roof, about five inches of ground clearance, a black-painted front air dam that grounds easily, and no fleet or commercial presence whatsoever. Low band, credited above the floor only for the drivetrain's proven robustness.

Effectively nil. One 12V outlet is the entire onboard power provision — no inverter, no AC outlet, no exportable power. There are no cargo tie-downs, no bed and no bed-access features, no factory roof rails or crossbar provision (a fabric roof cannot carry a rack), no hitch or hitch receiver offered, and no washable interior surfaces. Mazda's 2022 MX-5 accessory catalogue is cosmetic and enthusiast-oriented — Alcantara trim, spoilers, strut braces, lug nuts — rather than an upfit ecosystem. Floor score.

A wonderful car for a scenic two-hour drive and a poor one for a 600-mile interstate day, which is what this item measures. The specifics all point the same way: roughly 345 miles of range from an 11.9-gallon tank, so more fuel stops than a rival; manual seats with no lumbar that Consumer Reports calls thin and unsupportive; noise that permeates a thinly insulated roof at highway speed; a stiff ride on a 91-inch wheelbase; and no adaptive cruise control at any 2022 trim, so there is no driver-assist layer at all to reduce highway fatigue. Low band, though above the floor because the drivetrain is unstressed at a cruise, one 2022 reviewer still found a long drive "not a tiring thing," and the RF's better insulation gives buyers a genuinely quieter option.

Pavement-bound. Rear-wheel drive with no all-wheel-drive option anywhere in the nameplate's history, about five inches of ground clearance, a front air dam that grounds on a steep driveway, no tow rating for a trailer or toy hauler, no roof-rack provision, no flat-folding surface to sleep on or load through, and one 12V socket for camp power. The limited-slip differential standard on Club and Grand Touring helps on wet gravel, and a dry forest-service road is well within the car's ability, but nothing here makes it an adventure enabler. Low band.

The most restrictive cargo proposition in the segment. 4.6 cubic feet is a fixed, unexpandable box: no seats to fold, no pass-through to the cabin, no underfloor well, no roof rails and no hitch for a carrier. Two soft weekend bags is the realistic limit and hard-sided luggage largely does not fit; Mazda's own answer is a dealer-fit "Collapsible Cargo Carrier" and a cargo net. The single redeeming detail is that the volume does not shrink when the roof is stowed, because the top folds into its own well above the trunk floor — so the number is honest in both roof positions. Low band.

The reason the car exists, and the top of this peer set — and 2022 is the year Mazda sharpened it, because Kinematic Posture Control debuts here as standard equipment on every MX-5. KPC lightly brakes the inside rear wheel in high-g corners to pull that corner down, suppress roll and linearize steering response, with slightly stronger intervention on the way out of a corner to enhance the limited-slip effect; Mazda achieved it in software, adding no weight. Underneath it is a 2,341-lb car on double wishbones and a multi-link rear with front and rear stabilizer bars. Held below the mid-90s deliberately: absolute grip is modest on 195/50R16 or 205/45R17 rubber, Mazda tunes in visible body roll on purpose, and at least one 2022 reviewer could not detect KPC's effect on the road — so a Z4 or Mustang GT will carry more speed through the same corner. The item rewards composure and body control, which the MX-5 leads, while the raw-grip half of it does not favour a car this softly sprung.

Among the best electrically assisted racks on sale at any price, and the item where the MX-5 most clearly beats far more expensive machinery: a double-pinion electric assist rack that delivers genuine road-surface feedback through the rim rather than the synthesized weight most EPAS systems substitute for it, with directness off-center that makes the car feel keyed to the driver's fingertips. KPC is meant to help here too, making response more linear through tight or rough corners. Short of the ceiling because the assistance is fixed with no adjustable modes, the rack is quick enough to feel nervous to a newcomer at highway speed, and 2022 reviewers still noted "occasional dull input" from the electric assist.

Strong on the road, marginal on a track day. Low mass does the work — instrumented testing of a 2022 car has been reported at 113 feet from 60 mph, an excellent figure — and pedal feel is firm and progressive in normal use, with KPC now using the same brake hardware to trim body roll rather than to slow the car. The deduction is fade resistance: the standard single-piston front calipers and modest rotors are reported going soft after roughly twenty minutes of hard canyon driving, and the fix is Brembo four-piston front calipers locked inside the Club Brembo/BBS/RECARO package on manual cars only. Upper-middle band: confident stopping power with a documented endurance limit.

Exceptionally clean calibration, largely because there is so little between the pedal and the crank. The 2.0L Skyactiv-G is naturally aspirated with no turbo lag to mask, no hybrid handoff to blend and no idle stop-start system in the US car to shudder on restart, so throttle response is essentially immediate and the pull to the 7,500-rpm redline is linear — one 2022 reviewer recorded "no rev-hang or torque gaps." Kept out of the top band by genuinely thin torque below 3,000 rpm, which means the calibration is only as smooth as the driver's gear selection is correct, a point sharpened for 2022 by the automatic being narrowed to Grand Touring alone.

Pleasant more often than not, and deliberately so — the ND2 intake and exhaust tuning gives the four a hard-edged induction note that is a genuine part of the experience with the roof down, described by 2022 reviewers as exhaust song blending with tire feedback into the car's character. Two things keep it out of the top band: the engine turns audibly coarse and thrashy in the last thousand rpm before the limiter, and with the roof closed there is no insulation to hide driveline noise, which Consumer Reports lumps in with the road and wind noise permeating the thin top. Upper-middle band.

Mazda's published curb-to-curb turning diameter for the ND MX-5 is 30.8 feet, below the 34-foot floor of the convertible normalization band, so the item tops out — legitimately, because this is one of the tightest turning circles of any car on sale and a direct product of the 91-inch wheelbase and 154-inch overall length, both unchanged for 2022 (KPC added no mechanical hardware). It is the practical benefit that most offsets the car's other everyday compromises: U-turns and parking-garage ramps that need a three-point turn in a peer are single moves here.

The core relationship is close to perfect: wheel, shifter, pedals and driver aligned on a single axis with a low hip point, and tilt-and-telescoping steering standard on every 2022 trim, which was the ND's one serious ergonomic flaw when new. Control placement is a strength too — physical HVAC dials and a rotary commander knob rather than everything buried in a screen. What holds it to the upper-middle band is fit range and access: manual seats with no height adjustment or lumbar and limited rearward travel, so tall drivers run out of room; the cabin is simply "tight" by 2022 reviewers' accounts; ingress and egress from a 49-inch-tall car is a drop-and-climb; the removable cupholders foul either a knee or the shift hand ("the cupholders are crap"); and roof-up over-shoulder sightlines are poor.

The archetype against which this item is judged. The MX-5 is the car enthusiasts name reflexively when asked what to buy for driving pleasure, and it earns it through accessibility rather than capability — modest grip and 181 hp mean the whole of the car's ability is available at legal speeds, so the reward does not require a track or a licence risk. The manual shifter, the steering, the naturally aspirated top end and the open roof compound into what 2022 reviewers called transcendental, flow-state driving. Near the ceiling; the only reason it is not at it is that the car asks the driver to accept real compromises in noise, space and equipment to get there.

The $28,315 Sport is honest but thin on comfort content: manual climate control, black cloth buckets, 16-inch alloys, a 7-inch Mazda Connect touchscreen with wired CarPlay/Android Auto, six speakers, dual USB and keyless entry with push-button start. Heated seats and Bose arrive only at Club, leather and automatic climate only at Grand Touring, and no MX-5 trim offered adaptive cruise control at any price for 2022. What lifts it above the segment's stripped base cars is that full LED headlights and the active-safety basics — blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-departure warning and Smart City Brake Support — were all standard on the cheapest trim, which was not true of the Boxster at more than twice the money.

Judged on what the money actually buys in this segment, the 2022 MX-5 is the benchmark. Just over $28K delivered puts a rear-drive, roughly 2,340 lb roadster with a 181-hp naturally aspirated 2.0L and a short-throw six-speed manual in the driveway, and $31,815 for the Club adds a limited-slip differential, Bilstein dampers and nine-speaker Bose. Every other genuine two-seat convertible on sale in 2022 cost far more — a 718 Boxster opened at $62,600 — 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. 2022 also added Kinematic Posture Control as standard across the range at no price increase over the outgoing car's equipment level.

Six orderable configurations for 2022 — Sport, Club, Club with the Brembo/BBS/Recaro package and Grand Touring soft tops, plus RF Club (package-mandatory) and RF Grand Touring — give a reasonable ladder from stripped-and-eager to leather-lined. But the lineup is one engine deep with no AWD and almost no standalone options beyond paint and a $300 leather colour, and 2022 actively narrowed the choice: the automatic was restricted to Grand Touring, so Sport and Club buyers had no transmission decision at all. Reasonable choice with real gaps rather than genuine breadth.

2022 was the MX-5's weakest year of the ND generation in the US: 6,172 units, down roughly 41% from 10,470 in 2021, with sales off about 58% in the first half of the year before supply recovered. The collapse was supply-driven rather than a loss of demand — the car sold out at sticker and rebounded 45% in 2023 — but a buyer looking at the 2022 model year saw a low-volume niche car with a sharply negative trajectory. It still effectively owns the affordable-roadster space with the Fiat 124 gone and the BRZ/GR86 pair being coupes, which keeps it out of the bottom band, but the year's numbers do not support a mid-pack-and-steady read either.

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 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.

2022 was the worst year of the cycle to negotiate on this car. It landed in the peak of the chip-shortage seller's market, when constrained MX-5 supply cut volume by more than 40% and dealers had waiting lists; transactions were at sticker at best and some stores attached markups of several thousand dollars, while Mazda had no reason to put customer cash on a car it could not build enough of. What incentive activity existed was narrow and conditional — a loyalty reward for existing Mazda owners, military bonus cash, adaptive-equipment reimbursement — rather than a broad public rebate. That is worse for a buyer than the already-thin 2023 environment and puts it firmly in the bottom band.

2022 is the seventh 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 visibly a generation behind rivals by then. It rates above the flat 2023 car on one real point: 2022 was a genuine engineering change year rather than a paint-and-trim one, with Kinematic Posture Control made standard across the range — a brake-vectoring strategy Mazda developed specifically for this car. Redesign risk was still real for a 2022 buyer, though, since the substantive ND3 update with new lighting, an 8.8-inch infotainment system and a revised steering rack arrived two model years later for 2024.

Few cars in any class have a stronger critical record, and the 2022 car was still winning its class outright: Kelley Blue Book named the 2022 MX-5 the best convertible of the year, ranking it ahead of the Corvette and Mustang. Reviewers continued to treat it as the reference point for affordable driving pleasure, and Edmunds named the MX-5 Club the best car its staff drove all year. It is held just below the top band on one specific fact — the MX-5's long 10Best streak ended after the 2021 list, and Car and Driver's 2022 10Best gave the sports-car slots to the Boxster/Cayman and the BRZ/GR86 instead.