Mazda MX-5 RF: Fast Folding Fun For All? - Carfection 

such a good looking side profile

Funny how the shift knob just dances

Fellating a ceiling fan? I must try this new kink.

Didn't think that the MX-5 could get any cooler, but this RF hit the bulls-eye in my opinion. Great video!

NEVER felate a ceiling fan.

They should make just a coupe, Maybe it will be lighter than the convertible, and if not, more structural rigidity.

Great reporting and editing as always.

I saw one recently and it just looks right to me. I just love folding metal roofs.

This is an awesome car. We've been spoiled by the easy up-n-down of the soft top. I have no qualms toggling the button for the hard-top at a complete stop :)

god i wish there will be an s2000 'rf'

The design is AMAZING

This guy is great, another great review for another great car.

Man that looks gorgeous in white

I like hard top design.

I saw one of these at a car show and it was one of the best looking cars there and a tiny fraction of the other pretty cars

Just bought this exact car; 2017 RF in Ceramic Pearl. Here in Australia we get AC as standard, for obvious reasons, but heated seats only come with the GT spec. The Ceramic Pearl looks amazing in the sunlight, and cruising along the West Coast Highway with the top down, watching the sun set is one of life's great pleasures

Great review as always but I think you could have emphasized what is the idea behind a ''cheap'' car like this. Mazda MX5s are not about how fast you can go (there are plenty of those already), they are about those little, curvy country roads and having fun while driving through them... They are very nimble and nippy on these! So don't expect V6 performance out of a car like this! For the price you can't buy a better 2 seat convertible unless it's an used porsche or something like it. Personally, I don't need anything fancy inside a convertible: No NAV (my cell can do it better anyways), no parking camera, lane departure (seriously?), extra sensors... Just the raw, full experience of driving one of these.

Beautiful! I love it. Just needs a few more bhp. But i never drove one so i could be wrong.

Awesome review!!!

it looks really good.

does the mapquest app work in england? cause its awesome for going places (but make sure you are charging your phone while driving it eats up battery bad)

It looks truly amazing! But I would love for Mazda to make a coupé version of this car, like the limited edition they made of the NB.

I like this quite a lot. It offers most, if not all, of the "MX-5 experience" with an added dose of day-to-day civility. Plus, I like the look of the thing. Not as elemental as the ragtop, but I'm more than willing to give that up. I do wonder, however, why Mazda didn't just make the car a proper coupe; may have saved a bit of complexity over this.

"Balletic" and "Fellating a ceiling fan" Opposite ends of the class spectrum however both point to a mastery of the English language. Well played sir.

This looks so much better

I really do like it, I just wish they made a version with a manually removable targa (sans all the motors). That would save a lot if not all of the weight difference, while still having a removable top.

Man I want one of these!

I have this infotainment system in my 3sGT and I hate it too. It works well enough, but its feature-set is light years behind the rest of the industry and it has quite a few annoying quirks that just piss you off. That said, I still love this car...and my 3 too. You just can't beat Mazda when it comes to affordable fun to drive cars.

lol u can turn the volume down on the sat nav robot girl... but she will still cut in with "speed camera ahead" over the radio/cd etc which has saved me several times..

Are gear levers always bobbing around like that? I have never noticed.

I like it better than the soft top but it costs more right?

Good looking car.

I'm wondering what this natural second fun car will be like with a torque-y electric motor, and how long until we start seeing ND conversions.....

How have people found the reliability of the hard top folding mechanism? Any major issues?

there you the King Has Spoken... I'll go for this one....

Great looking car

what about the brz...? hardtop coupe with good handling and driving characteristics

3:51 LOL I've never seen Alex like this)

i've read that Mazda set the 6 mph speed limit for the top operation because they were afraid of wind blowing people's hair up and getting caught in the seam as the top went up. personally, i'd rather just duck my head for a couple seconds while the top get close to being closed. however, there is a product that "fixes" this, allows top up/down at up to 30 mph, plus the button is one touch; you don't have to hold it down for the entire operation. the device doesn't speed up the operation; it still takes 12 seconds, but it's much more convenient. i haven't bought it myself since i dont put the top down that often.

what color is this one? pearl white? or is it another white?

Imagine the new ND Miata with a Fiesta ST engine :)

porsche targa can't do it on the move either

Or why not do it as an attachment like it was for the mk1 and mk2?

Is the dancing gearstick an optional extra?

Will there be a fiat 124c abarth hardtop version???

What a prat! I own, from new, a retractable hard top MX 5 III. If he owned and drove one of these cars he wouldn't show himself as much!

That's fucking stunning! I'd throw a Jackson Racing Supercharger Kit on it to make up for the slight weight gain....... Eh, not really for that reason. Lol.

love it!

So two questions, the RF or a BRZ? Secondly do you normally have sheep just roaming along the side of the road in the U.K.?

How good would an mx5 coupe look and the boot would actually be quite good, I’d love a car like this but I just don’t care about having the roof down. Actually....they should do it as a shooting brake

What car is the first engine sound when the video starts?

Remove the pillars and make it fold like the softtop it would've been so much better. Or maybe make a coupe version.

The roof can be opened/closed from outside the car?

2:01 what's the word he uses? closed caption says 'pathetic' but it sounded like balletic.

2:13 LMFAO HAHAHAHAHAHA it's got a smiley face!!!

i would too. but id rather if they made a proper coupe like they did with the 2nd generation MX-5/Miata. to me it's rather stupid to have 2 different types of convertibles for the same car

won't the roof work at any speed if you remove the fuse. worked with the s2000

I prefer coupes not because of their sense of safety, but rather their more cohesive styling (convertibles for me, seem as if the design was never finalized) and structural rigidity.

What's the point of a car that does 0-60 at the speed of light and has a top speed of 1000 mph in a country like Britain covered in speed cameras , increasing numbers of 20mph zones , a motorway top speed of 70mph ,not to mention the parlous state of many roads requiring caution or a large repair bill? Imo the Mx5 is almost the perfect car , nippy ,cheap to run and maintain and above all , pure fun to drive.

I drove the current generation MX-5 for a day during an event and it is a fantastic car, but at 185cm and on the large side, it is simply to small.

It looks exactly like a coupe with targa top, so they shouldn't need to go through the hassle of building the retractable mechanism and add more weight in the process!

That's some serious gear stick wobble.

I do like it but those rear lights ruin it, for me they just look wrong somehow.

Heh, I have to laugh a bit about the soft top being "unlivable" on the highway. I have a 1994 with a rip in the top and lowering springs and a loud exhaust and I realized, hmm, this car has, ya know, interior trim and power steering and air conditioning. It's effectively a luxury car compared to my ideal sports car experience. So I hope I'll succeed in converting it to an Exocet! :D

"Fellating a ceiling fan" HAHAHAHA

daayuuuummm look at those sheep 6:25 :)

Not sure if I actually find this fella annoying. It’s a great car I tow one behind my RV and use it for fun. Which is exactly what it’s made for. “ fantastic fun” couldn’t agree more.

The gearstick really wobbles around a lot, so weird

And the 250 pound guys that buy these cars don't effect the performance? What's an extra 40!

i want a used RF....but I don't when that will happen in 4 door america lol.

I find the Mazda gps to be rather great actually, weird that it was so annoying for you guys.

Leatherseats? No sir, I went for the recaroseats, its a must

Why is the gear stick bopping around so much? lol

why not just make it like a manual T roof so it will be cheaper to manufacture and maybe more sturdy

looks really pretty

the "sat nav" is not infuriating. slight learning curve but overall quite easy to figure out and use

3:00-3:15 had me laughing out loud

i've ordered the mx5 rf

The sheep at 6:30, lol.

Mazda has said the RF is for people that wouldn't want to put the top down often.

Is it more fun than the Mini Cooper S 6 speed manual?

All I can do is shake my head at this....

I don’t have a ceiling fan.

Looks like a baby jag.

You know you can just go into settings and mute the sat nav voice....

Think ive found my next car

This or Toyota 86?

why couldnt the roof be made out of carbon fiber? great vid btw!

Why only up to 6mph to raise and lower the roof? Because between being completely open and completely closed, the mechanism is complicated and weak on the little Mexa... crashing while in mid-action could have catastrophic consequences. Other cars are bigger and have more safety tolerances built into them. Simple as that really.

You know what would look even better? A 124 RF...

6:26 - SHEEP!

The one to get! So stunning! But it looks boring in this color.

Stick a V6 in this and you're on to something great

Almost $40 grand even in the US though.

Ah, the good ole days when racing was dangerous and felating a ceiling fan was safe.

Amazing car!!!

Not as good as the soft top. It looks odd with the roof up, and with it down it isn't even a true open car like the soft top, just a 'targa top'. Guess which one I chose! And my previous car was the electric-roof version of the earlier (NC) model MX5, which with its roof down was a true open car.

You say its japanese but isn't the engine FORD: Fix Or Repair Daily?

The gear shift knob is so wobbly tho

fellating a ceiling fan? er.. that's plain twisted, sister... and yes, sort of nice looking but when you go back and look at the roadster, the roadster looks so much better - and what about the buffeting? (apologies to Mr May). Yes the roadster is noisier on the motorway..with the roof up, but drop it down and enjoy the experience. My TR6 is terrible with the roof up, but fine at motorway speeds roof down.