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Mazda MX-5 The world’s best-loved sports car

The Mazda MX-5 is the world’s best-selling lightweight open two-seater sports car. It has continued to create a stir since its launch.

Mazda’s unique sports car heritage and attitude towards car design created a classic, affordable and exciting two-seater – something that most people thought was extinct.

Discovering the Mazda MX-5 is now better than ever, with 21st century standards of reliability, safety and durability. With its sharp looks and thrilling performance, the Mazda MX-5 is likely to continue setting the standard for open-top motoring well into the future.

Proportions just right

Walk around the Mazda MX-5 and you’ll discover that it looks really good from every angle with proportions that are just right. Its contours are simply sublime. And although the classic design has changed subtly over the years, the Mazda MX-5’s aerodynamic shape remains unmistakable.

Body-coloured bumpers and door handles across the range add to the seamless look of the car, and the low front bumper combined with flared body panels create a stance that is purposeful and imposing. Electric windows and central locking are standard on all models and if you choose the Sport edition you will also have leather interior trim and a CD player.

Sheer driving enjoyment

The Mazda MX-5 has been designed to appeal to people who love to drive. Long gone are the days when sports car drivers put up with cramped conditions and draughty interiors.

The seats are supportive and comfortable on even the longest journey, and the folding wind deflector (standard on the 1.8 models) prevents the airstream from flowing back into the cockpit – a great relief for anyone who has ever experienced a stiff neck in a convertible.

To keep you warm the Sport edition also includes heated seats.

Performance and safety

The Mazda MX-5’s superb roadholding and performance is vital when avoiding tricky situations. It also boasts a whole range of advanced safety features as standard.

Extensive crash testing has created front and rear crumple zones that absorb impact forces progressively, maximising your safety. Reinforced side-protection bars and windscreen pillars, which act as a rollover bar, add extra protection. A collapsible steering column, seatbelt pre-tensioners and airbags for both you and your passenger are all standard equipment too.

Two engines, one thrilling ride

You only have to listen to the Mazda MX-5’s sporty exhaust note to know that you’re going to have fun behind the wheel. Whether you choose the 1.6 or 1.8 litre engine, performance is exhilarating.

The frugal 1.6 engine produces 110 PS, and the 1.8 litre unit 146 PS. Throttle response with both powerplants is instant, with masses of torque at low revs – as you’d expect from a thoroughbred sports car.

This come from the four valves per cylinder and fuel injection – creating a roadster that is as spirited as it is reliable.

For a test drive contact Niall at Park Motors on 8691000.

Autumn Arrival of the fifth generation Golf

The biggest evolutionary step forward since this model was first introduced. The Golf, the most successful German car of all time, reaches its fifth model generation in the autumn of 2003.

Its design and technical features are more supreme, more dynamic than ever before. The new model will be recognised immediately as the latest version of a truly original concept, the ‘Golf class’. The styling, with its characteristic C-post, powerfully shaped rear end, emphatically sporting nose and muscular, wedge-shaped outline, communicates a new, supremely dynamic personality.

UNIQUE

Ever since a model bearing this name was first introduced almost thirty years ago, the Golf has been as unique as a one’s own fingerprint. One of the secrets of its worldwide success (more than 22 million Golfs have so far been sold) is that Volkswagen, when it produced a direct successor to the Beetle, created an ‘original’ that resists imitation. For four generations now, the design has been perfected and updated, but it has always represented a stylistic image of its time.

The fifth Golf model that is about to be launched retains this unique character but is also the biggest step forward so far in the evolution of this model, both visually and technically.

The front-end styling is new in every detail, and optimised for low aerodynamic drag. Another unmistakable feature are the twin circular headlights with the glass tapering toward the centre of the car and with horizontal flashing turn indicators in “Phaeton” style. Above the headlights, the side panels now rise more in a more pronounced curve than before and as part of the opening section of the engine hood, create a slightly V-shaped outline together with the radiator grille, that emphasises the dynamic character of this new Volkswagen even more.

STRONG VISUAL

The rear of the body is styled in an equally powerful manner: the rear body shoulders emphasise the Golf’s strong visual presence, the bold rear lights with their twin circular elements are another immediately recognisable feature of current Volkswagen design. 

The body – a new value standard

The body itself is wider than before (1,759 mm / + 24 mm) and also higher (1,483 mm / + 39 mm) and longer (4,204 mm / + 57 mm); it therefore provided distinctly more interior space, particularly in the rear-seat area (+ 65 mm legroom, + 24 mm headroom at the rear and + 8 mm at the front. The luggage compartment now holds 347 litres and the interior length has gone up by 54 mm.

The power train

The power train also provides ample evidence of Volkswagen’s technological leadership.

The keyword here is direct fuel injection. Taking the TDI diesel engines as an example, the supreme new power unit in this area is the 2.0 TDI, which develops 103 kW (140 PS).  Then there are the FSI engines: this abbreviation i used for the units with direct petrol injection. The 1.6 FSI, rated at 85 kW (115 PS), has already proved successful in the Touran and is now to be available in the Golf. Here too, a six-speed gearbox is standard equipment, but the driver can, as an optional extra, leave the gear changes to a smooth, efficient six-sped automatic transmission. The new Golf will be launched with a choice of four power units 2 petrol engines, including the familiar 1.4 litre  55 kW / 75 PS version and the 1.6 FSI with an output of 85 kW (115 PS), and two TDI diesels (77 kW / 105 PS or 103 kW / 140 PS).

All Golf engines comply with the EU 4 exhaust emission standard. Four further engines will be launched slightly later, including two FSI units and an SDI diesel. In due course, additional engine options at the top end of the power-output scale will also become available. Delivery of cars with the automatic transmission and DSG options starts early 2004.