Fire up the... Mazda MX-5

MAZDA'S little MX-5 is still full of the magic which helped make it the world's best-selling sports car, more than 20 years after it first went on sale.

The rear-wheel-drive roadster might be in its third generation but it's still proving popular because it offers you only the basic thrills you need to have a ball on Britain's back roads, meaning that once you get behind its cute looks it's still an absolute joy to drive.

There are roomier, comfier cars out there but if you drive simply because you enjoy it you can’t go far wrong with an MX-5, particularly if you’re the sort of person who deliberately takes the long route just so they can go over a remote mountain pass on the way.

If anything I reckon it’s actually better than the old British sports cars it's so often accused of mimicking, because unlike them the MX-5 actually works and means you can spend your weekends in the countryside, rather than the garage. Just make sure you share the driving with whoever you take along for the ride, otherwise they’ll forget it’s a driver’s car and start going on about the interior being too cramped, the boot too small and the ride too firm.

It’s also got the same problem most convertibles have when it comes to roof-up visibility, but I reckon the Mazda’s folding fabric roof is easier and faster than the metal most of its rivals come with. You can have metal origami as an optional extra, if you insist, but while you get added security it’s slower to shelter you and it weighs the little lightweight roadster down.

While it does have just the two seats it’ll still do everything you’d expect a £20,145 car to do, and although I wasn’t expecting it in something so single-mindedly sporty it was great to have toys like cruise control, a CD autochanger and a Bluetooth system at my fingertips.

But you’ll forget all of them on a cross-country blast, because even when it’s not its birthday the Mazda’s partying, and you’re always invited.

Read more about the MX-5 in the next issue of GR8Life Magazine, due out next month.