Mazda MX-5: 'A winning recipe that will never go out of date'

As Mazda's record-breaking MX-5 turns 30 it is still as young and fun as it was in 1989 - only the price has slowed down

Mazda MX-5
Price 18,735
0-62mph 8.3 seconds
Top speed 127mph
MPG 47.1
CO2 139g/km

It's cold and it's dark. It's hardly soft-top weather. But there are few things that give you more of a buzz than going nocturnal in a convertible. Cloaked in the privacy of night, the sleeping city is yours for the taking. Music on, roads empty, buildings floodlit, bum warmed by a heated seat: it makes me feel as if I'm roaring through the opening sequence of some moody noir thriller. It isn't always glamorous, of course. I mentioned my penchant for staying up with the top down to a friend and he told me that he'd once parked his cabriolet and watched aghast as a group of well-refreshed revellers wobbled across the pavement towards him and tipped the greasy remnants of their KFC family bucket into his lap"