This is one entertaining, fun and rorty roadster. It's so direct, so nimble, you're just eagerly looking for the next corner and the South Island of New Zealand is not lacking in those. We particularly recommend enjoying yourself on the hill climb out of Nelson on SH6 heading to Blenheim, or SH60 heading to Takaka and Golden Bay....and the sports car fun can all be had at very legal speed limits of course.

Well the setup is pretty simple. There's no power steering, (but its not heavy), there's no electronic do-dads or power roof, so it's just you and the mechanicals. You do sit pretty low down so you need to keep your distance for good visibility. This no frills sports car was made to enjoy the drive, so just go seek out those curves...it's all about participation.

Being a Mazda, reliability is a given. She's regularly serviced and has to pass the Certificate of Fitness (CoF) test required for all rental cars every 6 months. Given the age of the car with only basic safety designs compared to modern cars though, (there's no ABS or airbags or traction control), the only driver safety aid along with the servo assisted disc brakes, inertia reel 3 point safety belts, high level brake light is....you, the driver. Hence given you sit low down, do ensure you drive appropriately to the car and road conditions. The 1.6 litre engine has no issue in keeping up with modern traffic or climbing big hills in such a lightweight roadster though.

Superb, nothing is at all tatty inside or out. The seats, fabric roof and rear perspex window are all good, and everything essential is in good working order, even the heater....not that you'll need that much...

Not bad but not a huge amount either. The spare wheel eats into some boot space and there's no space behind the seats so you'll need to pack relatively light, definitely with soft luggage only. Please refer to the Seating & Luggage tab above for exact dimensions.

At last, a car from the best decade for music, the 80s. The best music from 1989 to accompany a spirited drive in this car would be:

• Advice For The Young At Heart - Tears for Fears
• Mixed Emotions - The Rolling Stones
• Year Of The Knife - Tears for Fears 

We acknowledge driving music is a very subjective thing, but clearly here, we're right. So download, hire our Portable Bluetooth Speaker & enjoy!

Check out the rest of our classic best road trip driving tracks here and put RentAClassic on your play list... 

Hey this isn't all about outright pace, it's more about finesse and really feeling like your shifting it....and it can corner a lot sweeter than most...

"....The fact is that if you want a sports car, the MX-5 is perfect. Nothing on the road will give you better value. Nothing will give you so much fun."

"The fact is, there's now nothing to stop you renting so much fun in New Zealand...." 

Different strokes for different folks....

Do you want sensible things like comfort, luggage space, affordability (OK....)....

or more indulgent stuff like luxury, handling and powwwwerrrrr (yeah)?!

We think all our cars are totally brilliant, but here's how this Mazda compares to our other cars on some key rental criteria.