Jap crap - car review

There’s not much else going on right now, so I’ll review these:

They are all brilliant, whichever one I’m driving feels like the best. I’m no expert of course, and biased in favour of all of them. None of them is perfect, I suppose the MX-5 is best for around town (automatic and has largest boot); the MR2 is best for bombing down the motorway (good in a straight line and reliably fast) and the Del Sol is for in-between.

But none of them is perfect. If I could assemble the best parts of all three, it would consist of…
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Mechanicals

1. Engine. The MR2. Superb low end torque pulls in any gear at any revs (just about). Best fuel economy, which doesn’t seem to vary much whether you are driving sensibly or twatting it. The other two have surprisingly awful fuel economy (despite, or perhaps because, they are 1.6 litre and the MR2 is 1.8?). The Del Sol has no pulling power below 2,500 revs and the MX-5 *does*not*like*going*uphill*, not even if you drop into third.

2. Engine/exhaust sound. The Del Sol. I can’t tell which contributes more, but they make a lovely booming sound when accelerating and are practically silent when you are rolling along. Even sounds nice when decelerating, unlike the MR2 which makes a noise like teenagers when you ask them to do the washing up when you take your foot off.

3. Gear box and clutch. The Del Sol. Clutch pedal is light but ‘linear’ and nice wide gear ratios, nearly five-to-one between first and fifth. The MR2 has stupid close gear ratios (barely three-and-a-half-to-one between fifth and first), if you don’t mind the noise. My MX-5 is automatic, and it must be said engine/gear box are in nigh perfect harmony. It had 109 bhp when new, and probably a lot less than that now, but the gear changes are spot on, better than I could do manually.

4. Steering. The MX-5. It seems to know what to do without any conscious effort on your part. With the MR2 you have to adjust when going round a corner; you have to tell it exactly what to do.

5. Suspension. Del Sol as it corners the flattest, so you dare go a couple of mph faster round roundabouts. The MR2 rolls a bit and the MX-5 rolls *a lot*. OTOH, the Del Sol is rubbish over speed bumps, but the other two don’t care, you don’t even need to slow down for most of them.
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Practicalities and comfort

6. Boot. the MX-5. Small but still the largest. The MR2 *does*not*have*a*boot*, and the Del Sol boot is deep but short because the front half is taken up with roof mechanism. Also it goes up and down electrically/mechanically, which wastes a bit of time, and vertically, meaning you can’t lean over it and have to wrestle stuff in and out diagonally.

7. In-cabin storage. Funnily enough, the MX-5. There’s a decent cubby in the centre console under your elbow; two cup holders (I upgraded to the facelift arm-rest), door pockets which will take more than a parking ticket; decent glove box and the original stereo was double-DIN so that’s an extra space for your mobile and sun-glasses. The Del Sol is deficient on all these counts (no door pockets at all, WTF) and the MR2 is somewhere in between.

8a. Soft top. The MX5 is the better soft top. You can flip it open or close it in a few seconds from inside the car (for example at red lights). You can only get the MR2 roof to open properly from outside the car, but it’s great to close again from inside.

8b. Targa top. The Del Sol has a gloriously over-engineered electric/mechanical targa top. It is a joy use, but you have to have the parking brake on and opening or closing it takes nearly a minute, including flipping levers and pressing and letting go of the switch at specified times.

8c. Rear window that opens and closes. The Del Sol. It has a rear window that opens and closes! When it’s down, it’s an open top with a chunky rollover bar.

9. Seats. The MX-5. They are the size of child seats, heck knows how they packed in that much comfort. Though it Would be nice if they reclined as far as the Del Sol seats, which go nearly horizontal. MR2 cloth seats are terrible; MR2 leather seats are pretty comfy, but they are leather, so squeaky and sweaty.

10. Passenger leg room. Del Sol is best; MR2 is OK and they did something stupid on the passenger side. The foot end is nearer to the passenger seat than the pedals are to the driver’s seat. Why?

11. Door and centre arm rests. The Del Sol, they are comfiest, widest and almost the same height. In the MR2 the rests are pretty hard, narrow and different heights, if you rest your left elbow, you can barely touch the steering wheel; the MX-5 is somewhere in between.
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To be updated later on for “dashboard layout” and “sound system”.