2025 Mazda MX-5 Miata Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The 2025 Mazda MX-5 is available in Sport, Club and Grand Touring trim with a soft top while the RF (retractable fastback) hard-top version is only available in Club and Grand Touring trims. A low-production 35th Anniversary Edition is also on hand. 2025 marks the 10th year of the fourth generation, but the MX-5 is still a great looking car. With perfect proportions, squinty LED headlamps, dual-tip exhaust and the optional Soul Red paint color, heads always turn to follow the Miata.

Our Club-spec tester gets a rear lip spoiler, gloss black front air dam and 17-inch BBS wheels. While we like the black soft top for a little bit of contrast to the body, the power retractable hard top of our RF model is pretty cool. It folds back in about 13 seconds, giving the car a vintage fastback look.

There is only room for two in the MX-5. You really feel like you're wearing a Miata and the body colored door panels only emphasize the snugness. The bottom two trims have cloth seats but the Grand Touring comes standard with black leather seating, or you can upgrade to tan Nappa leather. Still, the interior is pretty basic. There is no open-pore wood or piano black trim. Just functional materials with excellent fit and finish.

Our one quibble here is the design of the HVAC vents. At either end of the dashboard there are round outlets reminiscent of the classic vents found in older Miatas. There's another one on the driver's side of the middle section of the dashboard but on the passenger side there's a rectangular vent. A circular vent here would have worked better and offered a more cohesive design. The good news is that the HVAC is controlled via three large knobs so you don't have to go futzing with the infotainment system just to change the temperature two degrees.

Every MX-5 gets a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine with 181 horsepower and 151 lb-ft of torque going to the rear wheels. A six-speed manual transmission is standard, but you can opt for a six-speed automatic with paddle shifters only on the Grand Touring trim. The Club trim is definitely the most sporty model, especially with the optional Brembo BBS Recaro package. Here the front brakes are upgraded for more stopping power and the Recaro seats are a snug fit to keep driver and passenger in their place when the road turns twisty.

The car is supremely easy to precisely place on the driving line thanks to the excellent electric power steering. While many competitors' systems feel over-boosted, the Miata's has a nice weight to it and it can communicate the amount of grip left in the Bridgestone high-performance tires. It's a joy.

The excellent suspension is thanks to the Bilstein dampers. They are tuned to be pretty stiff, minimizing body roll in the turns. The trade off is that you'll feel every bump and undulation in the road if you use your MX-5 for daily driving. It can be a bit of a rough go.

However, unleash the MX-5 in the turns and the suspension shines, especially with the limited-slip differential. Here you'll get a bit more lock up when braking, reducing the chance of the car oversteering. That's when the rear comes around during aggressive driving. Upon accelerating the opposite happens to keep understeer at bay. When that happens, the driver turns the wheel but the car keeps moving in a straight line. In general, understeer is harder to correct than oversteer, so we applaud Mazda's innovation here.

The company's Kinetic Posture Control also enhances the MX-5's handling. Here, the computer exerts slight brake pressure to the inside rear wheel during high speed cornering to help keep body roll in check. It's very subtle and only drivers who really push their cars will feel it, but it's there in the background, giving you an incredibly fun driving experience.

If you're still building confidence behind the wheel you can utilize the DSC-Track button. Press it and the stability control is reduced, though not turned all the way off. If you still want a bit of help, this is a great feature, but for those who want to lay it all on the line, you can turn the stability control system all the way off. The Miata doesn't have a lot of power so as long as the road is dry, we recommend you just turn it off and hammer down. You'll have fun with a minimum amount of risk.

And yes, we said it: the MX-5 doesn't have a lot of power. However, Mazda makes up for it with excellent gearing. First gear is really low, providing for quick starts off the line. Sure, it takes over five seconds to get to 60 miles per hour, but the shifter is glorious with quick throws. You won't care about that BMW blowing your doors off. Once you get to the tall sixth gear, the car settles down a bit. It's still a little like driving an angry bumble bee, but rpms are lower than in previous generations so it's not quite as buzzy and loud.

If you're concerned about staying hydrated, the Miata's cupholders are going to be a huge disappointment. Mazda has seen fit to place them high up on the vertical panel between the seats, so you really have to contort yourself to reach them. The good news is that they are moveable and one can be placed on the passenger side of the gear tunnel. This is the one we used during our time in the car, but it definitely interferes with your passenger's personal space.

Storage space is similarly limited. There is no glove box but there is a small compartment just above the cup holder and an itty-bitty storage bin between the seats, but it's nearly useless. A key and an empty candy wrapper pretty much filled it up. We wish Mazda had nixed this ridiculous "storage" feature and placed a cup holder here.

There is only 4.59 cubic feet of space in the trunk, but it's pretty deep for the size. We were able to fit our hard-sided carry-on suitcase and a small backpack easily, with room a few cracks left over to stuff soft items into. You'll have to pack thoughtfully in the MX-5. We recommend boning up on your Tetris skills to take advantage of every nook and cranny.

You won't get many creature comforts in the Miata save for heated seats in the upper trims. The HVAC is a single-zone system across the board, but we have no complaints. We can put the top down when it's 100-degrees outside, crank up the A/C and remain cool as a cucumber.

Seat adjustability is limited, but taller drivers have a few more options here than they did in past generations of the Miata. Although there isn't much room to move fore and aft, the steering wheel tilts and telescopes. That might sound like a basic function but Mazda didn't even include this feature until a few years ago.

The base Miata gets a six-speaker audio system, one located in the driver's headrest. However, upper trims get a nine-speaker Bose stereo, including one in the driver and passenger headrest. The sound quality is good enough to listen to everything from Mötley Crüe to NPR with great clarity, even with the wind rushing by your ears.

Here is where the MX-5– and many Mazdas, frankly– really suffers. The infotainment system is housed on an 8.8-inch screen controlled by a rotary dial. It's clunky, the menu structure is a mess and it's not very user-friendly or intuitive. Only the top trim gets navigation so we didn't get to experience it in our Club trim, but it's been difficult to use in other Mazda products with poor voice recognition for destination inputs and an even worse select-a-letter silliness using the rotary dial.

Fortunately all trims get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto– wireless on Club and Grand Touring trims– and when these apps are running, the screen magically functions as a touchscreen. Thankfully the cabin is small enough that it's easy to reach the screen to tap an icon as using the rotary controller to scroll through each icon is pretty distracting.

Don't look for the latest and greatest advanced driver's aids in the Miata. This is, after all, a back-to-basics sports car. If you don't want to be an active participant, go buy something else. Still, every trim gets lane-departure warning, rear cross traffic alert, blind spot monitoring and cruise control. The Grand Touring trim adds automatic high beams and traffic sign recognition. Top trims with the automatic transmission also get adaptive cruise control and a distance and speed alert.

Neither the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) nor the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) have rated this generation of the Mazda MX-5. However, the car gets dual front airbags and side impact airbags and door beams.

This generation of Miata is certainly more fuel-efficient than in the past, earning an EPA fuel economy rating of 26 miles per gallon in the city, 34 mpg on the highway and 29 mpg combined. Even with spirited driving, we managed 28 mpg during our time with the car. The Miata's closest competitors, the Toyota GR86 and Subaru BRZ can only eke out 22 mpg combined.

The warranty is average for the class. Mazda provides a five-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty and a three-year/36,000-mile limited warranty as well as 24/7 roadside assistance for three years or 36,000 miles.

The 2025 Mazda MX-5 Miata starts at $31,065 including $1,235 for destination. The Club trim steps it up to $34,565 including destination while the Grand Touring goes for $36,365. The Club trim can be had with the Brembo BBS Recaro package for $4,900 while the Grand Touring can be equipped with the automatic transmission for $620.

For those who want the retractable hard top, the RF Club starts at $42,385 with destination and it includes the Brembo BBS Recaro package as standard fare. This makes the top Grand Touring a bit less expensive than the Club, coming in at $39,085. Here the automatic transmission will cost you $670.

Meanwhile the Toyota GR86 starts at $31,595 including $1,195 for destination and the Subaru BRZ can be had for $34,380 including $1,170 for destination. Both share the same 2.4-liter powertrain and offer more ponies than the Miata, but neither are convertible. If you want to get into the 300-plus horsepower range, look at the BMW Z4 M40i (which is a convertible) or Toyota Supra, but expect to pay in the high-$50,000 to mid-$60,000 for those cars. If you really want fancy-pants, the Porsche 718 Boxster has a top speed of 171 miles per hour and is a drop top, but starts in the high-$70,000 range. The real bargain here is the Nissan Z. Every trim gets 400 horsepower and it starts in the mid-$40,000 range. However, like most of the class it comes in a fixed hardtop only.

Still, even though there are cars out there that offer more horsepower per dollar and have better interiors and technology, we would still buy the Miata. The performance puts a grin on our face like no other and in a world that often seems to be falling apart, pure joy is priceless.