Mazda MX-5 Icon: car review

Ice cool: the Mazda MX-5 Icon in Iceland. Photograph: David Smith

Price: £18,495
Top speed: 127mph
0-62mph: 8.3 seconds
MPG: 47.1
CO2: 139g/km

With its lunar landscapes, black-sand beaches, waterfalls, glaciers and geysers, Iceland provides the most photogenic backdrops you could possibly dream up for a car launch. But the fact that the car being launched is a kitten-cute Mazda MX-5 makes it a challenging choice.

The little Mazda is a dinky two-seater with skinny wheels and a boot the size of a designer handbag. It’s a creature built for sun-bleached roads, gentle winds and azure skies. Problem is, Iceland isn’t really like that. It’s big, brutal and barren. The locals drive pumped-up trucks with monster tyres. There is a Mazda dealer in Reykjavík, but he’s only managed to sell three MX-5s.

Inside outside: the two-seat Mazda roadster has a neat but perfectly laid-out cabin. The cloth roof is opened by hand in seconds. Photograph: David Smith

But the world-beating roadster is unexpectedly tough and – on the weekend we visited, anyway – Iceland was uncharacteristically benign. Our MX-5 carved its little furrow along blissfully empty roads and we sat like children at an Imax, gobsmacked by Iceland’s spectacular scenery. On several long stretches the tarmac gave out to gravel but even then the Mazda happily toughed it out. We did have to keep stopping, but only to take yet more photos.

This latest MX-5 is the lightest since the iconic original was launched more than 25 years ago. It looks sharp edged and modern. It’s also shorter, lower and wider than the outgoing model, and has the lowest centre of gravity yet. On top of that it has a higher power to weight ratio, perfect balance and more comfort and technology than before.

The hills are alive: the Icon is the latest special-edition MX-5. Photograph: David Smith

Yet there is always a sense with an MX-5 that nothing has changed. Park all four generations of the car next to each other and there’s little to separate them. And, good or bad, the things that make the car what it is have never changed: it’s still awkward to clamber into; the cabin is still a little too snug; the double bulge of the bonnet still frames the view ahead; the cloth roof can still be thrown open in seconds with a single move of your arm. It’s currently World Car of the Year and World Car Design of the Year, yet it hasn’t really changed in quarter of a century. It’s quickly becoming timeless.

This year, the MX-5 is also available as a special edition – the Icon. For an extra £800 you get snazzy paintwork, parking aids, leather seats, automatic headlights and wipers, and a decent satnav. You’ll also be the first to try the smaller 1.5-litre engine. Performance isn’t startling, it doesn’t have to be. This is a car that’s all about personality – it makes every journey an event. Maybe Iceland is the perfect place to drive it after all.

Natural wonder: making the most of the Icelandic scenery in a Mazda MX-5. Photograph: David Smith

Britain’s got talent

Ahead of this week’s Paris Motor Show, the SMMT released this line up of brilliant British built cars and the towns where they are made. From left, we have the Honda New Civic (Swindon); MINI Clubman (Oxford); Nissan Qashqai (Sunderland); Vauxhall Astra (Ellesmere Port); Toyota Auris (Burnaston); Jaguar F-Pace (Solihull); Aston Martin DB11 (Gaydon); McLaren 570S (Woking). Makes you proud doesn’t it…

Cars on the catwalk: British cars at the Paris Motor Show

Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @MartinLove166