Funnily enough my friend, before his MX5 chapter had a Smart Roadster, and for me, that was a much nicer car than the MX5. Although buld quality was a bit iffy. But it had charisma in spades. It even leaked through the hood.
Interesting that you should say so. We had a Smart roadster for 16 years and it was great albeit with a badly flawed gear box. My wife loved it and it only got sold because we began to be nervous about reliability. That said the only issues we had were a crank position sensor ( a bitch to get at) and a broken door lock cable.. Lovely thing replaced by a Cooper S which both of us have mixed views about but which does at least take the dog.
The appeal of the MX5 is reliability and ease of service at sensible prices at the main dealer. But it is tempting to thrash.with a lovely gearbox and handling. The appeal of the Trad is that people talk of enjoying driving down a country lane at sensible speeds because it wont do much more . Its time that I behaved like the old man that I am and not the boy racer that I once was. The CX is altogether too competent and fast and even Lotus like plus it has all that horrible BMW gear lever, switches etc.
We shall see. Got to buy a boat first and then see what is left over for a car.
