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2007 Mazda MX-5 GT Power Retractable Hard Top (PRHT) Road Test

Simplicity Rules

After keeping things simple for three generations, Mazda has slowly been turning its baby frills-free roadster into a bit of a luxury car, available with intelligent key push button start, heated leather seats, a premium sound system and so on so forth, but nevertheless its managed to stick to the cars core values, keeping things light and simple. But things are getting a bit more complex for 2007, as Mazda has just made available for the first time in seventeen years a power folding roof. Its not just an electric version of the soft top, mind you, but rather a Power Retractable Hard Top (PRHT); as Mazda calls it. Could this be a bridge too far for the little benchmark roadster?

Maybe Im just deeply cynical, but folding hardtop convertibles

The last car on earth that needed a folding hardtop got one. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

are never executed flawlessly; the tradeoff between having a solid roof overhead and the effects on driving dynamics and cargo carrying potential has never been particularly even. Here in North America weve been lucky enough to get the crème de la crème from Benz, Lexus, Volvo and now Volkswagen (plus that one from Pontiac, but well keep quiet about that one right now), avoiding the nasty, cut-budget hack jobs made from compact hatchbacks, subcompacts

Does a car as pure as the MX-5 really need that roof? (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

and family cars that our Euro friends enjoy.

Why am I so against folding hardtops? I do admire the technology behind them, but they add a lot of weight, raise the center of gravity, take up trunk space, make the car look all weird and funny, and add mega bucks to the asking price. In some cases, they even compromise reliability and durability of an otherwise stellar vehicle. None of these things are desirable in a sports car, especially an entry-level sports car, and as far as the MX-5 goes, something so

Et voila, roof drops into its own container in 12 seconds. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

simple hardly needs this level of complication.

It turns out that things arent as bad as they otherwise might have been. Because the MX-5 was purpose engineered to be a roadster from the very beginning, it avoids the majority of the aforementioned fundamental flaws. The chassis was designed from the start to be extra rigid, to avoid cowl shake and body flex, therefore the PRHT model doesnt require any additional bracing that would otherwise plump up the curb weight. Mazda also created a very clever soft-top roof for the latest MX-5; the Z-fold design is not only the easiest soft top to

New high-mounted brake light looks like a brick of ice. Glows red when brakes are on. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

use, completely operational from the drivers seat, it also cleverly stows into a shallow recess without encroaching on trunk space. This laid the foundations for the roof system on the power model.

Being that the length of the cabin of this tiny, two-seat roadster accommodates an unusually small roof, the panel slabs that make up the hardtop are commensurately smaller. Mazda therefore didnt need to resort to anything more than a two-piece design, which cuts back on complexity and cost. Theres no five-piece, integrated sunroof type-thing, or a rear window that swivels and rotates for compactness; its just a roof panel and a rear-pillar panel

Tonneau cover is made of hard plastic. It also looks less like a pile of folded laundry. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

with a pane of glass. Like the soft top, trunk space is 5.3 cu-ft, top up or down. What compromises are made include the loss of a couple of little cubbies behind the drivers seat, but thats nothing to be concerned about.
Interestingly, the MX-5 is the first car ever to simultaneously offer a soft top and hard top version. There are, of course, a couple of minor differences between the two cars, with the soft top roadster gaining a little bit of bulk at its tail end due mostly to the raised height of the tonneau cover. Right behind the cabin, the PRHT model is 1.6 inches taller, though, that thins out to 0.8 inches by the time the cover reaches the trunk lid. When the roof is up, its also 0.4 inches taller. Other visual differences

Spot the differences: chrome door handle accents! (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

include a thin chrome accent strip on the door handles, plus a different high-mounted stop light with a clear lens. I find it difficult to tell the difference, and you probably will too unless you know what youre looking for. Despite the bulk, I prefer the look of the PRHT over the soft top model; the hard tonneau is sleeker and less messy than the uncovered soft-top version.

Where other folding hardtop convertibles can tip the scales at several hundred pounds heavier than their fixed-roof counterparts, the MX-5 PRHTs gain is a piddling 80 lbs over its soft top sibling, which is next to nothing in automotive terms. What makes the PRHT so light is that its roof is entirely made of a composite plastic instead of metal, the whole of which (including the glass rear window) weighs 40 lbs. Only four tiny electric

A finger, an opposable thumb and twelve seconds are all you need to drop or raise the roof. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

motors and a couple of springs and pins in the roof mechanism are made of metal, which account for the other 41 lbs.

Operating the roof is very simple; the roof is released exactly the same way as the soft top with the one-handed latch, and lowered and raised using buttons to either side of the hazard switch at the top of the center console. Those switches and a little roof warning light are the sum total differences to the interior of the PRHT model. You could have lowered and raised the roof of a regular MX-5 twice in the time it takes to drop the plastic lid in the PRHT model, mind you, but thats not much of a problem given that from start to finish it takes just 12 seconds, which in itself is just two seconds more than the worlds quickest soft-top, the BMW Z4. Unlike the soft-top version, you have to operate the roof when completely stationary and with the car in neutral, which

Roof has virtually no effect on the way the car drives. But it makes rain a lot less annoying. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

means no more roof-drops while on the run. And strangely, unlike most other folding hardtops, the engine has to be running.

Because of Mazdas efforts to keep the PRHT model as close as possible to the regular soft top, it feels no different to drive than the standard car, which is just about as good as a little roadster can be in my books. If you really wanted to know the difference, drive around with a teenager in the passengers seat. Performance loss is virtually nil, and handling differences are thoroughly undetectable thanks to a slightly tweaked suspension, meaning you can enjoy the MX-5s perfectly balanced chassis, communicative steering and suspension without any of the usual folding hardtop convertible symptoms.

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