Best-selling roadster of all time, Mazda MX-5, has added another award to its prize list, the « Best Sports Car » in 2010, by JD Power survey based upon UK’s customers satisfaction. Its appearance, interior and exterior quality, performance, reliability and maintenance cost, those were the advantages noted by over 17,000 UK owners that participated in the annual survey.
After the votes were counted, the MX-5 has reached a 82.3% degree of satisfaction, more than Audi TT, Mercedes-Benz SLK and Volkswagen Eos, though the last one has won the « Best in Class Model » award. With this award Mazda has reached over 160 prizes for the MX-5 and with over 870,000 cars sold it has become one of the industry reference models with enthusiast fans from all continents.
With 20 years of worldwide success, Mazda MX-5 still remains a pleasant to drive roadster at an affordable price and delivering a strong engine under the hood. Until 2006, this car has not featured an electrically retractable roof, but with this new technology it became more and more popular among enthusiasts. More than that, its soft-top is the world’s faster retractable roof, with a 12 seconds time for folding up or down. In 2009, the MX-5 held 22% of non-premium sport models segment in UK and was second in Europe with a market share estimated at 12%.
However, this JD Power award is not the first one for Mazda MX-5, as WhatCar magazine stated “If there is one car that always does well in the sports category, it’s the MX-5. It has a trophy cabinet full of JD Power awards and now adds this year’s title, too.” But these awards received from JD Power’s surveys are very important in UK while the British have a great passion for sports car in general and demonstrate once again that UK folks are happy with how it mixes quality, speed and reliability with low maintenance costs and after-sale services.
He is in a new different car and with a different team, apart from that little has changed from Jenson Button, the reigning Formulae One world, he continue winning this season like he did for the best part of last season. Many pundit said he has made a serious mistake joining McLaren-Mercedes which every one called Lewis Hamilton’s team.
Jenson extremely pleased with his first win in a McLaren-Mercedes because the car was completely new to him, he has had to spend a lot of time adjusting to the cockpit and how the car handles compared with the car he drove last season.
Jensen Button’s team mate Lewis Hamilton, the reigning world champion before he was deposed by Jenson Button last year finished sixth. He was said to have suffered from the decision by McLaren-Mercedes pit-wall strategist who call Hamilton in for an extra tyre change which seem to have cost him the second position. Hamilton was said to be extremely crossed with his backroom staff for taking that decision.
The Australian grand prix, the first in the 2010 season started on a web track, it was lead by Vettel for the most part of the race until he was forced to retire. Button had and early tyre change which is one thing he did very differently from his team mate who changed tyres much later in the race. Every one in the McLaren-Mercedes team agree with Button that changing tyres so early in the race was crucial to his first win. The team’s principal Martin Whitmarsh and the rest of the team gave full credit to Button for making that crucial decision which lead to the teams first with in the first race of the season.
Lewis Hamilton was said to be pleased for his team mate but disappointed that he was called in for a second tyre change when he was contesting second place with Renault’s Robert Kubica who eventually finished second. After the tyre change things did not go well for Hamilton who could not regain the third place he was before his tyre change but was hit from behind by Mark Webber.
There are a lot of people out there all over the world that have a passion for cars and virtually all of these people value their own cars and consider them to be their pride and joy. The people that seem to take the most pride in their cars are the type of people who would never be seen in a dirty car, people who religiously follow a cleaning routine and people who are always keen to improve their car.
Many people decide to make modifications to their cars in order to improve the appearance, the performance or the ‘feel-good factor’ they get when they drive their car. There are literally thousands of different parts on the market to modify any car and knowing what to do and when to do it is often difficult. This guide should provide readers with an idea of what modifications are considered to be essential and in what order to do them. Obviously this topic is very opinionated but there is nothing worse than seeing a car that doesn’t have its priorities right.
It is important to remember that everybody is different and everybody has their own opinions. The best advice I can give is to do a mod or buy a product because you like it and not because somebody has told you they think it is cool. Obviously there are many experts out there and their advice is very valuable. It is therefore important to be able to distinguish between the valuable information people give you and just somebody’s subjective views.
There are many types of mod you can do to your car but generally, they fall into three major categories: performance, styling (interior and exterior), and ICE (In Car Entertainment).
You should consider working out a budged when modifying a car as this is often the main factor in deciding which upgrade to do next. If you stick to your budget, you should have a good balance of performance, styling and ICE. After all, most people would love a bit of extra power, like their car to look good and like to listen to good quality music at the same time.
I will continue through this article under the assumption that most readers are equally interested in all of these three categories and try to give my opinion on what order to install modifications.
ICE
Without a doubt, the first modification I would do to a car is to get a nice head unit installed. After all, it doesn’t matter what the car looks like if you don’t enjoy driving it. Personally, I like head units that have a cable you can plug into your iPod so you don’t have to mess about with CD’s. Anything that gets your music in your car will do though. 6X9 speakers for the back and component speakers for the front are a must if your budget is big enough. A nice subwoofer and amplifier will make the system sound brilliant, especially if you amp all speakers. Remember, with ICE products, you have to pay for quality. I can’t stress enough how important it is to buy decent audio products. If you buy cheap parts, then don’t expect to get show-winning quality from them.
Styling
Next I would get some nice alloy wheels. However, in my opinion, this is where people make the biggest mistakes. Obviously it is nice to have big wheels but just remember the last thing you want is to make your car look like a tractor. Getting the balance right is very important and the size of wheel you should buy depends on the car. Another mistake people make when buying wheels is to get a set of alloys because they look good in the showroom. You don’t want to spend your hard earned cash on a set of wheels that do not suit the car. Remember, fitting new wheels can change the whole image of the car. Take the time to have a good luck around and get it right the first time round. It will only cost you more in the long run if you rush into things and regret it.
The main problem when fitting alloys is your car starts to look too high. It is very likely that the wheels you buy will be bigger than the factory fitted wheels. Therefore, the car sits slightly higher on the new wheels. Fitting lowering springs or a full suspension kit will solve this problem, as well as improve handling. If you can afford it, I would recommend buying your lowering kit with the wheels and fitting them together. Most people tend to lower their car between 40mm and 60mm but other sizes are available. One piece of advice I can give here is to remember speed bumps. The lower you go, the more trouble you will have with speed bumps.
Performance
Now you have a nice ICE install and a decent set of wheels, a new exhaust is the next thing to buy. This will make your car look, sound and perform better. There are many options when it comes to exhausts but remember, if it doesn’t suit the car, don’t buy it. The size of your budget will probably be the main determinant on whether you get just a back box or a full stainless system. Don’t forget about your insurance company though. It is likely that your premium will go up when you install any performance product.
An induction kit will make your car sound much better and slightly increases power. Therefore, I would get this product installed next. Although you can’t see it, it will make a difference and your car will sound much better.
In my opinion, at this point, all of the essential parts will now be installed. Your next mod depends very much on what you want your car to look like and which of the three areas you are most interested in. Everything in this guide is based upon my own opinions and others may disagree but remember, your opinion is the most important one. There may be cheaper mods that you wish to do in between the ones suggested here but that is entirely up to you.
Whilst modding your car, remember that a standard clean car will always look 10 times better than a modified dirty car. Besides, cleaning your car is cheap!
Written by:
Craig Dixon,
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