The long-awaited Mazda MX-5 RF (standing for ‘retractable fastback’) will officially launch in Ireland in just over a week’s time.

Declan Colley looks back on the automotive year that was 2016 and picks out the best wheels he has driven in the last 12 months — some of his selections may well surprise you.

The look of the Mazda 6 hasn’t changed much since its revamp last year. But the new Tourer has made changes under the hood (and to the driving experience) which show Mazda really listen to customer feedback

ALL too few cars ever attain any sort of legendary status, vanishing into the mists of time — as they do — in a haze of exhaust fumes as noxious and unpalatable as the designs themselves.

Since its launch here in 2014, the Mazda 3 has been hugely successful and is an increasingly popular choice in the C segment.

I have long been a fan of Mazda’s way of doing things. Rarely, if ever, does the Japanese manufacturer follow the road most travelled, preferring instead to find its own solutions to those problems which face the industry on a constant basis.

I’m not really sure why the Mazda 6 has never really established itself fully in the consciousness of Irish motoring public — be they private or fleet customers. I’ve never really understood it particularly as the car is, without doubt, one of the best contenders in the cut-throat D-Segment.

REGULAR readers will know of my general antipathy towards that genre of automobile which has been called the crossover.

There is no doubting that Mazda produce some of the best looking cars and from a technological point of view the Japanese company is doing things which are frightening the bejaysus out of its’ mainstream competitors.

In what was a busy week, we spent some time at the fabled Goodwood racetrack in West Sussex last weekend driving the fantastic new Mazda MX-5 — the car that single-handedly revived the two seater coupe genre.

Mazda has unveiled a new version of its iconic MX-5 Miata sports car for the first time in nine years, counting on the model to help sustain rising sales.

HEARD the one about the motoring hack who travelled halfway across Europe for a car launch and never drove the car?

I HAVE to say it was little surprise this week to see an announcement from Mazda that it is to increase production capacity of its new crossover SUV, the CX-5, from 200,000 units to 240,000 units per year.