Highway Driving
On the highway is where you'll notice you're driving a small, light car, and
that's not always a great thing. Right off, there was fair amount of road noise,
and passengers noticed a lot of wind noise. That can be common for lighter cars,
because they don't tend to have a lot of sound insulation. Neither noise was
intrusive.
The steering is lively on the highway. I never felt like the car got twitchy,
but other editors who drove the Mazda2 said the steering was too light at speeds
above 70 mph.
If I liked the automatic for cruising around town, the highway was one place
where I really preferred the manual transmission. The automatic Mazda2 runs out
of steam at high speeds, and I think that's because it could use one more gear.
When you want to pass, what you get is pretty much what you'd expect from a
small, four-cylinder engine: a lot of noise but not a lot of surging forward.
This was less of a problem with the manual.
The Mazda2 absolutely shines in one aspect of highway driving: its ride. You
hear the car go over expansion joints, but you don't really feel it. Also, some
small cars — notably the Honda Fit — seem to porpoise over lumps in the road,
but the Mazda2 really soaks them up. I took the Mazda2 for a weekend of bike
races and came out of it as fresh as I have from some other, larger cars — maybe
fresher. Whoever tuned the Mazda2's suspension should be commended, especially
because the Mazda2 takes curvy highway on-ramps pretty flat, too. It's tough to
get both of those attributes in one car.
See also:
Interior
The cabin seats five, with textured fabric upholstery in Sport models and
upgraded fabric with red piping in the Touring. The stereo display sits within a
circular cutout, a cue shared with the Ma ...
Operation Using Advanced Keyless Functions
Operational Range
The system operates only when the driver
is in the vehicle or within operational
range while the advanced key is being
carried.
NOTE:
When the battery power is low, or in place ...
Everyday Driving Fun
The rear-wheel-drive Miata is one of those cars where you don't have to break
any speed limits to have a lot of fun. Driving 55 mph in the Miata is comparable
to going 110 mph in, say, a BMW M3 — ...