After seven years, I am still a victim of automotive snobbery

A few weeks back, the Sunday Times published its list of the top 100 cars still on the market, broken down into categories, and I eagerly turned to the sports car and convertible section. At number eight out of ten was my car, much-derided by those not in the know, the Mazda MX-5.

It is dubbed by many as the ultimate hairdresser’s car. I have taken a lot of flak over the years for owning one. It is now 14 years old and I have owned it for the past eight. It has been a fine motoring companion during that time, the only sour note being an expensive problem with the catalytic converter a few years back. But, since then, no problems whatsoever, despite it standing on my driveway for the best part of two years during a period of unemployment when I couldn’t afford to keep it on the road.

Amazingly, after that period of enforced inactivity for both it and I, I was able to buy a new battery for it and, once installed, it started up first time. That’s Japanese engineering for you.

A quick straw poll of the office brought the following results when people were asked what constituted a hairdresser’s car and the list was predictable. The Mazda MX-5 featured prominently, as did The BMW Z4, the Audi TT, the Honda S2000, Lotus Elise and, the top choice, the Porsche Boxster.

Have you noticed a common theme here? Well, if not, the answer is they are all convertibles. In addition, all of them are bloody good cars and their detractors are deluded.

A female colleague of mine has a Z4 and simply does not understand why people turn up their collective snouts about people who own them. “It’s all about fun,” she says. “We bought it because in the summer it is great with the roof down and it is a fantastic car to drive. It makes you smile and look forward to going out for a drive and surely that is what it is all about.”

She’s right. Driving a convertible gives you a sense of freedom. It makes you want to drive for as long as possible when the sun is shining and makes Britain’s congested roads seem alluring even if you are travelling at 10mph in a slow moving traffic jam. What is not to like?

The Porsche Boxster is a great car, whatever its detractors say. It is very fast, beautifully made, extremely comfortable and, if I could afford one, I would have one and to hell with what anyone else thinks.

It is at number one in the Sunday Times list of top convertibles and quite right, too. If you own a Boxster you have taste, simple as that.

Ditto with the Audi TT. Now, as has been previously documented, I am not the biggest fan of Audi drivers, who labour under the misapprehension that they own the road, but the TT convertible is a superb car to drive and looks like the dog’s spherical objects. So, if you own one then flaunt it and disregard what any detractors might say. They are wrong, you are right.

So, back to my beloved MX-5. Am I going to keep it? Too damn right. Do I care what people say? No. Is it a great car? Undoubtedly yes.

Jeremy Clarkson, the doyen of motoring journalists, has repeatedly said the Mazda MX-5 is one of the best sports convertibles ever made in its price bracket and I am certainly not going to argue with him.

Winter may be upon us, but so what? I am already looking forward to next spring when the hood on my car will come down and I can join other devotees in enjoying the unparalleled pleasure of open top motoring.

By the way, I checked with my hairdresser. He drives a Range Rover.

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