We’d never try to dissuade you from buying a rear-wheel drive Lotus Elan, but owning one can be fraught with problems. Sure the handling is sublime, but they can be fragile and expensive; what you need is a tougher, cheaper alternative. Cue the Mazda MX-5. Okay, we’d be stretching the point if we were to say that the Mazda is as good as the Elan on an empty B-road, but you’d be amazed what a close-run thing it is, and when you think you could buy a perfectly decent early MX-5 for little more than two grand, suddenly the British sportster starts to look a tad expensive.

It was all thanks to Mazda that the affordable two-seater rag top was revived in the late Eighties; without the MX-5 there’s a good chance we’d never have seen the likes of a fully open MR2 or the MGF. With its rear-wheel drive, double-wishbone suspension all round anda ultra low weight, the MX-5 was genuinely a true masterpiece; a turning point in the evolution of the car. Sure, it was only reviving a concept seen decades earlier, but as the Eighties were becoming the Nineties, everyone assumed the world had changed too much for such a car to be commercially viable. Mazda proved the doubters wrong. With its slick gearchange, perfect poise and beautifully weighted steering, the Mazda showed potential rivals a clean pair of heels before they were even out of the starting blocks.

Believe it or not, the earliest MX-5 are nearly two decades old, and with thousands sold in the UK there are plenty to go round. Although there are frequently MX-5s for sale around the £1000 level, you really need to spend double this to get something decent – and even better if you have closer to £3500 to spare. The most recent low-mileage cars can still sell for £6000, but the car has to be really good to command that sort of money. The number of special editions is also bewildering; some are more worthwhile than others so don’t pay over the odds for a car that differs from standard simply by having an unusual paint job. The bottom line is that any MX-5 in fine fettle will be a hoot to drive – and you don’t need to spend a fortune to secure something worth keeping.