Road Trip in a Youngtimer: 2,300 km in an MX-5

Vila Real de Santo António, at the southern tip of Portugal. Ahead of me, the Guadiana, with Spain on the far bank… and 2,251 kilometres to cover before getting back to Luxembourg. For this trip, no comfortable, air-conditioned SUV loaded with driver-assistance systems. My mount is a 1999 Mazda MX-5 10th Anniversary, with 140 hp, a six-speed manual gearbox, and everything the automotive world considered necessary at the end of the 1990s. In other words, not much! The goal is simple: bring this MX-5, which has just spent some time in Portugal, where it notably had its bodywork restored, back to Luxembourg. But tackling more than 2,000 kilometres in a 26-year-old car isn’t something you improvise.

Preparing for the unexpected before setting off

There’s no question of setting off blind. As the ACL in Luxembourg offers with its “Holiday Check”, which allows the main safety and reliability points of a vehicle to be checked before a long journey, I take the opportunity of my stay in Portugal to have a similar check-up carried out on the Mazda. Brakes, suspension, lights, tyres… everything gets checked. And it wasn’t in vain: the inspection reveals a faulty anti-roll bar link, which I have replaced before hitting the road. A small job that perfectly illustrates the value of this kind of preventive check: better to discover the problem calmly in a garage than somewhere between Seville and Burgos. In Luxembourg, the ACL Diagnostic Center’s Holiday Check is designed with exactly this in mind, and covers the battery, tyres, suspension, wipers, lights and fluid levels, among other things. A few simple checks are also within anyone’s reach: tyre pressure and condition (not forgetting the spare, where there is one), oil, coolant, brake fluid and washer fluid levels. It’s also worth thinking about the mandatory equipment required in the countries you’ll be crossing, the vehicle’s papers and insurance, as well as a few very simple things: water, snacks, a phone charger, warm clothes or a blanket.

Finally, there’s one essential point: roadside assistance abroad. As an ACL member, I benefit from European assistance cover, which provides help in the event of a breakdown or accident and, depending on the situation, allows the journey to continue or arranges the return of the vehicle and passengers. Because preparing for a road trip isn’t just about trying to avoid a breakdown. It’s also about planning what you’ll do if one happens.

A small car with big ambitions

The first kilometres cross Andalusia before heading back up through Spain towards Burgos. And the first surprise comes from the MX-5 itself. I’d feared a car that would be jittery and tiring on the motorway. It was almost the opposite. The suspension absorbs bumps well, stability is excellent, and the hard-top even seems to add a welcome dose of rigidity to the body. The hydraulic steering remains a treat for precision and feel, while the shift action of the six-speed gearbox is a reminder of why the MX-5 has built such a reputation. At 335 km, the first fill-up: 6.7 l/100 km. Not bad for a 1999 petrol engine. At 770 km, near Burgos, the second calculation comes out at around 7.4 l/100 km. I’d been driving a bit faster: the penalty was immediate!

It’s also here that the trip’s one genuine mechanical hiccup occurs. After a longer stop, with the engine still hot, the Mazda restarts on three cylinders. A tired ignition coil is suspected. A few minutes of cooling down later, all four cylinders are back. The journey can continue.

Sleeping in an MX-5? Bad idea…

Around 929 km, fatigue starts to make itself heard. Time to sleep… in an MX-5. Bad idea! The partition behind the seats prevents the seatback from properly reclining. Despite the pillow I’d brought along, I spend around three hours more or less twisted up in the cabin. On waking, my back remembers the experience. The next day also makes clear everything that 25 years of automotive progress have brought. The noise at 120 or 130 km/h becomes wearing. With no cruise control, the accelerator has to be held constantly. And as the temperature climbs in France, the lack of air conditioning turns slow traffic into a sauna session. A guesthouse near Tours for the second night thankfully resets the clock. A proper night’s sleep, a short morning jog, and there are still some 600 kilometres left to Luxembourg.

160.6 litres to cross Europe

At the finish, the overall figures command a certain respect. The MX-5 will have covered 2,251 km while burning 160.6 litres of petrol, an average of around 7.1 l/100 km. The various legs ranged roughly between 6.7 and 7.5 l/100 km, confirming just how quickly speed affects fuel consumption on the motorway. But another question then arises: was it really reasonable, from an environmental standpoint, to cross Europe at the wheel of a 26-year-old petrol car? The 160.6 litres burned represent around 374 kg of CO₂, or 166 g/km. A direct Faro–Luxembourg flight would, at first glance, have done noticeably better: around 158 kg of CO₂ per passenger. Game over? Not so fast. Because if I’d flown, the MX-5 would still have had to get back to Luxembourg too!

What if flying had actually polluted more?

The Mazda would therefore have had to be loaded onto a car transporter. Taking as an assumption a lorry consuming around 30 to 35 l/100 km and carrying six to eight cars, the share of emissions attributable to transporting the MX-5 can be estimated at between 225 and 350 kg of CO₂. Added to the flight’s 158 kg, the flight-plus-car-transport alternative thus comes out at around 383 to 508 kg of CO₂, against roughly 374 kg for driving the Mazda back directly by road. And with two occupants, the sums become even more interesting: the MX-5’s emissions would have stayed almost the same, at around 187 kg per person, while the alternative would have required two plane tickets. There was a similar surprise for the wallet. The trip cost me around €650, fuel, tolls, meals and accommodation included. As a rough guide, transporting a car over this distance can run to somewhere in the region of €750 to €1,000, on top of which you still need to add the plane ticket.

This obviously isn’t meant to suggest that a 1999 petrol car would be environmentally preferable to flying. These results depend on the vehicle, the number of occupants, the flight chosen, the lorry’s load factor and the assumptions used. What they do highlight, though, is something often overlooked in mobility debates: to compare two solutions, you first need to compare the same service rendered. In my case, what had to be transported from southern Portugal to Luxembourg wasn’t just a passenger… but also their car.