The Mazda MX-5 is 20 this year, having first appeared in public at the Chicago Motor Show in 1989, so to celebrate, the facelifted MX-5 gets a special display at this week's Chicago Auto Show. If you're wondering, Chicago does indeed have a motor show, but there's the small matter of Geneva right afterwards, so nobody tends to pay much attention to it.

Anyway, Mazda has given us all the details we need to be sure that the MX-5 is getting a quite comprehensive overhaul. There are, of course, new front and rear bumpers and a mildly tweaked interior, and the hard top Roadster Coupé version gets a different grille to the soft top to differentiate them.

More interestingly, though the engines stay the same - a 125bhp 1.8-litre petrol and a 158bhp 2.0-litre one - the latter gets a 500rpm higher red line, and in addition to five- and six-speed manual gearboxes, there's now a six-speed PowerShift automatic transmission with paddle shifters behind the wheel available for the 2.0-litre. All six-speed versions get an 'Induction Sound Enhancer' to make the soundtrack more aggressive, too.

But, true to form, the MX-5 enjoys lower fuel consumption and, it follows, CO₂ emissions across the board. The smaller unit's CO₂ drops from 174g/km to 167g/km, while fuel consumption goes from 38.7mpg to 40.4mpg. That's largely down to weight reduction and better aerodynamics.

Sport models get 17-inch alloys and uprated Bilstein dampers, a front suspension strut brace, heated leather seats, climate control, cruise control, Bluetooth and a Bose stereo - all indicative of Mazda's attempt to move the MX-5 in both a sportier and more premium direction. It also features the world's fastest retractable hard top, at 12 seconds up or down - though everyone seems to claim that of their folding tin roofs these days.

Priced between £16,345 and £21,695, the MX-5 remains a pretty cheap way to certain and long lasting top down thrills. We approve.

Mark Nichol - 13 Feb 2009