Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by petrol engines and utilizing the 2-door cabriolet body style within the same 'Sports car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the Daihatsu and rear in the case of the Mazda). The first one has a Daihatsu-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 87hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 125hp engine designed by Mazda.

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the sports car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, but it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. On the other hand, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, MX-5 offers a considerable difference of 24% more metal.

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that Daihatsu does have a slight advantage, when all the models are taken into account. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Daihatsu with an average rating of 4.1, and models under the Mazda badge with 4.4 out of 5. Unfortunatelly, I don't have enough insight that would allow me to comment in more details on the specific models level. Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as Copen rank it on average as 4.5, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.6 out of 5.

Mazda is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.1 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 196 kilometers per hour, 16km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be Copen, averaging around 6 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (47 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 22% difference compared to MX-5.

Daihatsu appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, MX-5 offers significantly better overall protection, taking the lead here. It all continues in the same direction, with Mazda offering somewhat better performance, just enough to call it quicker. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... No mistake, whatever you decide here, but I'd still go for the Daihatsu. Nevertheless, let's not forget that people have different preferences and needs, so what really counts is your personal feel. I'm only here to help. Also, you could use the oportunity to find out which car, everything taken into account, would be the perfect choice for you in the eyes of the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.