The auto, meantime, takes some infotainment revisions also going to the manual

GOOD news about the update for the MX-5 - if you have one already, and it’s a manual, then the core elements of the freshen just announced by the factory are explicitly aimed at you.

That’s because you’re a hard-core enthusiast and it’s a hard-core enthusiast car.

If you fit the other buyer profile: That is, you’ve gone for the automatic?

Well, there’s a refit edition of that type, also landing around mid-year, according to Mazda NZ. It’s also been given a bit more of a spruce-up. But Hiroshima says it has not had the same degree of loving. Nowhere near.

To look at, you’d think neither kind has changed. In respect to the metalwork we’ve been looking at for eight years now, very little has been touched. The headlight and tail light signatures have changed, but not the housings.

The 2.0-litre power plant keeps developing 135kW and 205Nm and, of course, remains in rear-drive format. As if that’d change.

It’s the other stuff that mechanically allies with it - in manual form - that is finessed.

Mazda has developed a new limited slip differential, the 'asymmetric' differential (otherwise known as a 1.5-way diff') has had its locking force under braking adjusted for greater stability on turn-in.

Additionally, there’s a new 'DSC-Track' mode that allows a touch more slip for circuit fun without having to disable the stability control.

Also promised is improved throttle response that's now 'more natural', according to Mazda, and makes low-speed operation smoother. There's less friction in the electronically-assisted power rack for “more nimble and precise operability.”

All those changes apply exclusively to manual cars, in roadster and hardtop RF form.

The automatics? They’ve not bothered.

Where the whole range benefits is within the cabin, with a change of screen - a 8.8-inch display replaces the 7.0-inch item – and, in those markets that allow it, the system has Mazda Connected Services. That means an SOS call button and the ability for owners to check vehicle status using a smartphone app.

New 17-inch alloy wheels feature and Aero Grey metallic joins the seven-strong colour palette for 2024.