Hi Joe,

You’re in (a small amount of) luck – the most ubiquitous sports car of them all, the Mazda MX-5, has been offered with an automatic transmission in all four of its generations. Now, the bad news: trying to find one will prove tricky. They’re extremely rare and it may well be there are none for sale in Ireland while you are undertaking your search. You therefore might need to look to the UK, where there are a handful of cars showing for sale with the autobox, throughout all generations of the MX-5.

If you’re feeling particularly brave, Mazda even did an automatic version of its rotary-engined RX-8 sports coupe, but that’s even rarer than the MX-5 automatic and there are also longevity issues with the rotary engine.