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Over a lifetime that now spans 20 years, the Mazda MX-5 Miata has not so much changed as evolved. Indeed, its decades of metamorphosis have proceeded with Darwinian pace and purpose, slowly refining the enjoyable qualities that have allowed it to survive in a car-eat-car world: a suspension tweak here, a pleasing new grille design there, a performance enhancement under the hood.

This little roadster’s overarching survival adaptation is, of course, its extraordinary fun and affordability quotients. It’s cute and sporty, lets you blow-dry your hair on I-95, handles magnificently, and doesn’t make you really dollar up to buy it, gas it and insure it.

Fun is really the operative term here, and you can argue that for the 2009 model year, Mazda has even built a fun metaphor right into the front of the car. I mean, doesn’t that grille opening look like the smiley face your teacher draws on your homework?

In addition to the grille cosmetics, the 2009 edition has received the usual Miata mechanical tweakings. These include ride improvements that weren’t achieved at the expense of the car’s superb handling, and a mile-per-gallon bump on most models.

The Miata is available this model year in two forms, the soft top convertible, which starts at $21,750, and the retractable hardtop, which opens at $25,390. That differential is deceptive because the cheapest soft top is the stripped SV model, while the retractable is a better equipped Sport model. If you compare the soft Sport with the hardtop Sport, the difference is $2,640.

The Miata price range goes from $21,750 for an unair-conditioned SV ragtop to $29,290 for the loaded, leathery Grand Touring model with the hardtop and six-speed automatic.

I tested the Grand Touring soft top with the six-speed manual gearbox, a $26,350 machine that really suited me. It was fitted with all the usual luxury suspects plus two features that set it apart from its cheaper brethren: a cloth roof instead of the more plebeian vinyl one, and a six-speed transmission instead of the standard five-gear job.

An interesting note: Apparently because the six-speed’s lower gears are lower-ratio than the five-speed’s, the latter gets a little better city mileage. The five-speed has EPA city and highway ratings of 22 and 28, respectively; the six-speed I drove was 21 and 28.

Not that a mile-per-gallon would have been enough to make me trade. What we’re talking about here is a delightfully precise, close-ratio, short-throw gearbox that has to be one of the niftiest in the business.

The six-pack is buttoned to a techy, normally aspirated four-banger that squeezes 167 horsepower from a scant two liters. It does this, in part, by employing a high (10.8:1) compression ratio, a tactic that occasions the one uneconomical note in the Miata score: the need to use premium fuel.

While the Miata’s 167 horses may not sound like such stuff as a NASCAR Sunday is made of, it makes for lively fun in a steed that’s only 13 feet long and weighs in at a mere 2,511 pounds.

In addition to being fast enough to be fun, the Miata is an absolute cornering joy on a winding byway in the Philadelphia hinterland.

The fun and games derive in part from a firm undercarriage that keeps the Miata flat and poised in a fast turn. Sticky performance tires mounted on hefty, 17-inch alloy rims give it good adhesion in those corners, and the precise steering system affords the kind of feedback that leaves you feeling on top of things. Relatively huge anti-lock disc brakes (the front rotors are 11.4 inches, the back ones, 11) shut things down in a hurry.

The Miata tester proved sporty/handsome inside as well as outside. By employing natural leather seats with yellow saddle stitching, the interior cleverly sidestepped the cliche status of its bright metal-accented black interior.

Unlike the original Miata trunk, the new car’s is reasonably sized. It will hold at least three dozen Bernie Madoff action dolls. (You know, the ones where a Ponzi pyramid appears when you press the doll’s belly button.)

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Excellent

Mazda MX-5 Miata Grand Touring (soft top)

Base price:

$26,350.

As tested: $27,020 (inc. shipping).

Standard equipment: Two-liter engine, six-speed manual gearbox, dual exhausts, near-luxury amenity array including leather, Bose sound, anti-lock disc brakes, and alloy wheels.

Options: None.

Fuel economy: 21 m.p.g. city and 28 highway.

Engine performance: Willing and able.

Handling: Top shelf.

Styling: Athletic.

Warranty: 36 months/36,000 miles bumper to bumper.

The Ben Key: Four Bens, Excellent; Three Bens, Good; Two Bens, Fair; One Ben, Poor.

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Contact Al Haas at Alhaasauto@aol.com.