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CAP Blog > CAP Blog > Martin's Blog
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Jan
22
Written by:
Martin Ward
Thursday, January 22, 2009
 This was a very early drive of the all new Mazda 3 and the short event was described by Mazda as a ‘sneak peek’. Mazda had brought over to Europe some of their most senior people who have been involved in the new 3 project and all were available to answer questions and many gave presentations about their input into the new car.
The chief designer, Kunihiko Kurisu told me that the design had been a challenge as Mazda had to choose between evolution and revolution but the design still had to be extremely functional and sporty. It had to have similarities and share the same characteristics as the very popular Mazda 2 and Mazda 6 and to some extent he has achieved this; the 3 does have the Mazda family look to it. He also said the front end had to give the impression of being low and wide and this is exactly how it looks with its all new face.
The current Mazda3 has been on sale since 2004 and has been Mazda’s best selling car. It has sold over 2 million worldwide since its launch and over 63,000 have been sold in the UK. The new car has gone through years of rigorous testing in eleven countries to test its durability on a huge range of road surfaces and in a variety of weather conditions from the very hot to very cold. They have completed over 1.2 million kilometres of testing with temperatures ranging from –25 degrees to as high as +50 degrees.
 The new car is around 5cm longer than the current car but weighs 15kg less. Much of this weight has been saved on the body shell which is 11kg lighter and the rear suspension is 0.7kg less. Small weight savings add up to major benefits in Co2 and fuel consumption, Yoshiyuki Maeda, the Mazda3 programme manager told me. He said the aerodynamics have been improved with the Hatch now being Cd .30 and the Saloon being Cd .28. It now has underbody protection to help it with its aerodynamic optimisation measures. The whole car has been designed with these measures in mind according to Yoshiyuki.
The Mazda 3 goes on sale in late May with a choice of two petrol engines: a 1.6 litre 105ps 5 speed manual or a 2.0 litre 150ps 5 speed automatic. Two diesel engines will also be offered: a 1.6 litre 109ps 5 speed manual or a 2.2 litre 6 speed manual with two outputs - 150ps or 185ps.
 The interior is all new and the quality has been vastly improved. It is almost up to German quality although some of the dials, particularly the heater controls, have not improved and the sound and feel is a bit harsh but otherwise it is a good effort from the Mazda team.
We drove the 1.6 petrol and 1.6 diesel briefly on the roads in Majorca and the engineers told us they had spent much time and effort tying to reduce cabin noise to be best in its class. After driving it, you know that their time has been well spent as it really is a quiet car with wind, road and engine noise all at a low level. It must be in the same league as the new Volkswagen Golf for interior noise levels.
 The main launch event is in mid March so we only had a short driving experience. We didn’t really get a chance to test all the aspects of the car we had been told about during the presentations. But during that short time we did get the feeling that it is a very solid car with handling as good as you would expect, if not better on this type of car. It is a good all rounder as it has the looks, the quality and the image and you would not be disappointed if you had to drive one for a number of years. The 1.6 diesel engine seemed to be so much better than the 1.6 petrol so this would be the natural choice and at 119g/km, it makes financial sense. Prices and specification will be released nearer its on sale date.
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