Ask the hipster waiting in line for a new iPad. Buyers and critics alike are easily seduced — sometimes too easily — by the new.
It’s no different with cars. Last year, a rare battle of the welterweights broke out. Never before, it seemed, had so many new compact models swaggered into showrooms. The Ford Focus, Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, Chevy Cruze and Nissan Versa were all brand-new or completely redesigned. Which one would win the compact crown?
Yet while all eyes were focused on the main event, the Mazda 3 was in training. It now comes to market not as a stem-to-stern redesign, like those competitors, but with a transformative new engine and a pair of exceptional new transmissions.
Although the Mazda arrived relatively late, it turns out to be the life of the party. Long the sportiest, most rewarding car to drive in its class, the 3 is now the only one that effortlessly tops 40 miles per gallon in real-world driving.
Let’s repeat that: The Mazda 3 is the best performer in the class, and it has the best mileage. That’s a pretty unbeatable combination.
Since the 1970s, of course, Mazda has worked that niche of affordable Japanese performance, enjoying hits like the Miata roadster, but never quite breaking into the big time. Fuel economy took a back seat, as with Mazda’s prodigiously thirsty, rotary-engine RX sports cars.
But with regulators circling and a 35 m.p.g. standard brewing, there’s no longer any place to hide. Mazda says its new suite of technologies, collectively called Skyactiv, will raise its fleetwide mileage by 30 percent by 2015 with no need for an expensive hybrid system.
by Lawrence Ulrich, NY Times | Read more:
Photo: Mazda North America
