2014 Mazda Mazda3

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Text and photos by Cor Steenstra

The new Mazda Mazda3 is quite a stunner in real life. It carries over the positives of the previous generation, but adds the new design language in quite a sporty, boy racer type of way. As such, despite the more common proportions in a relatively crowded market, it clearly does stand out from the bland crowd around it.The front and the front fender treatment of course falls very much in-line with what Mazda was showing on their Mazda6, but the way it was re-proportioned to fit the smaller package actually made it less elegant, and more sporty aggressive, something very much becoming to it. Design wise it could very well stand up against the boy racer GTI type of vehicles, and I am sure MazdaSpeed will offer versions where the performance will match the look.

On average, the buyers of this car will not actually be requiring the extreme hard and powerful performance, that the exterior suggests, but it is nice that the car offers that impression while actually being a very responsible and practical car for everyday use in the daily commute, or as the family car to transport the kids to all their activities. In the spare time it can be used to have fun, and it does provide that aplenty.

our test car came as an automatic, but with the gear change flippers, which allowed for quick down shifting to up the revs and the torque on curvy mountain roads, and the road holding from the suspension as standard is holding up very well on these roads. I personally didn’t feel any need to be disappointed on those drives, since the it was possible to get a nice and fast sensation, without ever getting close to the limitations of the car. It was fun and safe.