2008 Mazda 3 S Grand Touring on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2019 Mazda3 First Drive Review | Defining the term 'fun to drive'

Fun to drive. The phrase gets blasted from seemingly every car commercial, magazine ad, and influencer account – overused that it has lost all meaning. So when Mazda, a small firm that actually does make cars that are fun to drive, talks about their most compelling trait it gets lost in the cacophony of ad spends. However, we're here to tell you that yes, while it's difficult to quantify, some cars are objectively more fun to drive than others, and the all-new 2019 Mazda3 is — and this is a very technical term — a freakin' blast. At Mazda's behest, we took a 2019 sedan up Angeles Crest Highway just outside of L.A. With plenty of yellow signs, tight sequences of banked curves and elevation changes, it's the platonic ideal of those serpentine mountain roads you see in car commercials. The instant the Mazda3 reaches the windy roads, it glides in like an otter diving into the sea. Lively and graceful, it dances along a ribbon of asphalt more naturally than any compact sedan we've driven since the advent of drive-by-wire. The steering is not only direct and true, but possesses an extraordinary ability to maintain trajectory. From the moment you turn in, you never need to make adjustments to the steering wheel until the front tires are straight again. The car goes exactly where you intend, always. That's not hyperbole, but an amazing feat of engineering. In nearly every other vehicle, even those that purport to be sports cars, unless you're incredibly familiar with the machine and know the road like the back of your hand, minor mid-corner corrections are an inevitability. With the 3, you get it right on the first try. Now imagine you're on strip of canyon pavement with lots of short switchbacks in varying radii coming up fast, one right after another. The 3 links them all together with pure ease, and soon you're developing a rhythm through the curves. While other cars charge, the Mazda flows. The car's poise is particularly evident as momentum shifts from one direction to another, what Mazda chassis engineer Dave Coleman termed "transience." In most cars passengers are tossed around the cabin like mannequins, but the 3 cuts out the turbulence, its body engineered to move in a smooth undulation. At the midpoint of the transition, there's even a moment of weightlessness before the car tucks into the next turn and the seat seems to scoop you up and carry you onward.

Mazda MX-30 electric car production begins: Will it get the rotary range extender?

Mazda has officially started production of the electric MX-30. For the time being, the small electric car hasn’t been announced for the U.S. yet. Mazda hasnÂ’t declared otherwise, though, so we still have our hopes up. The first MX-30s are rolling off the line in Hiroshima, Japan. Europe will be one of the first places where these MX-30s end up. The car starts at GBP30,495 in the UK and ˆ33,990 in Germany. That's around $38,000. Certainly expensive, but the price would surely be different here, plus weÂ’d be eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit. Those lucky European customers will be met with an electric car that likes to do things a little differently than others. The modest 35.5 kWh battery pack is good for just 124 miles on EuropeÂ’s optimistic WLTP testing cycle. It would surely achieve a much lower number in the EPA test. Mazda has made it front-wheel drive, placing a single motor on the front axle thatÂ’s good for 143 horsepower. We expect to see the first ones hit the streets in Europe this fall, but thereÂ’s one thing that makes us hold out hope for an American MX-30: the potential for a rotary range extender. Mazda said as much in its 100-year celebration letter: “Later, the company developed a prototype Mazda2 EV with a small single-rotor engine used as a range extender. A similar system could find its way onto the Mazda MX-30, a brand new battery electric crossover SUV arriving at dealerships this year." Assuming Mazda goes through with a rotary range extender, we could see this car coming to the American market. That would up the range considerably and make it a much more viable option for many customers, even if they might not need the added range on a daily basis.  Related video:

R&T chases down a burglar in the million-mile Miata

Is the answer always Mazda Miata? We discussed this in passing on the Autoblog Podcast earlier this week, and most assuredly the answer is "no." For example, the little MX-5 would be a terrible people carrier, and it'd be useless off road. You can't really tow anything of substance with it, either. Still, if push came to shove, it's satisfying to know that the diminutive roadster could eke out a career as a chase vehicle for the police.
That fact was proven when Road & Track editor Chris Cantle did something that he himself recognizes as "stupid." Upon returning home, Cantle discovered a "twenty-something" actively burgling his home. The resulting story is easily one of the more entertaining episodes to come out of the 1990 MX-5's service to the team at R&T and, we're guessing, will be one of the highlights of the Million-Mile Miata challenge.
Be sure to head over to Road & Track for a full retelling of the chase from Cantle, as well as a follow-up on the saga.