Chantilly, France—
The rural roads an hour north of Paris aren't nearly as bad as Michigan's, but they're no prize, either. It's fair to say that a day's drive there in the newest member of the Mazda family was a good indication that we're going to love the 3 once it arrives in America.
Having fond feelings for the Protegé it replaces, we were pleased to see the Mazda 3's boldly sculpted face, which bears a strong resemblance to both the RX-8 and the 6. And we were also pleased to note that a dimensional increase will allow back-seat passengers in both the elegant four-door sedan and the edgy four-door hatchback to breathe easier. Surprisingly, the sedan and the hatch share not a single body panel.
If you appreciated the sporting nature of the Protegé, you'll also breathe easier. The 3's two available four-cylinder engines include the base 148-horsepower (slightly less in California emissions trim) 2.0-liter and an optional 160-horsepower 2.3-liter handed down from the Mazda 6. Both engines are from Mazda's new MZR engine family. The 2.0-liter does the job, with 18 more horses than the Protegé's 2.0-liter. But it's certainly not as convincing as the bigger engine, which has as-yet-untapped capacity, according to Jim O'Sullivan, Mazda's U.S. president. A five-speed manual gearbox (based on the 6's) can be traded out for an automatic four-speed that has a manual mode—a rarity in this class. The Mazda 6 is also the source of the 3's sophisticated rear multi-link suspension, which is set up to give the car great stability in high-speed sweepers. The front suspension consists of MacPherson struts, with fluid-filled bushings at the rear of the lower arms, mounted to a rubber-isolated subframe—another rarity in the economy class.... Read full article