BUY, LEASE OR FINANCE A MAZDA3 SALOON FROM OSV: bit.ly/2N8QqxB
The Mazda3 Saloon is the four-door version of this Japanese brand's engaging family hatch. This notchback body style is one not many manufacturers bother to offer in the family hatch segment these days, but it's welcome here. Watch to find out why.
Background
Here's a car that bucks the trend. It's conventionally shaped when fashion says it should be an SUV. It's got a normally aspirated engine when virtually every other car on the road has a turbo. And it's also that rarest of things, an affordable volume branded compact saloon. Welcome to the Mazda3 Saloon.
It was originally called the Mazda3 Fastback, the Japanese brand reckoning that that moniker might make the car more likely to sell. And it needs some help: compact saloons don't traditionally do very well in our market unless they come with premium price tags and a posh badge on the bonnet. But this one might carve out a useful niche for itself - and here, we're going to find out why.
Driving Experience
We think the Mazda3 in any form is one of the best handling family hatch sector cars you could choose. We'd take it over a Ford Focus; it's that good. And it has the slickest manual gearbox of any car of this kind you could choose. Automatic transmission is optional, but for goodness sake try the stick shifter before you stump up for a self-shifter.
There's only one engine option, a so-called 'Skyactiv-X' powerplant. It's a development of the Skyactiv-G 2.0-litre petrol unit used in base versions of the Mazda3 Hatch but is very different, developing 180PS and using what the brand calls 'Spark Controlled Compressed Ignition' or 'SPCCI', a patented lean burn process that delivers exceptional efficiency. Interestingly, it incorporates a supercharger, not for extra performance (though torque is increased by up to 30% over the Skyactiv-G unit) but instead to ensure that there's enough air in the engine for the compression ignition to work properly. Rest to 62mph takes 8.2s en route to 134mph. Unlike in the Mazda3 Hatch, you can't choose to have this powerplant mated with the brand's i-Activ AWD all-wheel-drive system.
Design and Build
So: reasons to buy the Saloon version of the Mazda3 over the Hatch. Let's start with the fact that you get more boot space - quite a lot more actually; 419-litres, 55-litres more than the 5-door version. It's a little harder to just drop your bags into this notchback model's trunk though. And predictably, you have to do without a wiper on the rear screen.
The other reason you might buck the Mazda3 buying trend and choose this Saloon over the Hatch is that you might think this four-door looks a touch more elegant than its showroom stablemate. The reason volume branded compact four-door models just don't sell here is that they often look boring (Fiat's Tipo Saloon anyone?) But this Mazda doesn't. In fact it has quite a strong visual identity. Get a nicely specified one - ideally painted in the brand's trademark 'Soul Red' metallic - and a far pricier Audi A3 Saloon looks rather dull and bland by comparison.
There's a fraction less of a sloping headline in the Saloon then there is in the Mazda3 Hatch, so it'll be better for the carriage of taller adults. Of course, the front part of the cabin is no different. There are smart materials crafted with interesting design and button clutter has been well and truly banished. Plus there's a big, clear 8.8-inch display on top of the dash nicely angled towards the driver. And there's a lower rotary controller for it so you don't have to stab away at inexact touchscreen functionality in the kind of way that's necessary with many rival set-ups.
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