The new Mazda CX-3 is arguably the best-looking crossover on sale, but is it a match for rivals in other areas as well? Chris Knapman puts it to the test to find out.
The compact crossover class includes everything from the nissan juke to the skoda yeti and now they’ve been joined by this it’s the new mazda cx-3 as with all compact crossovers the cx-3 should offer lots of room and versatility without taking up too much space on the road so despite its chunky and there i say even quite handsome styling it actually sits on the
Platform of the master 2 super mini only it’s longer wider and taller even so space here in the back is pretty limited door openings themselves are quite narrow and as you can see i’m got my knees up against the seat here i’m 5 foot 11 this driver seat set for me so it’s not brilliant headroom is fine but this middle seat is narrow and also there’s this big old
Lump in the for that you need to straddle all in all it’s not that great at 350 liters the boot is usefully bigger than a master two’s if not a match for a skoda yeti but all models come with a false floor that you can move to divide boot space and create a flat loading lip mazda wants you to see the cx-3 as a premium offering so it’s vital that impresses here in
The front for the most part it’s been pretty successful there are some nice little design touches like this leather padding on the dash here in these funky little air vents and while some of the materials are a bit hard to the touch like the top of the dash they’re also nicely finished they’ve got a nice texture on them so they don’t actually look cheap at all
There’s also a big glovebox and lots of cubby holes plus masters 7-inch touchscreen is one of the best around with well laid out menus and a bmw idrive like secondary controller despite being taller than the mazda to the cx-3 handles very well the steering is quite light but very accurate and there’s lots of front-end grip so you can place the car with confidence
In fact it actually handles really well when you start to push it i go so far as to say that it’s a genuinely rewarding car to drive a word of warning though is that the ride quality varies considerably depending on which engine and which spec you choose the diesel is generally more fidgety than the petrol and if you go for a diesel with the top spec sport nav
Trim for which you have 18-inch wheels it all becomes very bouncy indeed stick to se or sel spec which come with 16-inch wheels though and things are much more settled masters are one and a half litre diesel engine isn’t bad in terms of refinement although with just 105 horsepower it is quite slow this 2 litre petrol model is the better option as far as we’re
Concerned even this 120 horsepower entry-level model has a good turn of speed and is happy to rev plus fuel economy is actually pretty good we’ve been getting almost 40 miles per gallon from this petrol model there’s also a higher powered version of this petrol engine with a hundred and fifty horsepower but in order to have it you have to have top spectrum and
Automatic gearbox and 4-wheel drive at which point the cx-3 just becomes too expensive in fact cost is one of our main bugbears with this particular master because while all models are well equipped the entry-level version is still about four thousand pounds more expensive than the cheapest nissan juke if you’re going to spend eighteen thousand pounds on a car of
This type then the bigger skoda yeti and mini countryman really do come into play so what mazda has built a good car gets a risk of pricing itself out of contention as you can probably tell we’re not quite convinced that mazda has got the execution of this cx-3 quite right you can find out more about why by reading our full review by clicking up here and of course
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Transcribed from video
Mazda CX-3 2015 review | TELEGRAPH CARS By Telegraph Cars
