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Jaggy Cars - May 2010
Mazda 3 MPS
Manic Mazda
It was the wife who said it had a smiley face. Well, so did the Joker in Batman. And the Mazda 3 MPS is just as good natured as the laughing-boy in the film. It’s a wicked wee thing, but by heck it’s a dose of fun. It’s all spoilers, skirts, scoops, wings, wide alloys and fat tyres, but there’s no spare wheel in the underfloor recess just a big threatening sub woofer! This is an instant boy racer with all the kit, and the appraisal car was finished off in lipstick racer red – well, kiss my hedge.
And there’s more, it’s practical. The boot is surprisingly big for the rakish looks of the touring body style and the passenger accommodation is pretty good. The seats are supportive and shapely without having bolsters that you have to climb over and sit between and the driving position is comfier than the ‘Friends’ sofa.
So that’s the looks and the accommodation dealt with, now to the grown-up bit. This is a seriously quick motor car. In fact very few people realise just how many horses are kept under the bonnet. Well, there are 256 of the rascals. No wonder it’s so quick.
Progress is like skipping a flat chuckie across the wave tops at Largs and seeing how many touchdowns and skips you can get before it sinks. Fortunately the Mazda didn’t sink, but you could feel the weight transfer shift backwards on full bore acceleration as the front wheels fought to stay in contact with the concrete. Having said that torque steer is remarkably well controlled (although it can be provoked) but caution should be exercised or you will need to carry two spares – for when the front tyres wear out.
As for the handling, that can be as scary as you like. With all that power in a saloon car body, the Mazda sometimes forgets that it’s not really a sports car, and it lacks the precision and agility of the MX5, but if you’re in the market for something quick and want a badge in the drive that the rest of the street doesn’t have, then forget ‘propellers’, ‘four rings’ and ‘three pointed stars’, the ‘seagull’ might just be the answer. It has the looks and the build quality to rival some of the better established foreign marques, it’s just not as common!
The thing is, it can be all things to all men, and more to the point, it can be something else to the wimmin. For instance, Lady Bunnet didn’t realise just how quick it was, because at town speeds the thing just glides along silently and smoothly, the 2.3 litre turbo jobby providing a rather relaxing and flexible gait without having to bother the gearstick too often.
But get it out on the back roads (with Lady B safely watching Corrie back at home) and it can become a rather different animal. Ride quality is good most of the time, but get it stirred and angry on the cross country ‘curry-home before it gets cold’ run and the softness makes itself felt. It’s not bad, it’s no sport car, but it is perfectly adequate for what it is and should be judged on that basis.
For an eminently practical car that can get itself to 60 mph in around 6 seconds and provide a comfortable cruise on the motorway it is hard to beat. Even more surprisingly, this quality of ride was achieved on 18 inch rims, but they were shod with Dunlop Sport Maxx 255/40 tyres. Not much of a sidewell and yet acceptably supple.
Would I have one? Without a doubt. There’s just one problem I don’t have the necessary umpteen grand, even if it is a reasonable price, for what this car offers.
On that basis, anyone know of an unguarded bank on their high street?
In Short:
Price: £22,295
Engine: 2261 cc, 4 cyl. Turbo-petrol with 256 bhp
Performance: 0 - 62 mph in 6.1 seconds, flat out at 155 mph
Economy: 37.7mpg extra urban, 29.4mpg combined
CO2 emissions: 224 g/km
Insurance Group: 17
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