Compact and Loving It: Mazda3 2.0

Very rarely do the people that make family cars come up with products that excite the senses and make you want to drive. More often than not, they play safe and churn out conventional automobiles that make sense but don’t stir the soul.

Now, the compact family car market tends to be very conservative. The basic requirements are that it must seat five, it must be reasonably economical to run and maintain, and it must, at the very least, not look like it was styled by the accountants that decreed how little you could actually engineer and design into the thing so the car company could turn a profit on it.

But once in a while, the engineers and the stylists do take the helm from the bean-counters and the focus-group mafia, and then they come up with a winner. Today, the Mazda3 is a bestseller in the Ford Group’s lineup and would be a contender for top dog status in the compact sedan sales charts if it weren’t limited to a handful of Mazda dealers.

When we first clapped eyes on the Mazda3 a year ago, we instantly knew that it would be a hit. With its taut, sexy styling and energetic chassis, the car alone was enough to erase whatever remaining doubts the public had in the re-launched and Ford Group-managed Mazda brand. A swooping roofline, racy low-profile wheels, muscular fenders, and a level of fit and finish we’re more accustomed to seeing on the pricier M-class cars were already enough to impress.

Getting in though, it became clear that the engineers at Mazda did themselves proud in designing a car that delivers near-sports sedan performance while still being a responsible family car. Seating for five? Check. Economical to run? Reasonable at 9 kilometers to a liter with either the 1.6 or the 2.0-liter engine.

But what about the questions family men (and women) may have forgotten to ask, erased from memory by the more pressing demands of house payments and college plans? The Mazda3 doesn’t pretend to be a gussied-up family car pretending to be a driver’s car, it is a driver’s car.

You sit in a cockpit with fighter-plane ambience, likely inspired by a BMW E46 with red instrument lighting, a wraparound-effect cockpit, and serious-looking pods for the instrument panel meters. Get the 141-horsepower 2.0-liter model and you get treated to a sweet power moonroof, a better sound system, electric power steering, automatic headlamps and wipers, and climate control.

All the necessities of serious driving are there: a tilt and reach-adjustable steering column, a good degree of all-around visibility, and controls that respond immediately to your fingers and feet. A puritan’s driving machine would have a stick shift instead of an automatic, but the "ActiveMatic" manual override is almost as good. The gearbox could use an extra gear, but the shift action is almost as satisfying as a good manual’s.

Go ahead, bang the shifter on those 1-2-3-4 upshifts. Feels good, right? Now zing that motor to the redline. There’s no rev limiter! No electronic nanny to curb the emotions with an automatic-induced upshift at the redline. We like that kind of non-intrusiveness; it tells us the engineers want us to enjoy our driving and to hell with the consequences.

So we go out and take the car for a spin. You know, find the roads that are fast and open, maybe head for the hills and see how she’ll dance. Suspension design and tuning is sublime. The steering is sharp and communicative, the tires are extra-grippy, and the front strut-rear multilink suspension is a champ at out-turning, out-stabilizing, and out-dancing your average family car.

For a front-wheel drive car, this is the closest to a neutral-handling, rear-wheel drive feel that you can get. Combine this chassis with the 2.0-liter drivetrain and you get a lively drive that’ll let you bask in the exuberance of vitality whether you’re single or happily married with kids.

Is this really still a family car then? Kneeroom’s a little tight at the back and the feet are a little crowded with the way the seats are designed, but five people still fit. How about trunk space? There’s a lot, and darn if that coupe-like profile didn’t fool us into thinking all our bags and junk food couldn’t fit for that weekend vacation. Yep, definitely a family car.

Is it still safe, though? Of course it is. Like a good 21st century car, it has the dual airbags and seatbelt pretensioners, the all-disk brakes and the ABS, the crumple zones and side impact beams that’ll do their best at keeping you and your loved ones safe from harm.

This car is as safe as every other family car out there, but for passion and risqué appeal, it’s enough to make one fall in love with the art of driving all over again.

The Good

• Sexy, sculpted styling

• Smooth, free-revving engines

• Tons of value-added features

• A body that’s almost as solid and flex-free as a Volvo S40’s

• Truly athletic chassis

The Bad

• Transmission needs an extra gear

• Limited rear legroom.

The Verdict

• All the essentials for exuberant driving and fulfilling ownership, but still with responsible room for five.