Â
Earlier this year we got to try out the Mazda2. We liked it a lot, so when the offer came to try out the new version in and around Monte Carlo we didn’t need to be asked twice.
With ageing women, facelifts rarely work. Give me the growing old gracefully over the permanently shocked look any day. With cars, on the other hand, little tweeks and tucks can make all the difference.
They can give a car a new lease of life. They can iron out any imperfections and add features that can keep cars fresh that would otherwise start looking (and feeling) dated.
They can also bugger things up, of course.
So when the man from Mazda got in touch to say the Mazda 2 had been given the once over, I wasn’t sure what to say. I’d driven the old Mazda2 and loved it. As far as I could tell there was nothing to fix. Little to gain, lots to lose.
Then he offered the chance to test drive the new car in Monte Carlo. Now that’s an offer that doesn’t need to be made twice.
Weather
And so it came to pass a couple of weeks later that I found myself on an Aer Lingus flight about to touch down at Nice Airport. I’d looked forward to a little bit of early winter sun, but alas it was chucking it down. Miserable weather, but at least it gave a better indication of driving on Irish roads than you normally get when driving around the Cote d’Azur.
The brand spanking new cars with their German number plates were there waiting for the press, who flown in from around Europe to have a bit of a play.
First impressions? It’s still a Mazda2, only a little bit sportier (there’s a new look to the grille, which is lower, larger and more aggressive than before), there are new front foglight bezels and the wheels come attached to newly designed 15-inch steel hubcaps.
Inside the dashboard is darker and tapers away at the edges. I’m told that this adds to the sense of roominess inside. I don’t know about that, but the extensive use of black with chrome trim, where previously there was a lot more chrome looks good. This trim is carried right through to the main dashboard instruments, with the speedometer and rev counter consisting of an unfussy combination of white numbers on a piano-black background.
Most important, of course, is how the car drives. I couldn’t fault the previous version when I’d driven it around the streets of Dublin. The streets of Dublin aren’t exactly testing, however, making it all the more interesting to see how the Mazda2 copes with the winding (and unusually wet) coast road between Nice and Monte Carlo.
The already sturdy ride feels firm and responsive. There’s been an upgrade here: the bushes at the back of the front suspension’s lower arms have benefitted from an increase in firmness, thereby improving ride comfort without detracting from handling stability.
For the drive back to Nice, I’m directed towards the mountains. Up here it’s definite – this is a car that (thankfully) loves the bends and knows how to stick to the road.
The mountain roads aren’t quite as good as the coast road, but you’d hardly know; the new car has been fitted with softer rear suspension trailing-arm brushes that are good at absorbing the odd surface bump and crack.
Verdict
I’d have been disappointed if I hadn’t liked this nifty sub-compact; a serious competitor to the sector-leading Ford Fiesta. The only risk was that the car had been tinkered with to the extent that it had lost its charm.
Good news, it hasn’t. It’s a bit sportier, a bit smarter and the ride’s a bit smoother.
There’s stuff that you can’t tell when you drive, but which makes the Mazda2 future friendly in terms of CO2 emmision across the full range of vehicles (there are three petrol and one diesel variants), and all the cars are now Euro 5 compliant.
The facelift is a job well done, that should help maintain Mazda2’s place in the ever-evolving new car market for a good while yet.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
