Geneva Preview: Mazda2 three door coming
A year after it debuted in Geneva as a stylish little five-door hatchback, the Mazda2 is adding a new member to the family at this year's Geneva Motor Show. A three-door hatch will be joining the Mazda2 lineup for the first time. The three-door gets the same 1.3 and 1.5L gas and 1.4L diesel engine options as its more accessible sibling. Even with two fewer doors, this model is still the same size, it just has a sportier look.
[Source: Mazda]
New Mazda2 To Debut At Geneva
The new Mazda2 three-door hatchback will make its world premiere on Tuesday 4 March at the 78th Salon International de l'Auto de Genève. This is the first time that Mazda has offered a three-door variant in its popular Mazda2 model range. The newcomer will feature all the attributes of the five-door hatchback, but delivering an even sportier feel at a more affordable price.
The new Mazda2 three-door hatchback is designed to attract new customers and boost Mazda's continued growth in the European market. It comes with the same powertrain line-up - the lively and responsive MZR 1.3-litre and 1.5-litre petrol engines and the MZ-CD 1.4-litre turbo diesel - as the five-door hatchback. These engines achieve high fuel efficiency together with particularly low CO2 emissions.
The three-door Mazda2 shares the same overall dimensions as the five-door and achieves a similarly modest kerb weight, model for model. The five-door Mazda2 has already demonstrated that by completely redesigning the body and chassis and implementing Mazda's unique 'gram strategy', the brand's small car weight could be reduced to under the 1,000 kilogram threshold. This outstanding result reverses the industry trend towards bigger and heavier cars.
Launched in September 2007 as Mazda's first new-generation Zoom-Zoom vehicle to evolve to the next level, the new Mazda2 was an immediate hit with European customers. In December 2007, it was awarded a 5-Star safety rating by Euro-NCAP and it has won more than 20 automotive awards. These include Car of the Year awards in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Greece and New Zealand, along with the Japan RJC Car of the Year.
The Geneva Show will also witness three Mazda European debuts: the Mazda Taiki concept car, equipped with a next-generation rotary engine, the Mazda5 Hydrogen RE Hybrid and the upgraded Mazda's RX-8 four-seater, four-door sports car.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dave 4:34PM (1/24/2008)
I like the style and that a diesel will be offered, would like to see the specs on this. The only thing I am liery of is the quality of an American car. My current car is a Nissan and the quality is very good, prior to that I had a Ford that I bought new and had many expensive quality issues with it and vowed I would never buy another American car again especially given repair costs are so expensive these days.
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Dan 6:02PM (1/24/2008)
Nice! According to this Autoblog story, the Mazda2 shares a platform with the Ford Fiesta, which will be sold in the US as a 2009. I like the Mazda2 styling better, but either way, it's good to have more quality subcompacts on sale here.
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rob 8:59PM (1/24/2008)
Coming, but according to Mazda, not to America. We really are becoming an automotive backwater, it seems.
I suspect Ford has instructed them not to put something better than their upcoming Fiesta on the market. (Lately, the Mazda version of shared Ford/Mazda platform vehicles has always been the superior vehicle and well worth the price diffence.)
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Ryan 12:07AM (1/25/2008)
Nice, I definitely like it! Too bad it's not coming to the U.S. though. I would really prefer the Mazda2 branding to the Ford Fiesta branding, even if the cars were EXACTLY the same and the Mazda2 was more expensive. I think maybe it's just the Fiesta name actually. It makes it seem cheap (in a bad way).
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Dan 11:54AM (1/25/2008)
The link didn't work. Here's the Autoblog story about the 2009 Fiesta.
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/04/27/next-gen-ford-fiesta-will-arrive-in-u-s-by-late-2009/
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