12 Apr 07
Like some people, some cars simply don't have a secret dark heart hidden away inside somewhere, waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Prunella Scales could crimp her hair, daub black make-up around her eyes and wail the words to Bela Lugosi's Dead until she's hoarse, but that wouldn't make her Queen of the Goths. She'd still be Sybil Fawlty, albeit with a severe touch of the vapours.
Much the same is true of the Mazda 3. However much Mazda may choose to tune it up and dress it up, first as the 3 MPS, and now as the 3 MPS Sports Aero, it still remains a cardigan-wearing kind of car. The 3 MPS is the most powerful hot hatch currently on sale in Britain. Rather like Brinkworth's claim to be the longest village in England, the only response is a shrug. Why have a long village? Why have a 256bhp hatchback? Power isn't everything for modestly sized road cars, and Mazda of all people shouldn't need reminding of that. The MX-5 isn't the 'most' anything: it's such a brilliant roadster because it's so well balanced, every element in tune with every other element. It has power you can use, not power for its own sake.
Which is why the new 2.0-litre diesel version of the 3 is so appealing. Its engine, already used in the 5 and 6, produces barely enough power to qualify as 'warm' these days, let alone 'hot', but the key figure is the 266lb-ft of torque, not the 141bhp. And look where that torque is at its peak: just 2,000rpm. That, on paper, is a lot of highly usable pulling power.
And that's exactly what you get out on the road. If you're in a hurry, you can ping through the six-speed gearbox and keep the engine buzzing along in the 2,000-3,500rpm powerband very effectively. It's superb at overtaking. Or if you're feeling lazy, the engine is flexible enough to let you just trundle along in pretty much any gear you please, and if you're careful you might get somewhere near the 47.1mpg official combined fuel consumption figure. It's an efficient engine, with a CO2 figure of 162g/km.
