2021 Mazda CX-3 Review | Car Reviews

Auto123 assessments the 2021 Mazda CX-3.

It’s not each and every day you start out composing a auto assessment and conclude up composing a eulogy. Effectively, a partial eulogy, in any case. If ever there was such a detail.

Unfortunately now, which is what I’m doing simply because as I create this and by the time you study it, you might have noticed the announcement that the Mazda CX-3 will be discontinued in the US following the 2021 product calendar year. It will still soldier on in Canada, nevertheless, although if you want a single you may possibly want to transfer on that quickly, simply because who knows how very long it will be right before our market place falls into line with our neighbours down south. And following driving it for a week (in addition to quite a few other alternatives above the years), I would say you could pretty perfectly want a single.

Mazda pulling the plug on the tiny CX-3 in the US comes as tiny shock. It’s the fate that befell the CX-7 a short time following the CX-five arrived (and promptly became the brand’s bestseller in Canada). So as quickly as the new – and pretty great – CX-30 arrived, the CX-3’s times became numbered. And yet, it is proving unkillable in Canada in the short term! Remember that the vehicle with which the CX-3 shared a lot of of its parts, the Mazda2, disappeared from Canada in 2015, and yet the CX-3 survived that. And so it does now, even nevertheless it is a goner down south. For that, you can thank the model’s healthy income general performance in the Excellent White North.

Push a single and its hardiness is a lot easier to recognize.

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The Mazda2 was a enjoyable, reasonably priced and affable tiny pocket rocket and that DNA was transferred to the CX-3, other than the CX-3 acquired the benefit of AWD – which, as it occurs, can be had for a paltry $27,881 in Canada for the GS AWD. The CX-3 begins at $23,531 in base GX FWD kind my tester is the prime-spec GT AWD, which comes standard with AWD and will operate you $33,331. That gets you niceties like Bose premium audio, 18-inch wheels, leather upholstery, navigation, 10-way power driver’s seat and Sirius satellite radio.

How they managed to jam all that AWD managing equipment into such a modest blueprint is a testament to sensible packaging, primarily when you look at that the front seating spot is fantastic even for taller people like me. On the other hand, the again seat is cramped and in the cargo house you won’t healthy considerably far more than a hockey bag (and it’s possible not even if you are a goalie).

But this is a subcompact crossover and you aren’t obtaining a single if you system on hauling a family members of 4 on the regular. Alternatively, you are obtaining a single if you want a feisty tiny runabout all around town through the week, and a reliable companion if the roads get a tiny rougher above the class of the weekend.

Which is simply because the CX-3 works by using a right, predictive AWD process. Given that there’s usually a tiny little bit of power remaining sent to the rear wheels, they are ready to step in in an instant to get drivers out of slippery (or sticky) situations. It’s a fantastic piece if engineering that confirmed the CX-3 was not just a little bit participant in the subcompact AWD entire world when it debuted for the 2016 product calendar year.

It looked great presently again then, but again then they did not offer you this paint work, and it is a great a single so the CX-3 appears truly sensible. The color is termed “Polymetal Gray Metallic” and while I have no strategy what a “polymetal” is, it does not truly matter simply because darned if it does not search a piece below, primarily when paired with two-tone multi-spoke wheel and twin tailpipes. This infant is a looker – fantastic stance, too – even nevertheless it has not truly been modified all that considerably in the stylistic perception considering the fact that its debut.

Which is fantastic, but the detail is, the CX-3 has not modified considerably – perfectly, at all – in the mechanical perception possibly. For 2021, it still makes use of the identical 2.0L four-cylinder it usually has and still makes 148 hp and 146 lb-ft of torque. These figures are rather considerably the identical as what they’ve usually been, give or get a single or two ponies.

This is not a no big detail, necessarily, thinking about that the CX-3 only weighs 1,355 kg in AWD kind (there’s an FWD out there as perfectly). That means that even with those people modest power figures, the 6-pace automatic (with paddle shifters!) and the motor do the job perfectly in sync jointly, metering out the power perfectly and acquiring it to the wheels and the highway in a reasonably brisk manner. The auto even appears a tiny aggressive when you truly get on it, which caught me by shock even nevertheless I’d pushed the product right before.

The detail about the CX-3 is that like so a lot of other Mazdas, it is not truly about the power. Immediately after all, this is a company that still builds a very small rear-wheel-push roadster the likes of which we truly do not see from any other company, everywhere. That car’s not that strong, possibly – makes hardly any far more torque than does the CX-3, simply because it truly does not want to – but the important factors are the dealing with, precision steering and chassis fidelity.

You find some of those people features when you push the CX-3 as perfectly. It’s a nimble handler with fantastic steering truly feel and reaction, body roll is stored to a least many thanks to some sensible suspension tuning and it is frequently a pleasure – and satisfying – to pilot this cutest of ‘utes.

On the other hand, it does present its age in places. For occasion: there’s no car weather handle, just a row of massive, ungainly analogue knobs the heads-up screen is mirrored off a panel that appears created from plexiglass and sits perched atop the gauge hood and the infotainment process is a rather lo-fi affair with tame graphics and the way your scroll by means of every little thing is not that intuitive. Mind you, virtually each and every Mazda in Canada gets that process, with just the Mazda3 and – you guessed it – the CX-30 now acquiring a more recent established-up in our market place.

There’s still wireless Apple CarPlay, nevertheless, which is the place I finished up spending most of my time and the way you can store all your favourite radio stations – no matter the band – in a one menu, accessed by a one button, is a characteristic that I’d like to see in far more automobiles now.

To be genuine, there are a astonishing number of issues the CX-3 does perfectly that I’d like to see on far more automobiles now – its steering, its appears, and just the way it manages to faucet in to a form of intangibility that implies you are driving a vehicle which is far more than the sum of its parts, nonetheless previous mentioned parts might be.

So get ‘em while they are warm!

We like

Exciting-to-push variable
Capable AWD
Seems
    
We like significantly less

Aged infotainment
Limited rear seat, modest cargo spot
    
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