The BMW of Economy Cars
Mazda's Protegé has become popular with import tuners, a sure sign of its athletic attitude. OK, so its engine range came up a little shy before the MazdaSpeed version hit the street, but even base cars took to the corners with gusto. Nevertheless, as much as I've enjoyed it over the years both in sedan and sporty 5 trim, it's long gone now.
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| I can say with a grin that the Mazda3, with its upgraded 2.3-L GT package, goes like there's no tomorrow. (Photo: Shawn Pisio, Canadian Auto Press) |
Now the
Mazda3 is here, and in one quick movement cured the engine problem for good. The new model, that pulls much of its go-fast design language from the recently introduced 6, is a literal hotrod. Tossing out the 103-hp 1.6-L four altogether, at least in our market, and beefing up the 2.0-L from 130-hp to a standard 148, is a good first step. While I didn't get the chance to take a run in a base GX or GS car, I can say with a grin its upgraded 2.3-L GT goes like there's no tomorrow. The
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| The engine's 160-hp and 151 lb-ft of torque spin the front wheels at will, making the GT feel as if it's accelerating as quickly as last year's MazdaSpeed Protegé. (Photo: Shawn Pisio, Canadian Auto Press) |
car's 160-hp and 151 lb-ft of torque spin the front wheels at will, making the GT feel as if it's accelerating as quickly as last year's
MazdaSpeed Protegé. In reality the new car is 1.5 seconds off the Speed's pace to 100 km/h, at 8.9 seconds compared to 7.4, but no doubt an even zippier MazdaSpeed3 is on the way. My GT 4-door tester featured a 5-speed manual shifter which delivered smooth operation in all forward gears, where it matters for performance needs, but was way too difficult to get into reverse. I didn't notice this glitch in the 5-door Sport I drove previous so it's probably only a problem with my loaner. Mazda also offers a 4-speed automatic with Sportronic sequential shifting mode by the way, an impressive feature for this compact class.
