Many Canadian auto writers must be feeling pretty smug at the moment. Why, might you ask? Simple. We have been breathing down manufacturers backs for the last five (maybe more in some cases) years, asking them, no, telling them that they need to bring their euro cars to North America. Lo and behold, some car makers have recently been making huge headlines with the imminent arrival of all-new euro-World Cars.
Ford is probably the one that got the biggest earful from us lot of critics. Here was a home-grown company selling some of the best cars in the world to everyone but us. What did we do to deserve this? Anyhow, that's all in the past now; the Fiesta is coming and so is the Mazda2 and I could not be happier. I was lucky enough to be at the Geneva show in 2007 when the renewed two cars made their world debut. It was love at first sight.
A Small Car in a Big Country
In order to generate more buzz around the car, Mazda thought: “Why don't we drive a Mazda2 from coast to coast, chronicle the event with an invited auto writer from the US, a camera and video crew and throw in some Canadian auto journalists for good measure?”. And so was born the “A Small Car in a Big Country” Canadian cruise. Divided into 11 legs, the cross-Canada trek raked up 6,100 km on the Russian-sourced red Mazda2, driven by 11 different writers including Ezra Dyer, a well-regarded and very entertaining writer associated with Automobile Magazine and the New York Times.
My stage involved driving the 2 from my native Montreal to my 2nd home, Toronto. We were to get there by way of the western part of Montérégie (south-west of Montreal), the Thousand Islands area and there was even talk of travelling on scenic highway 33 which snakes along the northern coast of lake Ontario. Problem was that a near 10-hour road trip could not be accomplished in a less than an 8-hour time frame. So, it was decided that we would cruise along the 401 and so we did.
Small need not mean cheap
The concerns voiced by people with regards to small cars usually have to do with safety, ride comfort, cabin noise levels and other general passenger well-fare issues. I stand here (well, I'm sitting actually) before you and state that the 2 is a fine car for travelling long distances. Ezra and I talked at length about the business and listened to Adam Carolla's podcasts in relative serenity. As far as roominess is concerned, both front passengers travelled in comfort and by the looks of it, two others would have managed well behind us.
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| The 2 will only hit showrooms in about a year, but Mazda Canada has purchased four cars and they will be on display everywhere. |
Ford is probably the one that got the biggest earful from us lot of critics. Here was a home-grown company selling some of the best cars in the world to everyone but us. What did we do to deserve this? Anyhow, that's all in the past now; the Fiesta is coming and so is the Mazda2 and I could not be happier. I was lucky enough to be at the Geneva show in 2007 when the renewed two cars made their world debut. It was love at first sight.
A Small Car in a Big Country
In order to generate more buzz around the car, Mazda thought: “Why don't we drive a Mazda2 from coast to coast, chronicle the event with an invited auto writer from the US, a camera and video crew and throw in some Canadian auto journalists for good measure?”. And so was born the “A Small Car in a Big Country” Canadian cruise. Divided into 11 legs, the cross-Canada trek raked up 6,100 km on the Russian-sourced red Mazda2, driven by 11 different writers including Ezra Dyer, a well-regarded and very entertaining writer associated with Automobile Magazine and the New York Times.
My stage involved driving the 2 from my native Montreal to my 2nd home, Toronto. We were to get there by way of the western part of Montérégie (south-west of Montreal), the Thousand Islands area and there was even talk of travelling on scenic highway 33 which snakes along the northern coast of lake Ontario. Problem was that a near 10-hour road trip could not be accomplished in a less than an 8-hour time frame. So, it was decided that we would cruise along the 401 and so we did.
Small need not mean cheap
The concerns voiced by people with regards to small cars usually have to do with safety, ride comfort, cabin noise levels and other general passenger well-fare issues. I stand here (well, I'm sitting actually) before you and state that the 2 is a fine car for travelling long distances. Ezra and I talked at length about the business and listened to Adam Carolla's podcasts in relative serenity. As far as roominess is concerned, both front passengers travelled in comfort and by the looks of it, two others would have managed well behind us.
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| Dash layout is fun and functional, not to mention well-assembled in typical Mazda style. |