ON FRONT PAG E N O R T H E AST V I C TO R I A , A L P S A N D H I G H CO U N T RY
AUGUST 28 - SEPTEMBER 3, 2015
LOOKS GOOD: More hatchback than sedan in appearance, the latest Mazda2 sedan has a sleek tail
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Mazda2 sedan
is a stylish new addition By EWAN KENNEDY Kodo styling philosophy. The long nose and strong grille shape of the outgoing ‘2 sedan is unchanged, but Nakamura-san has shaved a little off the height at the rear of the cabin, to give the whole vehicle a sleeker look - that’s clever. Everything else being equal, sedans have more rigid bodies than hatches and, obviously, a much larger luggage area. A sedan’s body has added rigidity provided by the crossmember at the base of the rear window. And Mazda2 sedan’s luggage volume of 440 litres isn’t far short of some cars a couple of classes larger.
The bigger boot has been achieved by extending the body by 260 mm over that of the hatch. It sits on the same platform as the hatch, so the wheelbase is unchanged at a substantial 2570 mm. We are impressed with the boot hinging arrangement that lifts it up and out of the way for ease of loading. The big squared-off hole makes every one of the 440 litres accessible. This boot holds two large suitcases, and can probably handle a pushbike with the front wheel removed. Rear seatbacks fold down for added versatility. In the cabin there’s no real difference in
styling between the Mazda2 sedan and hatch. However, the use of different materials in the two bodies does give it a slightly different ambience, it’s hard to describe so perhaps pop down to a dealer to get your own thoughts. There’s a stubby instrument binnacle in front of the driver with a large central dial and two smaller ‘wings’ either side of it. The centre dial is either a speedo or tacho depending on the model. The dash centre has one of two infotainment screens, a basic shallow one for the Neo and a deeper, 7.0-inch colour screen for the topline Maxx.
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MAZDA’S inexorable advance in Australia continues, growing in strength with each new model, the latest of which is a fourdoor sedan variant of the Mazda2 sedan. 7KLV MRLQV WKH ² YH GRRU KDWFK ODXQFKHG last November. Small hatches with a horizontal bootlid grafted to their rumps typically look so wrong that just about no one buys them. So the designer of the Mazda2 sedan has penned it with a sloping tail to give it the appearance of an extended hatch. Well aware of the importance of style to its sales success, Mazda Australia invited the design chief, Shigeki Nakamura, to meet the motoring media in Australia to explain his version of the company’s
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