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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Its variation on Mazda’s new corporate face might be the best yet. Its large and proud yet tasteful grille is almost stately, and certainly more premium than some luxury branded small CUVs, while its sharp and narrow combination headlamps add to the little soft-roader’s animalistic characteristics. Likewise, vertically stacked driving lights and fogs are particularly attractive while adding visual height to the design, these interrupted by a subtle front fender crease that flows past the bottom edge of each headlamp before arcing overtop the wheels and then
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Wrap-around is a CX-3 theme, most noticeably followed up by a greenhouse that seems to continue from the rear quarter window to the back glass, the car’s D-pillars painted black to provide a near seamless look. From that rear angle the little Mazda looks like a hunkered down animal ready to pounce, but more of a vicious bad-tempered rodent (or a pesky flee) than
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
I’m one the backers of today’s white colour trend, or rather shade trend, especially on SUVs and crossovers that feature lots of contrasting matte black body-cladding like this CX-3. GS trim isn’t quite as aggressive as the top-line GT I tested a couple of months ago, but the CX-3 would look ready for action in steel wheels and hubcaps. For those you’ll need to downgrade to a base GX model, whereas this mid-grade GS receives a nice set of 16-inch Y-style five-spokes in traditional silver-painted aluminum rather than the racier machine-finished 17s with
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
With a body like the CX-3’s, you’d expect something special inside and Mazda doesn’t disappoint. A sculpted dash top might not be soft to the touch like some in this class, but its surfacing is matte finished to reduce glare while the primary gauge package is a beautifully designed aluminum-look bit of kit featuring a big analog speedo at centre, a small digital tach and odometer to the left and digital fuel meter, average fuel economy indicator and exterior temperature gauge to the right. It should please conventional analog lovers as well as the digital crowd, a nice combination of high-tech and classic design elements, much like the rest of the car.
Design
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
I
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Incidentally, the GS starts at $24,195 in as-tested FWD or $26,195 for the AWD model, plus $1,895 for freight and pre-delivery prep, while it includes everything already noted as well as auto on/off halogen projector headlights, heatable powered side mirrors with integrated turn signals, rain-sensing wipers, a leather-wrapped
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
A shortlist of standard GX features that get grandfathered up to my GS tester include variable intermittent wipers, an intermittent rear wiper, a tilt and telescopic multifunction steering wheel with audio, Bluetooth phone and cruise controls, air conditioning, powered windows, powered locks with remote access, pushbutton ignition, a six-way driver’s seat and four-way front passenger’s seat, a centre console with cupholders, a trip computer, the seven-inch Mazda Connect infotainment display and console-mounted HMI interface mentioned earlier, plus a cargo area that gets a removable cover and 60/40 split-folding rear seatbacks to increase stowage capacity from 452 litres (15.9 cubic feet) to
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Back in the driver’s seat, the CX-3 GS’ steering wheel is designed in Mazda’s usual sporty three-spoke style, wrapped in stitched leather as mentioned, its spokes highlighted with a carbon-like patterned plastic and aluminum-look surfacing plus plenty of high-quality switchgear, a perfect fit for this sportiest of subcompact SUVs.
It really is the sportiest in its class, delivering a sense of connectivity between human
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Mazda ups the ante with a Drive Selection toggle on the lower console that lets you engage Sport mode when desired, the result being a truly reactive little CUV that’s a blast to scoot around town or flick through a winding stretch of back road. So set, revs are allowed to spin higher before the transmission shifts itself or gets prompted via the shift lever’s manual mode, or alternatively you may want to play around
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
When I mention that some of its peers rely on CVTs to extract the best possible fuel economy, don’t think for a second that somehow Mazda’s forgotten this critically important aspect of small vehicle performance. Rather than dull down the experience to make the CX-3 more frugal, however, they’ve enlisted a host of technologies so innovative they’re deserving of a trademarked Skyactiv name. At first glance Mazda’s collective tech seems downright simple, and certainly their approach is nonconformist compared to their competitors, but their Skyactiv powertrains and drivetrains, which amongst other enhancements feature reduced internal
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Of course handling is at least as important a component to a vehicle’s sporting behaviour as power, which makes the CX-3’s independent front MacPherson strut and rear torsion beam setup an anomaly, as it handles better than some rivals with independent rear ends. It all comes down to tuning, Mazda somehow making its identically sprung CX-5 run rings around most IRS equipped competitors too, but
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Those brakes I mentioned earlier include discs all-round with ABS, electronic brake-force distribution and emergency brake assist, while electronic traction control
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
As you can tell I’m a bit smitten with the CX-3, its styling, performance and tech doing a good job of winning me over. That’s not to say I don’t like some of its less thrilling competitors, as one in particular is brilliantly practical, but this is the subcompact SUV that plucks the strings of my heart. Like I spoke of in the beginning, the CX-3 is one of the sportiest models made by one of today’s sportiest brands, and my fondness for it is in no way an original whim.
It’s
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
It appears I’m certainly not alone in my adulation. The CX-3 is a great little crossover that I can’t recommend any higher.
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