I love all Mazda cars. The interiors are excellent. BUT…. i dunno about this 2’s interior. Too 90’s. Like an older Ford Ka’s interior or any other late 90s interior of small eurpoean cars. They better fix the interior to match the rest of the mazda lineup if it comes to the US.

the interior shot is terrible. What kind of materials do you think they are using? It looks like the interior of a toy car my nephew has. Small cars and america just dont go together. Or maybe it would sell if they had the option of adding 24″ spinners and a 5L V8 engine.

One should expect an update, or that this is a disguise. Better materials and construction.

For those in tight city situations, low funds, eco-considerations, or would rather leave their “good” (read big, thirsty, and/or expensive) car home most of the time, I can see Small being very big. But I think the Compact tuner crave is in a bit of a lull. Nothing altogether new or interesting right now. Even the Evo X will not shake things up that much.

Now if Mazda would make an AWD Mazdaspeed 3…

And what about a new “9″

I’m not feeling the exterior shape and the interior looks awful, Mazda makes good interiors too so hopefully it’s better in the production version.

Bobzooki: Actually, all across the world making fun of Americans is big, I’m an American myself and I’m even aware of that. Face it, the majority of the entire world dislikes the United States, due to a variety of legitimate reasons, I’m baffled as to why you’re so astonished that someone would be doing so..you mean a country that keeps making huge mistake after huge mistake might get RIDICULED? SAY WHAT?!

clarkson has good critical reviews but when it comes to his beef with americans and their cars he needs to blow it out his ass. Sorry a Z06 woops the **** out of anything ever to come out of britian.

Oh and the Mazda 3 is small enough, we dont need this too.

get real guys, our cars are crap we have 5.7 engines developing 50 bhp and z06 using live real axiles which is serious medieval technology, our car makers have been taking us for a ride for so long, plz don’t bring patriotism to help them. if GM and Ford are suffering there is a well defined reason for it, they make crap.

Z06 using a live rear axle…..hahaha, riiiiight.

“we have 5.7 engines developing 50 bhp” but then you’re entering the whole european vs american subject…which is more important: specific power or engine displacement?

The interior is made from pre-production plastic. This type of plastic is common in all vehicles during the later stages of development.

Design-wise, the center circle imitates the center guage from a Mini, but it also picks up on the RX-8 motif, so it’s not entirely foreign to Mazda.

The interior looks cheapy, not the quality that mazda offers in other vehicles

I like the rounded interior cues. But then again I drive a Sable, so I suppose I’m used to the concept.

You guys obviously didn’t see last nights show, Top Gear US Special, barely talked about cars, it was a full on hour long assault on America and AMericans.
Basically you are all fat , murderous hicks who like cheese and will kill you if you say vote Hillary for president. This man doesn’t deserve air-time, if he had said similar things about chinese or muslims or blacks, he would be in jail for racism right now.

Where’s the rest of it?

Bringing this to the States is idiotic. No one who isn’t already buying a Mazda3 is going to buy this.

Bobzooki: If he had said similar things about chinese, muslims or blacks it would not make a difference as they could be chinese, muslims or blacks in any country: EVEN America – Might be a shock to you?

It’s not race he’s attacking, it’s the ignorant, idiotic nature that reflects upon your nation simply because that is the way you portray yourselves.

Why do you think Sacha Baron Cohen decided to use America against itself to exploit just how bad some of the peoples’ attitudes are?

Sacha could’ve gone to England and done the exact same thing. Trust me, I’ve lived there. There are idiots in all countries. America is simply picked on more because it’s the “in” thing.

Mazda needs a vehicle to now compete in the Honda Fit/Toyota Yaris/Nissan Versa category. If Americans are too stupid, or too busy eating cheese to understand the advantages of a small car, then they don’t deserve to get them, and they can keep thier crappy Aveos. At least bring the mazda 2 to Canada where we appreciate the value, and versatility of small cars. (We get both the Smart and the Mercedes B here).

Small cars can be cool and fun and I might buy one … IF … it were an interestingly designed and well built car. This Mazda may be well built, but the design is absolutely as boring as hell.

Come on.. It’s a Mazda 2 people, not a damb Porsche or Lexus. How in the world are you supposed to make a cheap car with high quality materials????
As for the American bit, I was unable to check out Top Gear, but I can tell you this. I’m American, I’m ashamed for being American, not for ower products as much for the choices we have made and the language that we speak.

Mazda 2 is going to be a competitor to the influx of cheapo Chinies cars coming here as well as the entry level Kias and Hyundais. Price it around 10 grand and there will be no reason to settle for the afformentioned.

Mujician, you are a retard, and if you are ashamed of being American, go become something else to make yourself “proud” and get off your victimization complex.
Oh yeah, and about that language you are ashamed of … you ought to be more ashamed of the fact that you can’t master it.

Oh yeah, and about that language you are ashamed of … you ought to be more ashamed of the fact that you can’t master it.
Comment by Ricardo Head

Owned.

Edit above: mean to say he owned a Ford GT.

The Corvette is the best value supercar in the market. Period.

It handles, accelerates, looks, rides, tours and brakes amazingly well. It’s also priced better than any of its true competition in Europe. 0.98g around the skidpad and 70.2 mph through the slalom. I can buy a Corvette and a BMW 550i for the money that goes into a 911 Turbo.

That’s 400 horsepower, 400 pound-feet of torque, a 5yr/100k mile warranty, and 28mpg on the highway. For $45k! (built right here in the US of A). Zero to 60 mph comes in 4.5 sec. and the quarter mile in 12.8

The Corvette’s trunk will fit all the stuff you and your honey need for vacation; 22 cubic feet of trunk space (Accord has 14).

I’m not an American car junkie. The only I owned was a Jeep Grand Cherokee that was fun to off-road, very luxurious and an ultra-lemon. Since then, I’ve been buying 3-series Bimmers and Toyota-made vehicles. I love Porsches too.

However, someday I will spend $50k on a sports car. When that day arrives, if I buy anything but a Corvette, then I will not have made the best purchase for my money. Ohh yeah, and I haven’t even mentioned the Z06.

In case someone protests, my figures came from Road & Track magazine. The exception comes from the cargo room figures. R&T says trunk space is 13.3 cu. ft. (more than the new 3-series convertible with the top up), but MSN Autos cites 22.40 cu.ft. You be the judge.

waterproof everything nice!
I’m just glad that there’s competition in the American “Small Car” market.

if it ends up looking as good as the rest of the mazda cars do then it will sell. mazda by a longshot has the best design team in japan.

they can attack us and ridicule us all they want but tony blair said it himself.
” you judge a country by the amount of people that want in”

yeah we have made many mistakes, many many mistakes but i for one am not ashamed to be an american, we at least have the chance to voice our opinions all day long. at the same time everybody hates us for what we are doing in iraq ( i would have invaded iran) they forget about the good that comes from our country at the same time. Just because you guys dont like what our government does sometimes doesnt mean the average american is some hatefilled low life who eats cheese. go ahead and stereotype all you want i just hear ignorance.

Well said, CTS.

That’s right CTS and PrimeGTP. When the US fails to act (see: the Balkans in the early to mid nighties, see also: East Timor, see also: Sudan) the Europeans balk and call us racist and murderers for not helping. Where we do get involved (’90 invasion of Kuwait, Balkans later on, and Kosovo) we generally succeed.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, we’re fighting a difficult war with close to zero help. In exchange, we get spit on while Europe watches those free societies crumble.

PrimeGTP – Yes there is stupidity everywhere, but it is more prominent in the US.
I haven’t lived there, but I have been there a few times.

With GTP in the name I’d have hoped you were an Aussie!

GT-Pursuit Falcons make me grin somewhat evilly

Good lord, Johnny, for a guy who is supposedly not ignorant, you sure have no idea how stupid you look using your few anecdotal pieces of evidence to draw such a broad conclusion.

Hey Stig, What would you know about free speech? AFAIK, you aren’t guaranteed any in the UK. Here is the States we have real free speech where you can spew any kind of hate-filled propaganda you wish and we’ll still support your right to do so.

What I find so ironic about Clarkson’s last piece is the simple fact that the EU has more than twice the violent crime as the US. People assume that becasue our murder rate is higher that our violent crime is higher. Actually it is much much lower. We try to act like civilized peopel tin the US. We don’t throw bananas on the pitch to insult black players here in America. We don’t riot in the stands during, before, and after matches. We don’t kill each over our particular brand of religion, a la Northern Ireland. The simple fact is you’re six times more likely to be assaulted in London than NYC.

And it just isn’t the UK, it’s quite a bit of Europe. Hell, they’re still burning nearly 200 cars a night in Paris. Hell, Police won’t even travel to certain areas of the city. And thats with the entire Fench population throwing like girls.

I think its time we admitted that our American cars just can’t cut it out there in the World Market. They are slower, handle like a wet sponge and look like something my 5 year old would draw.

If you take a look at the Top Gear power laps, both the Dodge Viper and Corvette are beaten by cars like the BMW Z4 and Lotus Exige. Time to go back to the drawing board i think.

Uhh, ford_star, you might want to pick up the latest copy of C & D. They test the Lotus Exige S, the Z06, and the Porsche GT3 agsint each other o nthe track and street.

I’ll give you 3 guesses on which one turned in the fastest lap. The Z06 beat the Exige by nearly 3 seconds, and the GT3 by .5 seconds, all while maintaining a much higher level of civility than either of the other contenders. And rest assured the Z4 would be much further behind.

So, I’m not sure how you can draw an overall conclusion from Top Gears silly and specific “Power Lap.” It favors lighter weight cars due it’s tight nature, hence the Atom sitting atop it for so long.

Performance cars shouldn’t be measured by just sitting in a straight line with the odd minor turn here or there, its about the optimum performance on tight, twisty roads. I was over in the french alps last summer in an elise 111r which i can quite happily say would anhilate a big american muscle car on those sorts of roads. It depends on what you classify as performance driving i guess.

“Odd minor turn?” Thats laughable. Butonwillow race track hardly fits that description. Quick transient response is not the sole defining characteristic of “sport driving.” There are other factors in deciding what is a good “sports car.”