By: IOL Motoring Staff
Dartford, Kent - When Mazda says the upcoming Mazda2 - due in South Africa in March 2015 - is all new, it's not kidding.
Riding on a wave of confidence after moving out from the shadow of its partnership with Ford, this is the fourth new model to combine SkyActiv 'clean' engineering and the 'Kodo - Soul of Motion' design theme.
It follows closely on the styling of the Hazumi concept shown at the 2014 Geneva show, going strongly against the current European B-segment design philosophy of pushing the bases of the A pillars forward to make the cabin look and feel bigger by creating acres of dashboard top.
Instead the Kodo cowboys stretched the wheelbase to 2570mm by moving the front axle 80mm further forward and moved the A pillars back the same amount to create a long, smooth bonnet-line and push the cabin back over the rear axle, while keeping the overhangs really short and tight - none of which is easy to achieve in a front-wheel drive city car.
Thus the new Mazda2 has a turning circle of well under 10 metres, and at 4060mm it's only 140mm longer overall than its predecessor, the same width (1695mm) and marginally taller at 1495mm.
NUTS AND BOLTS
South African buyers will get to choose between one petrol and one diesel engine, both displacing 1.5-litres and mated to a six-speed manual gearbox.
The SkyActiv-D 1.5 turbodiesel is rated for 77kW at 4000rpm, 220Nm from 1400-3200rpm and 3.4 litres per 100km in the NEDC laboratory and it’s allegedly good for 0-100 in 10.1 seconds and 178km/h flat out. The Mazda SA representative that we spoke to would not specify which version of the 1.5 petrol we’ll be getting, but it’ll likely mirror one of the three output levels offered to European customers: 85kW/148Nm, 66kW/148Nm and or 55kW/135Nm. We’d bet against the weakest of the three though.
The extra 80mm between the front seats and the engine has enabled Mazda to use the same pedal layout as on the bigger Mazda3, while sculpted, thinner seatbacks score an extra 20mm between front and rear seats and provide the firm lateral support that Mazda likes to call “jinba ittai” (horse and rider as one).
Doing the same thing on the 60:40 split rear seat-back and making the bottom of the tailgate 52mm wider has scored extra cargo-bay volume - up from 250 to 280 litres, or 950 with the rear seats folded.
BELLS AND WHISTLES
Apart from a deep, very Euro-sport-looking instrument binnacle in front of the driver, the dashboard is dominated by horizontal lines - so much so that there's no centre stack at all.
A neat pod slung under the dash houses the three knobs and one horizontal slider control for the aircon, while everything else works through a rotary controller just aft of the gear lever and a 7” touchscreen let into the top of the dash, clearly designed for the Tablet Generation.
Also available in Europe (although not yet decided upon for South Africa) are a head-up display - which Mazda says is a first for the B segment - navigation using maps on updateable SD cards and always-online MZD Connect, which is not market-specific since it uses your smartphone to access the internet (including thousands of radio stations worldwide), read out your e-mails, take dictation and send out replies.
Available driver aids include blind-spot monitoring, high-beam control, lane departure warning and autonomous braking below 30km/h, when the car senses an imminent collision, as well as a dynamic stability program with traction control.