Mazda reveals Paris wares

MAZDA is about a week away from deciding its new styling direction under new design chief Ikuo Maeda, who will publicly present the first concept to wear the as-yet-unnamed design theme at the Paris motor show on September 30.

For now, however, Mazda has confirmed it will also use the Parisian automotive extravaganza to unveil facelifted Mazda2 and upgraded Mazda3 models, and to stage the European debut of its new Mazda5 people-mover – none of which will be sold in Australia.

As we’ve reported, Mazda Australia believes the compact CX-7 and mid-size CX-9 crossovers already effectively serve the people-mover vehicle market locally, ruling out a local business case for the new Mazda5, which made its global debut at Geneva in March.



Left: European Mazda3. Below: Mazda5.

Europe’s facelifted Mazda2, meantime, features a number of minor exterior and interior cosmetic differences to the facelifted Mazda2 hatch and sedan imported to Australia from Thailand for the first time in May, making the midlife makeover for the Japanese-built Mazda2 irrelevant outside Australia.

Similarly, both the Mazda3 and Mazda5 will appear at Paris with an upgraded, Euro 5 emissions-compliant 1.6-litre MZ-CD turbo-diesel engine, matched with a lighter new six-speed manual transmission, which won’t be available here.

Mazda says that in the Mazda3 – which will continue to be available in Australia only with the larger 2.0-litre diesel engine – the upgraded oil-burner will deliver almost 5kW more power, 12 per cent more torque and lower fuel consumption (4.4L1/00km) and CO2 emissions (117g/km) than the previous 1.6 MZ-CD engine.

Likewise, in the seven-seater Mazda5, which will be the last model to don Mazda’s ‘Nagare’ design philosophy, Mazda says the latest 1.6 MZ-CD engine will deliver around 85kW and return 5.2L/100km, with a 15 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions compared to the 2.0-litre diesel engine.

While former Mazda styling chief Laurens van den Acker will also present his new design language for Renault at the Paris show, expect the first of Mazda’s new-generation Sky engines to appear later this year, before the all-new Sky G petrol engine becomes available in Australia next year.